Meet the CGC Champion!
Hey everyone and Ryan's awesome blogs are back again with another amazing yet brilliant news! The Chess.com Global Championship has finally ended with Wesley So in the first place! If you don't know about CGC or you want more information about it, click ME! Anyway, here are the standings.
Wesley So has demonstrated an outstanding score. You can see he is in the first place, with Nihal in second, and he gets to have $200K! The win of the tournament is a HUGE celebration with chess.com celebrating (again) on Twitch.
Amazingly, Wesley has climbed up slowly and slowly to become yet another one of the world's best chess players. He, in the tournament, has beaten many, many strong players such as Hikaru, Nihal (in the final), and Dimitri. They are all very strong GMs with a 2700+ rating. Now let's take a look at their games against each other.
A Bad Caro Kann?
So this game is in round 1 in the finals of the Chess.com Global Championship. It is Wesley So VS Dimitri, or @FairChess_on_Youtube (Strong GM. Rated 2729 at that time). Let's take a look at the game.
KEY MOMENTS:
On move 16, black should have taken the bishop with the queen, instead of the pawn.16. gxf3? harms the safety of the king and the pawn structure. This gives Dimitri a much worse position.
On move 19, 19. Qb3?? is a blunder because of 19. Rc8. The best move is Bxc6+ to trade materials and gain a better position so that black doesn't fall behind.
On move 20, 20. Bxh2+!! is brilliant because like I said, it busts open the king.
On move 30, 30. Nxb4!! is a awesome move! Once the knight take the pawn, the queen is going to go Qf5+ to fork the king and the bishop. In the end of all trades, black is going to be up a pawn.
An Un-Successful Sacrifice?
So this is the game where Wesley So goes against Hikaru Nakamura, AKA @Hikaru on chess.com. The funny thing is that they have played against each other 8 times! Yet 6 games of it are drawn. And Wesley won the last 2 games. Let's take a look at one of them.
KEY MOMENTS:
On move 24, 24. h5? isn't that good. 24. g6 would have been better because then it kicks out the knight.
On move 42, 42. Be6? is a mistake because the rook can take the open file by going Re8!
On move 44, 44. b3?? is a huge blunder because black can easily get a better position with Rh8, taking an open file.
On move 47, 47. Na5?? is a losing move because of Qf3 and then Qh1+. This forced a queen trade. And once all the trade is done, Wesley is winning by material.
Chess Speaks For Itself
This game is perhaps one of the greatest games in the tournament. It is the final game between the 2 contendents. Chess speaks for itself!
KEY MOMENTS:
On move 18, a better move for black would have been 18. Bc6 instead of 18. Nxe3?! because Bc6 creates pressure on the knight, since it is pinned to the queen.
On move 31, 31. h6? is a mistake because it gives away a free bishop with 32. gxf4.
So overall, this game isn't that exciting. However, it is a very high quality game between the mind battle of 2 legendary chess players.
Conclusion
It is no wonder Wesley So is one of the greatest players of all time. But now now now, being the FIRST one to win the Chess.com Global Championship... Now that is impressive. No doubt he will gain many more fans 😉😉😉
So yeah that is it for this blog. I hope you enjoyed it! See ya!
