Wei Yi talks about his game against Vidit
Found this livestream replay on the Chinese internet hosted by a popular chess content creator, with Wei Yi being the guest, talking about his game against Vidit during TATA steel. I want to share this with fellow fans like me.
Host: Before we talk about the game, can you first share with us how did you get the invitation to the tournament, how were you feeling and what was your expectation?
Wei Yi: The process of getting the invitation was actually quite a story. It was during the World Championship last year, which didn’t involved me, of course, but the organizers of Wijk aan Zee were also there. When our director Tian Hongwei (Translator’s note: Tian Hongwei, Director of Chess Department of the China State Sports Administration) met these organizers, she asked them if it was possible for me to participate in the tournament. Then maybe the organizers took some considerations, and thought that my rating was not too low, so they sent me an invitation by email.
Of course I felt happy ——although I had participated in Wijk aan Zee before, five times actually, four of which were in the Master’s section, but then I was forgotten for six years (chuckles), so I was quite happy that they thought of me again.
I was hoping I could play well so I could regain the attention of both domestic and international chess fans and event organizers. But I hadn’t participated in an event at this high a level for a long time, so I didn’t have that much confidence in myself. At first I was thinking my goal was mainly to gain experience. But after all, I left the scene for so long and this was my first reappearance, so I was hoping I don't perform too badly.
Host: After the first half of the tournament we all thought there was no more chance for a Chinese player to win, but you prevailed in the rest of the games and won the 4 way tiebreakers. Not many people expected it.
And today GM Wei Yi brings to us his analysis of his game against Vidit. We are very curious about the first person perspective of a match inside a 2700+ rated player’s mind.
Wei Yi: Ok. Now let me share with everyone my last classical game of the tournament, the game against Vidit.
(see the whole game here)
In this game, right from the opening, I made quite an effort. My first move was d4. In this tournament I played white in 6 games, the first 5 of them I played e4. But if I wanted to fight for the championship, I had to find a way to win this game, because if we draw then there would be no chance to win the tournament ——the other players tied for the first place were all in great form, and their opponents in the final round were not particularly strong. For example, Abdusattorov, who had the same score as me, was playing Donchenko in the final round, so I thought he had good chances to win the game. If I wanted to fight for the championship, I also had to win my game.
That was why I didn’t choose e4. Firstly, my opponent is indeed very hardworking, very devoted to his training, so he must have had a very deep understanding of the openings. And he would basically assume that I would play e4, since I played e4 in all of my previous games of the tournament. So I wanted to avoid going into his preparations. Also I was not sure if I played e4, whether he would play the Berlin, which was what he usually played; or the Russian, which he played once in this tournament. I was not sure about that, so instead of going into my opponent’s preparations with all this uncertainty, I would rather avoid them. That’s why in the first move I played d4.
Host: I have a question. Before this game you had a great track record against Vidit ——last year in Dubai, and in this Asian Games. Did that boost your confidence and make you think you had good chances winning this game?
Wei Yi: My win rate against him last year was indeed quite good, and in the Asian Games I did win an important game against him. But win rate like this does not mean much to me. Although I won the previous few games, I still thought my opponent was very strong, especially since he performed really well in last year’s World Cup and the Grand Swiss, so I didn’t look down on him or anything, at all. However, I noticed, since I did have a good win rate against him last year, it had some effects on his mentality. After only a few moves into the openings, he seemed to start to worry and spent a long time thinking. I feel there was this effect, but of course this is only my feeling.
Host: Did he look surprised when you played d4?
Wei Yi: (laughs) First of all I don’t really pay attention to my opponents’ facial expressions. Also, he also played very fast when making the first move, perhaps he also anticipated it. Because in this tournament in his game against Giri he chose the Slav, so I guessed that he would probably play d5 as his first move.
Host: And then you chose the Colle system.
Wei Yi: After d5 I didn’t chose to play the mainline, such as c4 and then he probably play c6, making it into a Slav.
Here I also didn’t play the mainline, giving him a choice. Here I played Nf3, and similarly he really quickly played Nf6.
But then I think this next move (e3) surprised him.
Host: Why did you play e3?
Wei Yi: Because otherwise, whether we exchange pawns on c4,
or I play the London system, I think for him it would be very familiar. Although compared to c4 there are less people who play Bf4,
but when he played white he had also played the London system, and as black, he also must have studied the London which is very mainstream recently, so he must have had a comprehensive set of responses to the London. So I thought even if I played Bf4 he would not be surprised. But e3 was a surprise to him because after this move he started to think and thought for a long time.
After e3 he played c5. In the past there were also a few people who played this e3 with him, this is called the Colle system, in those games he mainly responded with c5, so I guessed he would play c5.
Here I played c3. After e3 he only spent 4 to 5 minutes thinking, but after c3 he thought again for 15 minutes. So maybe what really surprised him was c3, not e3.
Host: The audience is curious how grandmasters chose the move order. For ordinary players, after black plays c5, they maybe will play Bd3, then c3, and Nbd2. It doesn’t look too different from c3, Bd3, Nbd2. How did you decide on the move order?
Wei Yi: You mean Bd3 after c5? It looks like an okay move. But after c3, I don’t need to play Bd3 first, I could play Nbd2, and as for the bishop, it's not 100% that it would go to d3, although after c3 the position is a reversed Meran system (Translator’s note: It’s the Semi-slav Meran variation), and in the Meran system black indeed should play Nbd7 and Bd6. But in some cases black would play Nbd6 and Be7. It is the same logic that after Nbd2 maybe I would play Be2. Or in some extreme case bishop would even go to b5.
But if I played Bd3 first, although it would still be easy to go c3 in the future, but my knight could only go to d2, it couldn't go to a3. In this scenario, to save more choices for the future, I played c3.
Also c3 had a threat. I was threatening to take the c5 pawn. Before c3, it was bad to take c5, well, maybe not ‘bad’ because in some variations they do play this, but black could take back very easily by playing e6 (and Bxc5). If I wanted to defend (by playing b4), black would play a5, and if I wanted to defend again (by playing c3), and after takes takes (axb4, cxb4), black plays b6, then they win the pawn back.
In this Women’s Chess Championship, this was the position chosen by both sides in the last match.
But after c3 I was threatening to take the pawn. If black ignored it, say if they played Nc6, then I won’t hesitate to take the pawn, then (after b4) they can’t take the pawn back.
After c3 black has to do something to not lose its c5 pawn, either exchanging it (by playing cxd4),
or defending it (by playing e6).
On the other hand Bd3 has no threat. Black can still play, let’s say, Nc6, then it is bad to take the pawn because black can play e5 or e6, very easily taking a pawn back.
Host: We can learn so much from just this one move!
Wei Yi: I think chess in its essence is a game full of changes. If we play Bd3 here, then in the future we no longer have many changes to choose from, you make your own path narrower.
Host: Let’s continue.
Wei Yi: After c3 he was trying to come up with a way to protect his c5 pawn, and he made the natural move of pushing e6. After this move, the position looks even more like a reversed Meran system.
After e6 I was mostly certain that my next two moves were gonna be Bd3 and Nbd2. The reason I chose to play Bd3 first was because it gave me the option to castle short next move, although I was almost certain I was gonna play Nbd2 next.
Whether his next move is Nbd7 or Nc6, I would still play Nbd2, because it makes e4 possible at some point in the future. Say if he plays Nbc6, I could take the pawn on c5, and then play e4, to strike at the center.
Here black chose Nbd7. Maybe he thought if he play Nc6, in the future the knight on c6 may be taken advantage of. For example, after white plays Nbd2, black probably need to take the dark square bishop out (to d6) in order to castle. Then I have a trick (after dxc5, Bxc5), b4 and then b5. This is also a trick very commonly played by black in the Meran system.
So after thinking for a while he played Nbd7. But Nbd7 also has a problem, which is that it made it hard to take the light square bishop out. Of course he could play b6 then Bb7, but the bishop at b6 wouldn't be very useful.
Then I played Nbd2 without hesitation. And black also played Bd6 to develop. Then after both sides castled short, the position become key.
Because here black is ready to push e5. If I make a random move, say h3, black pushes e5, then I probably have to exchange the pawn, and after we exchange the knights, black becomes active from a passive position. We can see black has more space now. And as I said just know, it might have been difficult to take his light square bishop out, but now it is very easy to take it out. If we got to such a position, and black had such a pawn structure, then my opening has failed.
