FIDE Grand Prix Tournament 2, Round 1

 Note: I am reporting on this event while visiting my family. Coverage of it will be complete, but it may not be particularly timely.

The second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix has started, this time in the Serbian capital Belgrade. Ding Liren's visa struggles have continued, and he has withdrawn from this event and from the Grand Prix as a whole. Dmitri Andreikin, however, has recovered from COVID, and has taken Ding's place in this event, thus keeping his qualification hopes alive.

However, it has suddenly become unclear just how many qualification places there actually are, and who would be eligible to take them up. Thanks to an ongoing geopolitical crisis, it is possible - although so far not confirmed either way - that players from Russia may not be allowed to take part in the Candidates. As two Russians, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin, have already qualified, this would leave gaps in the tournament - which could potentially be filled by players from the Grand Prix.

On to the chess itself:

Group A: Andreikin put down a strong marker for his chances of winning the group by beating top seed Grischuk with black. The other game, Bacrot-Shankland, was fairly level pegging throughout and ended as a draw.

Group B: Giri was in fine form, displaying both some inventive opening play and some good endgame technique to defeat Tabatabaei. In the other game, a horrible early blunder from Harikrishna gave Vitiugov the full point.

Group C: Rapport had the advantage for most of his game against Fedoseev, but let it slip on the approach to the time control, and it ended up as a draw. In the other game, Vidit's king proved much the safer in an opposite-side-castling slugfest against Shirov.

Group D: Both opening games here were drawn, with Predke not managing to make anything of a middlegame advantage against Vachier-Lagrave, while a deeply theoretical line of the Scotch led to early simplification between Yu and Mamedyarov.

World Championship 2022 Index 

 



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