Riga Grand Prix: Mamedyarov Lone Winner On Day 1 Semifinals
The semifinal matches commenced on day seven of the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga, Latvia. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has one foot in the final as he beat Wesley So in a wild Catalan while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Alexander Grischuk started with a draw.
So has to win on demand as White while Grischuk will try to push Vachier-Lagrave in Friday's second classical game. After a grueling first three rounds, the players will have a rest day (or two) after these semifinal matches.
Mamedyarov used his white game smartly. True to his style, he went all out right from the start in a game where both sides had the pawn structure vandalized on the queenside.
The Azerbaijani GM chose the Catalan against So's Queen's Gambit Declined setup. He then uncorked the important novelty 14.a3, which stops the queen trade.
So didn't react in the best possible way and blundered almost immediately with 15...c3. Mamedyarov picked up two minor pieces for a rook and a pawn, and then showed sublime technique to bring home the point.
Mamedyarov was kind enough to visit the studio and give detailed insights to the game.
Twelve of their colleagues left Riga before the semifinalists. Therefore, the players have more space and even better playing conditions than earlier. This also means better photo opportunities for the official photographer Niki Riga, who clicked this interesting picture:
Earlier in the day, the semifinals were kicked off by the boxer Mairis Briedis, who is the World Diamond Champion and current WBO cruiserweight world champion. He was also awarded the Order of the Three stars in 2017.
Briedis was advised by Vachier-Lagrave to play the ceremonial move 1.e4.
This game started off with a Berlin. In a typical setup, Vachier-Lagrave, who loves playing the Berlin endgame, tried to get his pieces active. He chose a different idea with 12.Re1 instead of his pet move 12.Be3; he had used the same idea against Levon Aronian earlier.
Grischuk replied with a new move 12..a5, and Vachier-Lagrave sacrificed a pawn to get more active. Grischuk missed White's 21.Rd3 and thought he was much worse. After 30 minutes of thought, he came up with Black's best defense, pushing his queenside pawns. He managed to force a draw with precise and timely counterplay.
Grischuk later admitted he completely blundered and missed White's 21.Rd3 and felt that he should resign as his draw offer wasn't accepted. He thought that Black's only chance is to play b4 and a4, and still White might have a study-like win.
MVL admitted: "I feel like there was a win but I couldn't find it. So in the end it just petered out to a draw."
Semifinals of #GrandPrixFIDE in Riga started with blood:
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 18, 2019
🇦🇿 Mamedyarov 1-0 So 🇺🇸
🇫🇷 Vachier-Lagrave 1/2-1/2 Grischuk 🇷🇺
Second classical games tomorrow (July 19) at 3pm local time (GMT+3).
Games: https://t.co/Iz9PgOUbXb
Video: https://t.co/ye6YI0HVUq#worldchess #chess #Riga pic.twitter.com/awcEjmxrj6
2019 FIDE Grand Prix series consists of four knockout tournaments, each with 16 players who play two classical games per round and, if needed, a tiebreak on the third day. Ian Nepomniachtchi won the first Grand Prix tournament in Moscow. The remaining two are Hamburg, Germany (November 4–18) and Tel Aviv, Israel (December 10–24).
Each of the four tournaments has a prize fund of 130,000 euros ($145,510). Prizes for the overall standings in the series total 280,000 euros ($313,405), making the total prize fund of the series 800,000 euros ($895,444).
The games start each day at 12 p.m. UTC (14:00 CEST, 8 a.m. EDT, 5 a.m. PDT). You can follow the games here as part of our live portal. The official site is here.
The official World Chess broadcast with GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and Arturs Neiksans.
Previous reports:
Rakesh Kulkarni is the Director of Indian Social Media for Chess.com and a correspondent on chess in India.
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