2017 Sinquefield Cup
Saint Louis, USA
July 31-Aug. 12, 2017
Final Standings
1. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2789, 6.0/9
2-3. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2822, Viswanathan Anand IND 2783, 5.5/9
4-5. Levon Aronian ARM 2799, Sergey Karjakin RUS 2773, 5.0/9
6. Peter Svidler RUS 2751, 4.5/9
7. Fabiano Caruana USA 2807, 4.0/9
8. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2792, 3.5/9
9-10. Wesley So USA 2810, Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2751, 3.0/9
Average ELO 2787 Category 22
Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 60 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second time delay before every move.
The Frenchman “with three names,” Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, or MVL for short, beat Wesley So in the first round, the world champion Magnus Carlsen in the fourth and Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final round to finish with 6.0/9 (three wins six draws) and score the biggest tournament win of his life in the 2017 Sinquefield Cup.
Sinquefield also had a big effect on the Live Chess Ratings. After the concluding round here is the new world top 10:
1. Magnus Carlsen 2827
2. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2804
3. Vladimir Kramnik 2803
4. Levon Aronian 2802
5. Fabiano Caruana 2799
6. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2797
7. Viswanathan Anand 2794
8. Wesley So 2792
9. Alexander Grischuk 2783
10. Hikaru Nakamura 2781
Take note that MVL has climbed to no. 2 while Wesley So fell to no. 8.
Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand were all contending for the top honors and it was only after a last-round victory that Vachier-Lagrave could outdistance them. The French GM is currently the world’s best expert on the Sicilian Najdorf, and it is only fitting that the decisive last-round victory should feature that very opening.
* * *
Vachier Lagrave, Maxime (2789) — Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2751) [B92]
5th Sinquefield Cup 2017 Saint Louis USA (9), 11.08.2017
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2
This move, an old favorite of 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov, is not so popular anymore. Loek Van Wely wrote a Chessbase DVD on the Sicilian Najdorf and covered 6.Bc4, 6.Be3 (the longest chapter), 6.Bg5, 6.h3 and various sidelines but not a single mention of 6.Be2!
MVL usually plays 6.Be3 not only to go into the English Attack lines, but oftentimes as a prelude to g2-g4-g5. The more positional 6.Be2 was definitely a surprise for Nepom.
6…e5 7.Nf3
An even bigger surprise. Retreating the knight to b3 is almost automatic in this position. Pushing f2-f4 is an important component of White’s plans in the near future so why is he voluntarily blocking his own pawn?
7…Be7 8.Bg5 Nbd7 9.a4
It was here that I realized Magnus Carlsen had used exactly this plan against MVL himself last June in the Paris Grand Chess Tour Rapid tournament, and re-used it against Ian Nepomniachtchi one month later during the Leuven Blitz event. He went a4-a5 followed by Nf3-d2-c4 to put pressure against d4. Magnus won both games quickly.
Perhaps MVL couldn’t find a solution and wanted to ask Nepom, the other Carlsen victim, what he had discovered since then.
9…0-0
The Magnus vs MVL game continued 9…b6 10.Nd2 h6 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 12.Nc4 Bb7 13.a5 b5 14.Nb6 Nxe4 15.Nxe4 Bxe4 16.Bf3 Bxf3 17.Qxf3 Ra7 18.c4! d5! 19.cxb5 Bb4+ 20.Ke2 Bxa5 21.Nxd5 axb5 22.b4 Bb6 23.Rxa7 Bxa7 24.Ra1 Bb8 25.Qd3 0-0! The game is dynamically equal. If White should take the pawn on b5 (which Magnus did actually but MVL did not respond correctly) Black has 26…Qh4! 27.g3 Qh5+ 28.Kf1 Qxh2 and has at worse a draw. Carlsen,M (2832)-Vachier Lagrave,M (2796) Paris 2017 1-0 (39).
10.Nd2 Nc5 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.Nc4 Be7 13.a5
All according to plan. In Magnus vs Nepom last July the game went 13.0-0 Be6 14.a5 Rc8 15.Nb6 Rc6 16.b4 Nd7 17.Nbd5 Bg5 18.Na4 Bxd5 19.exd5 Rc7 20.c4 e4 21.c5 dxc5 22.d6 Rc8 23.Bg4 cxb4 24.Bxd7 Qxd7 25.Nb6 White has the edge.Carlsen,M (2832)-Nepomniachtchi,I (2732) Leuven 2017 1-0 (34).
13…Rb8 14.Nb6 Nd7 15.Ncd5 Nxb6 16.Nxb6 Be6 17.Bc4 Qc7 18.Qd3 Bd8 19.c3 Qc6 20.Bd5! Qe8 21.Bxe6
Perfect timing. Now Black cannot take …fxe6 because his d6-pawn is en prise. He has to take with the queen and the hole on d5 becomes more pronounced.
