Ding, Dubov Qualify For Lindores Abbey Semifinals
GMs Daniil Dubov and Ding Liren will face each other on Thursday in the semifinals of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge. Dubov beat GM Sergey Karjakin 3-0, Ding eventually drew GM Yu Yangyi as Black in the armageddon game to advance.
The games of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge can be found here as part of our live events platform. GM Robert Hess and WFM Alexandra Botez are providing daily commentary on Nakamura's Twitch channel, embedded on Chess.com/TV.
Once again, a day of two matches was a day of two tales. Among the two Russians, Karjakin kept struggling with his form and stood little chance against a determined Dubov. Ding and Yu fought an all-Chinese battle that could easily have had the opposite result.
Dubov struck first, with a marvelous attacking game in the Queen's Gambit Declined. Like a modern Akiba Rubinstein (who played some nice attacking games involving queenside castling in the same opening at the start of the 20th century), and with some Alexander Shabalov/Alexei Shirov flavor to it, Dubov seems to be finding all kinds of aggressive new ideas.
Also in game two, the opening phase quickly left the well-trodden paths, and the players needed to work hard from move six onwards. Karjakin joined the feast of creativity with a nice rook lift on move 13 and built up a winning position. Alas, with a tragic blunder he blew it all:
Unlike the other day, Dubov played well in the game where he only needed a draw and decided matters right then and there. (See the game viewer below.)
After a draw in game one, it was Yu who took the lead in the other match in a game where Ding couldn't deal with an uncomfortable middlegame. An overly optimistic king move to f3 was punished wonderfully by Yu:
A neat little tactic gave Ding the full point in game three. He had already won a pawn when Yu thought he was clever. Ding was even more clever!
And so, just like in their first match, an armageddon needed to make the difference. The last time Ding had lost on time in a won position but this time things went his way, despite blundering a pawn.
He ended up with rook and knight vs queen, but with only pawns on the queenside, he soon reached a fortress even GM Magnus Carlsen would believe in.
All games of day 8
The Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge runs May 19-June 3 on Chess24 in association with the Lindores Abbey Heritage Society. The prize fund is $150,000 with a first prize of $45,000. The time control is 15 minutes for all moves with a 10-second increment after each move. No draw offers are allowed before move 40.
Related posts:
- Nakamura Reaches Lindores Abbey Semifinals
- Lindores Abbey Knockout: Carlsen, Dubov Start With Wins
- Lindores Abbey: Duda, Firouzja, Grischuk, Wei Eliminated
- Lindores Abbey: Carlsen Loses Two, Firouzja In Trouble
- 4-Way Tie As Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge Takes Off
- World Champion Launches $1 Million Magnus Carlsen Tour
