Category: English

MY DECEMBER

A look back at December, which was a busy month in terms of Rapid and Blitz games, with the Champions Chess Tour Finals in Oslo, followed by the Rapid and Blitz World Championships in New York. I was obviously highly motivated, with a stated goal of winning one of the three. It’s fair to say that I didn’t achieve my goal, and not by a long shot 😊. The main cause, and this was even more glaring in the Blitz, was the profusion of miscalculations. This was something we had already noticed at the London Blitz tournament the previous week.

In this normal position at the end of the opening, I played the terrible 14.Bd2?, completely forgetting 14…Nd3 with a double attack on the Re1 and the b2-pawn.

And these unusual miscalculations were repeated throughout the month, as well as a few stunning errors of judgment…

So, during the Champions Chess Tour semi-final against Magnus in Oslo, I had a rather new and surprising experience. I had the feeling that I fought on equal terms in positional play and piece placement, which I must admit is quite rare 😊. But on the other hand, in terms of pure tactics, I was completely dominated, which is also very unusual!

In this game, I had obtained a clearly winning position, and I could probably have avoided this endgame, which poses real conversion problems. But that was no reason to play the inept 47.Nxc6? Nxc6 48.c5, and with the blockade on c6 unbreakable, the position is completely drawn.

Those who followed my tournament in New York will have noticed that these miscalculations were particularly flagrant on the Blitz day, which qualified only the top 8 players for the finals. And I was never able to get into the race because of these really serious errors, at least by my usual standards. The second day of the Rapid also went badly from that point of view, but it was less obvious.

To date, I don’t know what conclusion to draw, but in any case, I’m obviously thinking about it with my whole team. It’s a negative point that was very important at the end of the season, and one that absolutely must be resolved in 2025.

END-OF-YEAR POLEMICS

On the subject of the FIDE Dress Code, I’ve already had the opportunity to express my views in various interviews. For good or for bad – and I have been quite active in the discussions about it in the past few years – the dress code rules for this year were explained in advance, including the fact that you would not be paired after a second offense. I’m not a fan of the ban of jeans and sneakers, but there is a logic behind it : to not have to sort on the day which jeans and sneakers are acceptable for the event and which ones are not. Once I’ve said all this, the rules in place should apply for everyone, and that is what happened, as FIDE, the chief arbiter and Magnus Carlsen remained principled. The public aftermath was a bit  unfortunate to my taste, but at the same time, in every sport where there is a controversial decision e.g. Djokovic being disqualified in US Open 2020, it also generally leads to debates and serious media coverage.

As for sharing the world title in Blitz, I’ll be even more explicit: I don’t like it. Once again, it’s not something you see in other sports. Especially since, in this case, there was still plenty of time to decide between the players. We were only three games into the tie-break. I’d have been more understanding if, for example, after eight tie-breaking games, or even after six, i.e. 1.5 hours and an overall day of 7 or 8 hours, the players still hadn’t broken the tie. I could accept that in this case, the « we’re of equal strength today » aspect could be put forward, why not? But this was early and I don’t understand why FIDE accepted it. Nor do I understand why Magnus, who loves the sport so much, even proposed this deal. For Ian, of course, it’s a bit different. In a way, he’s in a bit of a bind. If he turns it down and loses, he looks really stupid. I don’t want to blame Magnus unnecessarily either, because sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you lose your lucidity…

But it leaves a bitter taste from a spectator’s point of view, in the sense that really, it could have been a pretty legendary, pretty epic end to the match. I’m thinking of the last football World Cup final between France and Argentina, which went to penalty shoot-out and became a legend after France were trailing 0-2 (just like Ian!) and equalized at the very end.

LET’S LOOK AHEAD TO 2025

New for 2025, there are two fresh circuits! Before that, of course, there’s the return of the Candidates qualification cycle, as in every odd-numbered year. We’re a little short of information on dates and locations, although I hope things will soon settle down. I’ve once again qualified for the Grand Chess Tour, which starts at the end of April, thanks to my third-place finish last year. We also have the Champions Chess Tour, which is back once again, but in a slightly different form, with only two online qualifying tournaments, and a 16-player final to be played as part of the Esport World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), from July 31 to August 3. And of course, the brand-new 26-player FreeStyle Chess circuit, with its cycle of five tournaments, among them the first one in Germany (February), and the second in Paris (April). After the Speed Chess finals last September, it’s great to see chess back at the highest level in France.

So it’s true that it’s going to be a very busy year, but if I find my form and come back well, I think I’ve got every chance of competing with the best!

Maxime’s games in London:

Maxime’s games at the Champion Chess Tour Finals:

Maxime’s games at the World Rapid:

Maxime’s games at the World Blitz:

In addition to the aforementioned London blitz tournament, in which Maxime took second place behind Firoujza, the chief organizer of British chess, Malcolm Pein, put up a blindfold tournament with 10 players, including the best English, such as Adams, Vitiugov, Mc Shane and Jones, as well as Mamedyarov and Vidit. Blindfold play is one of Maxime’s strong points, and he considered himself a favorite for the tournament. And rightly so, since he won quite easily at a time control that suited him very well, namely 10+5. The competition took place on computers, in front of empty chessboards.

