A four-way tie for first place erupted at the World Rapid Open Championship in Warsaw, Poland, after the close of a grueling regulation December 28th.
Coming in with identical 9½ points after 13 rounds of play were (in accordance with their tiebreak scores were 59th seed Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 4th seed Ian Nepomniachtchi, top seed and defending champion Magnus Carlsen, and 6th seed Fabiano Caruana. Now, if we understood the FIDE Rules, correctly, the top two finishers with the highest tiebreak quotients – Abdusattorov and Nepomniachtchi – will be disputing the championship. The two are supposed to play a blitz match of two games with a ttime format of 3 minutes + 2 seconds incremenrt per move. If this is the case, then Carlsen takes 3rd place and $40,000; while Caruana settles for 4th place and $30,000. The FIDE, however, has not made any announcements yet as of this writing.
Meanwhile, 2nd seed Hikaru Nakamura and 3rd seed Jan-Krzysztof Duda lead a group of seven players with 9 points apiece and sharing 5th to 11th places. With Nakamura and Duda in the group are Levon Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Richard Rapport, Sergey Karjakin and D Gukesh.
In the women’s division, former world women’s chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk emerged the convincing winner. The Open and Women’s World Blitz Championships will start December 29th.
Gelfand,Boris (2663) – Abdusattorov,Nodirbek (2633) [E04]
Warsaw (9.4) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Nc6 6.Qa4 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Nd5 8.Bxb4 Ndxb4 9.Nc3 Rb8 10.a3 Nd5 11.Qxc4 0-0 12.Rd1 Na5 13.Qd3 b5 14.0-0 Nc4 15.Qc2 Nxc3 16.Qxc3 Bb7 17.Nd2 Bxg2 18.Kxg2 Qd5+ 19.Kg1 Rfd8 20.Nxc4 bxc4 21.Rd2 Rb3 22.Qc2 c3 23.bxc3 Qc4 24.Qd3 Qxc3 25.Rfd1 Rxa3 26.Qxc3 Rxc3 27.Ra1 c5 28.Rxa7 g6 29.Rc7 Rxd4 30.Ra2 Rd5 31.Ra8+ Kg7 32.e4 Rd2 33.Ra1 Rcc2 34.Rf1 Re2 0-1
Abdusattorov,N (2633)-Carlsen,M (2856) [A28]
Warsaw (10.1) 2021
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e4 Bb4 5.d3 d6 6.a3 Bc5 7.b4 Bb6 8.Na4 Bg4 9.Nxb6 axb6 10.Bb2 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Nd7 12.g3 Qf6 13.Qd1 Nf8 14.Bg2 Ne6 15.0-0 g5 16.Bh3 h5 17.Bxe6 Qxe6 18.b5 Nb8 19.f4 gxf4 20.gxf4 Nd7 21.Kh1 Qg4 22.Qf3 f6 23.Qe3 0-0-0 24.f5 h4 25.Rg1 Qh5 26.Rg6 Rdg8 27.Rag1 Rxg6 28.fxg6 Rg8 29.g7 Qh7 30.Qh3 Rxg7 31.Rxg7 Qxg7 32.Qxh4 Nc5 33.Bc1 c6 34.bxc6 bxc6 35.Qh3+ Kb7 36.Qf3 Qh7 37.Bd2 Ka6 38.Kg2 Qg7+ 39.Kf1 Qh7 40.h3 d5 41.Qf5 Qg8 42.cxd5 cxd5 43.exd5 Qxd5 44.Ke2 Kb5 45.Be3 Qg2+ 46.Bf2 Ka4 47.h4 e4 48.dxe4 Nxe4 49.Qf3 Qg6 50.h5 Qe8 51.Be3 f5 52.h6 Qe5 53.Kf1 Qd5 54.Kg2 Qg8+ 55.Kh3 Ng5+ 56.Bxg5 Qxg5 57.Qc6+ Kxa3 58.Qc3+ Ka4 59.Qc4+ Ka5 60.Qc3+ Ka4 61.Qg7 Qe3+ 62.Kh4 f4 63.Qd7+ b5 64.h7 Qe5 65.Kg4 f3 66.Kxf3 Qf6+ 67.Ke4 Qh4+ 68.Kd5 Qh5+ 69.Kc6 Qg6+ 70.Kc7 Qg3+ 71.Kb7 Qf3+ 72.Ka6 Qf6+ 73.Ka7 Qf2+ 74.Kb7 Qf3+ 75.Qc6 Qf7+ 76.Qc7 Qf3+ 77.Ka6 Qa8+ 78.Kb6 Qh8 79.Qc2+ Ka3 80.Qd3+ Ka2 81.Kc5 b4 82.Qd2+ Ka1 83.Qd4+ 1-0
Nepomniachtchi,I (2782)-Grischuk,A (2764) [C07]
Warsaw (10.2) 2021
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.exd5 Nxd5 7.N2f3 Bb4+ 8.Bd2 Bc5 9.c3 0-0 10.Bc4 Nc6 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Qc2 Qb6 13.0-0 a5 14.Rad1 Ba6 15.Bxa6 Qxa6 16.c4 Nf6 17.b3 Rfd8 18.Bc3 Qb6 19.h3 h6 20.Rxd8+ Rxd8 21.Re1 Nh5 22.Kf1 Bb4 23.Re2 Bxc3 24.Qxc3 Rd1+ 25.Re1 Rd8 26.Qc2 Nf6 27.Rd1 Ra8 28.Ne5 Qc5 29.Nd7 Nxd7 30.Rxd7 Qe5 31.g3 g6 32.Kg2 a4 33.bxa4 Rb8 34.Rd2 Kg7 35.Qd3 Rb4 36.Qc2 Rb8 37.a3 g5 38.Qd3 Qa1 39.Qf3 Qf6 1-0
Grischuk,A (2764)-Caruana,F (2792) [A20]
Warsaw (12.4) 2021
1.c4 e5 2.Nf3 e4 3.Nd4 Nc6 4.e3 Nf6 5.Nc3 Ne5 6.f4 Nd3+ 7.Bxd3 exd3 8.0-0 d5 9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.Nxd5 Qxd5 11.b4 b6 12.Bb2 Bb7 13.Rf2 Be7 14.Bc3 0-0-0 15.b5 h5 16.a4 Rh6 17.f5 Bh4 18.Rf3 g5 19.f6 g4 20.Nf5 gxf3 21.Ne7+ Kb8 22.Nxd5 f2+ 23.Kf1 Bxd5 24.Be5 Bxf6 25.Bf4 Rg6 26.g3 Bg5 27.Bxg5 Rxg5 28.Kxf2 h4 29.e4 Bxe4 30.Qe1 hxg3+ 31.hxg3 Rf5+ 32.Kg1 Bd5 33.g4 Rg8 34.Qg3 Rf3 35.Qg2 f5 36.g5 f4 0-1
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PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Nf6!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…g5 2.Qf3#; 1…Kg5, Ra4/a8 2.Nxe3#; 1…Nd3 2.Nxe3#.
