Caruana Escapes, Maintains Slim Lead As Kasparov Has Nakamura On The Ropes
GM Fabiano Caruana pulled a Houdini vs. last year's winner GM Sam Sevian to maintain a half-point lead going into the final day of the 2024 Chess 9LX tournament in St. Louis. His closest rival is GM Hikaru Nakamura, who erred twice against GM Garry Kasparov but survived anyway.
The third and final day will start on Wednesday, October 30, at 1 p.m. CDT/2 p.m. ET/19:00 CET.
Round 6 Standings
Without the need to prepare, the players had a chance to spend their morning in beautiful, sunny St. Louis, perhaps going for a stroll through Forest Park which is just a block away from their hotel. With temperatures up to 27°C (80.6°F), it's about nine degrees above the average daily high, while things are heating up in the tournament as well.
Round 4 Position
The round-four position had at least one thing similar with the regular starting position: the rooks in the corner. Still, it appeared not so easy to play and several minutes into the round, only three moves had been played on all five boards.
One thing this author hadn't mentioned yet in yesterday's report is that draw offers are not allowed in this tournament. The draws that do occur will mostly be the result of a threefold repetition, and we saw one of those just a few minutes into the fourth round. GM Levon Aronian played fast in the opening, a little too fast, and allowed a petite combinaison with which tournament leader Caruana could force the draw:
Speaking of draws, Kasparov managed to escape against GM Grigoriy Oparin from a difficult endgame to maintain his 50 percent score. White was winning at several points, but it was never easy as both players were playing with under two minutes on the clock (with a 10-second increment).
Round 5 Position
Aronian suffered another opening mishap in his game with Sevian and this time the consequences were even more serious. Moving out the queen as early as move two was still OK, but as soon as it got attacked the difference between putting it on h4 or h6 was night and day. Aronian soon felt obliged to give up her Majesty, but never got back into the game.
After taking some extra rest during that fourth round, Caruana got a nice gift from GM Wesley So to move straight to 4.5/5. The "which rook" question is a common one in chess (with both rooks able to go to the same central square), and one way of solving it was once suggested as follows: think as hard as possible, decide which rook is the best one to move, and then play the other! Perhaps So should have followed this advice...
Kasparov made his fans happy by moving to plus one as he converted an excellent endgame vs. Shankland. In the final phase, The Boss won in style:
Garry Kasparov grabs his second full point 🔥and is up against Hikaru Nakamura in the next round! 👀#Chess9LX #STLChessClub #chess pic.twitter.com/shKmbCJhAv
— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) October 29, 2024
Round 6 Position
Whereas Kasparov and his former student Nakamura had successfully analyzed the starting position for round five together (they both won), that wasn't possible for the next round when they had to play each other. Interestingly, in all five games the same first three moves were played (in that order): 1.f4 f5 2.b4.
Nakamura stated afterward that it's always an honor to play in an event with the 13th world champion, but that he usually doesn't play that well against him, perhaps because of the immense respect he has for his illustrious opponent. Today was a point in case, as Nakamura made two big mistakes.
After Kasparov went 32...Rxd4! he even took off his bracelet, reminiscent of him famously taking off his watch oftentimes in his active chess career when playing, and only putting it back on when he would be in a winning position. Back in those days, he would definitely have played on in the final position, which was winning too.
That saved half point for Nakamura seemed to be enough to catch Caruana, who was lost for most of the game against Sevian. Last year's winner, however, somehow allowed his opponent to get away with a draw too.
Here is the game, with annotations by GM Rafael Leitao:
The live broadcast was hosted by GMs Maurice Ashley & Yasser Seirawan and IM Nazi Paikidze.
The 2024 Chess 9LX tournament is an over-the-board Chess960 tournament featuring 10 star players including the legendary Kasparov taking place in the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis. Three rounds are played each day with a 20+10 time control. The first prize is $30,000 with a bonus prize of $7,500 for sole first.
Previous Coverage
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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