Esipenko Sacs Piece On Move 8, Plays Brilliancy

Four players share the lead after round eight of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2023. In the Women's, the same three players continue to share the lead. 

All winning with the white pieces, GMs Andrey Esipenko, Fabiano Caruana, and Bogdan-Daniel Deac caught up to the leader GM Vidit Gujrathi. In the Women's, the three leaders remain unchanged: IM Vaishali Rameshbabu, GM Anna Muzychuk, and GM Antoaneta Stefanova.

Round nine begins three hours earlier than normal, to avoid conflicting with a parade and firework display in Douglas. On Friday, November 3, it starts at 7:30 a.m. ET / 12:30 CET / 5 p.m. IST.  

• Open: Esipenko, Caruana, And Deac Score Critical Wins
• Women's: Vaishali Plays Near-Masterpiece, Top Boards End In Draws

Tough Tournament, Tough Schedule 

The tournament approaches a critical juncture as just three rounds remain. Due to a last-minute schedule change, round nine will be one of the hardest for the players. Leko said: "It's an insane schedule. I don't believe that it ever happened before; it's very, very unfortunate for the players. I already feel very sorry for all of them."

This 11-round tournament has just one rest day, after round six. Comparing it to the recent world championship, which had seven rest days for 14 rounds, Nieksans asked, "Would it make more sense to have another rest day [instead of starting round nine early]?" The recent Candidates, as another example, had four rest days for 14 rounds.

Anyway, it's something for the organizers to think about for the next edition. 

Open: Esipenko, Caruana, And Deac Score Critical Wins

Esipenko-Keymer seemed to be a nightmare pairing for the German number-one. In their three previous classical games, Esipenko won two white games and drew one with Black. With this third victory, Esipenko has a 100 percent win rate against Keymer with White. 

Esipenko prepared a piece sacrifice as early as move eight. Keymer navigated the complications, sacrificed material back, and reached the following endgame, at which point the first player still had one minute and 24 seconds more than he started with.

"I was extremely tired after yesterday's game and I couldn't really prepare today," said Esipenko, who successfully defended a 7.5-hour game against GM Arjun Erigaisi the round before. In fact, Esipenko had this line prepared for GM Kateryna Lagno in a recent national tournament, a game that he won.

Asked about tomorrow's early start time, he replied: "Oof, I'll try!"

GM Dejan Bojkov annotates this brilliant piece of preparation and excellent endgame in the Game of the Day below.

Caruana Squeezes Water From Stone On Board 2, 16-move Draw On Board 1

"I'm not very happy with this game overall. I mean, I got a huge advantage out of the opening, it was close to winning," said Caruana after defeating GM Etienne Bacrot on board two. "I had already given up hope, I was moving back and forth at some point because I had no ideas."

At about the six-hour mark, on 50...Qc3 by his opponent, he said: "This position is where I started to feel like maybe there is some hope to win the game," even though the position was still equal. Just as GM Robert Hess suggested 52.Ng4!? in the Twitch chat, it appeared on the board.

Meanwhile, on board one, Vidit vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura ended in a draw by threefold repetition on move 16. In his recap, he says Vidit could have taken more risk, but: "You can try to be the hero sometimes, but if you mess up, especially with the white pieces... you can ruin a tournament in less than 20 minutes."

You can ruin a tournament in less than 20 minutes.

—Hikaru Nakamura

Deac Joins Lead After Move-41 Blunder, Sevian Upsets Firouzja

Blunders often happen before or on move 40, as players get low on time. Deac benefited from the rarer instance of a blunder by Radoslaw Wojtaszek on move 41, the first move after 50 minutes were added. By grabbing a pawn, he traded his castle for a grape.

GM Sam Sevian's upset victory over GM Alireza Firouzja on board seven also has consequences for the Candidates Tournament. Nakamura, now 13 points higher-rated than Firouzja, is currently eligible for the spot offered to the highest-rated player who's not already in.

The opening followed a game played yesterday, GM Alan Pichot vs. Abhimanyu Mishra, but the French number-one seemed to mix something up early on. He sacrificed a pawn for activity, but when that ran out, Sevian declined a threefold repetition to play for the win. A great comeback for the U.S. player after losing round six with White in 23 moves.

Sevian said he didn't mind the schedule change so much, as he's used to last-minute changes in open tournaments. He also said that he enjoyed the "beautiful weather" in Douglas. "Beautiful weather because I like rain!"

The four leaders will play each other on Friday, with Caruana-Deac on board one and Vidit-Esipenko on board two. They are followed by eight players (!) just a half-point behind. Caruana and Vidit are getting the white pieces again because all four leaders already had the white pieces in this round.

Round 8 Standings | Top 20 

(Full results here.)

Women's: Vaishali Plays Near-Masterpiece, Top Boards End In Draws 

The three leading players slowed down in this round with draws on the top two boards. There are four players a half-point behind, with another seven chasing behind them.

Stefanova continued to play provocatively in the opening, this time playing the Jaenish/Schliemann Gambit with Black on board one. Although Anna Muzychuk had an advantage out of the opening, Black found a forced repetition to kill the game.

Vaishali's game against IM Sophie Milliet was a clear contender for the Game of the Day when she hammered out 18.Rxf7!!. In time trouble, however, she lost control and the game also ended in a draw.

Of the players on 5.5 points, GM Tan Zhongyi took down first-seed GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, who just can't seem to get her mojo right in this tournament. Fortunately for the latter, she's already in the Candidates Tournament regardless of the result here.

For those wondering why grandmasters just cannot stop talking about the bishop pair, this is a great example. In this game, Tan was objectively winning almost immediately after winning the two bishops and 28.g5! broke down the enemy barricades. 

In the next round, Stefanova has White against Vaishali on board one, while Anna Muzychuk will have the black pieces against IM Leya Garifullina, the highest-rated player with 5.5 points. On board five, Goryachkina will have a tough pairing against an in-form IM Mai Narva who just defeated GM Mariya Muzychuk and may be looking for her fourth GM scalp in this event. 

Round 8 Standings | Top 20 

The 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss (FGS) is one of the events of the FIDE World Championship cycle with the top two players qualifying for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The FGS started on October 25 at 9:30 a.m. ET/15:30 CEST/19:00 IST and features a $460,000 prize fund.

The 2023 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss (FWGS) features a $140,000 prize fund and runs concurrently. The top two players qualify for the 2024 Women's Candidates Tournament.

Previous Coverage:

• 'Express Train' Vidit Leads Open
• Nakamura Holds Co-leader Esipenko, 5 Players Join Lead
• Assaubayeva Leads Women's, Nakamura Scores Hat Trick In Open
• Esipenko Leads In Open, 4-Way Tie In Women's
• Vaishali Plays Brilliancy As Anna Muzychuk, Tan Take Lead
• Caruana Beats Niemann, Returns To 2800 Club
• Caruana Leads Pack Of 32 Winners
• FIDE Grand Swiss 2023: Who Will Qualify For A Shot At World Title?