The Day Before The Day After

Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi – Kirill Alexeyevich Alekseenko
Candidates Tournament 2020–21; Yekaterinburg, April 21, 2021
English Opening A13

Because everyone knows what a “wild card” is for, there might be nothing truly surprising about the result, even though, at least for intellectual honesty, it should be noted that a player as strong as Nepomniachtchi doesn’t need any favour from any influential authorities (and, in any case, not today!). 1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 d5 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. Qa4+ Nbd7 6. Qxc4 a6 7. Qc2 c5 8. Nc3 Be7. Very interesting, and probably better, is 8. ... Qc7 9. d4 b5 10. Bf4 Qa7!?∞ Nikolaevsky – Kholmov, Semifinal of the 40th USSR Chess Championship, Uzhgorod 1972. 9. 0-0 0-0 10. d4 cxd4 11. Nxd4 Qc7 12. Rd1 Rd8? The first new move of the game — but it doesn’t give a good impression. Likewise 12. ... Nc5?! 13. Na4± also gave White a manifest edge in Korobkov – Provotorov, 12th Master Open, Voronezh 2008. So perhaps 12. ... Nb6 might be Black’s best reply, even though it worked badly in the only instance of its occurrence: 13. Bg5⩲/± e5? (⌓ 13. ... h6) 14. Nf5 Bxf5 15. Qxf5 Rad8?? 16. Bxf6 1 : 0 Galego – de Souza, 1st Vince Tóth Memorial, Rio de Janeiro 1999. 13. Be3 Nb6 14. Rac1 e5 15. Nf5 Bxf5 16. Qxf5. Only 16 moves and White’s advantage is already crushing.

16. ... Nc4. The threat of Nc3-d5 was leaving Alekseenko little choice, as also after 16. ... g6 17. Qf3 White leads the dance. 17. Bg5 Rxd1+ 18. Nxd1 Rd8. Black’s raft is going to sink. 19. Bxf6 Bxf6 20. Be4 Qa5 21. Nc3 Kf8 22. Nd5 b5 23. Qxh7 Rxd5 24. Bxd5 Qd2. At last a threat!

25. Rxc4! bxc4 26. e4 Qxb2 27. Qh8+ Ke7 28. Qc8! As if that weren’t enough, mating threats loom around the Black King. 28. ... Qb6. If 28. ... c3 then 29. Qc7+ Ke8 30. Bc6+ Kf8 31. Qc8+ Ke7 32. Qd7+ Kf8 33. Qe8#. 29. Qxc4 Qb5. No doubt it is as good a way as another to surrender, but other moves do not help either, since, in any case, the f7-Pawn cannot be defended. 30. Qc7+ Qd7 31. Qc5+ 1 : 0.

Wednesday passed by, Thursday is coming, and finally the day after tomorrow will be the day of truth for both Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana. Photo © Lennart Ootes.