FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R8: Firouzja Increases Lead, Now World #4

GM Alireza Firouzja is getting very close to qualifying for the 2022 Candidates Tournament. The 18-year-old French star won again in round eight of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and is now a point ahead of the pack, with no fewer than 10 players sharing second place. With today's win, Firouzja also moved up to number four in the live rankings, surpassing GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.

There's only one Candidates' spot up for grabs in the women's tournament, and GM Lei Tingjie also leads by a point after another win today.

He's not there yet, especially taking into account that he's playing GM Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces in the next round. But if he doesn't lose that game, Firouzja can hardly escape the 2022 FIDE Candidates, which is a welcome development for the many chess fans who root for him and think the French-Iranian GM is destined to be a future world champion.

Having the comfort of getting two white games in a row (which is nothing out of the ordinary in Swiss tournaments or even round-robins), Firouzja made full use of that advantage. His win vs. GM Krishnan Sasikiran was a convincing one, with the Indian player not standing much of a chance after playing inaccurately in the opening.

In his interview, Firouzja said that he expected the game to be harder: "Normally he's a very good theoretician and he knows about what he's playing but this time I think he mixed up the move order in the opening. He forgot some things. If you don't remember this line, it will be very dangerous."

White got a free advantage after the dubious novelty 13…f5 but Firouzja said he still had to be careful after trading his queen for two minor pieces and a rook: "All the top players are very resourceful so you should be very precise until the very end and keep your cool."

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Firouzja was a bit surprised when he was told that he was now the world number four in the live ratings. "I am? I didn't know," he reacted with a smile. "I knew I was number five, six, around that. Yeah, sure, it's good, I am improving the rating but still, there are many rounds left."

Many of the older fans will be happy to see that the 49-year-old GM Alexei Shirov is still holding his own against the world's best players. He stuck to his guns against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and played his pet line with ...Bc5 in the Ruy Lopez and got a decent position out of the opening. MVL tried to press and the players even reached a pawn endgame, but there the game was quickly agreed to a draw.

After a long and difficult game, world number two Caruana managed to grind down the Swedish GM Nils Grandelius in an endgame. It took so much toll that Caruana declined to be interviewed this time, so we don't know his assessment during the game. For our GM commentators, it felt Grandelius resigned a bit early but actually White's h-pawn is going to drop and Black's h-pawn should decide things soon.

It was an important win for Caruana, who now gets to play Firouzja with the white pieces tomorrow for a chance to catch the French GM in first place.

A player who got to 5.5 points quite quickly was GM Nikita Vitiugov, who scored a relatively easy win over his compatriot GM Pavel Ponkratov. According to the Russian Champion 15...Bf7 was a big mistake while before that move it was quite complex and double-edged. The engine, however, finds a nice pawn sacrifice that would have kept Black in the game.

"I feel just great," said Vitiugov, who won two games in a row after the rest day. "It's always very nice to win in a tournament with this level of players and especially I [scored] the second win in a row, so that is very nice. Somehow a rest day could be a turning point, it gives you some space, some time to recharge your batteries and it looks like I've done it very well this time."

GM David Anton, who won the 2020 Tata Steel Chess Challengers group shortly before the start of the pandemic, is among the players on 5.5 points as well. The Spanish grandmaster beat Russia's GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who went wrong early in the game.

"I think he misplayed [it] in the opening," said Anton. "If I don't remember wrong, after 15.Qf3 e4 it's already better for Black. I think he basically didn't know anything after 8...Na5 and 11...c4, this thing. There are some games, I think he should know more. After that, it was very comfortable for me. I think after 20 moves I got a winning position more or less."

GM Sam Sevian continues to do well as another player on 5.5 while playing this tournament right after the U.S. Championship. Asked whether he ever gets tired of chess, he replied: "No, not really! This is my 18th game this month and still three to go."

The win was against GM David Navara, and afterward, the players spent almost half an hour looking at the game. This doesn't happen too often anymore these days now that computers have become so strong, so it was nice to see these players analyzing quite passionately afterward.

GMs Anton Korobov, Grigoriy Oparin, and Alexandr Predke are three more names currently in second place. The last to join that group was GM David Howell, who played another long game where he was in trouble but eventually managed to beat Russia's up-and-coming player GM Andrey Esipenko.

"I am feeling the same as ever, it seems it's been a long day every day for me," the English GM said afterward. "Of course, relieved as well, because I played the opening pretty badly, the middlegame pretty badly, but then after move 40, I had a pretty nice position. I am trying not to get too excited, not to get too ahead of myself, but later I will be celebrating."

Howell, who scored his third straight win, pointed out that this tournament is quite tiring and that his evenings are mostly about recovery: "I normally pass out like a zombie at night. I never look at my opponents, I never even check the pairings until the morning, I try and keep fresh and I think that's the key for me, just maintaining the energy because I know I'm gonna play for six hours each day."

A spectacular game was played on one of the lower boards, where GM Kirill Alekseenko scored a nice victory:

On a final note (about the open section), our photographer Maria Emelianova shared a small story about the game between GM Vladislav Artemiev and GM Hans Niemann.

First, Niemann offered a draw, and Artemiev said: "I want to play." Then Artemiev offered a draw five moves later and Niemann replied: "I want to play." A bit later, Niemann offered a draw once again, with Artemiev smirking but refusing. Then, again, Artemiev offered a draw, and this time Niemann accepted, with both players smiling and Artemiev saying: "Finally!"

In round nine, the top pairings are Caruana vs. Firouzja, Anton vs. Vachier-Lagrave, Shirov vs. Vitiugov, Howell vs. Korobov, Oparin vs. Predke, and Harikrishna vs. Sevian.

Round 8 Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

There's a similar story in the women's tournament, where GM Lei is now a point ahead of the rest of the field, like Firouzja. The difference is that there's just one spot for the Candidates.

Already in such a comfortable position, it made sense for the Chinese player to play it safe and go for the Exchange French vs. IM Alina Kashlinskaya. However, the way it went, Lei got a very pleasant advantage in a queenless middlegame and subsequently outplayed her opponent:

Otherwise, with draws on the other top boards, the situation hardly changed. IM Elisabeth Paehtz is still in sole second place, and behind her we have two Russian ladies in shared third place: GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and WGM Natalia Pogonina, who took Kashlinskaya's place thanks to a win today:

Round 8 Women Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

In round nine, the top pairings are Kosteniuk vs. Lei, Muzychuk vs. Paehtz, and Zhu vs. Pogonina.

You can find all games of the tournament here for replay and download: FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss | FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss.

The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women's Grand Swiss take place October 27-November 7, 2021 in Riga, Latvia. The format is an 11-round Swiss. The time control for the open group is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting from move one. For the women, it's 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting on move one. The top two finishers in the open and the winner among the women will qualify for their respective 2022 Candidates tournaments.

Earlier reports:

• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R7: Firouzja Back In Sole Lead
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R6: MVL, Sasikiran Join Leaders
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R5: Najer, Shirov Catch Firouzja
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R4: Firouzja Maintains Lead; Lei Sole Leader
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R3: Firouzja On Fire, Sole Leader In Riga
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss R2: Firouzja, Predke, Saric on 2/2
• Caruana, Firouzja Among Winners As FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Begins In Riga
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Proceeds With Exemption As Latvia Locks Down