China, USA Will Battle In Sunday Superfinal At FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup
China and the USA will face each other in Sunday's Superfinal of the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup. On Saturday, the USA lost to Europe in round one, but then they became the only team to beat China in the tournament. Thus, USA finished in a tie with Europe, advancing to the Superfinal due to scoring precisely half a board point more.
All games will be played on the Chess.com live server and can be followed on our events page and in our Android and iOS apps under "Watch." Commentary by GM Robert Hess, IM Daniel Rensch, and special guests can be enjoyed at Chess.com/TV where the games will be discussed and explained.
The Chess.com Day 5 Live Broadcast for replay.
Round 9
| Bo. | Fed | USA | Rtg | 1½:2½ | Fed | Europe | Rtg |
| 2.1 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2829 | ½ - ½ | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2860 | ||
| 2.2 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2773 | ½ - ½ | Aronian, Levon | 2778 | ||
| 2.3 | So, Wesley | 2741 | ½ - ½ | Giri, Anish | 2731 | ||
| 2.4 | Krush, Irina | 2392 | 0 - 1 | Dzagnidze, Nana | 2447 |
The big clash between the USA and Europe was likely going to decide the fight for second place, considering the pairings for the final round where the USA would face the leader China, while Europe would play the Rest of the World.
After three tense games on the top three boards, where GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was closest to a win vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura, it was the ladies' board where this key match was decided. GM Nana Dzagnidze always had a slight edge, and she eventually outplayed GM Irina Krush in a rook endgame:
| Bo. | Fed | India | Rtg | 1½:2½ | Fed | China | Rtg |
| 3.1 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2636 | ½ - ½ | Wang Hao | 2750 | ||
| 3.2 | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2690 | ½ - ½ | Wei Yi | 2752 | ||
| 3.3 | Adhiban, Baskaran | 2624 | 0 - 1 | Yu Yangyi | 2738 | ||
| 3.4 | Harika, Dronavalli | 2450 | ½ - ½ | Hou Yifan | 2621 |
With no chance for qualifying for the final, team captain Vishy Anand and player Vishy Anand must have agreed that he could take the day off.
Meanwhile, GM Yu Yangyi was the absolute star player of this event. Well, at least for nine rounds. He improved his score even further to 6.5/8 with another excellent win, this time against GM Baskaran Adhiban.
| Bo. | Fed | Rest of the World | Rtg | 2 : 2 | Fed | Russia | Rtg |
| 1.1 | Radjabov, Teimour | 2758 | 1 - 0 | Artemiev, Vladislav | 2769 | ||
| 1.2 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2703 | 1 - 0 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2709 | ||
| 1.3 | Amin, Bassem | 2608 | 0 - 1 | Andreikin, Dmitry | 2740 | ||
| 1.4 | Muzychuk, Mariya | 2506 | 0 - 1 | Girya, Olga | 2471 |
In a match that was only played for the history books, GM Sergey Karjakin learned the hard way how fast GM Alireza Firouzja has improved lately. He was completely outplayed and then beaten with a kingside attack:
A tremendous pleasure and honor to talk with @GMJuditPolgar about online chess, the #NationsCup, fair play, her many initiatives and more! 👀 pic.twitter.com/s2rmXouuES
— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 9, 2020
The legendary Judit Polgar joined our live broadcast for a bit during the break.
Round 10
| Bo. | Fed | China | Rtg | 1½:2½ | Fed | USA | Rtg |
| 2.1 | Ding Liren | 2836 | 1 - 0 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2829 | ||
| 2.2 | Wang Hao | 2750 | 0 - 1 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2773 | ||
| 2.3 | Yu Yangyi | 2738 | 0 - 1 | So, Wesley | 2741 | ||
| 2.4 | Ju Wenjun | 2610 | ½ - ½ | Krush, Irina | 2392 |
Europe was going into the final round a match point ahead of the USA, and as said, with a much better pairing. But the unthinkable happened.
While Europe couldn't win their match, the USA did manage, with GM Wesley So becoming the first player to beat Yu in this tournament and, with that win, securing the two match points.
Wesley So: "You said @Kasparov63 did everything he could, but he actually didn't..."@DanielRensch: "...In what way?"
— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 9, 2020
So: "Because he didn't play!" 😂
Incredible performance by Europe who miss out on the final by a 1/2 point. Kasparov adds great online coach to his resume! pic.twitter.com/nW6ff9VTG8
| Bo. | Fed | Europe | Rtg | 2 : 2 | Fed | Rest of the World | Rtg |
| 3.1 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2860 | ½ - ½ | Radjabov, Teimour | 2758 | ||
| 3.2 | Aronian, Levon | 2778 | 0 - 1 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2703 | ||
| 3.3 | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2774 | 1 - 0 | Amin, Bassem | 2608 | ||
| 3.4 | Dzagnidze, Nana | 2447 | ½ - ½ | Saduakassova, Dinara | 2412 |
So where did it go wrong for Europe? As always, it's a team effort, but the one board that was lost was GM Levon Aronian's game with Firouzja. Unfortunately for Aronian and his team, the Iranian star had his best day of the event as he scored 2/2 with two fine games:
Proud of my team for fighting hard. It went down to the wire despite not playing our best chess. But I suppose we're celebrating Victory IN Europe Day, not Victory FOR Europe Day! https://t.co/1BKI8KiAgS
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 9, 2020
| Bo. | Fed | Russia | Rtg | 2½:1½ | Fed | India | Rtg |
| 1.1 | Artemiev, Vladislav | 2769 | 1 - 0 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2636 | ||
| 1.2 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2709 | ½ - ½ | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2690 | ||
| 1.3 | Andreikin, Dmitry | 2740 | 1 - 0 | Adhiban, Baskaran | 2624 | ||
| 1.4 | Girya, Olga | 2471 | 0 - 1 | Koneru, Humpy | 2483 |
In another match where not much was at stake, GM Vladislav Artemiev stole the show with a flashy attack on GM Vidit Gujrathi's king. The Indian player later apologized on Twitter for his disappointing level of play in the event.
I don't recall the last time I played this poorly. Something was just completely off. Apologies to everyone who was rooting for me & the team.
— Vidit Gujrathi (@viditchess) May 9, 2020
FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup | Final Standings
| Rk. | Team | 1a | 1b | 2a | 2b | 3a | 3b | 4a | 4b | 5a | 5b | 6a | 6b | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | China | 2½ | 1½ | 3 | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 3 | 3½ | 17 | 25.5 | 0 | 473.5 | 61 | ||
| 2 | USA | 1½ | 2½ | 1 | 1½ | 3 | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 3 | 13 | 22 | 0 | 418.8 | 58.5 | ||
| 3 | Europe | 1 | 1½ | 3 | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 2 | 13 | 21.5 | 0 | 414.3 | 53 | ||
| 4 | Russia | 2 | 1½ | 1 | 1½ | 2 | 1½ | 2 | 2½ | 3 | 2 | 8 | 19 | 0 | 370.8 | 45 | ||
| 5 | India | 1½ | 1½ | 2 | 1½ | 1½ | 2 | 2 | 1½ | 1½ | 2½ | 5 | 17.5 | 0 | 353.3 | 43 | ||
| 6 | Rest of the World | 1 | ½ | 1½ | 1 | 1½ | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2½ | 1½ | 4 | 14.5 | 0 | 295.5 | 39.5 |
Tough luck for team Europe.
— Peter Heine Nielsen (@PHChess) May 9, 2020
Despite beating the USA twice, they end up on the same amount of match-points,and loses the spot in the final on board points. https://t.co/g1as0bzRk8
Tomorrow's Superfinal will start an hour later, so 7:00 a.m. Pacific / 10 a.m. Eastern / 16:00 CEST. China will have white on boards one and three. As the winner of the round-robin, China got to choose colors and also has draw odds in the one match that is the final.
In other words, the USA needs to do for a second time what no other team has managed: beat China.
The FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup is a team competition held from May 5-10, 2020 on Chess.com featuring Russia, USA, Europe, China, India, plus a team representing the "Rest of the World." The total prize fund is $180,000, sponsored by Chess.com.
The first stage consists of a double round-robin, with each team playing each other twice. The top two teams after 10 rounds qualify for a "Superfinal" match.
All matches are played on four boards: three with male players and one with female players. The time control for all games is 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move one.
Games Day 5 for replay/download
During today's live broadcast, the songwriter and musician Juga released her latest chess song.
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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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