Americans Abroad - Riga GP and Dortmund

While the U.S. Junior, Girls, and Senior Championships are dominating America’s chess attention these days, our elite players are elsewhere, doing battle across the globe. Here’s an update on how three of our very top GMs are doing in the Riga FIDE Grand Prix and the 47th Dortmund GM tournament. So advances in Riga; Nakamura loses to Topalov Fresh off their appearance in the Croatia stop of the Grand Chess Tour, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So are in Latvia for the FIDE Riga Grand Prix. The event is a sixteen person player knockout, and today’s rapid playoff completed the first round of play.

So-Harikrishna (photo Niki Riga / World Chess)

Wesley So is through to the second round after defeating Pentala Harikrishna in the rapid playoff, winning with the white pieces and then drawing with black. He advances to play Sergey Karjakin beginning tomorrow in Round 2.

[pgn]

[Event "Riga FIDE Grand Prix 2019"]
[Site "Riga LAT"]
[Date "2019.07.14"]
[Round "1.3"]
[White "So, Wesley"]
[Black "Harikrishna, Pentala"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C53"]
[WhiteElo "2763"]
[BlackElo "2734"]
[PlyCount "177"]
[EventDate "2019.07.12"]
[EventType "k.o."]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. O-O a6 7. Re1 Ba7 8. Bb3
h6 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. h3 Re8 11. Nf1 Be6 12. Bc2 d5 13. Qe2 b5 14. Rd1 Qe7 15. Ng3
Rad8 16. exd5 Nxd5 17. Qe4 Nf6 18. Qxc6 Bb6 19. d4 e4 20. Ne5 Rd6 21. Qb7 Bc8
22. Qa8 Bd7 23. Qb7 Bc8 24. Qa8 Bd7 25. Qxa6 Bxd4 26. Qxd6 Bxf2+ 27. Kxf2 cxd6
28. Nxd7 e3+ 29. Kg1 Qxd7 30. Re1 Qa7 31. Nf5 Nd5 32. Bb3 e2+ 33. Nd4 Nb4 34.
Bf4 Nd3 35. Bg3 Qc5 36. Kh2 Qh5 37. Bc2 Nxe1 38. Rxe1 b4 39. Bf5 bxc3 40. bxc3
Re3 41. Bg4 Qa5 42. Rxe2 Rxg3 43. Kxg3 Qxc3+ 44. Nf3 d5 45. Bf5 g6 46. Bc2 Qc7+
47. Kf2 Qa7+ 48. Kf1 Qxa2 49. Rd2 Qa6+ 50. Bd3 Qa1+ 51. Ke2 Kg7 52. Rd1 Qb2+
53. Kf1 Qb3 54. Be2 h5 55. Nd4 Qa4 56. h4 Kf6 57. g3 Kg7 58. Rd3 Qa1+ 59. Kg2
Qb2 60. Kf2 Qb6 61. Bf3 Qc5 62. Kg2 Qc4 63. Rd2 Qb4 64. Rd3 Qc4 65. Be2 Qa2 66.
Kf2 Qa7 67. Bf3 Qc5 68. Rd1 Qa5 69. Ne2 Qb6+ 70. Kg2 Qb2 71. Rxd5 Qc2 72. Rd7
Qb2 73. Rc7 Qa2 74. Rb7 Qc2 75. Re7 Kf8 76. Re4 Kg7 77. Kh2 Qb2 78. Bg2 Qd2 79.
Nf4 Kf8 80. Ra4 Qc2 81. Ra7 Ke8 82. Ra8+ Ke7 83. Nd5+ Kd6 84. Ra7 Qf2 85. Ra6+
Ke5 86. Nf4 Kf5 87. Nh3 Qd2 88. Ng5 f6 89. Rxf6+ 1-0

[/pgn]

Nakamura-Topalov (photo Niki Riga / World Chess)

Hikaru Nakamura was not so lucky, falling to Veselin Topalov in the second game of their rapid playoff. Topalov will play Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tomorrow.

