The last round of the group stage of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix first leg produced high-voltage drama in Berlin with GM Hikaru Nakamura joining GM Levon Aronian for the semifinal lineup after winning Group A and Group C respectively. It was a day of wildly swinging fortunes as players struggled to keep their nerves resulting in error-filled but gripping games all around.
GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek and GM Wesley So missed valuable opportunities to win their games and sail to the semifinals, and will now face their group-members GM Richard Rapport and GM Leinier Dominguez respectively in the tiebreak matches in faster time controls scheduled for Friday, February 11. It was a difficult day at the office for GM Andrey Esipenko and GM Vladimir Fedoseev who enjoyed better positions of varying degrees before their nerves got the better of them.How to watch?
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There were moments in the sixth round when the tension was at its near-highest on all the crucial boards. By “crucial” we mean all the boards where qualification—or at least tying for qualification—to the knockout stage was at stake.
With his strong sense of positional basics, Wojtaszek had built up a huge advantage by this point, and it was only required of him to proceed with straightforward play and attack the opponent’s king in the center. What could be the way forward here?
After uneven play by Nakamura till this point, Esipenko had a near-winning position, and could have forced matters by spotting a hidden combinative element in the position. Is it possible to unearth the motive and the move here?
With his usual logical play, So built up a considerable advantage by this stage. But he was required to choose between many plausible plans and find the crucial way to press forward—while being aware of his own king’s safety too. Among 29.Bh3, 29.Rc7, or 29.Qc5, what should he choose here?
Almost throughout the entire middlegame, Fedoseev enjoyed dominating the c-file, but now Rapport might be threatening counterplay on the kingside. Should Fedoseev concentrate on the queenside with 43.a3 or should he consider a prophylactic 43.g3?
Patiently nursing an advantage through the middlegame, Dominguez faces a crossroads here as the black rook on e2 threatens to create counterplay. How should he respond?
As the games entered the fourth hour of play, GM Daniel Naroditsky remarked on the Chess.com official commentary: “It started off as a quiet day; now a lot of these games are getting spicy!”
In a nutshell, the above diagrams tell the story of the entire final round of the group stage of the 2022 Grand Prix first leg in Berlin. A careful reader would also recognize that whichever player had to make the decisions in the above positions enjoyed varying degrees of advantage in the game. Hence, it was ultimately a question of keeping their nerves under control.
Group A
Esipenko trailed Nakamura by half a point, needing to defeat the latter to top the group and advance to the semifinals. He had the white pieces too, which is generally an advantage in such scenarios.
Esipenko trailed Nakamura by half a point, needing to defeat the latter to top the group and advance to the semifinals. He had the white pieces too, which is generally an advantage in such scenarios.
Away from all the pressure of reaching the knockout stage, GM Alexander Grischuk produced an eventful attacking game against GM Etienne Bacrot. Grischuk looked better throughout the game though he let Bacrot slip out of his grip, but eventually created enough attack on the black king to win the game.
However, there was a point of blindness when Grischuk—and his opponent too!—missed a gem of a combination for Black, which would have led to a beautiful and surprising win for Bacrot. Thus, though the game was not without tactical inaccuracies, it was entertaining nevertheless.
Group B
This was the only group where three players had a theoretical chance to qualify to the knockout stage. With a win in their games, both Wojtaszek and Fedoseev could hope for a passage to the semifinals or a tiebreak. GM Richard Rapport could also hope for a tiebreak or even a direct place in the semifinal if things moved his way. In such a scenario, it is no wonder that both the games proved to be tense affairs:
Group C
Aronian-Dubov ended in a draw quickly—but not before a curious Grischuk contribution. After the players agreed to a draw after a threefold repetition, they went ahead and made a… fourfold repetition:
In the post-game interview, GM Daniil Dubov explained the incident, saying that Grischuk pointed out that in the first position, it was possible for Black to play 0-0-0, whereas it was not possible in the further instances of the same position. Hence, the players repeated the position another time! Dubov came up with the deadpan: “Sasha is the only man there who knows the rules!”
Group D
At the halfway mark of the games, it looked favorable for Wesley So as he looked to be cruising to a good win against Harikrishna:
This meant that Dominguez could catch up with So if he managed to win against Shirov, and he rose to the occasion splendidly:
Results:
