Sharjah GP 02: MVL leads with perfect score
The Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave showed superb form as he completely outclassed Rapport with black to score a second win. Yesterday's loser Ding Liren bounced back with a win over Saleh Salem who failed to find a way to stop the Chinese player's massive attack. Azeri player Mamedyarov was the third winner of the day, defeating Tomashevsky in 37 moves. The day might have seen four wins had Li Chao converted his dead won endgame against Hou Yifan, but instead let her escape.
Photos by Maria Yassakova
Round 2 on 2017/02/19 at 15:00
| Bo | No | Ti. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Ti | Name | Rtg | No |
| 1 | 14 | GM | Rapport Richard | 2692 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2796 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | GM | Aronian Levon | 2785 | ½ | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Adams Michael | 2751 | 7 |
| 3 | 18 | GM | Hammer Jon Ludvig | 2628 | ½ | ½ - ½ | ½ | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 2785 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | 2766 | ½ | 1 - 0 | ½ | GM | Tomashevsky Evgeny | 2711 | 11 |
| 5 | 6 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2759 | ½ | ½ - ½ | ½ | GM | Vallejo Pons Francisco | 2709 | 13 |
| 6 | 8 | GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | 2749 | ½ | ½ - ½ | ½ | GM | Riazantsev Alexander | 2671 | 15 |
| 7 | 12 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2709 | ½ | ½ - ½ | ½ | GM | Grischuk Alexander | 2742 | 9 |
| 8 | 10 | GM | Li Chao B | 2720 | 0 | ½ - ½ | ½ | GM | Hou Yifan | 2651 | 17 |
| 9 | 16 | GM | Salem A.R. Saleh | 2656 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Ding Liren | 2760 | 5 |
It is early in the first Grand Prix in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, but Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has to be happy with his start as he has won both his games to take the early lead in the tournament. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Michael Adams of England trail by half a point.
Sharjah is the first in a four-tournament series that will include competitions in Moscow, Geneva and Palma de Mallorca, Spain. There are 24 players in the Grand Prix with 18 in each tournament. The top two scorers at the end of the series will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.
Sunday, in Round 2, there were three decisive games. Vachier-Lagrave beat Richard Rapport of Hungary with Black. Rapport, who tends to play some off-beat systems, used Larsen’s Opening (1. b3). Neither player got much of an edge in the opening, but a decision by Rapport to castle kingside after he had pushed his pawns well forward allowed Vachier-Lagrave to infiltrate. Eventually Vachier-Lagrave won a pawn and then ground Rapport down in a long endgame.
[Site "Sharjah UAE"]
[Date "2017.02.19"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Rapport, Richard"]
[Black "Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A01"]
[WhiteElo "2692"]
[BlackElo "2796"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[PlyCount "108"]
[EventDate "2017.02.18"]
d3 Nd7 5. g4 Bg6 6. f4 e6 7. Nf3 h5 8. g5 {This weakens the f5 square, but
when you play so aggresively in the opening, you are not thinking about little
weaknesses!} Ne7 9. Nh4 Nf5 10. Nxf5 (10. Nxg6 fxg6 11. e4 dxe4 12. dxe4 Ne3 (
12... Ng3 13. Rg1 Nxe4 14. Qf3 $44) 13. Qd3 Bc5 $15) 10... Bxf5 11. Bg2 e5 12.
Qd2 (12. Bxd5 c6 13. Bf3 exf4 $15) 12... exf4 13. Qxf4 Be6 14. Nd2 Bd6 $11 {
Black has a fine position out of the opening.} 15. Qh4 Ne5 16. Nf3 Ng6 17. Qa4+
Bd7 18. Qd4 c5 19. Qe3+ (19. Qxg7 d4 {And the queen on g7 looks precariously
posted.}) 19... Kf8 20. O-O $6 {Castling short seems like an error because the
kingside is quite weak and gives Black to take advantage of it.} (20. O-O-O Bf4
$19) 20... Qc7 21. Qd2 Re8 22. e3 Kg8 23. d4 Qc8 24. h4 Bh3 {Suddenly there is
no good way to control the light squared infiltration. The h4 pawn is also
weak to some extent.} 25. Ne5 Bxe5 26. dxe5 Bxg2 (26... Qg4 $1 27. Qxd5 Nxh4
28. Qxf7+ {This looks really scary but Black survives.} Kh7 29. g6+ Kh6 30.
Qf4+ Qxf4 31. exf4 Bxg2 $19) 27. Qxg2 Qg4 28. Rad1 Nxh4 29. Qxg4 hxg4 30. Rxd5
Nf3+ 31. Kg2 Rh2+ 32. Kg3 Rxc2 {Black has won a pawn and is now on his way to
the full point.} 33. Rf2 (33. Kxg4 Nh2+ $19) 33... Rxf2 34. Kxf2 Nxg5 35. Kg3 (
35. Rd7 Ne4+ 36. Kg2 b6 37. Rxa7 Rd8 $19) 35... Ne6 36. Rd7 Rd8 37. Rxb7 Rd2
38. Ba3 Rxa2 39. Rxa7 Re2 40. Bc1 Rc2 41. Ra1 Rc3 42. Kxg4 Rxb3 43. Kf5 Rd3 44.
Ra8+ Kh7 45. Ra7 Rd1 46. Rxf7 Nd8 47. Rc7 Rf1+ (47... Rxc1 48. e6 $13) 48. Ke4
Rxc1 49. Rc8 Nf7 50. Rc6 (50. e6 Nd6+ $19) 50... Nh6 51. e6 Ng8 52. Rc7 Nf6+
53. Ke5 Kg6 54. e7 Re1 {MVL played logical chess to beat Rapport's
unconventional opening play.} 0-1
Mamedyarov beat Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia by initially outmaneuvering him when he was saddled with “hanging” pawns on the c and d files. Tomashevsky fought through to the endgame, but Mamedyarov had the bishop pair and more active rooks, and Tomashevsky had a terrible light-squared bishop. He resigned even though he had not lost any material because he was so tied down.
[Site "Sharjah UAE"]
[Date "2017.02.19"]
[Round "2.4"]
[White "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"]
[Black "Tomashevsky, Evgeny"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E12"]
[WhiteElo "2766"]
[BlackElo "2711"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "2017.02.18"]
Bf4 a6 9. g3 Be7 10. Bg2 O-O 11. O-O Re8 12. Rac1 c5 13. dxc5 bxc5 14. Ne5 Bf8
15. Qb3 Qb6 16. Qxb6 Nxb6 {The queens are exchanged and the position looks
even. But look how Mamedyarov, slowly but steadily increases the pressure.} 17.
Rfd1 {The threat is to play a4-a5 or Nd3-Be5.} Ra7 {protecting the bishop so
that d4 is possible.} 18. e3 $1 h6 {The bishop would be trapped with g5, but
White has it covered.} 19. h4 $1 Ba8 20. Nd3 {Now b4 can be the threat.} Rd7
21. Bh3 Rb7 22. b4 $1 cxb4 23. axb4 {White is clearly better as now both d5
and a6 are weak.} d4 $5 {An interesting pawn sacrifice, but is not sufficient.}
(23... Nc4 24. Bg2 Rb6 25. Nc5 $16 {This position is some sort of a torture.})
24. exd4 Nbd5 25. Be5 (25. Nxd5 Nxd5 26. Bd2 Nxb4 27. Nc5 Bxc5 28. dxc5 $16)
25... Nxc3 26. Rxc3 Nd5 27. Rc4 Nxb4 28. Nc5 Bxc5 29. dxc5 Nc6 (29... a5 $14)
30. Bc3 Rbe7 31. Rd6 {With the two bishops and the passed c-pawn, this is just
cruise mode.} Rc7 32. Rg4 f5 33. Rgg6 Ne5 34. Bxe5 Rxe5 35. c6 Kh7 36. h5 Rc5
37. Bg2 {Tomashevsky resigned as Rd7 is a big threat and Black has no real way
to fight against it.} 1-0
The third victory was by Ding Liren of China, who bounced back from his loss to Rapport in Round 1, by beating Saleh Salem of the host country. Ding, who had black pieces, launched an attack against Salem’s king, eventually won an exchange and was marshalling his forces for a final assault on the h-file when Salem resigned.
[Site "Sharjah UAE"]
[Date "2017.02.19"]
[Round "2.9"]
[White "Salem, A.R. Saleh"]
[Black "Ding, Liren"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C50"]
[WhiteElo "2656"]
[BlackElo "2760"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2017.02.18"]
O-O $5 {This is very surprising for many players. How does Black park his king
on the side of the board where he has weakened himself? Well the theoretical
status currently says that White is unable to launch a successful attack and
Black has nothing to worry.} 9. Nbd2 (9. h4 g4 10. Nh2 Kh7 $15) 9... a6 10. a4
Ba7 11. O-O Nh7 (11... Nh5 12. Nxe5 $16) 12. h3 (12. d4 g4 $132) 12... Kh8 13.
d4 g4 14. hxg4 Bxg4 15. Be2 Rg8 16. Kh1 {White has played well and is holding
his own.} Qf6 17. d5 $6 {Somehow I dislike this move. It seems that if you
want to activate the g3 bishop then you must take on e5. The move d5 just
doesn't feel right.} (17. dxe5 dxe5 18. b4 $14) 17... Ne7 18. Bh4 Ng5 19. Nh2 (
19. Nxg5 hxg5 20. Bxg4 gxh4 $15) 19... Bc8 $1 {A great retreat with a deep
point!} (19... Bd7 20. Bg4 {And Black has to spend a tempo trying to think
what to do about his d7 bishop.}) (19... Bxe2 20. Qxe2 {Also is perfectly fine
for Black.}) 20. Bg4 Qg6 21. Bh5 Qg7 22. g3 (22. Qe2 $15) 22... Bh3 {The rook
cannot move as f2 hangs. And just like that White has lost an exchange!} 23.
Bxg5 hxg5 24. Bg4 Bxf1 25. Qxf1 Qg6 26. Kg2 Kg7 27. Nhf3 Rh8 28. a5 Ng8 $1 {
Another retreat to the original square to finish off the game! The knight
coming to f6 would be very strong.} 29. Qc4 Nf6 30. Bf5 Qh6 31. Qd3 Qh5 32. Rf1
Rh6 33. Re1 Ng4 34. Bxg4 Qxg4 {A great game by Ding Liren.} 0-1
