Chess - the world in black and white

[Rorshach]

I have no idea what to play as white in the Alekseev-Ding-game, but it seems Alekseev's pieces are better coordinated. I wouldn't like Ding's king position. OTOH, the pawns on the Q-side feel slightly threatening.

Yu just looks boxed in.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Yeah, Ding's clearly worse now.

Hard times ahead for him. This is playing for two results.

Also Duda is toast.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Yu is winning now. 27.f5! is clearly curtains.

The point is 27...exf5 is not working because of 28.Bxf5+ Rxf5 29.Rxe7+ and the rook on g8 drops 29...Kh8 30.Bd4+ and it's lights out.

[Rorshach]

Nepo is the most unreliable GM out there.

Okay, he's not, Jobova still exists, but the swings Nepo delivers are just .. wild.

And Duda will lose, indeed. Sascha still on course to hold, but is back in his usual time trouble.

MVL and Vitiugov through. So really has dropped off after his great play a year back.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

That's selling Vitiugov short.

Usually Vitiugov is a bit of a chicken, but this tournament he has been willing to take risks (so his play usually is usually a bit meh and unnoticable) and it's playing out rather well for him.

[Rorshach]

It's entirely possible I'm selling Vitiugov short. 

In other news, Sascha struggles, and Nepo seems lost. Ding is struggling, but I guess he'll still hold.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Sascha's position is godawful. This has to be lost. At least I don't see how Sascha can salvage that, even discounting for his abysmal clock handling.

Personally I'd have been tempted to play 36.Rxf4 instead of the trivial 36.Bxf4 Leinier picked.

This is just shambles,  White is just attacking for fun. I have no idea how black can possibly survive this.

Ding will struggle for a while, Alekseenko has good chance to advance there.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ok, Ding held. Somehow I think Alekseenko could've tortured him a bit better.

However neatly defended by Ding. He managed to eliminate all the pawns on one side of the board, the one thing Alekseenko should have avoided.

So play off time for

Duda-Xiong

Grischuk-Dominguez

Alekseenko-Ding

Aronian-Le

Radja-Shak

Goodbye to Nepo, So  and Svidler .

Gratz to MVL, Yu Yangyi and Vitiugov.

Yu-Vitiugov is also the first known pairing of the QF. Too close to call. And Max will wait for the winner of Aronian - Le Quang Liem. Max will be the slight favorite there, however both Le or Lev are absolutely capable of eliminating him.

[Rorshach]

MVL should be able to win against anyone, but he's been a bit loose in his openings lately.

I don't know Le very well, but Lev on a good day can eliminate anyone. However, those days are few and far between these days. 

Also, if the players have come this far, they are able to eliminate anyone. I still struggle to se Xiong, Duda or Le for that matter as the eventual winners. 

Cue Xiong to win it all.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Le is perfectly capable of winning that event. It's just his overall lack of invitations to the big events that is responsible for his relatively low profile - despite him being the reigning Asian Champion. He isn't really a flash player like Lev that just creates attacking master pieces, Le is one of the super solid players that make very few mistakes, and punish mistakes with a very good technique particularly in endgames. Otherwise he is that typical "East Asian" chess player (I think Tomashevsky used that term some years ago during one of Le's Aero Flot victories). Which means, he is unlikely to collapse in an ugly position, there it is more the mindset "I don't see a forced loss, so my position is fine." Those are just mini matches of two classical games, and then it goes into the rapid and blitz tie breaks. Let's just say, he won the FIDE Blitz World Championship back in 2013.

There are really just Ding, Aronian, MVLand maybe Shak as match ups left, in which I would consider him the slight underdog, and even those are arguably coinflips.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ding made short work of Aleeksenko today and advances.

Sascha is also thru.

Ding Liren - Grischuk

Duda and Xiong traded blows during their play offs thus far.

Shak and Radja continue their draw streak, same goes for Lev and Le. Wouldn't be surprised if the latter goes into armageddon.

 

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ok, Lev and Radja are thru to the next round.

Xiong - Duda is a bit of an absurd match.

Xiong had a crushing advantage in the first 10 mins game (28...Ng3+! would've been curtains plain and simple with pretty straight forward lines). Instead he got scared and went 28...Rd8 and Duda managed to win that game, putting Xiong again in a must win situation. And Xiong pulled it off.

Now it's Blitz time.

And Xiong is thru after the blitz games.

Funny, he advanced by managing not to lose with black. But really deserved over the course of the match. Congratulation to him.

