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Levon Aronian, at 42 the oldest in the tournament, scored what he described as “one of the crown jewels” of his career to win the $200,000 (£148,000) first prize at the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam last weekend. Aronian did it in style, winning matches against the world No 1 Magnus Carlsen, the No 2 Hikaru Nakamura and the No 5 Arjun Erigaisi en route to victory.
Carlsen had to settle for the third prize of $100,000, plus the further indignity of finishing behind his arch enemy Hans Niemann, whose game with the Norwegian at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup led to allegations of cheating and a $100m lawsuit, which was eventually settled out of court.
Niemann was invited to join the commentary team for the final stages of Aronian v Carlsen, and made the most of his triumph and a post-game reunion with Aronian.
Carlsen blamed his defeat on a “complete collapse” of his nervous system. Besides his failure against Aronian, he also allowed Wesley So a mate in four moves. In fairness, he recovered well from his expensive early errors, scored five successive wins before defeating Nakamura in the third place match, and still leads the overall Tour standings going into the next multi-hub leg in September and the final in Cape Town in December.
Niemann showed commanding form when he defeated the US champion Fabiano Caruana, against whom he had previously had poor results, by 2.5-1.5. In their third game, Caruana settled for a draw by threefold repetition when he had an edge, prompting Niemann to say he was not surprised: “I think that my nerves, when there’s low time, are clearly better than his. I play a lot more blitz, I’m younger, and I also play much faster.”
Niemann finally met his match in the final for the $200,000 top prize, which Aronian won 1.5-0.5, but only after a double blunder where Niemann could have won a pawn race to queen, but missed a simple deciding move. Nakamura also failed to clinch a winning sequence against Carlsen before losing 0.5-1.5. It seems that the psychological burden of playing for a total of half a million dollars proved difficult for all of them.
The Freestyle Tour’s future is unclear. Its huge $3.75m prize fund dwarfs even the $1.5m for chess in the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia next week, but is related to a $12m investment by the venture capital firm Left Lane Capital, which was made on the apparent assumption that the Tour would attract major television coverage.
That does not appear to be the case so far, even though the event was a sell-out for the hundreds of spectators, who were allowed to bring in mobile phones and could talk loudly, with the players protected from the noise by earphones. The time controls, which were originally slow classical to satisfy Carlsen, were speeded up to one hour rapid in the interest of a fast-paced event.
The Tour suffers in the eyes of the majority of grandmasters because entry is effectively restricted to the top 25-30 players in the world, with ratings above Fide 2725.
Beyond that, there remains the troubling problem that, although Freestyle Chess sparks creativity and greatly reduces the need for opening preparation, it also makes it harder for even strong players viewing the games to relate the positions to their previous experience. One of the more easily understandable games, and an elegant victory, was Nakamura v So, where the world No 2 trapped his opponent’s queen in just 17 moves.
Elsewhere, last weekend’s English Championship at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, turned into a trial of strength between the country’s top two grandmasters, the world senior champion Michael Adams and the former Russian champion Nikita Vitiugov, which continued right into a tie-break for first prize which Adams edged 2.5-1.5.
It was an impressive performance by Adams, the 53-year-old from Taunton, Somerset, whose wins over the defending champion Gawain Jones and England’s youngest grandmaster, 16-year-old Shreyas Royal, were both of the highest class. Adams’s tie-break strategy against Vitiugov, keeping a tight grip on the position until his opponent lost patience, was also very effective.
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Vitiugov lost little in defeat. He is a strong grandmaster in the Soviet tradition, and showed his quality by a fine attacking win against Ameet Ghasi in the final round. Royal had the best tie-break of those tied for third, played an excellent attack against John Emms, and appeared a potential 2600 player. Matthew Wadsworth, whose GM title has just been confirmed by Fide, also looked the part.
Final leading scores were Adams and Vitiugov 6/7, Royal, Wadsworth, Peter Roberson, and Jones 5.5. Elmira Mirzoeva retained the English Women’s title. The old hands triumphed, while the losers were the ambitious amateurs and the teen or sub-teen juniors, groups that lacked outstanding performers. They will not have to wait long for another opportunity, though, because the British Championship starts at Liverpool next Thursday.
Meanwhile Dan Fernandez, the 30-year-old England No 16, who is ambitious to break into the Olympiad team, has just scored a career-best result at the Ghent Open in Belgium, winning first prize with a spectacular 7.5/9, two points clear of the field and with a 2645 tournament performance rating.
India’s 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh defeated China’s Tan Zhongyi 1.5-0.5 to reach Saturday’s final of the Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Georgia. Deshmukh will meet her compatriot Humpy Koneru, who won 5-3 against China’s Lei Tingjie in the second semi-final.
Finally, a word on The American Chess Magazine, which is one of the best of its kind. The latest issue, available separately, includes a rare account by Boris Spassky of his first meeting with Bobby Fischer, an analysis of the best queen sacrifices in chess history, advice on openings, and much more.
3981 1 Rxe8+! Rxe8 2 Nxf6+ gxf6 3 Bb5! Resigns. White wins the e8 rook or mates by Qg4+ and Qg7.
