On to the rapids @ GCT São Paulo
Safety first continued to be the watchword as all the four Grandmasters moved into the rapid section of the semi-finals keeping their records intact in the $ 350,000 Grand Chess Tour finals @ São Paulo. Both the games viz., Aronian – Caruana & MVL – Praggnanandhaa ended in similar style – three fold repetition. Risk is not something that players with both white & black preferred pushing the decisive phase to the rapid & blitz section. At the end of the classical portion, Praggnanandhaa, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana and Aronian kept themselves on top with 6.0 points apiece.
Aronian employed the English Opening that was quite symmetrical before trade-offs took over. It took all but 26 moves before Caruana repeated the moves on a drawish queen, rook and opposite colored bishop position. The draw might have dulled the spirit of the paying public, for whom more is in store when speed chess takes over from the standard one.
Even quicker was the MVL – Pragg game that began with Caro-Kann Defense. Initially MVL showed aggressive intent moving his queen out of the blocks early. It appeared the Frenchman’s way to tackle the opening choice surprise from the Indian Grandmaster. But it just flattered to deceive and peace was signed in 21 moves as the players decided to battle it out in the shorter version tomorrow.
Results (Round 2): Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (6.0) drew with Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (6.0), Levon Aronian (6.0) drew with Fabiano Caruana (6.0).
Aronian Levon (2744) – Caruana Fabiano (2789) 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 c5 5. Nf3 O-O 6. O-O Nc6 7. d4 d5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. Nxd5 Qxd5 10. Be3 cxd4 11. Nxd4 Qc4 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. b3 Qa6 14. Rc1 Qxa2 15. Bxc6 Rb8 16. Rc2 Qxb3 17. Bd5 Qb5 18. Bxa7 Bh3 19. Bxb8 Bxf1 20. Kxf1 Qxb8 21. Kg2 e6 22. Bf3 Qd8 23. Rd2 Qf6 24. Rc2 Qd8 25. Rd2 Qf6 26. Rc2 Qd8 1/2-1/2
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime (2738) – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (2785) 1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Qe2 Nxe4 6. Qxe4 Qd5 7. Qh4 Qf5 8. Bc4 Be6 9. O-O Bxc4 10. Qxc4 e6 11. b4 Nd7 12. Bb2 Be7 13. Rae1 O-O 14. Ne5 Rad8 15. d3 Nxe5 16. Rxe5 Qg6 17. Qb3 Bf6 18. Rc5 Be7 19. Re5 Bf6 20. Rc5 Be7
21. Re5 1/2-1/2
Picture Courtesy: Grand Chess Tour
