World Rapid Chess Championship Day 2: Carlsen and Kosteniuk Surge Ahead

GM Magnus Carlsen finished the second day at the World Rapid Championship in sole first place with 7.5/9, notably defeating two young up-and-coming GMs: Alireza Firouzja and Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

Carlsen is pursued by three GMs with 7/9: Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who has produced numerous upsets against established names; Alexander Grischuk, who already made a draw with Carlsen; and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who may have to face the world champion on day three, less than a month after their world championship match.

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk leads the women's event in sole first with 7.5/8, a full point and a half above the rest of the field. She looks to be the likely women's world rapid chess champion.

Both rapid events will continue on Tuesday, December 28, at 6 a.m. Pacific/15:00 Central Europe. 

While our thousands-of-years-old game holds many surprises, romance is not always one of them. Amid the excitement and angst before today's first round, two people shared a moment they will never forget.

One of the arbiters proposed to his girlfriend right before day 2 play started… She said yes! 💍♥️
Congratulations to the happy couple! #RapidBlitz pic.twitter.com/8zdNz15dcD

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 27, 2021

Also before the day began, commentators GMs Jon Ludvig Hammer and Irina Krush speculated on what viewers may look forward to. The two most high-profile games in the first round were those among the leaders: Duda vs. Nepo and Carlsen vs. GM Baadur Jobava.

Krush observed: "Traditionally, Jobava has been somewhat problematic for Magnus... Jobava has pulled off some surprise results against him." This, indeed, turned out to be the case as the Georgian grandmaster held a draw with the white pieces against the triple-crowned world champion, keeping his nerves together despite the fast time control.

As it turned out, the first fireworks occurred elsewhere. Caruana was the first to win in round six of the open section, finishing his game in under 30 minutes.

He showcased deep opening preparation as White in the Nimzo-Indian Defense, following theory all the way until move 20. After 20...Re8??, Vidit imploded and resigned before making his 29th move.

Literally one minute later, Nepo won his game against the Polish number one, taking down one of the tournament leaders. Curiously, Duda daring to enter the Russian grandmaster's world championship preparation, opted for the now-topical Anti-Berlin line played with 8... Rb8, a la Carlsen. The former world championship challenger, clearly experienced in this line, conducted a formidable attack and won with the white pieces.

Amusingly, too, Nepo finished his game with almost one minute more on his clock than when he started. Since players gain 10 seconds on every move made, it is possible to finish with more time than the 15-minute start.

GM Maxim Matlakov vs. GM Richard Rapport featured a peculiar queen sacrifice by the Hungarian player. Anyone familiar with Rapport's games is almost unsurprised, by this point, with his creative powers. Although the game ended in a draw, it is still worth sharing.

GM Hikaru Nakamura showed some home-cooking as he played a new move in an extremely well-trodden opening. Although he won in round six, he drew in rounds seven and eight, drawing too many games to be at the very top of the leaderboard.

♔ @GMHikaru's 13.Rf5 is a new move in the Marshall attack!https://t.co/RZaMUkNLap#rapidblitz pic.twitter.com/mTPdMJ7xPj

— ChesscomLive (@ChesscomLive) December 27, 2021

By the end of the round, there were eight players tied with five points. Besides the aforementioned Firouzja and Grischuk, these included GMs Vladimir Fedoseev, Anton Korobov, and Boris Gelfand, who had caught up after trailing by only half a point. The next game, however, would captivate everyone's attention.

Round seven featured what was, without a doubt, the most highly anticipated pairing in the entire event, if not in all of 21st-century chess. This clash of generations, and clash between the current number one and two in the world, featured a swift attack by the older and more experienced player as the 18-year-old prodigy seemingly crumbled.

♔ @MagnusCarlsen wins against @AlirezaFirouzja! #rapidblitz pic.twitter.com/1QnZklyJmk

— ChesscomLive (@ChesscomLive) December 27, 2021

Jobava, having the tournament of a lifetime, played against Nepomniachtchi in this round. What an opportunity—to play the world champion and challenger back-to-back! He was able to draw this game as well, which took both himself and his opponent from first into a six-way tie for second place.

Abdusattorov, the 17-year-old phenom, defeated another elite player, GM Levon Aronian. He also beat GM Fabiano Caruana yesterday, proving his promise as a young talent by overwhelming the two established and elite players.

The other major result was Grischuk's win over Korobov. As Black, he instructively gained space by pushing his h-pawn and subsequently flooding the white kingside with his queen and minor pieces. With this win, Grischuk joined first place, with six points, as Carlsen's only other co-leader.

Rapport won yet another entertaining game against GM Aleksey Dreev, who unfortunately fell victim to some great games by his opponents.

