American Favorites Clean House
The American higher seeds, GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, and Jeffery Xiong, won the last of the round of 64 matches on day five of the Chess.com Global Chess Championship. Although the favorites ultimately won, the underdogs gave them serious fights, often taking the early lead and pushing their potent opponents to bring out their best game to win.
The round of 32 begins on Wednesday, September 21, starting at 4 a.m. PT / 13:00 CEST.
In a dynamic game one battle, Kravtsiv gained an edge leading into the endgame against Caruana and created two powerful connected passed pawns in the center.
Kravtsiv was on the verge of winning the second game when Caruana discovered a clever way to create a passed pawn, swinging the rook ending in his favor.
With the momentum on his side, Caruana squeezed a positional advantage into a material one in game three to take over the match lead.
GM Oleksandr Bortnyk was another underdog to take the early lead, utilizing his time edge to get the upper hand in an equal rook ending. Xiong immediately struck back, winning the next two games. Their highly tactical second game is our Game of the Day.
Both players are specialists in rapid time controls, so I had great expectations for this match.
In game three, Xiong won material in the ending and converted seamlessly despite the resourceful Bortnyk's attempts to defend.
After two draws, Nakamura pulled ahead in game three, gaining a comfortable advantage from the opening and breaking down Vasquez's queenside to win material.
Round of 64 Scoreboard
Round of 64 Bracket
The 2022 Chess.com Global Championship (CGC) is the first Chess.com global championship cycle open to all Chess.com verified players. Players compete in official Chess.com verified events for their share of the $1,100,000 prize fund and the Chess.com Global Champion title.
Chess legends, such as GMs Viswanathan Anand, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik, and Veselin Topalov, compete against today's best (online) players, including GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and more.
Previous coverage
- Sweet Revenge, Stunning Upsets
- Svidler Sweeps Shirov, Favorites Triumph
- Legends Fall, Prodigies Prevail
- Kramnik and Sevian Sweep Inaugural Matches
- Anand, Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Topalov Among Global Chess Championship Participants
- Announcing The $100,000 CGC Bracket Contest
- Chess.com Global Championship: All The Information
Vanessa West is a National Master, a chess teacher, and a writer for Chess.com. In 2017, they won the Chess Journalist of the Year award.
You can follow them on X: Vanessa__West
