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5 Indian Grandmasters In WR Chess Masters Cup Quarterfinals
Alexandra Kosteniuk won a spectacular game, but Nodirbek Abdusattorov managed to hit back. Photo: WR Chess.

5 Indian Grandmasters In WR Chess Masters Cup Quarterfinals

Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
| 22 | Chess Event Coverage

Five Indian grandmasters are through to the Quarterfinals of the 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup, which will feature the all-Indian clashes GM Arjun Erigaisi vs. GM Vidit Gujrathi and GM Viswanathan Anand vs. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. GM Raunak Sadhwani's reward for an upset win over GM Parham Maghsoodloo is to face GM Alireza Firouzja, while GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won a spectacular game vs. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov but couldn't win the match.  

The Quarterfinals of the WR Chess Masters Cup start on October 15 at 5 a.m. ET/11:00 CEST/2:30 p.m. IST.

The Rocky Road To London

Wadim Rosenstein's WR Chess project has had a turbulent year. By late June, the line-ups had been announced for three major tournaments. The $4 million High Roller tournament could have been revolutionary, with GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Abdusattorov, and Hans Niemann putting up $1 million each. It soon collapsed, however, with Niemann citing "contractual disputes." 

The eight-player WR Chess Masters, slated to take place in Dubai, was also postponed in mid-July, but the new dates that were to be announced soon have yet to follow. That left the WR Chess Masters Cup, which is the one event so far to come to fruition, even if it also hasn't been without difficulties. The 16 players were announced in June.

Since then, however, no less than seven of those players have dropped out: GMs Anish Giri, Daniiil Dubov, Nikita Vitiugov, Andrey Esipenko, Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, and finally, over the weekend before the event, GMs Nepomniachtchi and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. In most cases reasons were not given, though Nepomniachtchi's team revealed he'd failed to receive a U.K. visa either for the WR Chess Masters Cup or the preceding Tech Mahindra Global Chess League.

GMs Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Javokhir Sindarov, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Shreyas Royal, Maghsoodloo, and nine-year-old WFM Bodhana Sivananandan all stepped in as replacements.

That ensured we'd have plenty to enjoy in London, including a novel format.

A Knockout Tournament With A Twist

Big knockout tournaments such as the World Cup have always been favorites on the chess calendar, but the problem is both the expense and that players don't know how much time to set aside for the event. They might be there almost a month, or just two days. One solution is to accelerate matters with blitz or rapid chess, but then you lose some gravitas and a sense of rating jeopardy for the players. That's why this event has chosen to go a different way and play classical chess, but the fastest classical chess allowed by the rules.

Each day of the four-day event will feature two classical games, where the players have 60 minutes for 30 moves, then 30 minutes for the next 20, then 30 minutes to the end of the game—all without an increment. That means the maximum length of a classical game is exactly four hours.

If the score remains tied, the players compete in a bidding armageddon game, where White gets 15 minutes, while the players bid the lowest time they're willing to have to get the black pieces and only need a draw to reach the next round.

The format has some drawbacks—players can potentially face over eight hours of chess in a single day, while the overall day's action will usually stretch over 12 hours, but entertainment is guaranteed. 

Round Of 16

Let's take a look at the first day's play, which cut 16 players down to eight. 

Arjun 2-0 Sivanandan

Nine-year-old Sivanandan got the chance to play in her home city after others dropped out, but it was always likely to be a baptism of fire, even when the pairings originally meant that she would face Kosteniuk. The late changes meant that instead she came up against the top seed, world number-three (on the official list) Arjun, who is not just a brilliant player but also a specialist in defeating much weaker opposition.

Sure enough, a massacre followed. Arjun was winning in around 13 moves with White, though his young opponent stuck to her guns and played on until getting checkmated on move 45.

The second game was an illustration of just how dangerous a place the chessboard is against a player of Arjun's class. Sivanandan made one plausible-looking move, 14.Bh6?, and was instantly lost, though again, she played on until the end.

It was a tough day, but also a great experience for a young player who is likely to be a challenge for anyone in another few years. 

Topalov 0-2 Vidit

These two players are rated almost exactly the same, which is why Vidit picked up a neat 10 rating points for his 2-0 clean sweep. 49-year-old former world number-one GM Veselin Topalov is close to retired by this stage, and some rust showed when he cracked under pressure in the first game. The must-win second game with the black pieces went as such games often do—Vidit was able to exploit his opponent's desperate attempts to whip up counterplay to score a comfortable win. 

It wasn't a bad day for the Indian star, who had already received roughly double the prize fund of the whole tournament in London as a reward for winning the Olympiad.

Anand 1.5-0.5 Royal

15-year-old Royal recently became England's youngest-ever grandmaster, and he got to play his idol in London. 

Royal also got on the scoreboard, as the five-time world champion perhaps saw some ghosts when he missed the winning move in the endgame.

Anand wasn't going to make the same mistake in the second game, however, and had beautifully calculated an idea you had to have seen in advance. Black would be losing to Re8+ if not for the interference tactic, 30...Be4!.

After 31.Rxe4 Rxd7 Black was simply a healthy pawn up, and Anand made no mistake in the endgame to clinch the win. 

Praggnanandhaa 2-0 Bologan

Anand will face one of his many proteges, Praggnanandhaa, in the Quarterfinals, after the young star was just too sharp for 52-year-old Bologan. 18.d6! was the start of an idea that would win the game in under ten moves.

The second game was just as convincing as Praggnanandhaa wrapped up the match. 

Abdusattorov 1.5-1.5 Kosteniuk (Nodirbek won in armageddon)

All the way up until the first time control at move 30, this just seemed to be world number-six Abdusattorov doing his thing—overpowering an opponent with relentless precision. Suddenly, however, things began to go off the rails, with two consecutive blunders leaving the Uzbek grandmaster dead lost against the former women's world champion Kosteniuk.

That spectacular win was Kosteniuk's best-ever in classical chess and matched Ju defeating world number-six Firouzja in January this year, but Abdusattorov was able to hit back. First, he exploited one mistake to take over a complex endgame and win with Black in game two, and then he bid eight minutes, got the black pieces for armageddon, and made a draw from a position of strength to clinch a place in the Quarterfinals.

Vachier-Lagrave 2-1 Sindarov

This was the closest of all the matches, with a sharp tussle in the first game ending somewhat abruptly with an agreed draw, before a balanced 57-move draw in game two.

Vachier-Lagrave then bid seven minutes and 36 seconds to get Black vs. Sindarov's 15 minutes in the armageddon. The 18-year-old Uzbek had to win, and it seemed he could as he built up an over +3 advantage, according to the computer. Material was level, however, and commentator GM Jan Gustafsson explained how well Vachier-Lagrave knew these structures and that this was normal fare for the "French School of Suffering." Sure enough, the Frenchman held a draw and won the match, seemingly without working up a sweat.

The Langham Hotel in London was the venue for some French suffering. Image: WR Chess.

Firouzja 1.5-0.5 Vaishali

Firouzja took the lead in the match when he went for a very rare move against his opponent's French Defense and built up a big advantage, though the computer notes in passing that the endgame was briefly only a draw.

Hitting back on demand against a player as strong as Firouzja is tough, but Vaishali came close as she found herself a healthy pawn up. Again, the computer gave her an advantage verging on overwhelming, but it needed precision, and a few inaccuracies saw another Frenchman reach the Quarterfinals.

Maghsoodloo 0-2 Raunak

This was the one real upset, though perhaps an upset lessened by the fact Maghsoodloo was a very late addition to the line-up. Nothing foretold what was going to happen when he took a slight advantage in the endgame of the first game, but he managed to sabotage his own position, with Raunak taking full advantage.

Maghsoodloo then needed to hit back with the black pieces, but instead it was Raunak who dominated with White instead, picking up another win and a total of 11.6 rating points. Firouzja lies in wait.

How to watch?
You can watch commentary on the 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup on the WR Chess YouTube Channel. You can also follow the games on our Events Page: 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup.

The live broadcast was hosted by GM Jan Gustafsson.

The 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup is a 16-player knockout held in the Langham Hotel, London, that runs October 14-18. Each match features two games using the shortest possible classical time control: 60 minutes for 30 moves, 30 minutes for 20 moves, then 30 minutes to the end of the game, with no increment. A 1-1 tie is decided by bidding armageddon, with 15 minutes for White. The prize fund is €58,000, with €20,000 for top place.

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Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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