Grand Swiss Tournament – round 6 report
Five players now share first place in the Open event after six rounds of the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: Round Five leaders, Alireza Firouzja, Alexei Shirov and Evgeniy Najer, are joined by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and four-time Indian champion, Krishnan Sasikiran.
The top game of the day was on board one, where a clash of generations took place. Alexei Shirov (who became GM in 1990) was White against Alireza Firouzja (born in 2003). Shirov opened with his usual 1.e4 and – what else to play in Riga? – soon, the Tal variation of Caro-Kann Defense was on the board. Alexei Shirov, in his element, was developing an initiative with White. Still, Firouzja disagreed with being haunted by ghosts, took a hanging pawn on h4, proving his own attacking ideas are more potent. White found himself in a very unpleasant situation, but Black’s mistake on the 36th move let Shirov get away with it. Alireza Firouzja stormed out of the playing hall, while Alexei Shirov confessed that he was happy with the outcome as he was “clearly worse, maybe lost”.
Alexei Shirov v Alireza Firouzja
The shortest game in the tournament – lasting just 14 moves – was played between Georgian Baadur Jobava and Jules Moussard of France.
Baadur Jobava v Jules Moussard
Jobava said after the game that his first reaction was to sympathise with his opponent as he has been in similar positions. “But this is a sport. Someone has to win, and these things happen”.
The Sergei Movsesian and Lucas Van Foreest game was another quick and decisive one where Black gets mated on move number 29.
Sergei Movsesian v Lucas Van Foreest
The Russian duel on board four between Natalija Pogonina and Olga Badelka ended in a win for white after Black made a blunder in the middlegame, destroying her position. With 4.5/6, Pogonina has joined the top-tier of players sharing second place.
Natialija Pogonina v Olga Badelka
All Photo credits – Anna Shtourman and Mark Livshitz.
Text credit – Milan Dinic.
Links
African chess stars begin their campaign in the Grand Swiss Tournament.
Grand Swiss Tournament – two interesting games.
