GRISCHUK SURVIVES, NEPO WINS A BRILLIANCY, RAPPORT ALSO WINS
Round six of the Sharjah Grand Prix 2017, played after a free day, still hasn’t changed the ongoing trend of a great number of quick draws. In the sixth round there were only two decisive games.
However, out of the 5 draws, the one between Nakamura and Grischuk really stands apart. Because at one point in the game, Nakamura had 100 minutes (!!) on the clock and the Grischuk was down playing on increment.
Considering that the position was highly tactical and complicated, it seemed impossible to Grischuk to navigate and find the best moves.
However, they don’t call him “time trouble junkie” for no reason, as he managed to defend excellently, even with the time issues. Finally the game ended in a draw, although there must have been at least one point where Nakamura could have extricate more and play for the win.
The game without annotations is given below.
The other hero of the round, apart from Grischuk, was the Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi.
I have to mention here that I am his big fan, because apart from chess, he is quite active in the Dota Community as well. And since mere mention of Dota makes me nostalgic, reminding me of the countless hours I wasted in the childhood instead of working on my chess, my love for Nepo is self evident.
Although being a fan of someone whose surname you can’t pronounce, not to say write, correctly, is not a thankful occupation to have 🙁
Anyway, in the round six Nepo played a brilliancy. Li Chao B risked to much by repeating a variation of the Petroff he played previously in round one, as it presented ideal preparation opportunity for Nepo. And boy did he prepare, sacrificing a piece for a pawn and achieving total domination of the Black’s pieces.
In Dota words, Li Chao let Nepo get farmed too easily early in the game, and later when he got too fat it was too late to do anything against it.
GAME ANALYSIS – IAN NEPOMNIACHTCHI – LI CHAO B