63rd USA Chess Championship
Saint Louis Chess Club, USA
March 18-April 2, 2019
Final Standings (all GMs)
1. Hikaru Nakamura 2746, 8.0/11
2-3. Leinier Dominguez Perez 2739, Fabiano Caruana 2828, 7.5/11
4-5. Wesley So 2762, Samuel Sevian 2642, 6.0/11
6. Samuel Shankland 2731, 5.5/11
7-8. Awonder Liang 2590, Jeffery Xiong 2663, 5.0/11
9-11. Aleksandr Lenderman 2637, Varuzhan Akobian 2625, Timur Gareyev 2557, 4.0/11
12. Ray Robson 2667, 3.5/11
Average Rating: 2682 Category 18
Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1
Wesley scored two wins, a loss and eight draws in the just-concluded USA Chess Championship and finished in fourth place. He played a quite magical game in round 2 vs. the former Uzbek Grandmaster (GM) Timur Gareyev, who now plays for the United States. He holds the world record in simultaneous blindfold chess play, taking on 48 opponents in Las Vegas last Dec. 4, 2016.
So, Wesley (2762) — Gareyev, Timur (2557) [E15]
US-ch Open 2019 Saint Louis (2.4), 21.03.2019
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3
There is some shadow-boxing going on here. Wesley wants to go into a Catalan.
3…Bb4+
Gareyev prefers the Bogo-Indian.
4.Bd2 a5 5.Bg2 0–0 6.Nf3 b6
This move in combination with …Ba6 and …Ra7 is an invention of the Ukrainian tactical genius Oleg Romanishin.
7.0–0 Ba6 8.Ne5
The position Romanishin was aiming for comes about after 8.b3 d5 9.Qc2 Ra7 10.Rd1 Qe7 11.Ne5 c5 Black has completely equalized, at least. Rashkovsky, N-Romanishin, O Odessa 1973 0–1 36.
8…Ra7 9.Bxb4 axb4 10.Qa4
Trying to improve on 10.a3 d6 11.axb4 (11.Nf3 Bxc4 Black manages to snatch a pawn) 11…dxe5 12.dxe5 Ng4 13.b5 Nxe5 14.b3 Qe7 15.Qd4 f6 16.bxa6 Rd8 17.Qe3 Rxa6 18.Nc3 Rxa1 19.Rxa1 Nbc6 game is completely equal. Hjartarson, J (2530)-Jussupow, A (2590) Reykjavik 1985 0–1 (40).
10…c5 11.a3!
See? Now if Black plays 11…d6 12.Nf3 the c4–pawn is not en prize.
11…bxa3 12.Nxa3 Rc7 13.dxc5 bxc5 14.Rfd1
The top players sit down before the start of big tournaments and plan out their event. For example they figure out who it is they will try to beat and who they should conserve their energy against by agreeing to a draw early. Obviously Gareyev is on Wesley’s “hit list” and the position on the board is exactly what White was aiming for — a small but stable advantage (in this case pressure down the d-file) which he will grind on until Black makes a mistake.
14…d5 15.e4 d4 16.b4 Nfd7 17.Nxd7 Qxd7 18.Qxd7 Nxd7 19.bxc5 Nxc5 20.e5 Nb3 21.Rab1 Na5! 22.Bf1 Bxc4 23.Rdc1 d3!
Of course not 23…Rfc8? which loses a piece to 24.Rb4. Black cannot withdraw the bishop because of 24…Bd5 25.Rxc7 and the threat of a back rank mate prevents recapture.
24.Bxd3 Bxd3 25.Rxc7 Bxb1 26.Nxb1 Nb3 27.Nc3 Nd4 28.Kg2
Gareyev has defended well and kept his opponent’s forces at bay. Wesley only has two pluses left — a rook on the 7th rank and more space due to his pawn on e5.
28…f6
Black of course wants to exchange pawns. Some have said that this is a mistake but I don’t think so. The e6 pawn becomes isolated but it is defended easily enough.
29.exf6 Rxf6 30.Rd7 Nf5 31.Ne4 Rf8 32.Nc5 Re8 33.g4 Nh4+ 34.Kg3 Ng6 35.f4 Nf8 36.Rc7 h6 37.h4 Ra8 38.h5 Ra3+ 39.Kf2 Rh3 40.Re7 Rc3 41.Ne4
White could have won a pawn with 41.Nxe6 Nxe6 42.Rxe6 but then, with his pawn already on h5, this position is a clear draw.
41…Rd3 42.g5 Rd7 43.Re8 Kf7 44.Ra8 Ke7 45.Ke3 Rd1 46.g6 Rd5 <D>
POSITION AFTER 46…RD5
Nothing wrong with 46…Rd7 but Gareyev has no inkling of what is to follow. We should thank him for that, though, as otherwise Wesley’s tremendous concept will just be relegated to the notes.
