Last week’s WR Masters in Düsseldorf, Germany, looked on paper an interesting opportunity for potential rivals to Magnus Carlsen to showcase their skills, and for the new generation of teenage grandmasters to measure their development against the established top 10.
In the event, Düsseldorf fell slightly short on both counts. Levon Aronian won the €40,000 first prize, a fine recovery from a poor year in 2022, but at age 40, and with a history of failure in the Candidates, he is no longer a world title contender. His victory seemed assured when he dominated the first half of the tournament and led with 4/5, but then his rhythm was disrupted by a peculiar incident.
Generally the top GMs are experts in the small print of chess rules, but Aronian mistakenly claimed a draw by threefold repetition when the position had occurred only twice. His opponent, Ian Nepomniachtchi, who up to that point in the tournament had been quietly coasting and getting his mind into shape before his world title match with China’s Ding Liren next month, reasoned: “If he wants a draw that badly, I should push”.
The Candidates winner did it cleverly, offering a further twofold repetition before avoiding a third, and Aronian then lost the plot, allowing his opponent to create a winning attack.
Nepomniachtchi was still half a point behind at the start of the final round, but again had good fortune as his opponent, Vincent Keymer, overpressed. Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and 16-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh tied for first on 5.5/9, and Aronian won the blitz tie-break.
Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 18, have now broken into the world top 20. The Indian is two years younger, and on an age for rating scale is starting to compare with the world No 4, Alireza Firouzja, 19, he of the alternative fashion design career.
Firouzja will be back to chess in May, when the St Louis-backed Grand Chess Tour kicks off with the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Romania, and ends six months later with the traditional Sinquefield Cup. The Grand Chess Tour has elected not to invite any other teenagers, so a direct Firouzja v Gukesh clash must wait.
Bucharest in May will, however, include Nepomniachtchi and Ding, competing barely a week after the end of their scheduled €2m, 14-game series in Astana, Kazakhstan. The match winner is unlikely to be accepted as a totally valid world champion in the way that Anatoly Karpov was after 1975 when Bobby Fischer resigned his crown. Fischer and Karpov never met so that no direct comparison was possible, whereas, as every chess fan knows, Carlsen has already soundly defeated Nepomniachtchi and has always been rated far higher than Ding.
ChatGPT, which is currently in vogue as an information source, failed badly when it was asked to describe meetings between Karpov and the recently deceased English master Michael Basman. In fact, the pair never played, but ChatGPT replied with the moves of an alleged game at Luton 1974 where, at the end, “Karpov” allows an elementary mate in one. The matter is fully discussed on pages four and five of this thread from the English Chess Forum.
Germany’s Bundesliga is the strongest chess league in Europe, and several leading English GMs compete there regularly. Last Sunday’s ninth round (of 15) produced four interesting pairings.
In the top match between the reigning champions, Baden-Baden, and the Munich Chess Club, Gawain Jones for Munich took on France’s No 2 and world top 20 player, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jonathan Speelman met France’s No 3, Étienne Bacrot, while the England No 1, Michael Adams, playing for Baden-Baden, was paired with Serbia’s No 1, Aleksandar Indjic. In the Werder Bremen v Deizisau match, Luke McShane met the reigning European champion, Matthias Blübaum.
Results were mixed. Jones, White in his favoured 3 Bb5+ against the Sicilian, produced a solid draw. McShane was too passive as White in an Exchange Caro-Kann, lost a pawn, and resigned early rather than face a poor ending.
Speelman was crushed, as Bacrot launched an early 8 g2-g4! and broke through to gain decisive material. In contrast, Adams produced a wonderful attacking game, highlighted by the brilliant queen sac 28…R8e3!! with the point 29 Rxg5 Rxh3 mate!
3857: 1 Bc5! (threat 2 Rxf8+ and 3 Qh7 mate) Rxc5 2 Rxg7+! Kxg7 3 Qxe8 and wins.
