Vachier-Lagrave Wins Division II, Andreikin Takes Division III

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won Division II of the Champions Chess Tour Chess.com Classic 2024, earning $15,000, 50 tour points, and automatic entry into Division I of the next event. Although GM Wesley So won on demand to reach the match reset, the Frenchman with three names played a vintage attacking game in the Grunfeld Defense to retrieve match victory.

GM Dmitry Andreikin won Division III without losing a single match in the weeklong event. GM Nils Grandelius won on demand in the final game to force armageddon tiebreaks, but Andreikin won with the white pieces to avoid the match reset. Andreikin pockets $7,500 and 30 tour points.

That leaves just the Grand Final in Division I, where GM Alireza Firouzja will face GM Magnus Carlsen in their second CCT Grand Final this year. That will be on Wednesday, May 15, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET / 18:30 CEST / 10 p.m. IST. 

• Division II Grand Final: Oh So Close, Vachier-Lagrave Shuts It Down
• Division III Grand Final: Andreikin Wins With 2 Miniatures

Division II Grand Final: Oh So Close, Vachier-Lagrave Shuts It Down

After losing the first game, So hunkered down and managed to win on demand in the final game to force a match reset. Because Vachier-Lagrave hadn't yet lost a match in the event, however, he had a second life.

Grand Final Match Score

Vachier-Lagrave and So are more or less evenly matched in rapid chess, with the French number-two enjoying one more win than his opponent in their lifetime encounters. More relevant, however, was the fact that Vachier-Lagrave had two lives—and that second chance saved him in this match.

Full credit goes to So for even reaching this stage of the tournament. While Vachier-Lagrave survived the Winners Bracket unscathed—that is, without a single match loss—So lost his very first match in Division II. Since then, he'd won his next six matches to complete his sprint to the Grand Final.

A tame-looking game one suddenly took a turn late in the endgame when a single move, 36.Kg2?, left White with a lost position. The passed d-pawn, which still had three more squares till promotion, could not be stopped. Vachier-Lagrave took an early lead.

But after two draws, So won on demand with the black pieces to force armageddon. Vachier-Lagrave must have mixed something up in the opening because he was already in trouble early on. He ultimately lost a pawn and, after missing 17.Qxc6! which would have essentially drawn by force, went down in flames.

Naroditsky called it "an incredibly sloppy game from start to finish" from the Frenchman with three names, and in the armageddon Vachier-Lagrave missed a two-move combination and lost the exchange. So reached the match reset.

The match reset was just a best of two, not four. After losing his last two games, Vachier-Lagrave pulled himself back together and got the job done.

Match Reset Score

"This was a bit unnecessary what I'd done in the first match," said Vachier-Lagrave about the near-slip, but in the very first game of the next he "felt very happy with his opening choice, actually, because I thought I get a complicated game which is what I want... I thought any complicated fight would be better for me."

I thought any complicated fight would be better for me.

—Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

GM Rafael Leitao explains Game of the Day below, which ultimately won the match.

So was unable to generate winning chances in the second game, which was a Sicilian Najdorf, and Vachier-Lagrave even went on to win that game as well.

So is compensated $10,000 for finishing second in Division II, as well as 40 tour points. He'll also receive a first-round bye for round one of Division I Placement in the next CCT event.

Vachier-Lagrave will be a dangerous player in Division I of the next event. As he showed last year in the AI Cup, even Carlsen isn't safe when he's on fire.

Speaking of Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave rated his countryman Firouzja's chances of winning on Wednesday "from 10-15 percent, but he should use all his chances and we will see how it goes." As a potential runner-up, Firouzja's already in Division I of the next event, but he needs to defeat Carlsen to qualify for the CCT in-person live Finals at the end of the year.

Division II Bracket

You can find the full standings for Division II here. 

Division III Grand Final: Andreikin Wins With 2 Miniatures

Andreikin already defeated Grandelius once in the Winners Final and he made it 2/2 match wins on Tuesday. His two victories, in game three and the armageddon, were both miniatures.

After a draw in an opposite-color bishop endgame in game one, Grandelius outplayed Andreikin in game two, but was unable to attain the full point. 28.Qf5? allowed the escape, while 28.Qg5! was the only winning move. After the exact same moves played in the game, White would have reached a winning endgame with an extra pawn and active king.

So after two draws, Andreikin broke the ice in game three with the first decisive game, and it only took 17 moves for Black to resign. It came down to an opening trap, where Grandelius grabbed a rook on h1; the queen found her hand stuck in the cookie jar and was trapped in the corner.

Like So, the Swedish number-one won on demand in the final game to reach armageddon. Andreikin must have been shocked to see that 20...Nxe4?? 21.Nc6! won a piece in all variations, for example with 21...Nxc3 22.Ne7! or 21...Nxc6 22.dxc6+ Kh8 23.Nxe4. 

After 20...Nxe4??, Black can resign! White is going to win a piece!https://t.co/bt49I4szdY#ChessChamps pic.twitter.com/oSQxKoYqf1

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 14, 2024

Unlike So, Grandelius wasn't able to force the match reset. The armageddon game took 25 moves this time, but it was no less impressive than the first vicory. It was another opening disaster for Grandelius and Andreikin never lost control once he gained the advantage.

Winning a division for his first time in the CCT, Andreikin earns a spot in Division I Placement in the next CCT event in addition to the monetary prize, while Grandelius receives $6,000 and 25 tour points for his efforts. Grandelius will have to qualify through the Play-in again in the next event.

Division III Bracket

You can find the full standings for Division III here. 

The 2024 Chess.com Classic is the second of the Champions Chess Tour's four events and determines one of the players who'll make it to the in-person CCT Finals. The event starts on May 8 at 12:30 p.m. ET/18:30 CEST/10 p.m. IST and features a $300,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • Day 6: Firouzja Sets Up Grand Final Vs. Carlsen After Eliminating Duda, Keymer
  • Day 5: Carlsen Beats Keymer, Wins 16th CCT Winners Final In Division I
  • Day 4: Carlsen Evokes Magnus Magic, Keymer Gets Revenge
  • Day 3: Carlsen, Keymer, Duda Win After Doubling Up Tournaments In Poland
  • Day 2: Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana, Wesley So Kicked Out Of Division I By Ivic, Sarana
  • Day 1: Caruana Wins In Final Round To Take Sole 1st In Chess.com Classic Play-in
  • Champions Chess Tour Returns With 2024 Chess.com Classic