So we have to come up with something before he plays e5. But if we play e4 straight away now, it would lead to an isolated pawn. Because black here can first play cxd4, and then I can only play cxd4,
you see, because there is no way I could take back with the knight (Nxd4) since black would have many ways to win a pawn—— first, he can play dxe4, and after we exchange knights, black can take on h2.
Otherwise, Nc5 is also an easy way to win a pawn, even if (white plays Qc2 and) he doesn’t win a pawn, but if he takes my light square bishop, it would also be advantage black.
So since I can’t play Nxd4, I can only play cxd4. Then after a series of exchanges, I would be left with an isolated pawn in the center. Now black only need to defend against white’s Bg5, by playing h6, then he can play Kf6, then pushing the b6 and go Bb7, then this game would be advantage black.
So this is a key move. In the game, after some thinking, I chose to play Re1. The goal of this move is quite obvious. The only way for white to gain any advantage was to push e4. Let’s say black push b6 next move, then after e4 black cannot play cxd4 anymore, because e5 would be a pin. So black doesn’t have the chance to play cxd4 first.
If black plays dxe4 first, I take back with the knight, and if black takes back with their knight in e4, I can take with the Bxe4. But whether I play Bxe4 or Rxe4, in the future when black plays cxd4 again, I don’t need to play cxd4 anymore, I can take with either the knight or the queen. Either way, white would have some advantage.
Host: Can black still play e5?
Wei Yi: After Re1, the possibility of black playing e5 still exist, but then I can play e4 now. Now the position seems to be symmetrical, but here black still needs to be careful. After cxd4, cxd4, this game transforms into a variation of the Meran system, if black plays well it can still a balanced game, but black needs to know a lot of the tactics here. Perhaps Vidit was not very familiar with this variation, so here he didn’t play e5.
In the Meran system, here is how we get to this variation. D4, d5, c4, c6, Nf3, Nf6, e3, and back has the choice of e6, then white can play Bd3, Nbd7, Nbd2, Bd6, there is this line. Here after e4, black also play e5, and after cxd4, cxd4, here white can play Re1, then we have the position I just talked about. But here Vidit didn’t play e5.
Host: How did you know he won’t play e5?
Wei Yi: It was not like that. At the move 5.Nbd7 I was surprised, I didn’t expect him to play that move, I thought he was gonna play Nc6. To me, Nbd7 was also quite unfamiliar. During the game, I also spent about 20 minutes to calculate and only then decided to play Re1.
And he quickly played Qc7. But I think that move was actually problematic. He saw that I wanted to play e4 then e5, and thought that after Qc7 I could no longer play e5. That’s true, but the queen being on c7 quickly shows a big problem, which is cxd4, and which happened in the game, then dxe4, Nxe4. Here if black plays Nxe4, then of course I wouldn’t take back with the bishop, I would take with the rook, because the rook would be looking at h4, attacking the black king.
That’s why in the game he didn’t take back with the knight, but instead tried to develop his other bishop, and played b6.
Host: At this point did you feel you were more comfortable?
Wei Yi: Actually after I played Nxe4, I felt something was weird about this game, somehow I felt I had some advantage, and after this position I suddenly had an idea for an attack. You know, because in this game I had to come up with an idea to attack his king, otherwise my isolated pawn in the center could be a weakness.
Host: Someone in chat asked how do you tell when is an isolated pawn good or not?
Wei Yi: I think there is no formula to decide this. You have to make different decision based on different scenario. For example, how fast you can take you pieces out, or if there is an attack on your opponent’s king, these are all things we need to determine during the game. If we have an isolated pawn in the center, and we don’t take our pieces out faster than the opponent, and we have no attack on their king, then overtime the pawn becomes a weakness and a target of their attack.
But it’s not always bad. In this position, d4 is even quite a good square for the pawn, because I could play Ne5 anytime in the future——say if I play Nxf6+, Nxf6; or Nxd6, Qxh6, then after Ne5, the pawn on d4 acts in concert with the rook on e1. Also with the pawn being on d4, black could no longer play counter-attacks such as Nc5. So in this case the pawn being on e4 is very good.
Host: Let’s continue.
Wei Yi: So he played b6 here. Maybe he underestimated the danger that was about to come. Then I played bishop g5. i didn’t spend too much time on these few moves, because these tactics are very natural to me. Here he spent some time thinking, and played knight takes e4.