47.Nf6!!
A complete surprise. The immediate point is that 47…gxf6?? 48.g7! wins on the spot. But what about the other moves? After the shock subsided Gareyev continued …
47…Kxf6
The correct reply. 47…Rd8 48.Ng8+ Ke8 49.Rxd8+ Kxd8 50.Nxh6! just wins a pawn.
48.Rxf8+ Ke7 49.Rf7+ Kd6?
This is where Gareyev errs. He should have played 49…Ke8 50.Rxg7 Rxh5 which holds the draw. However, it is a natural reaction to keep your king active and take it out of the back rank.
50.Rxg7 Rxh5 51.Rd7+!
This is it. The g-pawn cannot be prevented from queening.
51…Kxd7 52.g7 Rh3+ 53.Kf2 Rh4 54.Kg3 Rh1 55.Kg2 Rh4 56.g8Q Rxf4 57.Qg7+ Kd6 58.Qxh6
KQ vs KRP is a win of course for the side with the queen, but it is by no means easy.
58…Rf5 59.Qg7 Kd5 60.Kg3 Kd6
The King has to retreat. 60…e5? 61.Qd7+ Ke4 62.Qh7 winning the rook.
61.Kg4 Kd5 62.Qc7! Kd4
If Black puts the king on e4 then 62…Ke4 63.Qd6 Re5 now a bit of triangulation to lose a move 64.Kg3! Rg5+ 65.Kh4 Re5 66.Kg4 we have the same position as earlier but now it is Black to move, and he has to lose a pawn.
63.Qd6+ Rd5 64.Qxe6
Now it is KQ vs. KR. Black should keep his rook close to his king to avoid losing it to a fork while White should force the enemy king to the edge of the board and go for the “Philidor position,” one of three such positions in the endgame with that name. One is the drawing technique for the inferior side in a KRP vs. KR endgame, another is how to win with KRB vs. KR, and this is the third.
Even with this knowledge the win is by no means trivial. I remember during the 2001 FIDE World-Championship KO matches Peter Svidler got KQ vs. Gelfand’s KR but could not mate within the 50–move allowance. The reader may scoff and say that his inability is due to Svidler’s lack of time but I should point out that in December 1978 the computer programme BELLE engaged GM Walter Browne to try to beat it with KQ vs. the software’s KR. The game was played at a tournament time limit but Browne also overstepped the 50–move limit and had to concede the draw. This reinforces my point — Q vs. R is far from simple to play.
64…Re5 65.Qc6 Rc5 66.Qb6 Kd5 67.Kf5 Kd4+ 68.Ke6 Kc4 69.Kd6 Rd5+ 70.Kc6 Re5 71.Qa6+ Kd4 72.Qa2!
Black’s king
72…Rf5 73.Qb2+ Ke4 74.Kd6 Rg5 75.Qc2+ Kf4 76.Ke6
Basically the same position as in move 72 but with the black king and rook shifted several squares to the right. This is really instructive.
76…Re5+ 77.Kf6 Re3 78.Qf5+ Kg3 79.Kg5 Kg2 80.Kh4 Kg1 81.Qf4 Re2 82.Kh3 Ra2
Alternatives:
82…Rg2 83.Qc1+ Kf2 84.Qd2+ wins the rook;
[82…Re8 83.Kg3 Rg8+ 84.Kf3 Rg2 85.Qh4 is the Philidor position with Black to move, see explanation later]
83.Qg4+ Kf1 84.Qc4+ Re2 85.Kg3 Ke1 86.Qc1# 1–0
Let us get back to the so-called Position:
THE PHILIDOR POSITION
If the diagram does not reproduce well here are the piece placements:
White: Kc6, Qa5
Black: Kb8, Rb7
With Black to play he loses his rook to a fork (you will see later) and so with White to play the idea is to use triangulation and lose a move. Here is how it is done:
1.Qe5+ Ka7
1…Kc8 2.Qe8#;
1…Ka8 2.Qa1+ Kb8 is the same position as in the illustration (2…Ra7 3.Qh8#)
2.Qa1+ Kb8 3.Qa5!
Now we are back to the Philidor position but this time with Black to play. The rook will fall:
3…Rb1
The other possibilities:
3…Rb3 4.Qd8+ Ka7 5.Qd4+ Kb8 6.Qf4+ Ka8 7.Qa4+;
3…Rf7 4.Qe5+ Ka7 5.Qe3+ Kb8 6.Qe8+;
3…Rh7 4.Qe5+ Ka7 (or a8) 5.Qa1+ Kb8 6.Qb1+]
4.Qd8+ Ka7 5.Qd4+ Kb8 6.Qh8+ Ka7 7.Qh7+
A little bit of endgame theory here and there.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
