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GM Levon Aronian is the new leader of the Chess9LX online tournament after winning all his games on the second day. GM Garry Kasparov managed to score just half a point from three promising positions.
Kasparov’s game was influenced by a tragic mistake that occurred due to an involuntary movement. The 13th world champion is now at 2/6.
GM Magnus Carlsen suffered a rare loss that occurred in the fifth round against GM Wesley So, who also beat him to become the 2019 Chess960 world champion.
Round 6 ranking
| # | fed | Name | bone scan | Perf | one | two | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| one | Aronian, Levon | 2778 | 2954 | ½ | ½ | one | ½ | one | one | 4.5 / 6 | ||||||
| two | So Wesley | 2829 | 2967 | ½ | one | ½ | ½ | one | ½ | 4.0 / 6 | 12.25 | |||||
| 3 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2741 | 2928 | ½ | ½ | 0 | one | one | one | 4.0 / 6 | 10.75 | |||||
| 4 | Carlsen, Magnus | 2881 | 2914 | 0 | ½ | one | ½ | one | one | 4.0 / 6 | 9 | |||||
| 5 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2786 | 2843 | 0 | ½ | one | ½ | ½ | one | 3.5 / 6 | ||||||
| 6 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2773 | 2727 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | one | one | 3.0 / 6 | ||||||
| 7 | Kasparov, Garry | 2783 | 2625 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | one | 2.0 / 6 | 5.25 | |||||
| 8 | Svidler, Peter | 2742 | 2669 | 0 | 0 | ½ | one | 0 | ½ | 2.0 / 6 | 4.5 | |||||
| 9 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2860 | 2667 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | one | 0 | 1.5 / 6 | 4 | |||||
| 10 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2703 | 2569 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | one | 1.5 / 6 | 2.5 |
Kasparov’s mishap occurred earlier in the day in his meeting with GM Fabiano Caruana. It was especially tragic because he had just reached a winning position.
What happened is that he wanted to trade queens with 34.Qe4-c2, but his queen landed on d3. He then tried to quickly drag it to c2, which was recorded as a premove, a loser after Caruana’s response.
Kasparov: “It’s shocking because this time it wasn’t me who made a mistake; it’s the computer. It was a good game; it was a serious game. Actually, when you look, I made tons of good moves. It was difficult to play after this game. “
Kasparov tied his next game with GM Leinier Dominguez, ended with a loss against GM Hikaru Nakamura, but also had chances to win in these two games. When asked if he would score better if he played five tournaments a year instead of just one, he replied: “I just don’t have time.”
The new leader is Aronian, who has often stated that Chess960 is his favorite game. After a modest 1.5 / 3 on the first day, he won three games on the second.
“I thought I was playing with more passion today; I can’t say I was playing better, but at least I was more motivated to show that I can play this game well,” Aronian said. “It’s not that I was successful in the first game, I think I won mainly because of my opponent’s mistakes, but in general I was alert at times when I needed to be alert, so that’s good.
I thought I was playing with more passion today.
—Levon Aronian
Players often don’t have an explanation for good form, but this time Aronian mentioned some concrete differences: “I trained more this morning than yesterday. I worked harder, solved more tactics and didn’t miss my chances.”
Here’s his sixth round win against Dominguez, who said he had seen the tactic on b2 but misjudged it.
Carlsen is among the players behind Aronian by half a point as he suffered a fifth round loss to So. The American GM played an excellent game in which he was doing well from the opening.
“I was very surprised when he faced c6, but at the time, I think he was doing quite well in the opening,” said So, who continued energetically with moves like 13 … a5. “The thing is, against Magnus you need to play very good chess; if you play cowardly, you will probably lose. I thought I should try to play aggressively.”
At the bottom of the table, we find the two GMs who live in France: Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The latter has somehow never found its best in online chess events during the pandemic.
“It’s kind of weird, of course, but I don’t want to go into that for some reason,” MVL said. “Of course, there were some crucial games that I lost yesterday, and today that didn’t help. I finished on a high note today, but it certainly wasn’t a great game.”
The Frenchman added that he has something to look forward to: finishing his tournament with a game against Kasparov in the final round.
Chess9LX, day 2 | All the games
The Chess9LX tournament will be played September 11-13 at lichess for a $ 150,000 prize pool. The time control is 20 minutes plus a 10 second increment.
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