Here, first of all, he couldn’t play Bb7, because if I played Rc1 his queen could only move to b8, which is a terrible square for the queen. Then I would have a gambit, which is Bxh7+, and then Ne5, preparing for Qh5+ and Re3 then Rg3 to checkmate black, black doesn’t have a good defense against it. Say if black take the knight with the f pawn, I can go Qh5 and after the black king moves Qg5, then I move the rook to e3, and it would be an easy checkmate.
So Bb7 doesn't work. And Nxe4, which happened in the game, was also not the best option. The safest option would be to retreat the bishop back to e7.
But in this game he felt retreating the bishop would be too much of a loss of tempo, especially in the next moves when I play Rc1, he would also need to retreat the queen. But he would have at least saved his king. Now my other rook is at e1, which is a nice square, but it hasn't really joined in the attack yet. Once it joins the attack, it's going to be a powerful piece. So when he played Nxe4, he really underestimated the danger.
Host: Is it possible that he didn't want to play retreating moves, that it was more of a psychological thing?
Wei Yi: Maybe. Maybe he thought we were still in the opening stage and retreating would be too much of a loss of momentum.
Of course here I took back with the rook, and black took the bishop out to b7, and I used the other rook to push the black queen to b8, and continued my plan of playing Rh4. Here, he could only play f5,
because if h6, it is easy for white, Bxh6, and after black takes back, you can either just plat Qd2, preparing for Qxd6 attacking the king, or you can play Rg4+ giving a check and then play Qd2, it would also be checkmate soon.
Similarly, here g6 is also not good. Here during the game I found a nice attack which was Bb5. The black knight would have nowhere to go, and it would be hard to defend. You can't play Re8, and Qe8 doesn't work either because i can go Qa4. So here I would have a big advantage.
Therefore he also didn't play g6, but instead played f5. This is a nice move, but although he saved his king, this moves created another weakness, which is the e6 pawn. Here of course I would not give him the chance to go Bd5 to defend that pawn, so I played Bc4.
I remembered after I made this move, he was about to touch the bishop on b7, maybe I remembered it wrong. Probably he was going to play Bd5, but this would be walking straight into my trap. After exchanging bishops, I would try to attack the pawn on d5. But I couldn't play Qb3 right away, because black queen could easily go to b7 to defend the pawn. So it was important to play Rc6 first. This move not only cut off the b7 and d5 square, preparing for Qb3, but also, black didn't not have the time to go Qb7 to take my rook, because of his d6 bishop. Then Qb3 was unstoppable. You could save the pawn temporarily by playing Nf6, but I could still go Qb3 to target it, so black would still be losing.
Host: It's all in the details! Rc6 is such a great move.
Wei Yi: It was only because I saw Rc6 that I played Bc4.
Ok. After Bc4, black saw that Bd5 would not work, so black played Qe8, not only defending the knight and the pawn, but also making a counter attack possible, which is Qg6.
Similarly, for me here, Qb3 was a forced move. Because here, any other attack on the e6 pawn would not work, (for example, if Qe2) black could simply play Bd5, here if takes takes, and Qb5, black has Nf6, then I could no longer take the d5 pawn, and my advantage would drop by quite a lot.
So here I played Qb3. After Qb3, black could no longer save its e6 pawn, but he could play some trick to make me unable to take it for the time being. I thought he would play Bxf3. Actually in this position, Bxf3 is the only move. After Bxf3, if I take the pawn with Bxe6+, I couldn't take the bishop on f3 (with the queen), because my e6 bishop would be undefended.
Here, of course he also noticed the traps and tactics, but he made the wrong move orders.
Host: What a game! How were you feeling after you won this game? Did you feel although there were tiebreakers but the championship was also yours? After all you won so brilliantly!
Wei Yi: errr… there was not enough time to feel too happy, because I knew basically we were gonna go into a tiebreaker. But after I won this game, it was more like I took a long deep breath and felt relieved. Because for me, the classical games were more important, even if I lost the tiebreakers, I would still feel I had completed my mission in this tournament.
Host: We also watched your tiebreaker games live. In your game against Abdusattorov, Ding Liren also joined our stream to commentate on the game. What was your expectation of yourself in those tiebreaker games? And what are your opinions on the rising stars like Abdusattorov?
