Five grandmasters are sharing the lead after six rounds of the ongoing FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in Riga, Latvia. The five are Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Evgeniy Najer, Krishnan Sasikiran, and the veteran Alexei Shirov. Each has 4½ points.
Trailing the leaders closely is a large group of 15 players half-a-point behind with 4 markers apiece, are: top seed Fabiano Caruana, Yangyi Yu, Manuel Petrosyan, Sarin Nihal, Anton Korobov, Aryan Tari, Gabriel Sargissian, David Navara, Sanan Sjugirov, Samuel Sevian, David Anton Guijarro, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, Andrey Esipenko, Alexey Sarana and Daniil Dubov. The 15 share 6th to 20th places.
With five rounds to go, it’s still too close to call; and, in a Swiss event, a draw or a loss matter a lot for players aspiring to be on top.
Caruana,F (2800)-Howell,DWL (2658) [C65]
Riga (5.7) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Nh5 10.Nbd2 Qf6 11.Bxc6 bxc6 12.d4 exd4 13.e5 Qg7 14.cxd4 Bb6 15.a4 a5 16.Nc4 Be6 17.Rc1 Nxg3 18.hxg3 Bxc4 19.Rxc4 Rad8 20.Re1 Rfe8 21.exd6 Rxe1+ 22.Qxe1 Rxd6 23.Rxc6 Rxc6 24.Qe8+ Kh7 25.Qxc6 Qg6 26.Qd7 Kg7 27.Ne5 Qe6 28.Qxe6 fxe6 29.Nc4 Kf6 30.Nxb6 cxb6 31.g4 e5 32.dxe5+ Kxe5 33.g3 Kd4 34.f4 1-0
Vachier-Lagrave,M (2763)-Ponkratov,P (2659) [C02]
Riga (6.3) 2021
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.0-0 Bd7 8.Re1 Nge7 9.h4 h6 10.a3 Rc8 11.b4 a6 12.Bb2 g5 13.Nh2 Bg7 14.Ng4 gxh4 15.cxd4 h5 16.Nf6+ Bxf6 17.exf6 Ng8 18.Qf3 Rh6 19.Qxd5 Nxf6 20.Qg5 Ng4 21.Nc3 Qd8 22.Qxd8+ Kxd8 23.Ne4 e5 24.f3 Nxd4 25.fxg4 hxg4 26.Ng5 1-0
Predke,A (2666)-Sasikiran,K (2640) [E49]
Riga (6.7) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 dxc4 8.Bxc4 e5 9.Nf3 e4 10.Ne5 Nc6 11.Qc2 Nxe5 12.dxe5 Ng4 13.Be2 Qd5 14.c4 Qxe5 15.Bb2 Qf5 16.0-0-0 Nxf2 17.Rhf1 Nd3+ 18.Bxd3 exd3 19.Qc3 Qg6 20.g4 f6 21.Rf4 Be6 22.Rg1 Rad8 23.Kd2 Qg5 24.Rg3 h6 25.Qb4 b6 26.Qa4 b5 27.cxb5 Qd5 28.Qb4 c5 29.Qc3 Rb8 30.a4 a6 31.g5 hxg5 32.e4 Qd7 33.Rff3 axb5 34.Rxd3 Qc7 35.axb5 Qf4+ 36.Ke1 Rxb5 37.Rd2 Rb3 38.Qxc5 Rxg3 39.hxg3 Qxg3+ 40.Qf2 Qg4 41.Rd4 Qh3 42.Qf1 g4 43.Qxh3 gxh3 44.Kf2 Kf7 45.Kg3 Rb8 46.Bc1 Rb3+ 47.Kh2 Rf3 48.Rd2 g5 49.Kg1 g4 50.Rf2 Rb3 51.Bg5 Rb1+ 52.Kh2 g3+ 53.Kxg3 Rg1+ 0-1
Esipenko,A (2720)-Abdusattorov,N (2646) [A61]
Riga (6.11) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.h3 Bg7 8.Bf4 0-0 9.e3 Na6 10.Bxa6 bxa6 11.Rc1 Rb8 12.b3 a5 13.0-0 Rb4 14.Re1 Nh5 15.Bh2 f5 16.a3 Rb7 17.e4 Bxc3 18.Rxc3 fxe4 19.Nd2 Nf6 20.Nxe4 Nxe4 21.Rxe4 Bf5 22.Re1 a4 23.bxa4 Rb1 24.Rc1 Rb2 25.Bg3 Qf6 26.Re2 Bd7 27.Be5 1-0
Dubov,D (2714)-Saric,I (2644) [B51]
Riga (6.13) 2021
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.0-0 a6 5.Bd3 Ngf6 6.c3 b5 7.a4 Bb7 8.axb5 axb5 9.Rxa8 Qxa8 10.Na3 b4 11.Nb5 Qa5 12.cxb4 cxb4 13.Bc4 Nxe4 14.d3 d5 15.Bf4 e5 16.Nxe5 dxc4 17.dxc4 Nxe5 18.Bxe5 Bc5 19.Bd6 Bxd6 20.Nxd6+ Nxd6 21.Qxd6 Bc8 22.Re1+ Be6 23.Rd1 Qa8 24.c5 Qc8 25.c6 h5 26.Re1 Rh6 27.Re5 Qd8 28.Qxb4 Qc7 29.Qc5 Qe7 30.Qc3 Qc7 31.b4 Ke7 32.b5 Rh8 33.Qg3 Rd8 34.h4 Kf8 35.Rxe6 Qxg3 36.fxg3 fxe6 37.c7 Ke7 38.cxd8Q+ Kxd8 39.Kf2 Kc7 40.Ke3 Kb6 41.Kd4 Kxb5 42.Ke5 1-0
Sarana,A (2649)-Praggnanandhaa,R (2618) [D41]
Riga (6.24) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 cxd4 8.cxd4 Bb4+ 9.Bd2 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 0-0 11.Bc4 Nd7 12.0-0 b6 13.Rfe1 Bb7 14.Rad1 Rc8 15.Bb3 Re8 16.Re3 Nf6 17.Qe1 Qc7 18.h3 h6 19.d5 exd5 20.e5 Nd7 21.Ba4 Bc6 22.Bc2 d4 23.Nxd4 Rxe5 24.Nf5 Rce8 25.Qc3 Nf6 26.Rg3 Nh5 27.Rg4 Kf8 28.Rc4 Rc8 29.Rd6 Re6 30.Rxe6 fxe6 31.Qa3+ 1-0
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Bd6!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Nexd6 2.g8=Q#; 1…Bxd6 2.Qd7#; 1…Rxd6 2.Qg1#; 1…Nbxd6 2.Be2#.
