Best of the Best Tournaments: 2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

2019  |  THE CROATIA GRAND CHESS TOUR
In 2019 there were so many super-tournaments to choose from, but the real standout to my thinking was the Croatia Grand Chess Tour tournament. This event was memorable for many reasons. For one thing World Champion Magnus Carlsen completely dominated the field with 8/11 (+5!) to tie his highest rating ever (2882) and win his eighth tournament in a row.

The World Champion’s achievements aside, the field was simply incredible. The rating average was an astounding 2784 FIDE, meaning that almost all of the top players were in attendance. While a few rounds were a bit riddled with draws, this is an unavoidable plague in top tournaments these days, and more often than not there were decisive results.

Before we dive in to the individual rounds (of which there were 11), here is a list of the participants (with ratings before the event):

ROUND 1
This was an exceptionally bloody round. Four out of the six games ended in decisive results, including the World Champion winning in 23 moves as black! Indeed this is the game I am going to show, as Carlsen brutally demolished Giri after a somewhat dubious opening against the Rossolimo:

Indeed a very impressive victory. The other games were also very interesting struggles (see, for instance, So-Ding), but for reasons concerning space I will close by saying that this is the kind of chess we want to see in super tournaments.

ROUND 2
Without a doubt the most interesting game of this round was Nepomniachtchi-Caruana. Indeed this game was the only decisive result of the round. Nepo expertly defused Caruana’s Sveshnikov to get a slight positional edge. Eventually this told, though Fabi certainly had his chances:

As for the other games of this round, there was not too much interest. Carlsen was pressing hard, but Viswanathan Anand played a great defensive game to narrowly hold on. Likewise, Ding Liren was pressing but the “Minister of defense” Sergey Karjakin managed to hold on as well.  The remaining games in the round were quite uninteresting draws. At the end of the day an inspired Nepomniachtchi was leading 2-0.

ROUND 3
In this round Nepo continued his incredible start, playing the only decisive game of the round against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. After some mistakes by white the attack proved too much to face:

Yet another draw was recorded in the Carlsen-Caruana matchup. The middlegame was quite interesting, but Carlsen defended with engine-like precision to hold the draw. In Vachier-Lagrave-Ding, the game appeared interesting but it was all prep, and it quickly fizzled out, ending with a repetition of moves.

As for the rest of the games, Karjakin was the only one with chances against Nakamura, but with accurate play in the rook endgame the king of online blitz held the draw.

ROUND 4
This was the dullest round so far. All games ended up in a draw, and thus I will not review any (despite some hard fought struggles). The most interesting game was undoubtedly Carlsen-Mamedyarov, where after Carlsen missed chances in the opening the initiative passed to his opponent. True to form the World Champion held on with very little time.

Nepo-Karjakin really wasn’t very exciting, and the same could be said for Ding-Nakamura. The rest of the games were pretty exciting: in So-Anand the American player played well after an uninspired opening to hold the draw. Aronian-Caruana saw a big miss for Caruana, and eventually ended in a close shave for the Armenian. 

Finally, Vachier-Lagrave-Giri saw MVL play well in an open Ruy Lopez, but fail to finish the task by exploiting Giri’s faulty tactics. After this miss Giri most certainly felt fortunate to force a perpetual.

ROUND 5
This round saw just one decisive result: Giri-Ding, in which the Chinese player had a very grinding win. Still, I find this game very tedious, and it was decided by an uncharacteristic blunder from the Dutch player. The games Karjakin-Carlsen and Caruana-So were both very uneventful draws. Meanwhile, Nakamura-Nepomniachtchi was also pretty uninteresting. Nepo allowed some unnecessary chances, but still held the draw.

Finally, Anand-MVL was also a relatively uneventful draw, and Mamedyarov-Aronian was a really interesting game but after Aronian missed a winning shot on move 25 he let the advantage slip soon after and yet another draw was recorded.

ROUND 6
This round was quite different in contrast to the last round. The game I am choosing this time around is Carlsen-Nakamura. Up to move 21 both players were fighting hard, but the position was still in the realms of equality. On this move Nakamura committed a crucial blunder, losing a pawn and later the game.

