WANG YUE EMERGES AS WINNER IN LAST ROUND!
After 7 rounds of the rapid chess tournament Wang Yue from China became the unexpected winner of the men section. He won his critical last game against Peter Leko who had been leading almost since the beginning of the event. Lets take a look what happened step by step:
The second day of the rapid chess event started with round 5 of the tournament. In the top game of the men's section, Peter Leko from Hungary won with black pieces against Wang Hao from China, and with this retained the 1st position in the crosstable.
After the opening black equalized in one of the well known lines in the Grunfeld Defence.
White decided to fight for a full point and sacrifice a piece in the middle game:
20.Nxe6 fxe6 21.Bxg6
This position is totaly unclear, white has two pawn for a piece, for more black king is under attack. However Leko defended very well, and after Wang Hao didn't find the best moves they came to position on next diagram:
Black is a rook up, but the pawn on seventh rank is almost promoting, so the only choice for Leko was to give the rook back. He found the best way to do it:
31...Qf6! Probably white missed this move after which his position is hopeless
32.exf8=Q Rxf8. Now white can't move the bishop because of Qxf2 Wang Hao gave up the bishop and after few moves resigned.
On the second board Sergey Karjakin who was on second place after day 1, lost to top rated Alexander Grischuk. This result made a lot of changes in the crosstable. Peter Leko had already a full point advantage, Alexander Grischuk was alone on second place, third place was shared by six players: Sergey Karjakin, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Wang Hao, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wang Yue.
Round 6 didn't bring too much changes. Peter Leko was still clearly leading. 5 points out of 6 games was giving him a full point advantage over his nearest compeititors. Alexander Grischuk from Russia after drawing with the leader had second place, but not alone anymore. Wang Yue and Ian Nepomniachtchi won their games and they joined the fight for the top places.
The most interesting part of tournament was the last round. For Peter Leko a draw was enough to get the gold medal. However his opponent Wang Yue was ready to fight till the end for the first place. Lets see the most important moments in the game:
Leko chose a very solid line, but he started to play a bit passively, after 20 moves the position was already slightly better for black:
Wang Yue decided to go for a better endgame with a series of exchanges: Bxc4, Qxc4 Qxc4, Bxc4 Rd2. Black had the "d" file under control and good chances to improve the position.
After some manoeuvers Leko made a mistake following which he lost a pawn:
35. b4? cxb4 36.cxb4 Rd4!
White still had some chances for a draw but with only few minutes on the clock Leko didn't manage to defend properly.
This is the final position of the most important game:
Black wants to play Rc3 and the pawn is promoting, white has no time to sacrifice the rook:
Rxc2 Kxc2, Kxe5 Rf3!
Wang Yue started with only 1,5 out of 3, but he proved that finish is the most important part of tournament and it's worth to fight till the end.
Peter Leko finished second with the same score 5/7, the tiebreak was the direct game.
The fight for the bronze medal was also very interesting. Ian Nepomniatchi form Russia eventually lost to Lenier Dominguez from Cuba. In this situation Alexander Grischuk took third place after making a draw agaist Wang Hao. |
