FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R9: 3-Way Tie As Caruana Beats Firouzja

Calling the game "super important" but also "a total mess," GM Fabiano Caruana defeated GM Alireza Firouzja to catch his opponent in first place in round nine of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. The two are now sharing the lead together with GM David Howell, who was the only other player on 5.5 points to win his game. GM Lei Tingjie won again and now needs a draw on Saturday to clinch the women's tournament with a round to spare.

It's crunch time for the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: the tournament has finally reached that very exciting phase where the results on the top boards are going to be crucial for the final outcome. Caruana's win against Firouzja could be one of those key games, but we'll only know after two more rounds.

The 2018 world championship challenger fittingly scored his big win while using the Mikhail Tal variation of the Advance Caro-Kann.

Perhaps inspired by the Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest, who had played the same move yesterday as early as move seven, Caruana pushed his b-pawn up the board early as the novelty in this game. The queens were soon traded and a rather complicated, queenless middlegame ensued.

"I don't know exactly when it got worse for him," said Caruana. "I felt the endgame was kind of pleasant for me because he has a lot of squares but he also has a lot of weak pawns. It was complicated, but my moves were always easier, at least."

Although Firouzja's position looked fairly solid, his clock didn't. When the French GM made his 20th move, he had a bit less than eight minutes left (with a 30-second increment) versus more than an hour for Caruana.

While the players were approaching the first time control, the position on the board became sharper and sharper. Firouzja initially found all the right moves (including the sacrifice of his g-pawn) despite the time pressure, until he erred on the 38th move.

Caruana, on his turn, then used up almost all his time to find the narrow winning path. After the time control was reached, the American GM continued to play accurately to bring the full point home.

Afterward, it became clear that he didn't always feel in control, calling the time-trouble phase"a total mess." He felt he was winning after move 40.

"The last two rounds went better than I could have hoped for," he said. "Especially this game was super important."

Annotations by GM Robert Hess:

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While the names of Caruana and Firouzja could have been expected at the top at this point of the tournament, the name Howell, the 34th seed in the tournament, is slightly surprising. Besides Caruana, there were nine other players on 5.5 points but the 30-year-old English grandmaster was the only one among them to win his game today.

Whereas he had played a lot of very long games up till now, Howell only needed about three and a half hours to beat the Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov. 

"I played the game a bit too slowly and that made the game finish quicker if that makes sense," he said. "I was down to less than 10 minutes after 20 moves. I could see he was looking at the clock, he was trying to rush me. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I spent a lot of time."

Howell felt that the lack of familiarity with the arising structure affected both players, but more his opponent, who ended up trapping his own rook on d3:

The game Shirov-Vitiugov ended in a draw after just 20 minutes, and the same result came on the scoreboard later as well for Oparin-Predke, Harikrishna-Sevian, and Anton versus Vachier-Lagrave. The latter game was the most interesting and especially the opening phase:

Behind the three leaders, there are now 10 players trailing by half a point. One of them is the Armenian grandmaster Gabriel Sargissian, who played a lovely combination today:

Veteran GM Boris Gelfand, a world championship challenger in 2012, was having a disappointing tournament with six draws and two losses. Today the Israeli player scored his first win, and what a win it was. In the opening, both players promoted to an extra queen, and after many adventures, White even got to promote to another one.

"I'm happy to play this game... The tournament doesn't go well for me but such a victory is a good consolation," said Gelfand. "There were a lot of beautiful lines. At a certain moment in the game, I was a rook and two pieces down and then I put a fifth queen. I hope it's a worthy homage to Mikhail Tal playing in his city."

Having the Dutch football club Ajax' second win against Dortmund in mind, Gelfand jokingly said his win was "in the style of Ajax" and he explained:

"I am a big fan, as probably everybody knows, of Johan Cruijff and his legacy, so I support Barcelona and Ajax and the Dutch national team. Ajax and Barcelona are more than football... a trademark. It's a certain approach. Maybe things don't go well, but one has to be loyal to his own style."

In round 10, the top pairings are Firouzja vs. Howell and Vachier-Lagrave vs. Caruana.

Round 9 Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

The story in the women's tournament has almost been told. Lei just keeps on storming through the field and added a seventh win to her score, besides just two draws. The Chinese GM is now two full points ahead of the rest.

This time Lei beat former world champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, who couldn't find a good way to deal with her opponent's Caro-Kann and was already slightly worse when the queens were traded. The endgame, with Black having such a strong knight and the open g-file, was just really unpleasant for White:

IM Elisabeth Paehtz suffered her first loss of the tournament, to GM Mariya Muzychuk, which was extra painful because a draw would have almost certainly secured Paehtz the GM title. She has two earlier GM norms and her rating has been over 2500. According to the chief arbiter, the German player will get there after all if she wins her game in round 10.

A highly interesting game was GM Nino Batsiashvili vs. WGM Deysi Cori, who had started with three losses and then scored five wins in a row. The Peruvian player finally drew her first game while surviving a lost position and promoting to a knight along the way:

Round 9 Women Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

In round 10, the top pairings are Lei-Muzychuk, Harika Dronavalli-Paehtz, and Javakhishvili-Zhu. Like Paehtz, the latter needs a win to score a GM norm.

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 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