I was invited to the tournament in Chennai (India, November 5-11) rather late – at the beginning of September – through my Global Chess League team captain, Srinath Naranayan. We talked about it within my team, and figured there were quite a few advantages to accepting. I was in a good frame of mind in general, and wanted to play more Classical games at the end of the year. Of course, I was also hoping to regain a few Elo points and, in the event of a miracle, play my tiny chance at the Circuit Fide. The list of participants was also interesting, since apart from Levon (Aronian), a client against whom I’d played hundreds of games, I’d met very few of the other players. In particular, I could see that, for example, I’d never played with white against Sarana, not even in a blitz game!

It was therefore an opportunity to meet the younger generation, because Gukesh, Prag or Abdussatorov, even if they are part of it, are first and foremost Elite players. Sarana, Maghsoodloo and Tabatabaei, on the other hand, are fairly young players whom I won’t be playing much in the near future, especially as they haven’t (yet?) qualified for the Grand Chess Tour.

I arrived a few days early in South India to try and get into shape and avoid jet lag. But it’s true that I felt tired even before the tournament started, because I played a lot in August, September and October. I also felt weary during a training camp before leaving for India. I may have underestimated the physical and mental load I was carrying. In hindsight, I understand that I didn’t arrive in Chennai having fully recovered from those three months…

Small glimmer of hope at the drawing of lots though, as I picked rather favorable pairings for once, with four whites and three blacks. And black in particular against the highest rated in the field, Levon and Erigaisi, the rising terror who was very close to 2,800 and whom I’d just met in the final of the WR Masters in London. So I thought this was my chance to be solid with black and seize the opportunities with white.

Things went very well at the start, as I was able to beat Maghsoodloo thanks to a rather nice preparation cooked for me by my trainers. Faced with numerous problems and running out of time, the Iranian player was unable to defend the position. Then, a fairly easy draw with black against Aravindh, another Indian player I didn’t know very well either, who won the tournament and climbed to 2718 Elo!

So far, the tournament was going pretty well. Plus, I was doubling white in the following rounds, so I thought this was my opportunity to win at least one of the two games. And that’s when things went off the rails 😊.

I have to say that Tabatabaei played an absolutely perfect game, including some really difficult moves. At one point, I failed to recognize the latent danger in the position and found myself in trouble. It was a real setback for me, especially as it brought my unbeaten streak to an end at 72 Classical games!

The next day against Vidit, I decided to avoid the Berlin, and we ended up in a closed Catalan that I hadn’t necessarily anticipated. But as the game went on, it got more complicated and I had my chances. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn and ended up having to fight hard to draw a tricky Rook endgame. Then, I have to say that I played a real non-game against Levon, accumulating an opening improvisation and some unfortunate errors in the beginning of the middle game. Levon was precise in the conversion and calculation of lines to earn the full point.

At 2 out of 5 with two rounds to go, it goes without saying that things weren’t going well any more! After an insipid draw against Sarana, I at least had the pleasure of playing a pretty crazy last-round game against Erigaisi, so I’ve chosen to analyze it in full below.

-1 in the end (3/7), it’s clearly not satisfactory, with one very bad game out of the seven, and a few other uneventful ones. In my defense, I struggled during the tournament to find my form.

A word about the playing conditions in Chennai, which were very pleasant. There’s a real chess boom in India and it’s really showing, especially in the number of fans attending!

Now I have to get ready to get back in the saddle, as there are two big end-of-year objectives.

First of all, the 2024 Champions Chess Tour Final in Oslo (December 17-21), followed by the Rapid & Blitz World Championship in New-York (December 26-31).

The idea is that I’ve got almost a month to prepare for these two events. And the stated aim is to win one of the three!

Erigaisi – Mvl

Chennai, Ronde 7

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Qb3 dxc4 5.Qxc4 Be6 6.Qb5+ Bd7 7.Qb3 c5 8.d5 b5 [Erigaisi managed to surprise me with this rather marginal line against the Grünfeld. Here, I only knew 9. Nxb5]

9.e4!?

9…b4 [Better was 9…c4! 10.Bxc4 bxc4 11.Qb7 Qb6 12.Qxa8 Ng4! (on the board, I only saw 12…Bg7? 13.Be3 Qxb2 14.Rb1 Qxc3+ 15.Bd2+-) 13.Nge2 (13.Nh3? Bg7 and the action of the Bishop on the long diagonal changes everything) 13…Bg7 14.0-0 0-0 15.h3 Na6 16.Qxf8+ Kxf8 17.hxg4 Bxg4 and all is well for black]

10.e5 bxc3 [10…Ng4 11.e6 didn’t really appeal to me during the game, even if the machine disapproves. Besides, I’m more used to…bxc3/exf6 transactions in the Grünfeld!]

11.exf6 Qb6

12.Ne2 [Here, Erigaisi thought for a very long time, and opted for a really interesting move. Of course, I was mostly expecting 12.Qxc3 exf6 13.Nf3 and my intention here was 13…c4 (13…Bg7 14.Qe3+ Kd8 15.Qc3) 14.Be3 Bb4 15.Bxb6 Bxc3+ 16.bxc3 axb6 17.Bxc4 0-0 with hopes of compensation for the pawn; 12.bxc3 was quite possible too]

12…Qxf6 [I also looked at 12…cxb2 13.Bxb2 exf6 14.Qxb6 axb6 15.Bxf6 Rg8 16.Nc3 but here I didn’t find a satisfactory move: indeed, 16…Bf5? (yet 16…Be7! 17.Bxe7 Kxe7 18.Rb1 Bf5 19.Rxb6 Nd7 followed by 20… Rgb8 certainly gave enough play for the pawn, which I didn’t realize during the game) 17.Bb5+ Nd7 18.0-0 doesn’t work at all!]