Wei Yi: First of all, just like I said in the post game interviews, I didn’t have so much confidence in myself during the tiebreakers. Second of all, my mentality was more relaxed. Anything is possible in 3+2 blitz, you just could not be like ‘I’m definitely gonna win!’, right? And just like that, I thought these players, such as Abdusattorov and Gukesh, they were tough to deal with in classical time control, because first of all they are very hard working and spent a lot of time on their training, second of all their play is very powerful. But in blitz, the probability of them making mistakes increases, especially for Gukesh, in this tournament I lost my game against him in classical time control, but in blitz I had chances to revenge, right? As long as I could take advantage of the mistakes my opponents made, there would be chances for a revenge. Therefore, although in all of the 4 tiebreaker games, there were times I was in dangerous positions, but just because it was blitz, my opponents didn’t take their winning chances.
Host: When I was watching your tiebreaker games, I noticed that whether you were being threatened or threatening your opponents, you didn't show any facial expression. How did you managed to maintain composure and stay so calm?
Wei Yi: When I'm winning I would try to hide my smile (chuckles), to not let my opponent see my smile. When I'm in losing positions, of course I would feel very bad, but I won't let it show on the outside. Before the blitz tiebreakers, I told myself to not put too much pressure on myself, but during the games, of course my feeling still went through some ups and downs. It was just that the ups and downs were not very big, and didn't show on my face. It was only after the last game I took a long deep breath. That long deep breath I took, you could probably see on my face. Other than that, indeed I probably didn't show any facial expression.
Host: Was you win against Nepo unexpected? Did you feel he didn't show his usual level of play, or it was because you restricted his play?
Wei Yi: First of all, I am sure he didn't show his best performance in that game. On the other hand, that is just his style. Although when he is in great form, his play is very accurate, such as in the last World Chess Championship, in the second match, he played very accurately later in the game when he was attacking. Very fast and very accurate. But in some cases, it is also because he plays very fast, that we all know, he has great instinct for chess and he plays very fast, and he wants his opponent to go into time anxiety as soon as possible. But it was just because he plays fast, he is more likely to make mistakes. In some games, probably by his calculation he could find the best moves, and get himself out of danger, but he wants to play fast, so he is more likely to make mistakes. Especially this game with me, he had some miscalculations in the middlegame, and that lead to him going into a passive position too early in the game, which made his mentality more unsettled, which made him want to calculate even less, made him want to play even faster, and then he would make more bad moves.
Host: That's fair. I have another question for you. After this win, you have the most FIDE circuit points, which mean you have a chance to play in the next Candidates. What do you think your chances are to play in the Candidates next year? And what events will you play this year?
Wei Yi: These things need to happen one step at a time, especially chess. Although I won first place this time, it was quite a surprise to me. Before the tournament, I just wanted to get more experience with these great players, I'm not trying to be humble, that was really how I feel. So even though I won the tournament, I don't feel like I'm stronger than them. On the contrary, I feel there is a lot I need to learn from them. So I think going into the Candidates is not something easy. In the games in the future, I would still play normal. I wouldn't think 'I have to win first place! circuit points! Candidates!', whatever will be will be. Of course, if there is opportunity, you must fight for it; but if there isn't opportunity, you must keep a calm state of mind.
Host: Chat is curious about the life of professional chess players. We heard you guys spend 8 hours a day preparing, is that true?
Wei Yi: When we were training, we could reach 8 hours a day. But during an event, there is no way anyone can prepare for 8 hours. At least I'm not like that. Because playing the matches is already very draining, if you prepare that much before the match, then you have no energy left to play. Even in the most top level event like the World Championship, they don't prepare that much during the event, they would start to prepare a few months prior to the event, so they don't need to prepare that much during the event. It's the same for other event. Preparations before the games are important, but too much can hurt you. So before the game taking rest is the main thing, especially during the second half of an event. For example this tournament, there was 13 rounds, after 8 rounds no one had too much energy left to make preparations, and maybe would just choose to take some rest.
Host: If you had to give advice to the young players, if they want to compete, which stage of the game should they spend the most time focusing on, openings, middlegame, or endgame?
Wei Yi: It is not easy to improve in middlegame and endgame, relatively speaking. For middlegame, you probably need to find out about your weakness by playing games, and get experience, make improvements by playing actual games.
Host: So this is the end of today's stream...
