FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R3: Firouzja On Fire, Sole Leader In Riga

GM Alireza Firouzja is the sole leader at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in Riga after beating GM Alexandr Predke on Friday, while co-leader GM Ivan Saric drew his game with GM Fabiano Caruana. Nine players are sharing the lead in the FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss.

There are 158 players playing in Riga but just one is on 3/3. Three straight wins have sent 18-year-old Firouzja to the pole position while he has netted 10.1 rating points along the way.

On Thursday the French GM had already moved up to world number-six in the live ratings, and he's now 1.3 Elo points behind GM Levon Aronian. If the latter had lost his rook endgame in this round (which was entirely possible), Firouzja would have moved up one more spot in the rankings.

With the white pieces, Firouzja scored his third point in an endgame grind vs. Predke, who put up an excellent fight throughout the game and only started playing inaccurately in the fifth hour of play. Because all other top players had already finished, it was immediately clear that Firouzja had grabbed the sole lead with this victory.

Aronian had a tough game at the office from the onset. GM Anton Demchenko, the reigning European Champion, played the solid Four Knights and even managed to outplay his star opponent in the middlegame where he won a pawn. However, the Russian player spoiled Demchenko's winning chances in the rook endgame:

For the second day in a row, Caruana failed to convert to a winning position as well. He played a very interesting game with Saric, who was initially OK out of the opening but got into trouble after castling queenside. It seems Caruana miscalculated Black's 31st move: 

The wildest game of the day was played between Norwegian GM Aryan Tari and Russia's GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who came in fourth in the FIDE World Cup this summer. The latter was in complete control but messed it up with one move. Afterward, he called his smile, which was visible on camera during play, a "sad smile."

However, Fedoseev clearly overestimated his position as he thought he had missed a clear win on move 29 where the engines think it's level: "I think it was as winning as it can be in chess, but I played a completely ridiculous move 29...Qh2, and after 30.Rg5 I immediately realized that a draw for me in this game will be a huge success for me. This move 29...Qh2 is maybe one of the biggest mistakes in my career in a technically winning position."

He was happy to escape with a draw as Tari missed a chance to deliver a smothered mate on the board: 

More success for Russia came at the hands of GM Daniil Dubov, who won a good game as Black. 

"I got surprised in the opening," he said. "I think I looked at it two, three years ago, and I felt like in general it's a bluff and with precise play, Black is probably slightly better. So I was kind of puzzled: I thought it's either that I will lose straight out of the opening or if I will survive, then I'm probably in great shape. I'm probably slightly better."

Afterward, Dubov was interviewed, and he made some interesting comments about engines and computers getting better and better:

"To me, it feels like three years ago. We had a completely different level of engines in general. The difference is probably comparable to, like, three years ago and fifteen years ago and three years ago and now. I think it's pretty much the same story; it's a completely different level. Some of the lines that were considered to be playable, considered to be good, are not playable at all anymore. It changed a lot. Also, all the books make zero sense, in general. I checked recently all the Kasparov books, My Great Predecessors. I became a chess player basically thanks to these books, but the stuff that he recommends in the openings are [outdated], mildly put."

One game that caught the eye of this author was GM Jules Moussard's win vs. GM Ivan Cheparinov, mostly because of the opening. The Two Knights, and actually hanging on to the extra pawn, is fully playable for White these days.

A similar theme also occurred in the following game, where the first player accepted the sacrifice of a full piece, defended on the kingside, and won on the queenside, which led to a pretty final position.

Now that we're at it, here's a lesson on How to Materialistic in Chess by IM Kostya Kavutskiy about when to accept sacrifices!

Study Now!

In round four, the top pairings are Yu-Firouzja, Sarin-Ponkratov, Najer-Saric, Aronian-Hovhannisyan, Swiercz-Caruana, MVL-Demchenko, Dubov-Donchenko, and Fedoseev-Gukesh.

Round 3 Standings (Top 21)

(Full standings here.)

No female player is on 3/3 as the three leaders all drew their games on Friday. Six players who had been on 1.5 points won their games and joined the group at the top.

One of them was GM Harika Dronavalli, who beat former women's world champion and now a politician in Bulgaria GM Antoaneta Stefanova. Harika declined a draw offer on move 30 despite being a pawn down.

"I felt I have chances if I go into the ending, so I gave it a try and it worked," she said.

GM Zhansaya Abdumalik started with a loss in the first round but has now recovered with two wins in a row. On Friday she sacrificed a piece without fully calculating everything, saying: "I wasn't sure if it was the correct move. I saw that I have many pawns for the piece, and also the king on e8 wasn't really good. She couldn't castle, and the pawn on d6 was really strong. It just felt really good for White."

Round 3 Women Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

In round four, the top pairings are Paehtz-Dzagnidze, Zhu Jiner-Dronavalli, Lei Tingjie-Gunina, Pogonina-Batsiashvili, Abdumalik-Javakhishvili, and Kosteniuk-Assaubayeva.

You can find all games of the tournament here for replay and download: FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss | FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss.

The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women's Grand Swiss take place October 27-November 7, 2021 in Riga, Latvia. The format is an 11-round Swiss. The time control for the open group is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting from move one. For the women, it's 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting on move one. The top two finishers in the open and the winner among the women will qualify for their respective 2022 candidates tournaments.

Earlier reports:

• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R2: Firouzja, Predke, Saric on 2/2
• Caruana, Firouzja Among Winners As FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Begins In Riga
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Proceeds With Exemption As Latvia Locks Down