13.Nxc3 Bg7 14.Be2 [I was thinking 14.Bc4 0-0 15.0-0, but here black has 15…Bf5! unlike in the game!]

14…0-0 15.0-0 Bc8 [I wanted to make 15…Bf5 work but after 16.Qb7 Nd7 17.g4 (the reason behind 14.Be2!) 17…Bxg4 (17…Rfb8 18.Qc6) 18.Bxg4 Ne5 19.Be2 it doesn’t work, e.g. 19…Rfb8 20.Qc7 Rc8 21.Qa5]

16.Be3 Nd7 17.Qa3 Bb7 18.Rac1 Rfd8 19.Rfd1 Qh4!

20.Bb5 [After another brainstorm, not necessarily the first choice, but very interesting]

20…Be5 [20…Qb4 21.Bc6 (21.Qxb4!? cxb4 22.Na4) 21…Qxa3 22.bxa3 Bxc3 23.Rxc3 (23.Bxb7 Rab8 should have been enough to equalize) 23…Bxc6 24.dxc6 Ne5 = (the point I missed, the threat of back rank mate allows to regain the c6 pawn and save the game); 20…Nf6!? was also very tempting, but we had to see a complex line that eluded us both; 21.Qxc5 Ng4 22.Bf4 Rdc8 23.Bc6 Be5! (23…Bxc6 24.dxc6 Rxc6 25.Qxc6 Qxf2+ 26.Kh1 Qxf4 27.Qxa8+ Bf8 28.g3 Qf2 would be nice, but unfortunately, the Queen returns to g2!) 24.Bxe5 Nxe5 and black will win back the pawn on c6; 25.Rd4? Nf3+ 26.gxf3 Qg5+-+]

21.h3 [21.g3 Qh3]

21…Bd6 [That was the idea, even though I understand that the computer doesn’t approve]

22.Bc6 [22.Bxd7 Rxd7 23.Bxc5 Be5 left some activity to black]

22…Bxc6 [I decided to embark on a high-risk tactical operation, not least because I hadn’t seen 22…Rab8 23.Qxa7 Bc8! (yet another return of the Bishop to its starting square!) 24.Qa4 Rb4 and black’s pieces begin to covet the King].

23.dxc6 Ne5 24.Bxc5 Nc4

25.Qa6 [I was analyzing as a madman 25.Qb4 a5 26.Qb5 Rdb8 (26…Rab8? 27.c7! Bxc7 28.Rxd8+ Rxd8 29.Nd5+-) 27.Bxd6 (As it happens, 27.Rd4! wins but it’s such a difficult move to envisage, especially from a distance! 27…Qg5 ((27…Rxb5 28.Nxb5 Qg5 29.Rdxc4 the c6-pawn is too strong)) 28.Qxc4 Qxc1+ 29.Rd1 Qxb2 30.Bxd6 exd6 31.c7 Rc8 32.Rxd6 and the c-pawn is again too strong) 27…Rxb5 28.Bg3 Qg5 29.Nxb5 Qxb5 30.c7 Rf8 (30…Nd6 31.Bxd6 exd6 32.c8Q+ Rxc8 33.Rxc8+ Kg7 34.Rc2, white will continue with Rd4, a3 and Rcd2 winning the d6 pawn and probably the game) 31.Rd8 Nb6 32.Rb8 Kg7 (the right move order! 32…Rc8? 33.Rd1 Kg7 34.Rd8 Qc5 35.Rbxc8 Nxc8 36.Rxc8 e5 37.Re8 Qxc7 38.Bxe5++-; 32…Qxb2? 33.Bf4! and 34.Be3) 33.c8Q Rxc8 34.Rcxc8 Qxb2 and the game goes on! Given the complexity of the variations, I knew I might have missed something (in this case 27.Rd4!), but that went for my opponent too].

25…Bxc5 26.Rxd8+ Rxd8 27.c7 Rf8 [27…Qxf2+? 28.Kh1 Rd2 is totally insufficient as Queens return to defense, e.g. 29.c8Q+ Kg7 30.Qac6]

[Here, white had three plausible moves, so we had a large mass of complex variations to calculate!]

28.Ne4!? [First of all the logical 28.Nd1, which has the merit of protecting f2 while setting a skewer on black’s minor pieces on the c-file. 28…Nb6! 29.Rxc5 Qd4 30.Rc1 (30.c8Q?? Qxd1+ 31.Kh2 Qd6+ 32.g3 Nxc8) 30…Qd2 31.Ra1 Qe1+ 32.Qf1 (32.Kh2 Qe5+) 32…Qe5 33.Rc1 Rc8 34.Qd3 Nd5 35.Qb5 e6 and Black ends up capturing the c7-pawn, with equality!]. 28.c8Q! was finally the most trivial and best move; 28…Qxf2+ (28…Bxf2+? 29.Kh1 Rxc8 30.Qxc8+ Kg7 31.Ne2 ((31.Ne4? Be3; 31.Nd1? Bb6; 31.Qg4 right away was also strong)) 31…Nd6 ((31…Nxb2? 32.Qc3+ Qf6 33.Qc2)) 32.Qg4) 29.Kh1 Rxc8 30.Qxc4 Qxb2 31.Ne4 white will win a piece, but with 2 pawns and a counter-pin on the c-file, black’s situation is not yet hopeless.

