Powerhouse WR Chess Takes Early Lead

WR Chess, led by GM Wesley So, rose to clear first on day one of the World Rapid Team Championship 2023, winning all of their matches so far.

The top seed, GM Viswanathan Anand's Freedom, had a rocky fourth round, nearly losing to GM Pentala Harikrishna's Team MGD1. With the entire match on the line, GM Raunak Sadhwani scored a critical victory vs. GM Richard Rapport to save his team from the jaws of defeat. 

The World Rapid Team Championship continues on Sunday, August 27, at 7:30 a.m. ET / 13:30 CEST / 5:00 p.m IST.

The inaugural World Rapid Team Championship features six-nine player teams with a unique blend of professional players, top women, and amateurs on each one. The novel format, faster time control (15 minutes per player, with a 10-second increment per move), and inclusion of amateur players alongside professionals are aimed at making the event accessible to a wider audience. GM Maurice Ashley, a commentator for the event, shared his thoughts:

I think this new format is really interesting because you do have this combination of males and females on the same team. I think that’s going to be one interesting dynamic you don’t see too often. But I think the real wild cards are the amateurs.

A lot of times, amateurs are unpredictable. You don’t know what’s going to happen in those games. And you can imagine, the match is tied, and the thing that’s going to decide who’s going to win the match is the result of the amateur game. That’s going to be crazy, seeing like five GMs staring down the amateur board, all the pressure’s on. Will you win the game or not? And the games are going to be like defibrillators, heart machines. Who’s going to win?

Many top players have joined in for this innovative event, including two former world champions, Anand and GM Vladimir Kramnik.

Peter Svidler of the 'Pensioners' team: "During the last round Ian Nepomniachtchi was sitting next to us and he turned and asked, 'are you sure your last board is a pensioner?' Because we have a child of about ten. And I said, 'pensioner is a state of mind'."#FIDErapidteams pic.twitter.com/FVsZuzFhxh

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 26, 2023

There are five players from the world top-ten playing: GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, So, Anand, and Rapport. GM Hou Yifan, the highest-ranked woman in the world, is also competing. Many strong prodigies, including GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, have also joined the action. 

Not the bad team, isn't it? https://t.co/iIjtNYadX0

— Jan-Krzysztof Duda (@GM_JKDuda) August 25, 2023

At the close of the World Cup, Caruana shared his anticipation for this tournament.

“I am really looking forward to it! I hope our team will do well. I think this is a nice initiative. I hope to see it in future years; I think it will be a big success and there will be a lot of interesting matches.” #FIDERapidTeams

Fabiano Caruana talks about his expectations… pic.twitter.com/F8O797xnG4

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 25, 2023 

The event is also free and open to spectators, who have the opportunity to watch the commentators live on-site as they create the broadcast. 

FIDE World Rapid Team Championship is a bliss for spectators! If you're in Dusseldorf, make sure to stop by. It's free.

📷 by Mark Livshitz #FIDErapidteams pic.twitter.com/Fo5hz07RTq

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 26, 2023

The roster for WR Chess is so strong that recent World Cup runner-up, Praggnanandhaa, is board five. The team features five super-GMs: So, Nepomniachtchi, Abdusattorov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Praggnanandhaa, and Vincent Keymer, along with two former women's world champions, Hou and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. They cruised to four convincing victories today to claim clear first. 

In round one, as they faced the FIDE Management Board team, the encounter between GM Nigel Short and Abdusattorov was a wild matchup between the old guard and the younger generation. Both players headed to an unorthodox position that suited their mutually creative styles. Abdusattorov set the board on fire with his imaginative and unsound 39…Ne5!?. 

Short called the bluff, accepting the sacrifice, and Abdusattorov conjured up a vicious kingside attack. To survive, the English grandmaster sacrificed both his rooks in an inventive attempt to give perpetual check.

WR Chess's round-two match vs. Six-pack turned out to be their closest victory due to the opposing team's star of the day, GM Aravindh Chithambaram, who scored an upset victory vs. So. After the American grandmaster achieved a well-coordinated and centralized middlegame position with Black, Aravindh fearlessly counterattacked, activating his forces and chasing back So's to wrangle the advantage away from the world number-eight.

The second round of #FIDERapidTeams just started!

This time we're facing very young and talented team "Six-pack" from India#wrchess #chess #india #schachmatt pic.twitter.com/cpWwrYydQW

— WR_Chess_Masters (@wr_chess) August 26, 2023

In the third round, they achieved a near sweep of Ashdod Elit Chess Club, scoring 5.5/6. Hou won the battle of women’s world champions against GM Mariya Muzychuk. Entering the queen ending with five pawns vs. five, Hou went on a pawn-grubbing rampage, ending with four passers to zero. 

Even when facing off against another team that was leading for three rounds, Columbus Energy KingsOfChess Krakow, the WR Masters nearly cleaned house with a 5-1 match win in round four. Only GM Szymon Gumularz was able to prevent a shutout with a combination using three tactical themes—fork, discovered attack, and intermezzo, to upset Keymer.

Team MGD1 and Freedom are tied for second with 3.5/4. In round three, Team MGD1 achieved a critical victory vs. Caruana's team, the Kompetenzakademie Allstars. GM Nihal Sarin led the way with an upset win vs. GM Levon Aronian. With a knight sacrifice, the Indian prodigy set up a remarkable zugzwang six moves ahead. 

In the last round of the day, Freedom and Team MGD1 faced off in a neck-and-neck matchup. Four of the grandmaster-laden boards finished in draws, and the fate of the match rested on Raunak vs. Rapport and the amateur board, Alexander Shapiro vs. Peter Anand.

Shapiro came through for Freedom to win with the black pieces, putting Raunak in a must-win position to save his team. Rapport’s queen and bishop stared menacingly at the kingside, yet Raunak was up for the challenge, running his king to safety on the queenside and taking command of the game in the queen ending. Fighting his way through two promotion races to finally convert his advantage, Raunak secured the draw for MGD1, tying with their opponents on the leaderboard. 

The day overall was loaded with creative play, daring sacrifices, and astonishing upsets. In addition to his win vs. So, Aravindh defeated another super-GM, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in round four. Can you find the stunning move that jumpstarted his victory?

White to move.

Vachier-Lagrave had his own shining moment when he played a strategic queen sacrifice vs. IM Nikolas Lubbe in round two. His remaining pieces steadily improved, eventually building up overwhelming dynamic play. As Ashley described it: “Yes, you have the queen, but my pieces are dancing.”

GM Parham Maghsoodloo went for an all-or-nothing king attack vs. IM Georgios Souleidis in round two, allowing the complete demolition of his queenside and even letting his opponent promote to a second queen before completing his hunt of the white monarch. 

Day two will kick off with the anticipated matchup of the top two seeds, WR Chess and Freedom. Team MGD1 will face the Vachier-Lagrave-led ASV AlphaEchecs Linz.

Standings - Day 1 (Top 20)

All Games - Day 1