En route to my 10th Grand Chess Tour!

It was very arduously that I qualified for my 10th consecutive Grand Chess Tour, in 2025. It took until the final round of the last tournament for a final win (against world champion Ding Liren) to validate my ticket. It was all the more of a relief that this game ended a run of 25 consecutive draws in classical games, and even 29 in Grand Chess Tour tournaments! Not tasting victory for such a long time, especially when you’ve had quite a few opportunities that you’ve squandered, does get on your nerves!

Naturally, I’m still pleased with this new-found solidity, but now the only streak still running is a sweeter one, ie. the number of consecutive games without defeat, at 52!

A look back at the US leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2024, again in the temple of the Saint-Louis Chess Club. And a big bravo to Alireza for his new treble, after the one in 2022… Saint-Louis Rapid & Blitz, Sinquefield Cup and Grand Chess Tour 2024. Impressive!

Rapid & Blitz

Since 2014, I’ve had time to establish my habits in the Missouri city! I still have the same routines, I know when to get up, when to exercise, when and where to eat etc….

Having arrived 4 days before the start of the tournament, I had time to digest the jet lag and prepare for an extremely tough tournament, with all the members of the elite present (except Magnus). In this ultra-competitive context, players in poor form were heavily penalized in terms of scoring… Obviously, I’m thinking above all of Prag, who wasted quite a few winning positions – including one against me, by the way -.

As for me, I was in pretty good shape at the start, but then it turned out to be a bit more uncertain. In particular, I lost a game to Nepo in round 7 from a dominant position; this upset me a little for the end of the Rapid, even though I had a good finish thanks to my win over Dominguez in the last game (in a Berlin endgame!).

In the Blitz, on the other hand, it was much less convincing than in Zagreb (13/18 in Croatia, and 8/18 here, the comparison is quickly made!). I’m well aware, however, that blitz is by nature a little more random, especially at my very advanced age 😊. It’s also a question of « flow », of rhythm, and in Saint-Louis, I couldn’t find it, especially on Day 2, which was decisive. Admittedly, 1st place was starting to look a long way off, as Alireza had a very good first day. But I was still tied for second.

Unfortunately, I lost the first game against Hikaru (Nakamura) being a pawn up in the endgame, only to lose in R+B vs R against 10 moves before the 50-move rule!

It hurt, and after that I couldn’t come back. In any case, not enough to claim to have had a good day, especially after a final loss to Alireza. In the end, I finished shared 4-5 in the tournament, which wasn’t great and put me in a tricky situation ahead of the Sinquefield Cup, where I had to do better than Wesley So while keeping an eye on Nepo and especially Prag. This was the prerequisite for catching the overall third place of the circuit and qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour 2025.

Sinquefield Cup

I started with two uneventful games. Against Nepo with black, I played for one of the first times at the top level 1.e4 e5 without opting for the Petroff. It went well, and I was able to neutralize Ian in the opening. Then, a draw against Prag without too many waves, with some small regrets about my treatment of the Italian; but that’s the story of our chess-playing lives 😊.

Then came the first turning point against Alireza (Firoujza), who had made a flying start to the tournament, helped however by an extremely tense game against Fabiano, which he ended up winning in a mutual zeitnot.
The opening was a London system, which I had prepared a little in advance to diversify my options; this one was more aggressive involving a pawn sacrifice, and led to positions with few landmarks, which I can also appreciate. The treatment of the position was therefore extremely complex.

I’d seen the line where he missed the advantage with 21.h5! instead of his 21.Rxg4? gxf5, which swung the position in black’s favor. But I had seen without really understanding! Admittedly, I’d realized that the idea of transferring his Knight to d4 would give me the edge, for example 21.Nb3 gxf5 22.Nd4 Bh6. Except that if he starts with 21.h5! gxf5 22.h6 Bh8 23.h7+, my Bishop on h8 doesn’t come back to h6 and that’s a huge difference in evaluating the position. It may not seem like it at first glance, but it’s understandable at the analysis. Having said that, it’s so difficult that neither Alireza nor I have been able to do it…

As the game progressed, I found myself in a better position, but a completely irrational one. I knew it would require a lot of consolidation from black. I felt I was making the right moves, but without really knowing where I stood in terms of evaluation. At one point, when I had to give back control of the g-file, admittedly by fetching white’s h5-pawn, I felt I was starting to lose control as his Knights could still create threats, and his Rook on the g-file was quite unbearable.

The turning point came in this position: my idea was 36…Bxd4. But all of a sudden, I saw 37.Nxd5!? and 37…cxd5 38.Qxd5 Bg7 (only move) 39.Qf7 Qe5 (only move) 40.Qxh5+ Kg8 didn’t satisfy me; admittedly, the machine gives black the advantage, but I was far from convinced of that during the game! Then I calculated 37…Be6 38.Nf6+ Bxf6 39.Qxe6 Rg5 (only move) 40.Rxg5 Bxg5 41.Qxf5+ Kh6 42.Qe6+ (42.Qxe4? Qh7! with a winning Queen exchange) 42…Kg7 42.Qxe4 and stopped, completely forgetting 42…Qf7! followed by 43…Bh4 and my f-pawn will make the difference. So I went back to the diagrammed position and looked at the other options that seemed possible. 36…Qc8 didn’t appeal to me either and I finally opted for 36…Qb8, which is another good move which doesn’t spoil anything. After repeating the position once with 37.Qa4 Qc7 38.Qb3 Qb8 39.Qa4, despite my 40 minutes left and half-hour lead on the clock, I completely panicked and lost all objectivity. I didn’t see the simplest win which was 39…Rh2, forcing either a pitiful retreat like 40.Nd1, 40.Rf1, 40.Qc2, or 40.Cxd5 which can be superbly ignored with 40…Rxf2 and with the Queen on a4, white has no counterplay on my King. Instead, I foolishly repeated a third time with 39…Qc7…, a decision which was not understood by the commentators and which, I confess, does not correspond to any rational logic!

Against Abdusattorov, nothing to report; I was still upset by the previous game and didn’t get anything in the opening with white.

Against Fabiano (Caruana), just before the rest day, I came to my senses and played a pretty decent game. The balance was never really disturbed, even if at the end I started to get a bit ambitious. But I told myself that objectively I really didn’t have much, and besides, if I declined the draw after what I’d done against Alireza… 😊.

I then faced Gukesh, doubling black. Another Najdorf after the one against Fabiano, this time with 6.Bd3. I didn’t quite understand his idea in the opening, because I didn’t deviate from what I usually play, and he seemed unsure of what plan to adopt. This led to an extremely complicated middle game in which I sacrificed the a6 pawn, thinking that I’d certainly get some compensation tactically, in a position that remained very murky.

After 18.Bxa6, I rejected the sacrifice 18…bxa6 19.Bxe5 Bb5 20.Rf2 dxe5 21.Rxd8 Rexd8, which seemed insufficient for black. I preferred to play for positional compensations with
18…Nfd7 19.Bd3 Bh4
. Soon afterwards, he began to run out of time, and there were a few inaccuracies on both sides as the situation clarified in the center. Finally, Gukesh, who was already playing almost exclusively on the increment, decided to exchange Queens, which led to the following endgame:

Now it’s a race, and I don’t think he anticipated that I’d be fast too, with my Kingside pawns!

The next long sequence is almost forced. I looked for other options but couldn’t find any. 39…g5 40.a4 h5 41.a5 g4 42.hxg4?! (better was 42.a6! keeping the h-pawns as it set a diabolical trap for black! If I continue as in the game with 42…f3 43.gxf3 gxf3 44.Nc3 Rh2 45.Kg1 Bg3? [only 45…Rg2+ 46.Kh1 Bf2! can give hopes of survival in this line: 47.Rf1 Bd4 48.Rxf3 Rxc2 and Black hangs on] 46.a7 f2+ 47.Kf1 Rh1+ 48.Kg2 Rxc1 49.a8=Q+ Kg7 50.Qb7+ Kg6 51.Qxc6+ Kg5, the big nuance is 52.Kxg3! and white wins since, with the presence of the h3/h5 pawns, the threat 53.h4 mate is lethal!) 42…hxg4 43.a6 f3 44.gxf3 gxf3 45.Nc3 Rh2 46.Kg1 Bg3 (the simplest, and it’s now white who must find the way to a draw) 47.a7 (and not 47.Nd1 Te2!) 47…f2+ 48.Kf1 Rh1+ 49.Kg2 Rxc1 50.a8=Q+ Kg7 51.Qb7+ Kg6 52.Qxc6+ Kg5 and now that 53.Kxg3? f1=Q is no longer possible since the possibility of h4 mate is missing and, moreover, that white’s Queen has no check available, Gukesh is obliged to find a series of only moves to escape. 53.Qc4 Rg1+ 54.Kh3! (and especially not 54.Kf3? Rh4!) 54…f1=Q+ 55.Qxf1 Rxf1 56.Kxg3 Rc1

Here Gukesh found the easiest way to draw, giving up his two Queenside pawns to set a fortress with the Knight on d3. 57.Kf3! Rxc2 58.Nd1 Rd2 59.Nf2! (and not 59.Ne3? which would not be a fortress, because after 59…Rxb2, white would not be able to prevent the arrival of black’s King on the key-square f4) 59…Rxb2 60.Nd3 Rb5 61.Ke3 Kg4 62.Ke2 and white has the perfect defensive setup.

An excellent defensive performance from Gukesh, especially with so little time on the clock.

Then, against Anish (Giri) with white, I was neutralized in the infamous Berlin endgame, before creating difficulties on my own in the penultimate round against Wesley (So), even though it ended in another point split.

Finally, against Ding in the last round, I knew my mission, because in the meantime Wesley, who was half a point ahead, had lost to Abdusattorov. We were therefore tied and I had to do better than him to overtake him in the final Grand Chess Tour ranking and take that most wanted qualifying place for 2025. To achieve my mission, I was white against the world champion, while he was black against Gukesh. I knew I’d have to keep a complicated position, especially as Ding had lost two days earlier to Alireza in just such a position. Hence the choice of a specific preparation against the Spanish concocted with my trainer, and the emphasis on time management too.

It worked beyond my expectations because Ding quickly got mixed up with 19…Ng6? which is certainly a move worth taking into consideration, but so risky given the position. You can feel that if white is given one or two tempi, it will quickly become catastrophic for black. I think my move 20.Qe1! refutes his play. If 20…Nxh4 21.f4! Ng6 22.f5 h4 23.Bh2 and black’s position is on the verge of implosion. 20…c4!? was the only way to try and fish in troubled waters, but after his choice of 20…Kf8? 21.f3, he was never able to put up any real resistance, all the more so as he seemed a little elsewhere.

Looking ahead to Ding’s World Championship match against Gukesh on November 25, he has a few positives to report. At the World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships in Astana in August, his level of play was quite encouraging, and I think the fact that he played as part of a team helped him. Incidentally, it’ll be interesting to see him play at the Olympiads in Budapest. But in this type of tournament like the Sinquefield Cup, everyone’s in it for the long haul, with the knife between their teeth. And when he had a promising position, he didn’t push it to the limit. Inevitably, this plays tricks when you finally have to start defending. At the end of the tournament, first against Alireza and then against me, you couls feel he was slipping back into his old ways. He still has a few months and a lot of preparation to do, but time is running out to get back to the Ding « prime » we once knew and miss! If the match was to take place tomorrow, Gukesh would be the clear favorite. But let’s wait a little, because things can change very quickly: there are almost 3 months to go, there are other tournaments to be played, but it’s true that the onus is on Ding and his team to find solutions to get him back on track.

With this qualification for the Grand Chess Tour 2025, my year’s major objective has been achieved. But there are a few other deadlines till the end of the year. The first is the Olympics, where I’ll be making my return to the French team. We’ve got a team that’s certainly missing Alireza, but it’s still looking good. We’re definitely going to try to do something big! Next on the agenda is the final tournament of the Champions Chess Tour, even though I’m already virtually qualified for the live finals in December.

October also sees the second edition of the Global Chess League in London, followed by the WR Masters Cup, also in the British capital.

Maxime’s rapid games:

Maxime’s blitz games:

Maxime’s Sinquefield games:

Having just returned from the USA on August 31, Maxime headed back to Vichy. The CREPS (Center for resources, expertise and sports performance) in this town in central France was hosting the French teams for a training camp prior to the Budapest Olympiads. The highly reputed Vichy CREPS is regularly chosen by athletes and international teams before major competitions. The performance support staff therefore looked after the 10 players and 2 captains for 5 days. The program consisted of sessions focusing on sport, recovery and sleep, based on typical, fairly fast-paced days. Without forgetting to leave a little time for purely chess preparation, i.e. 3 or 4 hours a day. It’s a highly satisfactory initiative, which deserves to be put on a long-term footing.