28…Qxe4 29.c8Q [29.Qxc4? Bxf2+ 30.Kxf2 Qxc4 31.Rxc4 Rc8 32.b4 Kf8 33.a4 Ke8 and black wins c7 just in time].

29…Bxf2+ 30.Kh1 [30.Kxf2?? Qe3+ 31.Kf1 Nd2#]

30…Ne3?! [Here I thought for a long time, but not, as many thought, because I was hesitating to play the endgame resulting from 30…Rxc8 31.Qxc8+ Kg7 32.Qxc4 Bd4 (only move, the endgame without Queens offers absolutely no hope) 33.Rd1 e5, as I wasn’t very optimistic about it. In fact, I very quickly decided to leave white with both Queens, as I realized that their joint attacking strength wouldn’t really be able to express itself in this position, and that white might not be able to force the favorable exchange of a pair of Queens. My real dilemma was to choose the Knight’s square: d6 or e3? e3 seems more natural, with more direct threats, but analysis shows that d6 was necessary to avoid an exchange of Queens, e.g. 30…Nd6! 31.Qc2 Qh4! (I had seen 31…Qf4? 32.Qae2 Bd4 33.Rf1 ((33.Qxe7? Nf5)) 33…Qh4 ((33…Qg3 34.Qcd3)) 34.Qg4) 32.Qae2 Bd4 followed by …e5]

31.Qcc6 Qd4 [31…Qf4 32.Qf3 Qxf3 33.gxf3 Nf5 34.Rc8 is hopeless in the long run because of the Queenside majority]

32.Qaa4! [White has no time to save his majority, e.g. 32.b3? Rd8! and black’s threats become very real]

32…Qxb2 33.Qb3 Qd2 [33…Qxb3 34.axb3 Nf5 would have left a better chance of establishing a fortress, because with a b3 pawn instead of a2, the Bishop would have stable access to the b6 square (no a4-a5). But at that point, I still thought I could avoid the Queens exchange!

34.Qbc3? [Right square, wrong Queen! He probably forgot that after 34.Qcc3! black had to exchange Queens with 34…Qxc3 (34…Qd6? 35.Qbb2 Nd1 allowed a funny mate on g7 with an original Queens battery!) 35.Qxc3 Nf5 36.g4 Nd6 and the chances of building a fortress in this endgame are slim].

34…Qxa2 35.Qf3 [35.Ra1 Qe2 36.Qf3 Qxf3 37.gxf3 Nf5 looks like a fortress this time].

35…Nf5 36.Qc2 [tantamount to a draw proposal but there was no way to continue: 36.g4 Ng3+ 37.Kg2 Ne2 38.Qc2 Nxc1; 36.Ra1?! Ng3+ 37.Kh2 Qe6 and it’s White who has to be vigilant on the black squares around his King, e.g. 38.Ra4 (38.Qxf2? Ne4 with a rare fork on 2 Queens!; 38.Qb2 Qd6) 38…Qd6]

36…Ng3+ [I vaguely considered playing for the win, which I might have done in other circumstances. Indeed, after 36…Qxc2 37.Rxc2 Bg3!, the Bg3 is a permanent thorn, « grounding » white’s King. Black doesn’t care about his a-pawn and will seek to stabilize the Bg3 and then create favorable conditions for an e-pawn push, after a follow-up like 38.Qb7 h5 39.Rc8 Rxc8 40.Qxc8+ Kg7 41.Qa6 h4 42.Qxa7 e5 43.Kg1 Nd4 44.Kf1 Bf4. This is certainly objectively insufficient, and the machine shows an unflappable 0.00, but it’s definitely very tedious for white to play in practice].

37.Kh2 Nf1+ 38.Kh1 ½–½

A really spectacular game that was fun to play!

Maxime’s games in Chennai:

France is at the origin of the European Corporate Championship: this competition was created in 2016, during the 87th FIDE Congress. Open to companies located in Europe, it is played with teams of 4 players, at a time control of 15+5. Each team is allowed two players from outside the company. This year, the competition will take place in Asnières on November 22 and 23. 57 teams have signed up, including for instance the Banque de France, Google, Microsoft Europe, Dassault Systèmes, Volkswagen and the European Commission.

What does this have to do with Maxime, you may ask? Because he’ll be taking part in the competition under the colors of Leonard Echecs, which supports local authorities, clubs and companies in the design, development and animation of their chess life, and whose President, Jean-Claude Moingt, is also in charge of his French club in Asnières.

