The Superbet Chess Traditional Romania, the second leg of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour, began on Wednesday in Bucharest with wins for GMs Gukesh Dommaraju and Fabiano Caruana. In his first classical recreation since profitable the Candidates, Gukesh defeated wildcard GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac. Caruana was in hassle vs. GM Alireza Firouzja however managed to show issues round.
The primary day of the event, held within the Grand Lodge Bucharest for a $350,000 prize fund, noticed attracts within the video games Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Anish Giri vs. Wesley So.
Spherical two begins Thursday, June 27, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 17:30 p.m. IST.
Superbet Chess Traditional Romania Spherical 1 Outcomes
Cairns Cup Standings After Spherical 1
We now have arrived on the second leg of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour, a month and a half after GM Magnus Carlsen‘s grandiose victory on the Superbet Fast and Blitz in Warsaw, Poland the place the Norwegian star overtook GM Wei Yi on the ultimate day due to a 10-game profitable streak.
Alongside six wildcards, that fast and blitz occasion in Warsaw had solely 4 of the total Grand Chess Tour members—Abdusattorov, Giri, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa–—who have been joined with 5 extra in Bucharest: Caruana, Firouzja, Nepomniachtchi, So and Vachier-Lagrave. Deac, again to being the Romanian number-one now that GM Richard Rapport is poised to play for Hungary once more, is the wildcard on this event.
The primary spherical was on Wednesday, however the day earlier than, the gamers have been already concerned in some actions. Apart from giving interviews for the event broadcast in addition they performed simuls towards native chess followers, which is at all times a pleasant thought. GM Viswanathan Anand was concerned as nicely:
The Grand Chess Tour got here to Bucharest, and after the standard opening ceremony and drawing of tons, the gamers participated in a simultaneous exhibition for the native followers. They signed autographs and gave interviews to the native media. Out of 20 video games, two resulted in attracts,… pic.twitter.com/QUawo5olF2
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) June 25, 2024
The organizers of the Superbet tournaments proceed to worth on-site spectators in a world that is more and more shifting to on-line. It’s clear that cities like Warsaw and Bucharest, and likewise Zagreb as one other location for the Grand Chess Tour, nonetheless have many chess followers, similar to some a long time in the past when a number of main occasions have been happening in Jap Europe, then nonetheless linked to the Soviet Union. GCT ambassador GM Garry Kasparov famous in a current interview:
Contemplating the general improvement of chess and the opposite GCT host cities—Warsaw and Zagreb—Jap Europe has now recovered its place on the earth of chess, which was misplaced after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now it’s clearly essentially the most vibrant a part of the chess world in Europe. In distinction, Western Europe has little or no left of the actions that have been thriving after I was taking part in some 20-25 years in the past. Now now we have the Bucharest-Warsaw-Zagreb orb, and possibly a number of extra cities may be a part of. If I lived in Bucharest, realizing that yearly I may watch and meet the world’s high gamers reside, I’d be delighted.
… Jap Europe has now recovered its place on the earth of chess, which was misplaced after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
—Garry Kasparov
Gukesh-Deac 1-0
Gukesh turned 18 a month in the past and performed his first classical recreation since he gained the Candidates. He gained a considerably topsy-turvy recreation towards Deac, who performed strongly and stored up together with his opponent’s stage of play for lengthy. In reality, the 22-year-old Romanian participant was near profitable for a quick second, one thing that gamers and analysts missed.
Former Romanian soccer participant Ilie Dumitrescu made a symbolic transfer within the first spherical of the #SuperbetChessClassicRomania #GrandChessTour match between Gukesh and Bogdan Deac!#chess #soccer #Dumitrescu #Gukesh #BogdanDeac pic.twitter.com/TJxganEDNH
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) June 26, 2024
As the sport went past transfer 30, with a moderately sophisticated middlegame place on the board, the clock began to play a task and continued to take action after transfer 40. The Tour is utilizing a brand new time management this yr for its classical occasions: 120 minutes for the complete recreation, with a 30-second increment per transfer. It was additionally used on the current Cairns Cup.
