In today’s Daily Telegraph column, Malcolm Pein reports on the weary Candidates, for whom last-round motivation was an inevitable problem, especially for the tournament winner.
Malcolm Pein on…The Weary Candidates
The FIDE Candidates tournament was wrapped up recently with some predictable last-round results as the winners and losers had inevitably lost some motivation.
Tournament victor Ian Nepomniachtchi lost quickly to Ding Liren and commented afterwards: “Yesterday I was very motivated, but today when I woke up I felt like my motivation significantly went down. I wasn’t very happy that I have one more game to play.”
Wang Hao, who had a disastrous second half of the tournament, blundered against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and then announced his retirement from professional chess for health reasons. This would be a terrible shame as he is a great player who plays creatively and entertainingly.
Ding Liren scored 4.5/7 in the second half of the tournament and will surely be a Candidate again.
The Benoni Under Pressure
Ding Liren – I. Nepomniachtchi
King’s Indian Saemisch vs Benoni
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 e6 4.e4 c5 5.d5 d6 6.Bd3 Bg7 7.Ne2 exd5 8.cxd5 Nbd7 9.Nec3 (A modern idea. The best square for a white knight in the Benoni is c4 and the knight on b1 is headed there if allowed) 9…a6 10.a4 Nh5 11.0–0 Bd4+ 12.Kh1 Ne5 13.Ne2 Qh4 14.Nxd4 Nxd3 15.Qxd3 Ng3+ 16.Kg1 Nxf1
17.Nc2! (This is the move it takes the computer some time to appreciate. The resulting positions with rook and two pawns vs bishop and knight are much better for White because d6 is very weak. If 17.Qxf1 cxd4 18.b3 f5 19.Nd2 0–0 20.Ba3 is unclear and not 17.Ne2?? Qe1) 17…Nxh2 18.Qe3! 0–0 (18…Bd7 19.Qf4 Qxf4 20.Bxf4 Nxf3+ 21.gxf3 Ke7 22.Ne3 b5 23.Nd2 f6 24.Nb3 threatens Nb3–a5–b7 attacking d6 while 18…f5 19.exf5+ Kf7 20.Qf4 Qxf4 21.Bxf4 Nxf3+ 22.gxf3 Bxf5 23.Ne3 Bxb1 24.Rxb1 Rad8 25.Nc4 typifies Black’s difficulties) 19.Qg5 Nxf3+ 20.gxf3 Qh3 21.Bf4! Qxf3 22.Nd2 f6 (22…Qd3 23.Qf6 with Ra3 and Bh6 to follow) 23.Qxg6+ hxg6 24.Nxf3 Bg4 25.Nd2 Be2 26.Kf2 (Or 26.Bxd6 Rfe8 27.Ra3) 26…Bd3 27.Ne1 c4 28.Bxd6 Rfe8 29.Nxd3 cxd3 30.Bc7 Kf7 31.Ra3 Rac8 32.d6 Ke6 33.Rxd3 Kd7 34.Nc4 Rxc7 35.Nb6+ 1–0 A final finesse which also wins the f6 pawn.
Test Your Strength
MVL-Wang Hao
White to play and win
Final scores:
1 Nepomniachtchi 8.5; 2 Vachier- Lagrave 8; 3-4 Giri & Caruana 7.5; 5-6 Ding Liren & Grischuk 7;
7 Alekseenko 5.5; 8 Wang Hao 5
Highlight the space below this to reveal the answer.
29.Nxb5 1-0