A competition not to be taken lightly, with 20 Grandmasters lining up on the entry list!

https://ecc2024.ffechecs.org

In October, I spent a lot of time in London, where I played in two consecutive tournaments…

Global Chess League

This was the second season of this 6-player team tournament organized by the Indian company Tech Mahindra. Our Mumba Masters team missed Alexander Grischuk, who was unable to obtain a visa; he was replaced by Peter Svidler. We also had a change on the Prodigy Board, with the arrival of Raunak Sadhwani. On the whole, there was a good atmosphere. These team matches are always fun, with lots of convivial moments, blitz, ping-pong sessions etc. But unfortunately we lost a lot of tense matches at the start of the competition. As a result, we were quickly eliminated from the race for the top 2 qualifying places for the Grand Final, and had no choice but to save our honor. The rhythm of play was 20+0, which is a bit weird, but increment-free is clearly coming back into fashion! On a personal note, I achieved a score of 5/10 on the Icon Board against Carlsen, Anand, Giri, Firouzja and Nakamura, each of whom I met twice.

Of course, I’m pleased with my 1.5-0.5 victories over the first three, in games that were rather well controlled; but a little less satisfied with my defeat to Naka, and especially with the 0-2 that Alireza inflicted on me… Indeed, it’s never pleasant to suffer two losses in positions that could easily have led to victories! It’s the difference between a decent result and a good one… From the team’s point of view, my two losses against Alireza led to match defeats, and that meant a lot in the race for the play-offs. But I also won the team some other matches 😊.

WR Chess Masters

Two tube stations further, back to classical chess at the Langham Hotel, a beautiful London palace with an excellent French restaurant run by Michel Roux, the Palm Court. It’s worth noting that Alireza, never stingy with surprises, knew it from the Netflix series « Five Star Chef », which takes place precisely at the Palm Court!

The tournament itself had an original format, which I certainly enjoyed, but was nonetheless very difficult (1h/30, 30’/20 + 30’ko). Cup format, two potentially 4-hour games per day, and a possible tie-break late in the evening! A game at 10am (that’s really early), the return match at 5pm, and the tie-break at 10pm, makes for some busy days! With games lasting up to 3 hours, we could easily start at 11am, or even noon. But 4 hours is the FIDE minimum for a classical game to be rated (for those of you wondering why we had to play at such an odd pace without increment). We had a few technical discussions beforehand, as there were quite a few issues to be addressed due to the lack of increment, notably how to deal with players flying pieces in zeitnot… I also suggested that, in those forthcoming 16-player knockout tournaments, there shouldn’t be 16 seeds, with the whole bracket determined from A to Z, but 4 seeds and a draw, as is done in tennis.

Time to play! I started the round of 16 against Sindarov, the lowest-rated player I’d played in the tournament, but who gave me a lot of trouble throughout the match (including the Armageddon!). It was a heck of a struggle. I knew it was going to be a tough match, because he is the player who knocked me out of the 2023 World Cup and who’s capable of performing at a very high level. I’m pretty pleased to have escaped unscathed!

After that, I finished my Uzbek championship against Abdusattorov 😊. In fact, I’ve played 5 games in a row against Uzbeks (including the last game of the Olympiad), and even 7 if you ake into account the first 2 Armageddon games of this tournament! I did a little better in this match, even if with black, I found myself in a bit of difficulty. But I managed to solve it like the Grünfeld acrobat that I am 😊. Let’s go straight on to the Armageddon, which was the occasion for me to play a nice game.

12…Nh5 is logical insofar as 12…exd4 13.cxd4 Bxf3?! 14.gxf3 was inferior, but also because if 13.Be3, there would now be 13…Bxf3 14.gxf3 Nf4 which is no good for white (since there was no exchange on d4). So I had to close the center with 13.d5, but took an edge after 13…Ne7 14.h3 Bxf3 15.Qxf3 Nxg3 16.fxg3! a typical move in this kind of position, and one that’s nice to show my dear readers 😊.

I was gradually able to improve my position, especially after 16…f5 17.g4 fxe4?! (17…fxg4 was stronger, but it wasn’t easy to see) 18.Qxe4 Kh8 19.Be3, as the Ne7 found itself really dominated in the position. After 19…c6 20.Bb3 (20.c4! was more accurate), I thought he absolutely had to take on d5, and after 20…cxd5 21.Bxd5 Nxd5 22.Qxd5, try to equalize with 22…Qb5!. 20…c5? was a strategic error, after which black is suffering. I thought I was playing on the Queenside, as you always do in these structures, but in fact I have a big advantage on the Kingside, which is paradoxical.

There was a very strong plan, which I didn’t see, to put my pawns on h4, g5 and g4, then continue with Kg2, Rh1, h5 and Bc2 and I’m the attacker on the Kingside!

Here, I’ve kept my Queenside advantage, but there’s a move that’s very difficult to find. You have to understand that black threatens 37…h5! – to incite an en passant capture and revive its Bg7 – much more than 37…Rf4; hence 37.Bd2! with complete domination, e.g. 37…Qf2 38.Qe1!. But both Nodirbek and myself only anticipated 37.Rxb7? Rf4? while 37…h5! equalized, admittedly somewhat miraculously. White has a multitude of ways to continue attacking, but none of them is satisfactory. 38.Be6? Ne2! would really not be a good idea. 38.Qxg6 Qf4+ only gives the perpetual. 38.gxh6 Bxh6 gives access to the f4 square, and black doesn’t care about 39.Bxd4 exd4 40.Qxd4+ Rf6!. Finally, 38.Bxd4 exd4 (38…hxg4? 39.Bg1!) 39.Be2 looks strong since if 39…Be5+? 40.Dxe5; but black still has the resource 39…Qc1!, and with the threats …Be5+ or …Qxg5, the position remains very uncertain.

