FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R10: Firouzja Sole Leader Again, Lei Secures Victory

With one round to go, GM Alireza Firouzja is back as the sole leader at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. Despite missing a brilliant defensive move from the Englishman in time trouble, the French-Iranian GM beat GM David Howell. GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Grigoriy Oparin are trailing the leader by half a point.

GM Lei Tingjie won the women's tournament with a round to spare by drawing her game on Saturday. The Chinese GM has qualified for the 2022 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament.

First things first: the situation for the final round. Firouzja will defend his half-point lead with the black pieces against Oparin, while Caruana has the white pieces vs. GM Alexandr Predke. The other top pairings are Yu-Vachier-Lagrave, Deac-Esipenko, Sargissian-Shirov, Anton-Sevian, and Howell-Keymer.

Here are the tiebreak criteria for the standings:

1. Buchholz Cut 1, which is the Buchholz score reduced by the lowest score of the opponents;
2. Buchholz, which is the sum of the scores of each of the opponents of a player;
3. Sonneborn-Berger, which is the added scores of every opponent the player beat and half of the score of every opponent the player drew;
4. Direct encounter between the players in the tie;
5. Drawing of lots.

Saturday's top game between Firouzja and Howell had a slightly unusual start for the Englishman, who was up on the clock for a short while. It was a luxury he doesn't often have, and one that didn't last long.

"I was just choosing whether to go very sharp or just the way I played, very solid and wait for my chances," said Firouzja about that early phase in the game. He pointed out that Howell had played a very safe and topical line in the Italian that he had seen many times in the past year: "He chose a very solid opening. Obviously, it was played a lot in this Champions Tour, and he was commentating all the games!"

But as the game progressed, Howell couldn't avoid getting low on time again, and that led to some unavoidable inaccuracies. However, just when Firouzja seemed close to delivering the knockout blow, he missed a beautiful defensive move by his opponent.

Here, with four seconds left on the clock, Howell found 31...Qc6!!

"Of course, I just missed this 31...Qc6, and it was a shock to me because normally it's very awkward. It's very weird, this setup of mating on the back [rank] when you have a pawn on h3, but the bishop was on g3," explained Firouzja.

At first, he was visually annoyed but then relieved: "I was lucky I had this 32.Bc2, and I was keeping the game going. At least, I was not suddenly losing."

Howell could have saved the game there. However, playing on increment basically until move 40, he lacked the time to calculate all the details, and his next move was a mistake again. After that, he got into a tough endgame a pawn down that he couldn't hold.

Asked about his chances to reach the Candidates, Firouzja said: "I think my chances got very low after yesterday's loss, but I'm happy I managed to get the win today against David because he played very good until here. He had four wins in a row, so he was in a very good mood, so this win was important. In general, I think I will have good chances tomorrow, and we will see."

Caruana, who had been the only other player on 6.5 points, held the draw against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave without too much trouble. Black's subtle 11...Rb8 was an old move of GM Efim Geller that modern engines still appreciate and one that MVL had also faced in a game six years ago. In what followed, White's advantage was always minimal, although Caruana needed to be a bit careful in the rook endgame.

There were four games with players on six points, but just one ended decisively. It was the 24-year-old Russian GM Oparin who beat his compatriot GM Nikita Vitiugov, who became Russian Champion last month and hadn't lost in 33 classical games.

Oparin's 11...Kd7 was a lovely move and a good novelty.

Black has just played 11...Kd7!?N

It's basically a typical idea (bringing the king to the queenside) executed nicely, as the player himself explained after the game. He felt that for both Bc8 and Qd8 it wasn't clear yet which squares they belonged to; therefore, he preferred to start with the king instead of preparing queenside castling.

Oparin, who studies in Missouri, provided a further explanation in excellent English: "It was a crazy game. Nikita went for a very strategically risky opening with White, and then he had to destabilize the position. He went for this 16.Nd4 piece sacrifice, which I did not accept. I think it was the right decision. I just wanted to keep my structure solid and not give him any counterplay. I felt I had the advantage from that point on, to be honest. It wasn't easy, but my pawn structure is so much superior [to] his that I felt that in the end, I should just grab those pawns."

In this lesson, GM Jon Ludvig Hammer shows you more examples of when an early king advance makes sense!

Study Now!

GM Alexei Shirov once again saved a difficult position vs. GM Yu Yangyi, which was good news for Caruana. According to our calculations, the American GM with the black pieces would have faced the Chinese player, a tougher pairing than his white game vs. Predke on Sunday. (Now it's MVL facing Yu in round 11.)

Shirov's opening setup, with a double fianchetto against the Sicilian, was interesting. Don't miss the opportunity for White on move 40:

One of the players doing well in the final phase of this tournament is 16-year-old GM Vincent Keymer of Germany. He had won two games in a row, and 2020 Candidate GM Kirill Alekseenko was his victim on Saturday. The two had also played in Biel earlier this year when the game ended in a draw in what was also a Ragozin opening.

"Back then it was a surprise to me, and for this game, I prepared this line," Keymer said. "I think he surprised me with his move 8...h6, but it's always this kind of position that Black needs to find a way to get his counterplay pretty fast. I think in the game he mixed up the move order or forgot about an engine line, and then it was really an uncomfortable position."

We haven't written for a while about GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, the only female player in the open section. After six draws and three losses, she scored her first win in this round. It was a nice one:

Round 10 Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

The women's tournament has been decided one round before the end. GM Lei had no trouble drawing her game with Muzychuk (and even tried for more), which was enough to be untouchable on Sunday.

"I tried to play for a draw but my opponent, I think she forgot some lines because 14...Rxc6 instead of 14...bxc6 and 15.Qxb7 Qc8, and this must be drawish," said Lei. "But she played 14...bxc6 and I thought: OK, this position, I can't lose it so I want to play, and I just want to enjoy playing chess. So right now, I'm a little confused about it because I don't know if the endgame is good for me or just no chance."

Lei added: "I think this tournament is a good opportunity to [get some exercise], and I think this time I learned a lot in Riga, and I also got some confidence from this tournament, so I'm quite happy about it."

Apart from the $20,000 first prize, Lei has now also qualified for the 2022 Women's Candidates where she will play for a chance to face GM Ju Wenjun in a match. The other candidates are Goryachkina (as the runner-up of the last match); GMs Kateryna Lagno and Humpy Koneru (who both qualified from the FIDE Women's Grand Prix); GMs Alexandra Kosteniuk, Tan Zhongyi, and Anna Muzychuk (who qualified via the FIDE World Cup); and most probably GM Mariya Muzychuk (as the qualifier on rating).

At this point, three women have scored a GM norm in the tournament so far. IM Lela Javakhishvili did so after nine rounds, and her opponent on Saturday, WGM Zhu Jiner, got one. Black's 20th and 21st moves were great resources. In the end, White was already in trouble when she blundered:

A GM norm was also scored by IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who beat IM Polina Shuvalova convincingly:

Round 10 Women Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

In round 11, the top pairings are Zhu-Lei, Muzychuk-Dronavalli, Paehtz-Assaubayeva, and Badelka-Cori.

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 (Lei Tingjie) qualify for their respective 2022 Candidates tournaments.

Earlier reports:

• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R9: 3-Way Tie As Caruana Beats Firouzja
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R8: Firouzja Increases Lead, Now World #4
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R7: Firouzja Back In Sole Lead
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R6: MVL, Sasikiran Join Leaders
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R5: Najer, Shirov Catch Firouzja
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R4: Firouzja Maintains Lead; Lei Sole Leader
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R3: Firouzja On Fire, Sole Leader In Riga
• 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