Smyslov Memorial Blitz: Nepomniachtchi 1st; Karpov Beats Karjakin
A blitz tournament held in Moscow on Monday, in memory of the seventh world chess champion Vasily Smyslov, was won by GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. The 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov did quite well, scoring plus-one and beating both GM Sergey Karjakin and GM Maxim Matlakov.
The Smyslov Memorial Blitz was held on August 16, 2021, at the Central Chess Club in Moscow. The field consisted of 22 leading Russian grandmasters, including the aforementioned players and GMs Alexander Grischuk, Vladislav Artemiev, Andrey Esipenko, and Kateryna Lagno.
The format was a Swiss tournament with seven double rounds. The prize fund was 1.5 million rubles ($20,220 / 17,300 euros). You can find all the games on our events page.
World championship challenger Nepomniachtchi won the tournament with 10/14, a point ahead of Grischuk. GM Mikhail Kobalia edged out GMs Vladimir Fedoseev, Sanan Sjugirov, and Artemiev to take third place.
2021 Smyslov Memorial Blitz | Final Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Fed | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 | 3 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2776 | 10,0 | 108,0 | 8 | |
| 2 | 2 | Grischuk, Alexander | 2777 | 9,0 | 100,0 | 5 | |
| 3 | 17 | Kobalia, Mikhail | 2569 | 8,5 | 117,0 | 5 | |
| 4 | 6 | Fedoseev, Vladimir | 2756 | 8,5 | 105,0 | 8 | |
| 5 | 21 | Sjugirov, Sanan | 2472 | 8,5 | 105,0 | 6 | |
| 6 | 1 | Artemiev, Vladislav | 2783 | 8,5 | 104,0 | 6 | |
| 7 | 14 | Alekseenko, Kirill | 2580 | 8,0 | 94,0 | 6 | |
| 8 | 18 | Paravyan, David | 2562 | 7,5 | 99,0 | 6 | |
| 9 | 20 | Rakhmanov, Aleksandr | 2498 | 7,5 | 99,0 | 4 | |
| 10 | 19 | Zvjaginsev, Vadim | 2558 | 7,5 | 94,0 | 5 | |
| 11 | 12 | Karpov, Anatoly | 2607 | 7,5 | 91,0 | 5 | |
| 12 | 8 | Sarana, Alexey | 2646 | 7,0 | 103,0 | 3 | |
| 13 | 15 | Chigaev, Maksim | 2579 | 7,0 | 98,0 | 6 | |
| 14 | 9 | Predke, Alexandr | 2642 | 7,0 | 97,0 | 5 | |
| 15 | 7 | Ponkratov, Pavel | 2661 | 7,0 | 90,0 | 6 | |
| 16 | 11 | Lagno, Kateryna | 2608 | 6,0 | 98,0 | 4 | |
| 17 | 5 | Matlakov, Maxim | 2760 | 5,5 | 111,0 | 4 | |
| 18 | 13 | Esipenko, Andrey | 2595 | 5,5 | 101,0 | 4 | |
| 19 | 10 | Motylev, Alexander | 2618 | 5,5 | 84,0 | 4 | |
| 20 | 4 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2765 | 5,0 | 85,0 | 4 | |
| 21 | 16 | Najer, Evgeniy | 2578 | 4,5 | 86,0 | 4 | |
| 22 | 22 | Potkin, Vladimir | 2443 | 3,0 | 87,0 | 1 |
For Nepomniachtchi, we review a game from the first round. Against co-Candidate GM Kirill Alekseenko, he tried the King's Gambit, an opening that always deserves attention when played at this level—especially when White wins!
Noteworthy is Karpov's plus-one score against Artemiev, GM Vladimir Potkin, Karjakin, GM Vadim Zvjaginsev, GM David Paravyan, Kobalia, and Matlakov. The former world champion, who turned 70 earlier this year, achieved plus scores against Matlakov (2-0) and Karjakin (1.5-0.5).
The tournament table shows that Karjakin was having an off-day, but it's still a noteworthy victory for Karpov, who outwitted his 39-year-younger opponent in a rook ending.
Rook endgame specialist Smyslov, to whom this tournament was dedicated and who famously reached the Candidates Final at the age of 63, would be touched by this demonstration of longevity:
Speaking of longevity, Karpov was sharp till the end. He was on 5/12 when he finished his tournament with two wins vs. Matlakov. Here's his black game:
Karpov's performance prompted runner-up Grischuk to note: "Now it will be very interesting to see a Kasparov-Karpov blitz match. I think it will be the best chance for Anatoly to win since 1984, the very first match. It will be a very close battle."
Blitz is one thing but if all goes well, next month we'll see Karpov play his first classical tournament in 12 years: the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament in Malmo, Sweden.
Correction: an earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Karpov scored 50 percent. It was 7.5/14.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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