In the game, I concluded with 38.Rb8+ Bf8 39.Qe1 (I’d also seen the simpler 39.Rxf8+ Rxf8 40.Bxd4) 39…Qd3 40.b5! and black is caught out all over the board. In the end, it’s the whole concept that with pawns on d5 and g5, black’s position is completely paralyzed throughout the game.

In the semi-final the following day, I was up against my compatriot Alireza (Firouzja). The first game, a Sicilian Alapine, turned out to be quite tricky, especially when I started to lose control of the position… But as we were running out of time, we were naturally led, as is often the case in this kind of situation, to variations in which all the pieces were exchanged. The game with black went well, thanks to a very good preparation that dried out the position.

On the other hand, my third Armageddon went totally out of control; it must be said that I didn’t expect Alireza to go after me in such a huge variation of the Najdorf!

I knew I wasn’t playing my preparation exactly, but I was fairly familiar with this line where white sacrifices the d5 pawn. Here, I thought 19.Bxf6 Bxf6 20.gxh5 e4? (better is 20…Nc4) 21.fxe4 Qe5 was strong, but in fact it’s very bad because there’s 22.c3 Qxh5 23.Qf2 Nd7 24.Rh1. But he played 19.Qh2, the move I was expecting, after a very long thought. It’s « badly played » on his part, because these are positions where I’ll be able to play moves instinctively and he much less so. I played 19…Rae8?! a little too quickly because I missed
20.Qxe5 Qxe5 21.Rxe5 and if 21…hxg4? 22.Rxe7!. As a result, I was forced to play 21…Bd8
but now he has 22.Rxe8 Rxe8 23.Nc5 hxg4 24.Nxb7 and I had the choice between suffering martyrdom with 24…Be7 or giving the piece away and trying to fish in troubled waters with 24…gxf3!? 25.Nxd8 Ne4. Obviously, true to form I made the second choice, with a lonely onslaught of my f2-pawn after 26.Nc6 f2. He took quite a lot of time as everything looks winning for white, but nothing is really completely clear, which is the advantage of this kind of position. Personally, I thought the cleanest move would have been 27.Be3, but his 27.Kc1 seems logical.

But then, as I knew he was threatening 28.Be3, I played 27…Ng3. There’s 28.Ne7+ Kg7 29.Be3 which is enough here; these are fairly simple variations, but there are so many options… He played 28.b3 and suddenly it’s a little less clear, although after 28…Re1 29.Bf4 Nf5, the simplest win was 30.Kd2 Nxh4 31.Nd4. After 30.Bd2 Rg1 there was still 31.Ne7+! Nxe7 32.Be3, but now it becomes hard to find! He played the more natural 31.Rf1 with a similar idea (if 31…Ng3 32.Be3! Nxf1 33.Bxf2!). So I replied 31…d4. There, 32.Nxd4 was still strong, and if 32…Ng3 33.Rd1. But he chose 32.Kb2 Ne3 33.Bxe3 dxe3 34.Bxa6 Nd5 35.Nd4 Nf4, which is still winning but the position gets very tricky, especially as he was starting to run out of time. After 36.c3 Nh5, he finally blundered with 37.b4?? Ng3 38.Rc1 Rxc1 and 0-1 as black’s pawn queens after 39.Kxc1 e2!. However, despite the many inaccuracies, white would have kept a winning endgame had he played 37.Nc2! Ng3 38.Nxe3 Nxf1 39.Nxf1. A big turnaround, as sometimes happens in this kind of Najdorf 😊.


Then, the final against Erigaisi, who was, and still is, in dazzling form, tickling the 2800 Elo mark. Once again, I started with white. It’s true that I perhaps didn’t reach the full potential of the positions I got in my white games, but these were all morning games 😊. What’s more, you have to be super careful because a loss is almost the same as an elimination; indeed, the only person to come back from a defeat with white was Abdusattorov against Kosteniuk in the first round, and it’s fair to say that this upset wasn’t really expected.

Against Erigaisi, I was probably a little too solid with white, but with black it went rather well. In the 6.Be2 Najdorf, I was familiar with the somewhat atypical sub-variation 6…e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.h4 Be6 9.f4!?. I figured there were quite a few moves that had to be ok, but I wanted to try a line against which he would be less prepared, hence 9…g6!?. The debate became very tense immediately!

