Flagging, Incorrect Draw Declare, And Missed Possibilities As Robson Hits The Entrance

GM Ray Robson scored a vital win over GM Alireza Firouzja in spherical six of the 2023 Saint Louis Fast & Blitz on the white aspect of the King’s Indian Protection: Makogonov Variation on Wednesday.

Robson entered the only real lead due to day-one chief GM Le Quang Liem‘s tumultuous day. The Vietnamese GM suffered a tragic loss by the hands of GM Fabiano Caruana and acquired caught up in additional drama in opposition to GM Anish Giri when he incorrectly claimed a threefold repetition.

Whereas rounds 4 and 5 produced 10 attracts and no decisive video games, the third spherical of the day had 4 winners: GMs Robson, Caruana, Giri, and Maxime-Vachier-Lagrave. For the Dutchman, the additional half-point got here surprisingly when GM Sam Sevian flagged on the better aspect of a drawn endgame.

The Saint Louis Fast & Blitz will proceed with rounds seven by way of 9 of the speedy section on Thursday, November 16, at 11 a.m. PT/20:00 Central European.

Standings (2 factors for a win in speedy chess)

In a single day preparation is a harmful weapon within the palms of the world’s high chess gamers and in spherical 4, the video games mirrored this. 5 attracts transpired and eight of the ten gamers performed with above 97-percent accuracy, in keeping with Chess.com’s Sport Overview.

The one sport the place a win appeared seemingly was GM Wesley So-Caruana. Taking part in with the black items after a tough first day, Caruana evoked chess legends of previous and performed the Ruy López Opening: Morphy Protection, Deferred Steinitz Protection.

Crossing into uncharted territory with 11.Nb3, So discovered himself in a spot of hassle and determined to surrender the change to keep away from nasty techniques. After buying and selling into an endgame the place neither king was secure, Caruana rushed with 40…Kh7??, opening the floodgates for White’s queen to infiltrate and ship threefold repetition.

Whereas spherical 4 was a near-perfect image of solidity, the second spherical of the day was filled with missed probabilities, regardless of 5 attracts occurring. Le’s stellar run virtually got here to an finish when he was almost overwhelmed by Giri after pinching a pawn within the center sport.

His fortunate stars aligned even when incorrectly claiming a threefold. Down by two pawns in a queen endgame, the 32-year-old stopped his clock and knowledgeable the arbiter that his subsequent transfer, 71…Qd5? could be a draw. Svidler was fast to identify that the draw declare is right however the transfer is unsuitable and Le really wanted to play 71…Qe6.!. Thankfully, the event chief was capable of maintain his nerves and maintain his opponent to a draw.

The defending champion Firouzja additionally missed a significant alternative to hitch Le within the lead following an bold queen sacrifice that noticed the sport spiral uncontrolled.

Persevering with purely on their increment, each gamers have been unable to play exactly, and ultimately it was Firouzja who wanted to discover a sensible transfer to power a draw.

With the rankings remaining unchanged after two rounds of play, gamers got here out of the woodwork to try to assert their authority on day two. Robson was one such participant, and the Puzzle Battle champion saved his finest sport for a showdown with Firouzja.

With the white items, Robson elected to play the Makogonov Variation, a gap thought-about to be one probably the most harmful setups in opposition to the King’s Indian Protection, in opposition to the world’s number-one blitz chess participant. The opening selection paid off.

A five-pawn storm was on the menu for Robson and after opening up the g-file, the puzzle champion transformed duly. Our Sport of the Day, which flung Robson to the highest of the leaderboard, has been annotated by GM Rafael Leitao. 

Le-Caruana was the opposite necessary consequence when it comes to the standings in spherical six. After rising from a Queen’s Gambit Declined opening with a slight edge, spectators have been shocked to see the Webster College head coach’s place collapse in a heap.

On the bottom commentators—GMs Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler, and IM Tania Sachdev—have been shocked to search out that Caruana had discovered a strategy to trick Le right into a worse ending, thereby ending his unbeaten run.

To cap off the day, a flagging came about between Sevian and Giri throughout a very drawn endgame! Being the presser whereas up an change within the endgame, Sevian was in disbelief that Giri was capable of assemble a fortress. Sevian failed to note when his flag fell on transfer 89, and the agonizing loss value him a simple half-point. 

All Video games Day 2

The 2023 Saint Louis Fast & Blitz is the fourth leg of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour and the final of its velocity chess occasions. Gamers compete in a 10-player speedy (25+10) round-robin and a 10-player blitz (5+2) double round-robin for his or her share of a $175,000 prize fund. 

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