Somehow we got not one but TWO French Exchange Variations this round, including a draw between sole leader Ian Nepomniachtchi and Indian hopeful Praggnanandhaa R. Pragg pushed hard for a win, as nothing less than a win would mean he would be out of the running for a first place finish. Yet it seemed to me that the result was never in doubt. Nepo played solidly, didn’t try to push for a win, and in the end, players shook hands in a completely equal and drawn rook endgame.
Hikaru Nakamura - Alireza Firouzja
This was the other French Exchange, but we saw an interesting idea where White pushed an early c4-c5 to gain space on the queenside, followed by a rare queen check to perhaps displace a piece:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Bd6 5.c4 Nf6 6.c5 Be7 7.Qa4+
I mean — why not? The engines tell us that anything is playable. It seems like often Black would prefer to play Bg4 in positions like this right away, swap pieces on f3, and create some sort of imbalance to play with, and this move seems to prevent that. Alireza went for 7…Bd7 and play continued with 8.Qc2 O-O 9.Be3 Nc6, which the lichess Master’s database says is a novelty. Alireza went for some very active piece play, even managing to get a pawn all the way to the seventh rank during an intense part of the middlegame:
What a wild and crazy position. With 20.Nd3 Alireza has just landed a fork on both of White’s rooks, and plans on clearing any occupiers and defenders of the back rank to promote that pawn. Nakamura determines that two pieces should compensate for the rook and pawn. 21.Rxf5! Nxe1 22.Nxe1 Qxd2 23.Bxd2
An interesting late-middlegame position. Black has two rooks and multiple files to use and an advanced pawn on the 7th rank. White has a knight and bishop for the rook and pawn, and crucially this bishop controls the promotion square. White is maybe a bit better, having more material to work with, but the position seems very practically difficult and Nakamura has a long way to converting it into a win. He started off very strong: 23…Rad8 24.Bc3 Rd1 25.f3! Ne3 26.Nxc7 Re7 27.Rc5 f6! 28.Bb4 Kf7 29.h4 h5 30.Kf2 Rb1
Both sides have made a lot of progress, but White’s in the lead. The King helps control the e1 square which means that Nakamura’s knight is close to extricating itself from this difficult position. Black has also made some progress in activating his king. Black’s last move just vacated a square for the knight to kick the king away from the defense of the e1 square via Nd1. Naka doesn’t panic, but instead centralizes the one piece that isn’t doing an optimal job of contributing to his winning plan: 31.Nd5! Nd1+ 32.Kg3 Re5 33.Nd3 Re8
White has a lot of good options here. One move that comes to mind is 34.Rc7+ and picking up the a7-pawn. But Naka goes a bit wrong: 34.Be1?
White is still a bit better here, but this allows Alireza to take some steps towards liquidating on the queenside, which will reduce the usefulness of White’s bishop in the endgame. 34…Nxb2 35.Rb5? This allows a tactic that Alireza finds quickly. 35…Rd1! 36.Rxb2 Rxd3
White is still just a tad better, but this position should collapse to a draw. The a3 pawn is dropping, and White’s superior number of pieces will be tied to stop them from promoting. 37.Rb7+ Kf8 38.Nf4 Rxa3 39.Kf2 a5 40.Ra7 Ra4
The players have both reached time control and gained 30 extra minutes on their clock. Alireza’s move came just before his flag would fall. Black has a draw here, but the imbalanced distribution of material means that both sides have something to play for before the end.
41.g3 g5??
A blunder — as if all the extra time gave Alireza dreams of somehow winning this position. Instead, giving up the a-pawn with 41…Ra3 would keep the position more level.
42.hxg5 fxg5 43.Nxh5
Now White has multiple threats: g4 maroons the g5 pawn on a weak square for the rest of the game. Rxa5 wins a pawn.
Alireza tried to save the pawn: 43…Re5 44.g4! Ke8 45.Ng7+ Kf8 46.Nf5 Ra2 47.Ra8+ Kf7 48.Nd6+ Ke6 49.Nc4
All three pieces are trained on a5. The a-pawn falls.
49…Rb5 50.Rxa5 Rbxa5 51.Nxa5 Kd5 52.Ke3!
White now threatens Bd2 after which the e-pawn falls and the endgame is entirely hopeless. Alireza resigned. 1-0
Nijat Abasov - Gukesh D
Gukesh decided to play for a win from the beginning in the Nimzo-Indian Defense.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 h6!?
This is a very anti-theoretical move that is typical of a player who wants to transform the game from a battle of opening study to one of pure skill from the beginning of the game. h6 is essentially a waiting move that gives White a free tempo, but also potentially leads to unforeseen consequences due to the disruption of this non-theoretical move. That said, it’s not quite a novelty. Lichess says there are two master games where this move was played before. The game ended up transposing to a sideline after 5.Nf3, and by move 8…Nce4, the game was completely fresh:
After 9.O-O Nxc3 10.Bxc3 Bc5, Black got a completely playable position with the bishop pair and a better structure, at the cost of being behind on development.
But an advantage in development has to be exploited, and Abasov’s theoretical advantage was so slight that the game teetered on equality for the next 25 or so moves.
Much later in the game, White managed to win the bishop pair and keep the position level. Black is up a pawn, but his pawns are weak on the light squares, and Abasov’s bishop pair compensates for the missing unit. However, perhaps in an attempt to block the move Nd5 immediately, Abasov rushed with 37.c4. This move does take the pawn off of a dark square, but it also gives up the b4-square for the bishop and defend the a5 pawn in a more active way.
37…Rb8 38.Ra2 Bb4!
The a5-pawn is crystalized. Gukesh was also able to compel the isolated c4-pawn forward: 39.Kf3 Rd8 40.Be3? (40.Ke4!, preventing Rd3) Rd3! 41.Ke2 Rc3! 42.c5 Nd5!
Look at the activity of those pieces! Abasov felt compelled to trade off the rooks, but this allowed the a-pawn to begin the dangerous march to a1: 42.Rc2 Rxc2+ 44.Bxc2 a4!
From here it was a matter of technique and in the end Abasov resigned the game some 13 moves later.
Fabiano Caruana - Vidit Gujrathi
Fabi, a full point behind the leader, put on a strong display against Vidit in a Giuoco Pianissimo game. The whole game was wonderful to watch — a typical example of Fabi outplaying a weaker opponent. I really enjoy these slow Italian plays. I’ll spare more analysis for today, and just share the gif.
With all that said, it’s a three-way tie for first going into round 13, between Nepo, Naka, and Gukesh. Fabi is not far behind, with a half-point separating them. Naka’s next two games are directly in the path to victory — he faces Nepo on Saturday and Gukesh on Sunday. The two most important games of the tournament are yet to come! Overall it’s still very exciting and up in the air as far as who will come home with the possible victory, and it’s been an incredible ride thus far.