Here the best was 15.Bxb7! after which there were two possible continuations; first 15…Ra7 16.Bf3 Qxd6, which to me seemed the best, but the machine shows us that 17.Bh6! is very strong. The alternative 15…Bc4+ 16.Kg1 Bxb3 also gives white the advantage after 17.Ne4! (but not 17.axb3?? Qc5+), though it’s far from obvious at first sight. Erigaisi preferred
15.Ne4 Nc6 16.Nxg3 Qxg3 17.Bxc6 (there’s still 17.Be3!, but it’s too hard) 17…bxc6 18.Qd4
(the logical continuation) 18…f6. Just after playing this move, I realized that the spectacular 18…Bd5! might have been playable! The more I looked at the lines, the more I thought it would have been interesting since 19.Qxh8+? Nf8 didn’t work because of the double threat of …Bc4# and …Qxg2+. But my regrets were limited as I quickly understood that 19.Qe3+ was possible and that I wouldn’t have been better after the Queens exchange. After
19.Bf4 Qg4, I looked carefully at 20.Nc5. At first, I wanted 19…Bd5?!, but it’s actually not very good because of 20.Qe3+ Ne5 21.Qg3!, and the Nc5/Pd6 construction is overpowering. 19…0-0 is the safe little move I probably would have played. But he ended up playing 20.Bd2, which seemed a bit odd, I must say. After 20…Ne5, I was looking at 21.Rh4 which is the best move, but he probably didn’t want 21…Bc4+ 22.Kf2 Qe2+ 23.Kg1 Bd5, and played
21.Qxg4 Bxg4 22.Ba5. I’d seen this in advance, with the transfer of the Bishop to c7 to support the d6 pawn. If he gets the Bishop on c7 and my Rook remains on a8, it can get a bit unpleasant, hence the immediate 22…Rb8!. I thought it was starting to look good for me with the Rook coming to b5, the Nb3 being a bit dominated, and not too many possibilities to play c4…

After the exchange sacrifice 30…Rxb3! 31.cxb3 Bd5! I figured it was going to be very difficult for him, but the computer is laughing 😊. And our future +2800 club member found the moves! 32.Rd4 is the easiest as it prevents 32…Nf3+ because of 33.Rxf3 Bxf3 34.Rf4 and 35.Rxf6. 32…g5 33.Rf1 Rh1+ 34.Ke2 Rh2+ 35.Kd1. Now, if 35…Rxb2, there’s 36.Rb4, or even 36.Rh3, hence 35…Bf3+ 36.Kc1 c5. Beforehand, I thought I’d be much better here, but I realized as I went along the lines that 37.Rc4! was possible (37.Rd2? Rh1+ 38.Kc2 g4! is losing). So we agreed upon a draw after 37…Nxc4 38.bxc4 Bg4. A fighting draw where we both felt we had a chance, but especially me in fact! Strangely enough, we didn’t miss a thing, it was a game of high quality.

So all that remained was a final Armageddon game to decide who would clinch the tournament…

I had no idea what he was going to play exactly, but I didn’t think it would be the Petroff! I did have an idea in the variation he chose though, except I handled it badly.

I played 22.Be6? too quickly. I should have started with 22.Rb5 Qa3 23.Rxd5, because after 22…Nc6, if 23.Rb5? now there’s 23…Nd4 24.Bxf7+ Kf8! (the move I missed). During the game, I thought that 24…Kh8? was winning for black, but no! 25.Qe8+! Rxe8 26.Rxa5 +-. So I was forced to take on f7, and after 23.Bxf7+ Kxf7, to play 24.Rb5. And now, admittedly there’s only one move for black, but it’s not very hard to find as you have to protect the Nc6, so it’s 24…Qc3. After 25.Qh5+ Kf8 26.Rxd5 Rd8 27.Rfd1 Ne7, black has two pieces for the Rook, has consolidated his position and my attack is moribund. I noticed when I played 28.Rb5? that 28.R5d2 would have set the trap 28…Bxh2+? 29.Qxh2 Rxd2 30.Qf4+. But I saw it half a second too late, even though I’d taken quite a bit of time on this move; in fact, 12 seconds, which in Armageddon is an eternity 😊.

I still managed to find resources later in the game.

I started to regain confidence here, because if 35…Nd4? 36.Qe8+ Kh7 37.Rf8 Qc1+ 38.Kg2 Qc6+ 39.Qxc6 Nxc6 40.Rc8 wins. I felt he saw it in time, panicked and came back with 35…Ne7. Bad news for him, the position is equal again, good news it’s « only » equal and I’m obliged to win with white! 36.Rf8+ Kh7 37.Qe4+ Ng6 38.Re8 Be5 39.Re6 Bf6 40.h4 Qd4 41.Qf5 Qc5. But I didn’t see my last possibility to try something by playing 42.Qxc5 bxc5 43.Ra6, even though I’m not very optimistic about my objective chances in this endgame. But with less than 2 minutes on the clock, it wouldn’t have been so easy in practice for black.

In the game, I tried to force events by keeping the Queens on with 42.Qb1, but I even ended up losing this game!

Congratulations to Arjun Erigaisi on his final victory in the tournament, which follows on from his Olympic title with India; based on what he’s produced over the past year, he deserves these awards!

Maxime’s games in the Global Chess League:

Maxime’s games in the WR Chess Master:

For all chess players who, like a certain A Karpov, have a soft spot for philately, there are 10 stamps bearing the effigy of Maxime, all issued between 2012 and 2019, and all from African countries!

From Togo to the Maldives, from Guinea-Bissau to the Central African Republic, from Niger to Guinea, all the way to the small island of Sao Tomé-et-Principe, you’ll find special Chess issues as part of collections on sport or other more original themes in which the Royal game is included.

Although I had relatively little rest on my return from the US tour, I was delighted at the prospect of being back with the French team and my team-mates, especially as I’d missed out on the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai (India). It’s a pity Alireza wasn’t there, because we could have lined up a great team against the armadas that were announced…

After a few unavoidable adventures during the team’s journey and installation, we quickly settled into Budapest, with our HQ in a restaurant at lunchtime, and a general routine before and after matches.