It signifies that as quickly as a participant will get into severe time hassle, there isn’t any approach out of it anymore (and a go to to the restroom should wait till after the sport.) And it confirmed: with 35 seconds left on his clock, Deac blundered his place to shambles, however as quickly as Gukesh went below a minute, he allowed a tactic that might have led to a draw. As Deac missed it, Gukesh ended up profitable convincingly in any case.
Firouzja-Caruana 0-1
Caruana is defending his title from final yr in Romania, and began his marketing campaign nicely—not like what he did in his recreation. Firouzja, who got here to Bucharest with back-to-back on-line victories within the Champions Chess Tour (beating Carlsen twice) and the Bullet Chess Championship (beating GM Hikaru Nakamura twice), was merely significantly better out of the opening.
The sport began with a London System with 2.Bf4, apparently as soon as dubbed the “Lazy Tromp” by the English GM Mark Hebden. Caruana did not really feel like repeating the sharp continuation from their recreation at Norway Chess final month and as an alternative select to “freestyle” with 2…b6!?, a Queen’s Indian kind of setup.
Firouzja’s 3.c4 meant he was able to play towards a Queen’s Indian together with his bishop on f4, however Caruana then switched to a extra King’s Indian kind of construction with 4…d6 and 5…g6. That allowed his opponent to seize area within the heart, and shortly Caruana was taking a look at a “disgusting” place, as he known as it afterward.
Whereas commentator GM Yasser Seirawan had known as it “dodgy,” Caruana was extra vital on himself: “It was a lot worse than dodgy. I believed I used to be, like, near misplaced. I wasn’t certain. I don’t know what I used to be doing.”
It was a lot worse than dodgy. I believed I used to be, like, near misplaced.
—Fabiano Caruana
Caruana could not perceive why Firouzja didn’t block the queenside with 17.a4 adopted by castling queenside and Rdg1, when White can assault and Black can’t. “Possibly it’s not really easy to interrupt by way of, nevertheless it’s most likely profitable in the long term,” mentioned Caruana.
Firouzja had one other likelihood to go for a similar setup if he had taken on g5 together with his knight, with examine. Taking with the bishop allowed Caruana to interrupt with 18…b5 and get counterplay. Firouzja quickly misplaced his benefit after which bought outplayed within the the rest.
Annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov might be added quickly:
Three attracts
The primary recreation to complete was MVL-Nepomniachtchi. The Russian GM was positive with a draw as he performed the Petroff whereas the French GM tried however did not shoot holes in that opening. He entered a distinct alley than what Nakamura and Praggnanandhaa had tried towards the identical opponent within the Candidates, however Nepomniachtchi remembered every part. From begin to end, all of the strikes have been a part of each gamers’ preparation and the primary 20 or so have been blitzed out on the board.
Nepomniachtchi took about 4 minutes on transfer 22 to double examine every part, as he needed to play an essential queen transfer there, after which took some extra time on transfer 24. He spent about 50 minutes in whole vs. 41 for MVL. Afterward, the Frenchman thought his method was fairly logical because it’s Black who can go mistaken at a number of moments. However Nepo was as much as the duty as soon as once more.
Not lengthy after, Giri and So additionally known as it a day. These gamers had an previous line of the Catalan on the board the place the Dutchman may need been confused a bit of by So’s uncommon eleventh transfer. The American GM continued in strong model, as he’s identified for, and Giri did not discover a option to get a lot play.
Time for autographs! #grandchesstour #anishgiri pic.twitter.com/PgqTGVRBfS
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) June 26, 2024
Abdusattorov, too, did not get something within the opening towards Praggnanandhaa, who went for a Moller Protection within the Ruy Lopez (5…Bc5, performed earlier than …b5). By transfer 20 the sport seemed utterly equal, however in some way Pragg ended up with an additional pawn, which was of little worth.
Word that the three attracts all ended with a transfer repetition, as a result of on this event draw provides are usually not allowed throughout the complete recreation.
The 2024 Superbet Chess Traditional Romania is the second leg of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour. The occasion is a 10-player round-robin with classical time management (120 minutes for the complete recreation, plus a 30-second increment per transfer). The event runs June 26-July 5 and contains a $350,000 prize fund.
