Nepo and Fabi took a draw in a rather dry Four Knights Scotch and drew on move 41. While not particularly dry, Gukesh could get nothing out of Hikaru’s Hyper-Accelerated Dragon. But both Vidit and Pragg delivered against Firouzja and Abasov, respectively.
Vidit Gujrathi - Alireza Firouzja
Alireza went for an interesting and rarer Sicilian line: The “Classical” Variation.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6
I have always found this particular variation of the Sicilian interesting, and kind of dangerous to play against online. However, with some brash play by Alireza, Vidit was able to achieve a great position on move 12 with a queenside castling:
Just looking at this position it’s almost shocking to think that Firouzja was on across the board from Vidit. White’s completely developed, Black needs three moves to castle and connect his rooks. Alireza took a chance and voluntarily increased the gap between Vidit’s development and his by moving his queen, for the second time to b6: 12…Qb6 13.g4 and Firouzja lost the plot entirely by grabbing a pawn on f2: 13…Qxf2:
Don’t play chess like this at home, kids. Black is dangerously low on development, the queen is surrounded, and the king is about to be destroyed in a fierce attack — it’s only natural: By this point, Vidit has moved his queen once, and spent the rest of the time moving his other pieces and getting them to good squares. Alireza has spent four moves out of 13 on his queen, and his king isn’t castled yet. Vidit goes into punisher mode: 14.e5! Nd7 15.exd6 Qb6 (fifth queen move!) 16.Be3! Qd8 (sixth!) 17.Rhf1.
What an awful position for Black! The d6-pawn is a bone shoved down his throat., and his bishop now requires a new non-developing move to develop (e.g. g6). His rooks are disconnected and inactive. His bishop on b7 is the only piece with potential and Vidit has just removed the last possible target from its reach. White is winning and it is not even close. Quick clock check: 26 minutes for Vidit. 1 hour and 25 for Alireza.
17…Nce5 18.Qd4 Rc8 19.Qa7 Bc6 20.Qxa6
Now Vidit has made a bunch of queen moves, but the position, owing to all the weaknesses in Alireza’s court, still belongs completely in White’s hands. He got back his pawn, and the black army is nowhere close to coordinating a counterattack, let alone a coherent defense. This was absolute domination. The rest of the game continued a theme: Alireza was playing against Vidit’s time, but Vidit kept his cool, maintained every advantage, won some more material, and lasted to the time control at move 40 when he gained extra time on the clock, at which point Alireza’s position was untenable and Vidit was virtually guaranteed to win, so he resigned after 40.Nd4:
Praggnanandhaa R - Nijat Abasov
This was a symmetrical Tarrasch, an opening I play from neither side; it looked like a normal QGD-style position but Pragg got really active with a couple passed pawns on the queenside. Abasov might have had chances to hold with very precise play, but he erred just as he reached move 40:
40…Kg7?? and he gained 30 minutes and a completely lost position. This is a common theme in time controls where getting to a specific move gets you more time. Sometimes you’re more anxious to get the extra time, and make a really bad move in order to get it. A few moves later Abasov resigned.