Greetings faithful readers! This is the second part of an (eventually) four part blog. For more info on the players and analysis of the first four rounds you can find the first part here.
Anyway, let’s jump back in to the action of the last three rounds of the first half!
ROUND 5
In a key game (as seen below) Nepomniachtchi won a strong technical effort against Wang Hao. Wang was holding but missed the easiest defenses. After he allowed the white queen to penetrate Wang missed a spectacular defense, and eventually went down in flames. As for other games, Caruana was lost against Giri but managed to hold on, Alekseenko-MVL was an interesting draw that turned out to be entirely in the Frenchman’s prep. And finally, Grischuk-Ding was a dull draw.
ROUND 6
Nepo continues his strong form by beating an out of form Ding Liren. As we’ll see below, Ding misplayed his position out of the opening phase and should have been close to lost. In a surprising turn of events, Nepo not only didn’t find the strongest continuation but in fact allowed Ding a miracle save! Unfortunately for Ding, he didn’t find it and Nepo cruised to a win.
As for other games, Giri finally won a game in the Candidates (after 18 prior draws and one loss)! Alekseenko missed an obvious draw on move 38, but eventually made it to a theoretically drawn knight ending. However, after strong play, he was almost holding when he blundered in time pressure! And a relieved Giri won shortly. Also, Wang had some chances but only managed to draw against MVL, and Fabi managed to put some pressure on a time depleted Grischuk before the game ended in a draw.
ROUND 7
Undoubtedly the crucial game of the round was MVL’s strong win against Nepo’s French which allowed MVL to catch up to Nepo at halftime. Out of the opening Nepo had his chances to equalize but played somewhat inaccurately and was put under definite pressure. As far as I can tell, the very last chance Nepo had to hold was on move 26. He didn’t find the right move and instead was forced in to a lost knight ending, which MVL duly converted.
In other news, Caruana was slightly worse against Wang but managed to draw. Grischuk-Giri was interesting for a while but eventually fizzled out to a draw. And finally, Alekseenko had some chances against Ding but didn’t find them. The game later ended up in a draw.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully the Candidates will resume soon so I can complete this article!
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