Two for One

王皓 (Wáng Hào) – David Wei Liang Howell
1st FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019; Santon, October 21, 2019
Neo-Grünfeld Defence D71

王皓 (Wáng Hào) from China is the surprising winner of the Grand Swiss Tournament — having scored a better tie-breaker than Fabiano Caruana — and thus also the taker of the Candidates’ spot up for grabs. One can only notice that both Magnus Carlsen and Caruana, who didn’t need the victory in the tournament, made the fate of the winner and losers, crowning 王皓 (Wáng Hào) “King for a Night” and kicking Levon Grigori Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura off from next year’s Candidates Tournament. 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nf3 Nb6 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. e3 e5 9. Nc3 exd4 10. Nxd4 Nxd4 11. exd4 c6 12. d5 cxd5 13. Nxd5 0-0 14. Be3. If 14. Nc3 then 14. ... Qxd1 15. Rxd1 Bg4 16. Rf1 Nc4 17. Nd5 Kh8 18. Bg5 Rac8= Najdorf – F. Ólafsson, International Jubilee Grandmaster Tournament, Bled 1961. 14. ... Be6!?TN (14. ... Nxd5 ½ : ½ Grachev – Areshchenko, 20th Cappelle-la-Grande Open, Cappelle-la-Grande 2004) 15. Nxb6 axb6 16. Bxb7 Rxa2 17. Rxa2 Bxa2 18. Qa4

18. ... Bd5?? A blunder that loses immediately. Correct was 18. ... Be6 19. Qb4 Qf6 20. Qxb6 Qxb2 with dead equality. 19. Rd1+− Bxb7 20. Rxd8 Rxd8 21. f4 Bxb2 22. Qa7 Rd7 23. Qxb6 Ba1 24. Qb5 Rd1+ 25. Kf2 Bh1 26. Qe8+ Kg7 27. Bc5 h5 28. Bf8+ Kf6 29. Qe7+ Kf5 30. Qxf7+ Bf6 31. Be7 Rd2+ 32. Ke3 Rxh2 33. Qxf6+ Kg4 34. Qxg6+ Kh3 35. f5 Bd5 36. f6 Kg2 37. Qc2+ 1 : 0.

Howell showed no nerves for his afternoon’s showdown, and 王皓 (Wáng Hào) took easily advantage of such an unexpected acquiescence. Photo: John Saunders.