The other games were vastly more interesting than the last rounds as well. For one thing, Ding played a great attacking game against Nepomniachtchi, putting out the Russian’s fire and gaining a second win in a row. Also of note was So’s beautiful pawn sacrifice against Mamedyarov, Caruana’s grinding win against MVL, and the fact that Aronian broke down Karjakin’s Berlin defense.

Finally, Giri-Anand was the only draw. In a game that was entirely out of place for this round, Anand once again showed his defensive skills, effortlessly holding a rook endgame with a pawn deficit.

ROUND 7
This round housed the game that more or less decided the tournament. Early front-runner Nepomniachtchi had white against World Champion Carlsen. After a long struggle a victor emerged:

The Karjakin-So game was the only other chance for a decisive result. Karjakin missed a relatively simple tactical motif and the game was later drawn (along with the rest of the games this round).

ROUND 8
This round was quite important for the final standings. Carlsen won his first ever classical game against Ding Liren (once again as black!). After equalizing, in the endgame Carlsen’s two bishops proved to be too much:

The other important result was So’s great win against Nakamura’s Berlin. This win brought So within half a point of the World Champion. In the final decisive game, Giri played a very convincing game as white against Mamedyarov.

Nepomniachtchi finally stopped his losing streak, with a well played draw against Aronian. Another uninteresting draw was recorded in MVL-Karjakin. The only other game to show a real struggle was Anand-Caruana. Vishy played a great game and was doing very well out of the opening. But Caruana escaped in to an endgame that he held with great skill.

ROUND 9
In this round the majority of the games were drawn. The following games were so dry that I will see no need to comment extensively: Nakamura-MVL, Karjakin-Giri, and Aronian-Carlsen were all pretty colorless draws.

In the game Nepo-So, the Russian missed a crucial chance after a poorly played middle game by So. Following this miss So managed to find a perpetual check, crowning a truly amazing escape and keeping his chances in the tournament alive.

In the lone decisive game, Mamedyarov played a far from flawless attacking masterpiece against Anand that once again showcased the power of the two bishops:

ROUND 10
This was another round where each game was drawn. For starters, the important clash of the leaders So-Carlsen was a bit disappointing from the spectator’s standpoint. Carlsen equalized easily out of a 4. Qc2 Nimzo and the pieces were quickly traded off.

The majority of the other games were not of interest as well. For example, Vachier-Lagrave tried a bit against Nepo but never really got anything going, and the games Giri-Nakamura and Anand-Karjakin were both dry Berlins.  Ding went for an unconventional early Fianchetto against Aronian, but also failed to achieve anything concrete.

Finally, the most interesting game of the round was Caruana-Mamedyarov. Caruana had a slight advantage out of a Scandinavian, but Mamedyarov effectively neutralized it. Later in the game Caruana slipped and was even slightly worse, but the opportunity was not noticed and a sixth draw was soon recorded.

ROUND 11
In the final round all eyes were on the two leaders. While Aronian-So was a typical high level draw (a slight advantage for white neutralized effectively), Carlsen had the advantage of the white pieces against MVL. This was enough for him to overcome the Frenchman, and claim tournament victory.

While there was some action in the remaining games, the tournament intrigue was over. In Mamedyarov-Ding the Chinese player defused Mamedyarov’s stronger center quite effectively, escaping to an even endgame. In Nakamura-Anand it seems that neither player was especially interested in playing, and while Nakamura was on the slightly better side for the majority of the game, it wasn’t enough to decide the struggle in his favor.

With that said, there was only one other decisive game in this round. In Nepomniachtchi-Giri, the Russian went for an unsound attack, first sacrificing a pawn and then a piece. But Giri had prepared before the game, and refuted the idea neatly. 

Finally, Karjakin had a much better position after 26 moves against Caruana. But he failed to convert his advantage in a long struggle where Caruana once again showed his defensive chops.

To summarize: Magnus Carlsen wins again with an incredible 8/11 and a nearly 3000 performance rating! So was a close second with 7/11, and the rest of the field was further behind. To me this tournament showcases Carlsen at his best so far: indeed he tied his highest ever rating, and displayed amazing play overall. Here are the final standings: