Niemann Defeats Ding To Join Yu, Fedoseev, Lazavik In Semifinals
GMs Yu Yangyi, Hans Niemann, Vladimir Fedoseev, and Denis Lazavik are two steps closer to booking a spot at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Las Vegas tournament, having progressed to Friday's Play-In Semifinals.
Niemann, who defeated former World Champion Ding Liren in the Quarterfinals, will play Yu in the Semifinals, while Fedoseev and Lazavik will clash following respective victories against super-GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Along with a ticket to the Las Vegas Grand Slam, the winner of the Play-In will receive $10,000.
The Play-In will come to a head on Friday, June 20, starting at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8.30 p.m. IST.
Knockout Bracket
- Round of 16: Kravtsiv and Lazavik Upset Mamedyarov, Vachier-Lagrave
- Quarterfinals: Niemann Defeats Ding 1.5-0.5
The Play-In format features 16 players (12 invitees and four qualifiers) dueling their way through a single-elimination bracket in best-of-two, 15+3 Freestyle Chess matches. If the match score is 1-1 after two games, a two-game blitz tiebreaker, and finally a single armageddon game, will be used to split the tie.
Round of 16: Kravtsiv, Lazavik Upset Mamedyarov, Vachier-Lagrave
GM Martyn Kravtsiv's 2-0 drubbing of the world number-13 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was a bolt from the blue in the round of 16 and this result set the tone for several upsets over the course of the day.
Although Kravtsiv only just scraped through the qualifiers on Wednesday, he stepped up against Mamedyarov. In their second game, which saw the players duke it out in a Dutch-inspired opening, Kravtsiv won in 24 moves, courtesy of clinical middlegame play.
Lazavik vs. Vachier-Lagrave was another upset in the Round of 16, although commentator and GM David Howell prophesized that this match would come down to the wire, calling it "fifty-fifty" due to Lazavik posessing the "ideal style" to take down the French number-two.
The pair traded wins in their rapid followed by draws in their blitz tiebreakers before Lazavik pounced on two untimely errors by Vachier-Lagrave in the final armageddon game.
Aside from Kravtsiv, Niemann was the only player able to sweep his Round of 16 match, and this earned him a berth in the Semifinals against Ding. Ding's path to the top four was less smooth—four draws against GM Alexander Grischuk forced an armageddon tiebreaker, which turned into a time scramble. The guillotine eventually fell for Grischuk, with Ding's 2.3 seconds keeping his tournament alive.
GMs Fedoseev, Duda, Liem Le, and Yu won their respective matchups against GMs Pranesh M, Andrey Esipenko, Alexey Sarana, and Vidit Gujrathi 1.5-0.5, respectively, and were full of the type of drama that only Freestyle Chess can procure.
The starting positions in particular are well known for occasionally stumping the world's best players and in the second game between Yu and Vidit, a move 12 blunder, 12.Qxa8?? saw the latter lose in 12 moves!
Quarterfinals: Niemann Defeats Ding 1.5-0.5
Yu has proven to be proficient in match play stretching back as far as 2009, when he rose to prominence by making it to the third round of the FIDE Chess World Cup (Yu defeated the 16th seed GM Sergei Movsesian and Polish GM Mateusz Bartel in the opening rounds). Yu also finished fourth at the 2019 FIDE Chess World Cup in a format similar to this Play-In, making him a tough opponent for Kravtsiv.
Both players held strong in the rapid rounds but it was Yu who persisted—a crafty knight maneuver left Kravtsiv with no choice but to give up an exchange. The second blitz game did look to be going Kravtsiv's way however Yu was tenacious enough to secure a draw. Thus, the Play-In underdog Kravtsiv's Cinderella story came to an end.
The key game in Ding-Niemann was the first, and no pawns were taken until the 28th move, sparking a chaotic middlegame that left the evaluation bar seesawing. Ding eventually came unstuck when he chose the wrong plan on move 36, leaving Niemann with draw odds with White to take out the match.
Fedoseev-Duda saw one of the highest quality games of the day transpire. In their second game, the duo had to get creative to develop their knights off the edge (a1 and h1) and their bishops from the center (e1 and d1).
Several moments of excellence in the second half of the game secured a key match victory for Fedoseev and made it a worthy of our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
The final player to qualify for Friday's semifinals was Lazavik, who continued his giant-killing run against Le. Lazavik took the lead in game one with a double-flank pawn attack and held in the second, albeit with more difficulty than his first game win.
On Friday, two relatively balanced semifinals will take place—Yu-Niemann and Fedoseev-Lazavik, with the victors progressing to a winner-takes-all finale and a potential shot at the $200,000 first prize in Las Vegas.
The $750,000 3rd leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam will be played in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 16th - 20th. Participants include GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez and Parham Maghsoodloo. Six more competitors have yet to be announced and the final player will be determined by the winner of this week's knockout on Chess.com. All games are played in freestyle chess.
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