Grand Swiss R10: Who will qualify for the Candidates 2020?

by Satanick Mukhuty - 21/10/2019

The winner of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man will be decided in the eleventh and final round of the event which starts at 6 pm IST today. It is Fabiano Caruana who is in the sole lead with 7.5/10 points at the moment and he has been paired up against Hikaru Nakamura in the last round. There are seven players led by Wang Hao of China who follow the leader just half a point behind with 7.0/10 each. The question is not only who will be the champion of the tournament and take back home the first prize of 70,000 US Dollars but also who will secure that coveted spot in the Candidates 2020 which is scheduled to take place in the first half of next year. In this illustrated report we bring you the happenings from the previous round and also give you the pairings for the final day of the event.

A tough day for the Indian contingent

Vishy Anand unexpectedly lost his game against Evgeniy Najer in round one of the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man, but made an emphatic comeback thereafter to revive his chances to qualify for Candidates 2020. But unfortunately, the event's penultimate round proved to be a colossal disaster for the Indian maestro as he went down against Wang Hao of China from an endgamish position which looked perfectly equal. The encounter opened with the petroff defense and quickly simplified into equality after a series of heavy exchanges. However, just when things seemed to be meandering towards a draw, Vishy - who had the white pieces - suffered a shocking lapse. He made a couple of inexplicable mistakes just after the 20th move and found the tables completely turned on him. The game was wound up in just 28 moves when Vishy resigned in a position where he had to give up a full piece to avoid getting checkmated.

Vishy missed his last chance to make it to the Candidates this year | Photo: John Saunders

Vishy Anand - Wang Hao, Round 10

Position after 23.f5

Vishy looked a bit wobbly with his move 23.f5 in the above which immediately weakened his pawns on e5 and f5 and allowed Black to counter with 23...Rd5. At this point 24.Bf4 could have been a logical response but 24.e6 proved to be even more damaging. The game followed 24...Rxf5 25.Ra3 Bc4 26.exf7+ Bxf7 27.c3 a5 next and here came the decisive blunder 28.Rxe4

Can you find the move Wang Hao (Black) played here that made Vishy resign?

Of course, it was the simple 28...Rcf6 that sealed the deal. The threat is the obvious 29.Rf1# and if White wants to prevent it then he must give up his bishop on c1. A tough loss for White!

Apart from Vishy's loss it was an overall sad day for the Indian contingent. Raunak Sadhwani and S.L.Narayanan who have been performing extremely well in the event had to suffer defeats in the hands of Amin Bassem and Hrant Melkumyan respectively. For Narayanan, it was in fact his first loss in the event. Soumya Swaminathan went down against Vasif Durarbayli; while in the encounter between compatriots Adhiban Baskaran and Harikrishna Pentala, the latter emerged victorious showing some impeccable endgame skills. The best victory for Indians was perhaps fetched by Sethuraman SP who won a fine game against Alexei Shirov.

In the top boards Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen won their respective games against David Guijarro and Maxim Matlakov respectively, while Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura split the point between themselves.

Photo Gallery

Magnus Carlsen can never be ruled out as a championship contender. He has had a shaky start but now is just half a point behind Fabiano Caruana. In round ten he defeated Maxim Matlakov to achieve his 100th game without losing! | Photo: John Saunders

Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian started quite slowly in the event but they have both recovered well to emerge as strong contenders of the title. They drew their penultimate round encounter against each other | Photo: John Saunders

Raunak was outplayed by Amin Bassem in just 25 moves in the penultimate round of the event. The 13-year-old youngster has already become the 65th Grandmaster of the country and has scored 5.0/10 points so far | Photo: John Saunders

Harika Dronavalli is looking forward to winning the best woman performer prize and take back home a cash prize of 10,000 US Dollars. She drew her game against Alexander Riazantsev | Photo: John Saunders

Soumya Swaminathan lost her second consecutive game against Vasif Durarbayli | Photo: John Saunders

Nihal Sarin hasn't quite been in his element in the event. He has scored 4.5/10 so far and drew his last round encounter against Gawain Jones | Photo: John Saunders

Results of all Indian players (Round 10)

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
10	4	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Wang Hao	2726	15
10	12	76	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	2638	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2718	17
10	17	73	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	5½	0 - 1	5	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2748	9
10	24	82	GM	Mareco Sandro	2634	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2675	37
10	29	94	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Shirov Alexei	2664	49
10	31	119	GM	Gukesh D	2520	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Dreev Aleksey	2662	51
10	34	104	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2611	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Melkumyan Hrant	2650	63
10	35	22	GM	Amin Bassem	2699	4½	1 - 0	5	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2479	129
10	42	54	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2658	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Erdos Viktor	2604	108
10	47	114	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2571	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Papaioannou Ioannis	2645	66
10	48	122	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2495	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Riazantsev Alexander	2645	67
10	53	29	GM	Jones Gawain C B	2688	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Nihal Sarin	2610	105
10	59	100	GM	Durarbayli Vasif	2617	4	1 - 0	4	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2365	149
10	69	146	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2421	3½	1 - 0	3	GM	Prithu Gupta	2493	124

Pairings of all Indian players for the last round

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
11	8	43	GM	Robson Ray	2670	6		6	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	4
11	12	9	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2748	6		6	GM	Leko Peter	2670	42
11	15	17	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2718	6		6	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	2613	102
11	18	27	GM	Grandelius Nils	2691	6		6	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	94
11	21	25	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	2694	5½		5½	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	73
11	26	37	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2675	5½		5½	GM	Hess Robert	2581	113
11	34	11	GM	Artemiev Vladislav	2746	5		5½	GM	Gukesh D	2520	119
11	40	109	GM	Lu Shanglei	2602	5		5	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2658	54
11	41	55	GM	Nabaty Tamir	2658	5		5	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2611	104
11	47	67	GM	Riazantsev Alexander	2645	5		5	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2571	114
11	48	129	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2479	5		5	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2644	68
11	49	70	GM	Bluebaum Matthias	2643	5		5	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2495	122
11	56	69	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim	2644	4½		4½	GM	Nihal Sarin	2610	105
11	65	149	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2365	4		4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2479	128

Results of top ten boards (Round 10)

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2812	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2674	39
2	12	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2745	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Aronian Levon	2758	8
3	1	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2876	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Matlakov Maxim	2716	18
4	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Wang Hao	2726	15
5	6	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2760	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2674	38
6	24	GM	Howell David W L	2694	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2759	7
7	13	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr	2621	95
8	19	GM	Le Quang Liem	2708	5½	1 - 0	6	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2664	48
9	3	GM	So Wesley	2767	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Robson Ray	2670	43
10	5	GM	Yu Yangyi	2763	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2669	44

Top ten pairings for the last round

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2745	7		7½	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2812	2
2	8	GM	Aronian Levon	2758	7		7	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2876	1
3	38	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2674	7		7	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	13
4	15	GM	Wang Hao	2726	7		7	GM	Howell David W L	2694	24
5	110	GM	Paravyan David	2602	6½		6½	GM	Le Quang Liem	2708	19
6	39	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2674	6½		6½	GM	Hovhannisyan Robert	2639	74
7	44	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2669	6		6	GM	So Wesley	2767	3
8	43	GM	Robson Ray	2670	6		6	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	4
9	61	GM	Sevian Samuel	2654	6		6	GM	Yu Yangyi	2763	5
10	53	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	2661	6		6	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2760	6

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