GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov used a now infamous variant of the Grunfeld to force the draw with GM Anish Giri in the eighth round of the Superbet Chess Classic. Mamedyarov is half a point away from the tournament’s only victory.

While three other games ended in draws, GM Levon Aronian claimed his second consecutive victory by beating GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac.

The early rounds of the Superbet Chess Classic were marred by quick draws and it wasn’t great to see another one in round eight, especially since it happened in the exact same Grunfed that led to a quick draw by repeat twice before in this tournament.

At the same time, it was maximum professionalism for Mamedyarov, who essentially needed not to lose in the final two rounds to be fairly certain of winning the tournament. He decided to force the draw from the opening in a game that lasted less than six minutes.

Subsequently, Mamedyarov said he was inspired by how fellow GM Teimour Radjabov drew with GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave earlier in the tournament.

Caption this conversation between Radjabov and Giri before Anish’s quick draw with Mamedyarov. #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/Ddlhap4adM

– Lennart Ootes (@LennartOotes) June 13, 2021

“With the tournament situation, a draw for me is a very good result,” commented Mamedyarov. “I understand, for Anish too. He played for black and yesterday he didn’t have an easy game, a long game.”

The Azerbaijani added: “I know for myself, I want to win too much, I take risks and sometimes something is wrong. For this reason today a draw, and tomorrow we will see.”

Giri said he was not sure if Mamedyarov would go for this line, but he “wanted it to be clear” and indeed he was also happy with a draw.

Fortunately, there was enough chess fights to witness it in the other games. At the end of the day, the lone winner was Aronian, who rose to one with a win over young Deac who defended brilliantly before committing a terrible blunder, a draw gap.

A player of 1 … e5 all his life, Aronian has opted for the Sicilian instead in this match. “I was just trying to play, not necessarily for a win but just to get a game,” he said. “But my opponent knew the opening very well and I think I got a slightly worse position on the open.”

Aronian, soon to be a resident of the United States, has played a number of interesting turning moves, the first being 18… Rd7. “I thought I had to start to confuse myself with my opponent,” said Aronian.

I thought I must start to confuse myself with my opponent.
—Levon Aronian

The idea was that if White played 19.Be3 to attack the knight on b6, Black would answer 19… Bd8. Aronian: “Sure, that doesn’t make sense but at least it’s confusing!”

Aronian knew that the final appearing on move 43 was very close to a draw. He said he was impressed by Deac’s 48.Nd3! who abandons another pawn to bring the knight on the dream space e5.

“I have to admit I underestimated my opponent,” said Aronian, who pointed out that another knight’s move, instead of Deac’s blunder, would have immediately forced the toss. Failures are hard and there is no justice. (Just luck, if Giri is to be believed!)

Aronian: “The point is that my opponent is a very good player but I think he was doing too much blitz. That was my only hope. I was lucky today.”

While Aronian was quite creative in the tricks department, the handling of the knights of Vachier-Lagrave was remarkable in the same trick. In a lineage well known in Symetrical English, his king’s horse followed the g8-f6-d5-b4-d3-f4-e6-d4-c6 route.

Teachers: “Don’t move your pieces twice in the opening.@Vachier_Lagrave: “Calm down.”https://t.co/YJgykIg1IQ#SuperbetChessClassic pic.twitter.com/5VUdqgh2ax

– Chess.com (@chesscom) June 14, 2021

Once again, GM Wesley So in his interview showed the incredible depth of preparation for the best GMs these days and summed up why a lot of people love Chess960: “I had a few ideas but I was hoping that. he does not know it until now. Unfortunately. , he knew the line very well. ”

GM Constantin Lupulescu scored a comfortable draw against Radjabov with the black pieces and was applauded for avoiding an early hit repeat. Radjabov got nothing in the opening and made a silent draw offer by repeating move 22 but Lupulescu decided to continue.

The Romanian general manager can take credit for this and be one of the few people who managed to put real pressure on Radjabov in this tournament. The latter survived a big time problem about 20 strokes later when a draw was finally agreed.

“Somehow I felt I could be slightly better but couldn’t find it,” Lupulescu said. He had drawn a smooth draw with the French defense after losing quickly on the first attempt, and now he has drawn quickly with the classic Sicilian, also after losing quickly to him before.

Lupulescu: “I thought the second time should be a charm.”

GM Alexander Grischuk’s longest game was against GM Fabiano Caruana, and it was another disappointing game for the world number two. Caruana was on the verge of winning from the opening, but failed to capitalize and even had to suffer a late-game pawn later. It’s definitely a tournament of missed opportunities for Caruana.

Superbet Chess Classic 2021 | 8th round ranking

All the games

The Superbet Chess Classic will take place June 5-14, 2021 in Bucharest, Romania. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the remainder of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, from the first move. This is the first stop on the Grand Chess Tour and has a prize fund of $ 325,000.

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