[pgn]

[Event "Riga FIDE Grand Prix 2019"]
[Site "Riga LAT"]
[Date "2019.07.14"]
[Round "1.4"]
[White "Topalov, Veselin"]
[Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C65"]
[WhiteElo "2740"]
[BlackElo "2754"]
[PlyCount "93"]
[EventDate "2019.07.12"]
[EventType "k.o."]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. c3 O-O 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 Be7 8. O-O
d6 9. Bg3 a6 10. Ba4 b5 11. Bc2 Re8 12. Nbd2 Bf8 13. Re1 Nh5 14. Nf1 Nxg3 15.
hxg3 g6 16. Ne3 Bg7 17. a4 Rb8 18. axb5 axb5 19. Bb3 Rf8 20. d4 b4 21. Bd5 Bd7
22. Ra6 Ne7 23. dxe5 dxe5 24. Bc4 bxc3 25. bxc3 Bc6 26. Qc2 Ra8 27. Rea1 Rxa6
28. Rxa6 Kh7 29. Ra5 f6 30. Nd2 Qd7 31. Nb3 Ra8 32. Nc5 Qd6 33. Rxa8 Bxa8 34.
Ne6 h5 35. Qb1 Qb6 36. Qxb6 cxb6 37. Bd5 Bc6 38. Bxc6 Nxc6 39. Nd5 b5 40. Kf1
f5 41. Ke2 Bh6 42. Nec7 Na7 43. exf5 gxf5 44. Ne7 f4 45. gxf4 exf4 46. Kf3 Nc6
47. Nxc6 1-0

[/pgn]

Alexander Grischuk (photo Niki Riga / World Chess)

Alexander Grischuk advanced with this sparkling attacking win over Nikita Vitiugov.

[pgn]

[Event "Riga FIDE Grand Prix 2019"]
[Site "Riga LAT"]
[Date "2019.07.14"]
[Round "1.3"]
[White "Grischuk, Alexander"]
[Black "Vitiugov, Nikita"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D37"]
[WhiteElo "2766"]
[BlackElo "2727"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[EventDate "2019.07.12"]
[EventType "k.o."]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. d4 Nbd7 5. Bf4 dxc4 6. e3 Nb6 7. Bxc4 Nxc4 8.
Qa4+ c6 9. Qxc4 Nd5 10. Bg3 Qb6 11. Qe2 Bb4 12. O-O Nxc3 13. bxc3 Bxc3 14. Rab1
Qd8 15. Rb3 Ba5 16. e4 Bc7 17. Bh4 Qd7 18. Rd1 O-O 19. Ne5 Qe8 20. Bf6 Bd8 21.
Bxg7 Kxg7 22. Rg3+ Kh8 23. Qh5 1-0

[/pgn]

Pairings for Round 2: Karjakin-So, Duda-Mamedyarov, Grischuk-Yu, and Topalov-MVL. Dominguez Cracks Top 10 in Dortmund Meanwhile, Leinier Dominguez is the second seed in the Dortmund Sparkassen GM round-robin (Dortmund, Germany, July 13-21). He is tied for first place with Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Richard Rapport, and Teimour Radjabov after two rounds at 1.5/2. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz5oOhPHzBj/ Dominguez defeated Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in the first round, and in the process, he (at least temporarily) moved into the world’s top ten on the live rating list.

[pgn]

[Event "47th GM 2019"]
[Site "Dortmund GER"]
[Date "2019.07.13"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Dominguez Perez, L."]
[Black "Nisipeanu, LD."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B46"]
[WhiteElo "2760"]
[BlackElo "2672"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2019.07.13"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Qf3 Bb4 8.
Nxc6 bxc6 9. Bd3 e5 10. Qg3 d6 11. O-O Nh5 12. Qf3 Nf6 13. Qg3 Nh5 14. Qf3 Nf6
15. Na4 Ba5 16. h3 O-O 17. Rad1 h6 18. Qg3 Nh5 19. Qf3 Nf6 20. Bc4 Bc7 21. Bc5
Re8 22. Rfe1 Rb8 23. Qa3 d5 24. exd5 cxd5 25. Bxd5 Nxd5 26. c4 Ba5 27. Rxd5 Qh4
28. Be7 Rxe7 29. Rxa5 Re6 30. Raxe5 Qxc4 31. Nc5 Rg6 32. Qf3 Qxa2 33. Re8+ Kh7
34. b3 Qd2 35. Qxf7 Rf6 36. Qg8+ Kg6 37. R8e2 Qf4 38. Nd3 1-0

[/pgn]

CLO will have updates on both events in the coming days.