By round eight, only Carlsen and Grischuk had six points, trailed by six other GMs who had 5.5/7. Their game, which featured some intricate mind-games in the opening phase, ended in a complicated draw. Most of the top boards, actually, ended in draws as well, allowing Duda to sneak back into a tie for first with 6.5 after his round-eight win.

One game that did not affect the top standings, but was still interesting, was between GM Daniil Dubov and GM Hans Niemann, the rising American chess star who has broken 2600 less than a year after earning his GM title. The Russian GM and renowned openings expert, playing with the black pieces, sacrificed an exchange on move 23 and his knights flooded into the light squares on f3 and g4 with debilitating effect on the white army.

Caruana, who had a score of 5/7, concocted an incredibly creative queen sacrifice in an attempt to win. Unfortunately, despite earning the proverbial style points (which do not translate to real points), it did not pan out well. Fortunately for him, Caruana managed to secure a draw by the end of the game.

Meanwhile, Abdusattorov delivered yet another upset against GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in round eight, and GM Timur Gareyev received a shocking gift from Korobov, a very strong rapid player. The world's record-holder for most simultaneous blindfold games suddenly leapfrogged to second-place with this win. After white played 30.Qf4, he found the winning move as Black in the following diagram.

Three players led the tournament by the last round: Duda, Grischuk, and Carlsen (in tiebreak order). Grischuk was paired against Jobava, who has had a spectacular tournament, but more attention was devoted by commentators to the titanic pairing of Carlsen and Duda. In a show of sportsmanship, the world champion did not start his opponent's clock until his younger opponent arrived at the board.

After trading his rook for a knight and two pawns in the middlegame, Carlsen ultimately won a tricky rook endgame which he, as usual, made look trivial.

The triple-crowned champion @MagnusCarlsen wins against Duda, finishing the day with 7.5/9! #RapidBlitz pic.twitter.com/CCyJ6D9Z2D

— ChesscomLive (@ChesscomLive) December 27, 2021

Other notable games from this round include Nakamura's win over Fedoseev, where he masterfully converted a queen and knight vs queen endgame on an incredibly open board. Nepomniachtchi defeated Gareyev in a back-and-forth game that ended with two rooks and a bishop (for the Russian) overpowering a queen and a bishop.

GM Ivan Cheparinov beat GM Anish Giri in, frankly, steamroller fashion with the white pieces in the Slav Defense. Meanwhile, Grischuk and Jobava agreed to a draw in this funny-looking position.

It should be also mentioned that GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave voiced concerns over conditions at the event after the round was over. In addition to the below tweet, he also mentioned in a later tweet, that "150 players had to wait an extra 30 minutes for transportation at the end of the day, then had to fit inside the single bus that was provided."

It would be more reasonable to focus on having water available for players, metal detectors for all players before entering the playing area and respecting a schedule (almost one hour late) than to pay full attention on an outdated dress code @FIDE_chess

— MVL (@Vachier_Lagrave) December 27, 2021

2021 World Rapid Championship | Round 9 Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

All World Rapid Championship Games 

The top game at the start of the day for the women's event was GM Valentina Gunina vs. Kosteniuk, the two leaders on 4/4. Before the round began, Krush said: "These guys have a long history... Kosteniuk seems to do quite well in the classical games," but added that Gunina gives her trouble in rapid and faster time controls.

Gunina played a fantastically provocative 17.f3 in the early middlegame and was objectively winning until move 27... until she sacrificed the exchange and followed with an erroneous 29.Nf7.  In "a game that could have gone either way," according to Hammer, Kosteniuk won the resulting rook plus extra pawn vs. knight and bishop endgame, finally seizing sole first in the tournament.

IM Anastasia Bodnaruk's stroke of fortune yesterday against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina almost turned into a streak on day two with her near-win over IM Nataliya Buksa, but unfortunately she lost her game despite coming up with a creative and correct (!) queen sacrifice.

By the next round, the story became all about Kosteniuk's dominant performance in this event. She continued leading in sole first with a perfect 6/6 after defeating Buksa in a sparkling kingside attack, even allowing her opponent to land a second queen on the board!

Drama erupted in round seven as WIM Assel Serikbay, someone whom the commentators had not heard of, had a winning position against Kosteniuk and threatened to take the lead of the entire tournament! The leader, however, managed to survive and held onto sole first through the last round of the day.

Kosteniuk is now the clear favorite to win the event and is followed by six other players, all with six points.

2021 Women's World Rapid Championship | Round 8 Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

All Women's World Rapid Championship Games

Find more information on the world rapid and blitz here.

Previous reports:

• World Rapid Chess Championship Day 1: Duda, Carlsen, Jobava Share Lead