FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Underway at Isle of Man

With $432,500 in prizes, and a coveted seat in the 2020 Candidates at stake, 154 players have made the trip to the Isle of Man for the 2019 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. Those hoping to earn the Candidates seat will have to fight through an incredibly strong field, which includes 133 GMs, 16 IMs, and 2 WGMs. The first place winner takes home $70,000. Top players in Douglas are Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana (who has already qualified for the Candidates as the 2019 Challenger), Wesley So, Viswanathan Anand, and Yu Yangyi, among many, many others. The twelve American hopefuls include (in rating order) Caruana, So, Hikaru Nakamura, Jeffery Xiong, Sam Shankland, Gata Kamsky, Ray Robson, Sam Sevian, Aleksandr Lenderman, Varuzhan Akobian, Robert Hess, and Anna Zatonskih. After two rounds only five  players remain perfect at 2/2: Caruana, Wang Hao, Bu Xiangzhi, Alexei Shirov, and Baskaran Adhiban. Caruana defeated Sevian in an all-American Round 2 matchup, grinding out a beautiful positional win in 53 moves.

[pgn]

[Event "FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss"]
[Site "Douglas ENG"]
[Date "2019.10.11"]
[Round "2.2"]
[White "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Black "Sevian, Samuel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A20"]
[WhiteElo "2812"]
[BlackElo "2654"]
[PlyCount "105"]
[EventDate "2019.10.10"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. O-O Nb6 7. b3 Be7 8.
Bb2 f6 9. Na3 Be6 10. Nc2 O-O 11. e4 Qd3 12. Re1 Rad8 13. Bf1 Qd7 14. d4 exd4
15. Ncxd4 Bg4 16. Qc2 Nxd4 17. Nxd4 Rfe8 18. Rac1 c6 19. b4 Kh8 20. b5 c5 21.
Nf5 Bf8 22. h3 Bxf5 23. exf5 Rxe1 24. Rxe1 c4 25. a4 Bb4 26. Re4 Qd2 27. Qxd2
Bxd2 28. Bxc4 Nxa4 29. Ba3 Nb6 30. Bb3 Nc8 31. Bd5 a6 32. b6 Nxb6 33. Bxb7 a5
34. Bc5 Na8 35. Rc4 Bb4 36. Be3 h6 37. h4 Kh7 38. g4 Rb8 39. Be4 Nb6 40. Rc7
Na4 41. g5 Nc3 42. Bf3 Nb5 43. Rd7 hxg5 44. hxg5 Kh8 45. g6 Nc3 46. Bd2 a4 47.
Rd3 a3 48. Bxc3 Bxc3 49. Bd5 Bd2 50. Rxd2 Rb1+ 51. Kg2 a2 52. Bb3 Rg1+ 53. Kf3
1-0

[/pgn]

Adhiban, who won against World Cup breakout star Jeffery Xiong in Round 2, overwhelmed Isle of Man resident Logan Wu in their first round game.

[pgn]

[Event "FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss"]
[Site "Douglas ENG"]
[Date "2019.10.10"]
[Round "1.73"]
[White "Adhiban, Baskaran"]
[Black "Wu, Li"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2639"]
[BlackElo "2332"]
[Annotator "Hartmann,John"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r2q1rk1/pp2bpp1/4bn1p/2pn4/3P4/P1NQ1N1P/1PB2PP1/R1B1R1K1 w - - 0 17"]
[PlyCount "19"]
[EventDate "2019.10.10"]

17. Rxe6 $1 fxe6 18. Bxh6 Qe8 (18... gxh6 {fails to} 19. Qg6+ Kh8 20.
Qxh6+ Kg8 21. Qg6+ Kh8 22. Ng5 {and it's mate or tremendous material loss.})
19. Bg5 Qh5 20. Re1 cxd4 21. Ne2 Bd6 22. Nexd4 e5 23. Nf5 Rad8 24. Bxf6 Nxf6
25. Nxd6 e4 26. Qb3+ 1-0

[/pgn]

Caruana moves to Board 1 for Round 3, after top seed Magnus Carlsen drew in Friday’s second round with Alexey Sarana. Sarana tested Carlsen’s preparation in the Sveshnikov Sicilian, but the World Champion was up to the challenge, using good technique to hold the draw in 52 moves.