[Rorshach]

Xiong is doing a lot better here than what I expected. Can he keep it up? He gets Radja, doesn't he?

*checks schedule*

Indeed, he has a shot. But Radja has been very good again, so you never know. He's probably a slight favourite there.

Otherwise, I'd go for:

Ding over Sascha

MVL over Lev, but that one is very close.

And I haven't the foggiest in Vitiugov - Yu. Full coin toss mode.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ding and Radja advance, haven't checked the games yet, just the sores.

Xiong's dream run is over.

Edit. Ok, took a first look at the games.

Radja-Xiong was the the old main line in the Grunfeld Indian exchange variation (an old favorite of mine, and more significantly of Karpov). However I prefered Bc4 over Bb5. However I can see the appeal of provoking c7-c6. The game is a nice example of why I always considered the Grunfeld to be a bit suspect. It's a sound opening, otherwise Giri, So, Carlsen and all the other wouldn't play it. But I just don't trust that opening 100%.

Ding-Grischuk was some sort of reverse Dragon in the English opening. The move order was not the classical one. I remembered that a7-a5 in response had some positional issues due to the response Na4 and Black having issues on the queen side with the weaknesses (pawns cannot move backwards, or so I have been told). Great positional play by Ding.

Grischuk might have decided to play on for a bit. But he was down a pawn and about to drop at least one more, with no counterplay whatsoever, so resigning at that moment was absolutely justified.

 

[Rorshach]

Think Xiong went wrong where he had been winning earlier - complicating positions. But that game went over my head most of the time. I reckon the free pawn and the advanced f-pawn of Radja was his trump cards.

Was officially studying (at a lecture), so I just followed the one game. Think Sascha got into time trouble (not that anyone's shocked).

ETA: I guess the most important part for Xiong was the experience. Coupled with the fact that he made a very good run. My guess is it will make him more confident (big prophet, me!) and help him come the next cycle.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

No, I don't think Xiong was ever winning in that game against Radja.

Anyway.

Yu just got thru by winning the armageddon game against Vitiugov, while MVL eliminated Lev.

So we have the Chinese semi-final between Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi.

Ding is the favorite there, as Yu's record against Ding is as bad as Grischuk's against Svidler.

Radja vs. MVL is tougher to predict. I go with the underdog here, and say Radja to the final.

Is it a good time to remind people here, that Ding is also playing Giri? Atm Ding is on course of clinching his ticket to the candidates by virtue of rating (there's only one rating qualifier this year), the next one on that list is Anish.

[Rorshach]

18 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

No, I don't think Xiong was ever winning in that game against Radja.

Anyway.

Yu just got thru by winning the armageddon game against Vitiugov, while MVL eliminated Lev.

So we have the Chinese semi-final between Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi.

Ding is the favorite there, as Yu's record against Ding is as bad as Grischuk's against Svidler.

Radja vs. MVL is tougher to predict. I go with the underdog here, and say Radja to the final.

Is it a good time to remind people here, that Ding is also playing Giri? Atm Ding is on course of clinching his ticket to the candidates by virtue of rating (there's only one rating qualifier this year), the next one on that list is Anish.

Bad wording on my part. He wasn't winning, but in previous rounds he was winning out of relatively even positions or even slightly worse positions through complicating them. 

 

ETA: I'm hoping MVL will pull through in the end. He was unlucky not to qualify for the last cycle, and I think he deserves a shot at it (even though I don't think he'll win).

[Rorshach]

Comp eval says Radja is winning. I can't say how obvious the win is, but I would far prefer to play Radja's position than MVL's.

For the latter, I have no idea what a plan should be atm.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just checked the position. Radja is clearly better.

He is a pawn up, has the better pawn structure, and the safer king. Or simpler put he is better.

Whether that is enough to win is another question. No concrete plan, but for now the next step has to be hold on to the pawn, slowly improve the positioning of his pieces and then decide how to proceed. I'd probably go for Be5 (the h8-a1 diagonal has to be the place to be for the bishop). and then decide on whether it's better to have that thing on e5 and solidify it with f4 or have it sit on d4.

My preference would be the Be5 put a pawn on f4 and try to work out a pawn storm on king side in some shape or form. (like say with kf2(-e1-d2), Rg1, g4, h4. WHich is probably too much cavemen to work.

[Rorshach]

Radja just cruisin' at the moment. 

Unless I'm mistaken, this means he'll be qualified for the Candidates? Has he participated in those before?

First tournament I was watching live was the first Norway Chess, I remember him being there. That was when he was almost (?) top ten. Nice to see him back at a top level.