Vachier-Lagrave Wins Photo Finish, Anand Second
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the Paris Rapid & Blitz, even after a horrendous 8/18 in blitz. The Frenchman called it 'a horror show', as he dropped 102 (!!) rating points. The Tiger of Madras, Viswanathan Anand, was in great form today, getting 6/9 to tie for first in blitz and get second overall. Vachier-Lagrave's minus score today led to a very close race at the end of the tournament that nearly led to a playoff. After a win against Hikaru Nakamura in Round 22, it seemed that all was over and the Frenchman would deliver on a 2 point lead with 5 rounds to go. However, Vachier-Lagrave lost to his closest competitor, Ian Nepomniachtchi, to close the gap to only one point.
After Vachier-Lagrave lost again, Nepomniachtchi had a golden opportunity to close the gap against Daniil Dubov. See if you can find it!
After both MVL and Nepo drew in Round 25, Vachier-Lagrave lost again in the penultimate round against today's top performer: Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
Vachier-Lagrave drew his rematch against his FIDE Grand Prix Riga finals opponent, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The Azerbaijani had winning chances, but blew it, allowing the Frenchman to secure a playoff for first. However, much to Vachier-Lagrave's relief, both Russians lost, giving him first place. First, Anand beat Nepo to take second.
And Grischuk also lost a super-sharp battle against American Fabiano Caruana, annotated by Chess.com's Dejan Bojkov.
And here are all games of Round 10-14 and 15-18.
Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedyarov, and Caruana will be joining Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, Yu Yangyi, Leinier Dominguez Perez, and Richard Rapport in St. Louis for the next stop in the Grand Chess Tour, starting on August 10.