[pgn]

[Event "FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss"]
[Site "Douglas ENG"]
[Date "2019.10.11"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Sarana, Alexey"]
[Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B33"]
[WhiteElo "2655"]
[BlackElo "2876"]
[PlyCount "103"]
[EventDate "2019.10.10"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8.
Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 Bg7 11. Bd3 Ne7 12. Nxe7 Qxe7 13. c4 f5 14. O-O O-O
15. Qh5 d5 16. cxd5 Qd8 17. exf5 Qxd5 18. Rad1 e4 19. Bxb5 Qxf5 20. Qxf5 Bxf5
21. Bd7 Bxd7 22. Rxd7 Bxb2 23. Nc4 Bg7 24. g3 Rfd8 25. Rfd1 Rxd7 26. Rxd7 Rc8
27. Nd6 Rc1+ 28. Kg2 Rc2 29. Nxe4 Rxa2 30. Rd8+ Bf8 31. Nf6+ Kg7 32. Nh5+ Kg8
33. g4 a5 34. g5 a4 35. h4 Rb2 36. Nf6+ Kg7 37. h5 Rb5 38. f4 h6 39. Ng4 Ba3
40. Nxh6 Be7 41. Rd7 Bxg5 42. Nxf7 Rb2+ 43. Kf3 Bxf4 44. Ne5+ Kh6 45. Kxf4 a3
46. Rd5 Rb4+ 47. Kg3 a2 48. Ra5 a1=Q 49. Rxa1 Kxh5 50. Ra5 Rb1 51. Kf4 Rf1+ 52.
Nf3+ 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

Caruana will have Black against Alexey Shirov in Saturday’s third round, who won in Round 2 against Erwin L'ami with a delightful endgame tactic that echoed his famous ...Bh3 shot against Topalov from Linares 1998. Carlsen drops to board four and faces Caruana’s trainer and second Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

[pgn]

[Event "FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss"]
[Site "Douglas ENG"]
[Date "2019.10.11"]
[Round "2.13"]
[White "L'Ami, Erwin"]
[Black "Shirov, Alexei"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C02"]
[WhiteElo "2619"]
[BlackElo "2664"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "4bk2/5ppp/8/6PN/1p1p3P/1P1p1P2/5K2/8 b - - 0 36"]
[PlyCount "7"]
[EventDate "2019.10.10"]

36... Ba4 $1 37. Nf4 (37. bxa4 b3 {and the pawn is unstoppable}) 37... d2
$1 (37... Bxb3 38. Nxd3 {still wins, but the game continuation is cleaner}) 38.
Ke2 Bxb3 39. Kxd2 Bc4 0-1

[/pgn]

[pgn]

[Event "It"]
[Site "Linares ESP"]
[Date "1998.03.04"]
[Round "10"]
[White "Topalov, V."]
[Black "Shirov, A."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D85"]
[WhiteElo "2740"]
[BlackElo "2710"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/8/4kpp1/3p1b2/p6P/2B5/6P1/6K1 b - - 0 47"]
[PlyCount "13"]
[EventDate "1998.??.??"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2011.01.01"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

47... Bh3 48. gxh3 Kf5 49. Kf2 Ke4 50. Bxf6 d4 51. Be7 Kd3 52. Bc5 Kc4
53. Be7 Kb3 0-1

[/pgn]

Current U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura is at 1.5/2, having drawn with Mircea-Emilian Parligras in Round 1. He then defeated Axel Bachmann in Round 2, using small tactics and continual pressure to win from a deceptively quiet looking position.

[pgn]

[Event "FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss"]
[Site "Douglas ENG"]
[Date "2019.10.11"]
[Round "2.22"]
[White "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Black "Bachmann, Axel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D27"]
[WhiteElo "2745"]
[BlackElo "2629"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "2019.10.10"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bxc4 a6 6. O-O c5 7. dxc5 Qxd1 8.
Rxd1 Bxc5 9. Be2 b6 10. Nfd2 Bb7 11. Nb3 Be7 12. f3 Nbd7 13. e4 Nc5 14. Nd4 O-O
15. Be3 Na4 16. b3 Nc5 17. Nd2 Rac8 18. Nc4 b5 19. Nb6 Rcd8 20. Rac1 Rfe8 21.
Nxb5 Rxd1+ 22. Bxd1 Nd3 23. Rc7 Bxe4 24. fxe4 axb5 25. Be2 Bd8 26. Rc8 Bxb6 27.
Rxe8+ Nxe8 28. Bxb6 Nc1 29. Bxb5 Nd6 30. Bc6 Nxa2 31. Bc5 1-0

[/pgn]

Seven Americans - So, Xiong, Shankland, Kamsky, Robson, Sevian, and Lenderman – are at 1/2 after two rounds, while three more – Akobian, Hess, and Zatonskih – are at 0.5/2. Pairings for Saturday’s Round 3

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