21…Qxe6 22.Nd5 <D>
POSITION AFTER 22.ND5
The Chessbase Web site notes that MVL has “established a kind of control which was hard to believe. Do we not assume that these are the kind of strategically lost positions which every Russian schoolboy knows? Starting from this point, there was almost no analysis to be done, as Black’s position steadily seemed to go downhill, until things finally came to a head.”The stuff about the game being strategically lost for Black was a big revelation to me. Can this be true? Even the top computer engines give only a slight advantage for White.]
22…f5 23.0-0 Rc8 24.Rfd1 fxe4 25.Qxe4 Qf5
Exchanging queens will leave White with a better endgame but MVL, true to his nature, leaves the queens on the board so that he can work his tactical magic.
26.Qe2 Kh8 27.c4 Bh4 28.g3 Bg5 29.Ra3 Rce8 30.h4 Bd8 31.b4 Qg6 32.h5
Black misses his white-squared bishop and White takes advantage of the f5 square where his knight will be landing soon.
32…Qf5 33.Ne3 Qe6 34.Rad3 Be7 35.Nd5 Bd8 36.Rf3 Rxf3 37.Qxf3 Kg8 38.Kg2 e4 39.Qe2 Qe5 40.Ne3 Bg5? 41.Rd5 Qf6 42.Nf5 Re6
MVL had to calculate that 42…Re5 fails to 43.Nxd6! Rxd5 44.Nxe4 Qd4 45.cxd5 Qxd5 46.Qf3! winning at least a piece.
43.c5! dxc5 44.Qc4 Qf7
[44…cxb4? 45.Qc8+ Kf7 46.Rd7+ wins]
45.Rxc5 h6 46.Rc8+ Kh7 47.g4 Re7 48.Qd4!
Not 48.Nxe7? Qf3+ 49.Kg1 (49.Kf1 Qd1+ 50.Kg2 Qxg4+) 49…Qxg4+ 50.Kf1 Qd1+ with a draw.
48…Re6 49.Qd5 g6
Black cannot repeat with his draw trick of 49…Re7 because now White has 50.Qd8.
50.hxg6+ Kxg6 51.Rf8! Qxf8 52.Qxe6+ 1-0
Did you notice how tactics complemented Vachier-Lagrave’s strategical masterpiece?
A long time ago when we were just learning the moves of chess a few technical terms were explained to us: tactics is what you do if there is something to do and strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do. Now, with the evolution of chess style, things are not that clear. Players like Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with their mastery of the deepest chess tactics masquerade their style as strategical when in fact it is all tactics.
Remember the first Kasparov vs Deep Blue match in 1996 which Kasparov won three games to one with two draws? Kasparov wrote later for Time Magazine that Deep Blue shocked him in that first game by making a move with no immediate material advantage; nudging a pawn into a position where it could be easily captured. Later, he discovered the truth: Deep Blue’s calculation speed was so advanced that, unlike other computers Kasparov had battled before, this one could see the material advantage of losing a pawn even if the advantage came many moves later.
* * *
Comp Deep Blue — Kasparov, Garry (2795) [B22]
Philadelphia m Philadelphia (1), 10.02.1996
1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Be2 e6 7.h3 Bh5 8.0-0 Nc6 9.Be3 cxd4 10.cxd4 Bb4! 11.a3 Ba5 12.Nc3 Qd6 13.Nb5 Qe7 14.Ne5 Bxe2 15.Qxe2 0-0 16.Rac1 Rac8 17.Bg5 Bb6 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Nc4! Rfd8
[19…Nxd4? 20.Nxd4 Bxd4 21.Qg4+]
20.Nxb6 axb6 21.Rfd1 f5 22.Qe3 Qf6 23.d5!
This was the move Kasparov was talking about — computers are not supposed to make positional sacrifices. It turned out later that by calculating very deeply the computer had seen that Black cannot hold on to the pawn.
23…Rxd5 24.Rxd5 exd5 25.b3! Kh8 26.Qxb6 Rg8 27.Qc5
[27.Qxb7?? Qg5 threatening g2 and c1 at the same time]
27…d4 28.Nd6 f4 29.Nxb7 Ne5 30.Qd5 f3 31.g3 Nd3 32.Rc7 Re8 33.Nd6 Re1+ 34.Kh2 Nxf2
Threatening mate in 1 via …Rh1, but the computer had calculated everything to the end.
35.Nxf7+ Kg7 36.Ng5+ Kh6 37.Rxh7+ 1-0
Kasparov resigned after 37.Rxh7+ because 37…Kg6 38.Qg8+ Kf5 39.Nxf3 there is no more mate threat.
That is the new chess embraced by MVL, Aronian and a few others. Nothing is so clear-cut anymore. An early weakness created, a weak pawn lost, doubled pawns created, these do not necessarily lose the game anymore — they could be part of some obscure compensation the outlines of which we will see only after several moves have been played. As Nigel short said: “Modern chess is much too concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it. Checkmate ends the game.” GM Soltis explains further: you don’t need to find 50 moves of finesse if you can end the game by the caveman method at move 25.
Chess, after all, can still be an exciting game.
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.