As early as my second game (Round 3 against Kadric, Montenegro), I had a problem with my glasses which really upset me. I found them with a broken temple in the morning (don’t ask me why!). The team captain, Sébastien Mazé, and I decided to have them repaired and set off on a tour of opticians in the Hungarian capital. Of course, I would have preferred to prepare for my game, but I can’t possibly function in everyday life without glasses 😊. Unfortunately, all the professionals we visited told us they would need at least 4 days. The problem was, I did have a spare pair, but they were sunglasses! (Spoiler, the Fide rules forbid wearing them during games). So we got smart and tried to fix them ourselves, using super glue. Ah, sure, this glue is super effective, but unfortunately not enough to glue the arm back, but enough to stain the glass! Which only made things worse, as so often in these cases. So my solution throughout the tournament was to keep the glasses without temples straight during the games, and to wear the sunglasses the rest of the time. Even when it was raining or dark in Budapest, you could spot a funny-looking guy in sunglasses 😊.

Admittedly, I got used to it, and during the games, it didn’t bother me that much. It didn’t interfere with my field of vision, the lenses were well placed, and the natural position of the glasses remained more or less stable. I just needed to readjust them regularly, and be a little careful that they didn’t fall off.

After this optical interlude, let’s get back to chess! As far as the team is concerned, while I quickly drew my game on the « glasses day », we lost that match against Montenegro. But we were back on track afterwards, and ended up in ambush before the rest day. We followed up in Round 7 against Georgia, a tricky match against players who aren’t highly ranked, but who are quite experienced; admittedly, it’s a rather aging team, despite the contribution of a new kid on the block (Kacharava), but who wasn’t playing against us.

I played a nice game, but we were still held to a 2-2 draw.

Mvl – Mchedlishvili (2574) 1-0

I had spotted that after 1.c4, the Georgian player had varied a lot during the tournament, and that he looked rather indecisive. During the rest day, I decided to take a closer look, especially after seeing that he sometimes played a Slav variation that he didn’t seem to know much about. What’s more, I’d already tried this line with black in the 2020-2021 online tournaments. I’d worked on it quite a bit and knew it was dangerous, especially after the pawn sacrifice in the following position:

Despite this good basis, I messed up a bit because I remembered 15…Nxd5 as the main move, and if 15…exd5 I had 16.Bc1 Qb6! in my memory. So I knew that 16…Nb6?!
was no good, but I didn’t know why! After 17.g4 b4, I didn’t think at all about 18.Na4! a very difficult move that was the real refutation. Indeed, after 18.Nxd5 Nfxd5 19.e4 Nc3+ 20.bxc3 Qc8, I played 21.cxb4? a little out of spite because I felt I hadn’t optimized. I had envisaged 21.h4, which was the move to take the advantage by dissuading black from castling, but I didn’t believe in it. As the game progressed, while he had compensation for the two sacrificed pawns, he let me gradually consolidate my position.

From then on, I played very well. There was some semblance of an attack for Black, but not enough… 28.Qb3! (on its way to c3, from where the Queen will control just about everything) 28…Qf4 29.Qc3 Rac8 30.Bd1! Rc7 31.Bb3 (a rather neat Bishop maneuver; the Fb3 is ideally placed for defense, but it also leans towards f7, which will pay off later) 31…Rdc8 32.Qd4! Qxf3 33.Rhe1 and of course I’ve returned the pawns, but my pieces are now ideally coordinated to conclude.

Unfortunately, we didn’t win the match, even though it was completely under control. So we were punished straight away as we were paired against the USA and its five players at 2700+ in the next round, whereas if we had won, we’d have been playing Hungary…

For my part, I’ve already played the 4 main members of the US team at least twenty times each, if not many more for some because Levon (Aronian) and Fabiano (Caruana), I think (counting all the cadences), it would be more between 150 and 200 times!

Caruana (2798) – Mvl 1/2

On the first board, I was black against Fabiano, and we quickly arrived at the next position, which came from the 3.Bb5+ variation against the Sicilian.

I had looked at this 11.a3 move a long time ago, probably more than 3 years. But during the training camp with the French team in Vichy, just before the Olympiad, we had discussed this idea for a few minutes, though I couldn’t remember the details ; so I improvised 
😊. What’s more, in the match strategy, as we’d decided that Etienne (Bacrot) would play hyper solid chess with white against Wesley (So), the idea was obviously that for me, a draw would be a very good result with black; but that nevertheless, if I could avoid neutralizing everything and keep a few options open, it wouldn’t be any worse.

So I played with that in mind, trying not to find myself slightly worse, defending a position with no perspective, but rather keeping a few opportunities for counterplay.

A critical moment because here Fabiano let me play 19…Qc2,calculating that he could take advantage of the trapped Rook on c2, but that wasn’t the case! After 20.Qxc2 Rxc2 21.Bc3 Nc6, he played 22.Red1. His basic idea was 22.Rb1, but there’s 22…Re2! (the computer says 22…Bg5 is ok too, but that leaves 23.Rdd1, or even 23.Nxg5 hxg5 24.Bd2, which, by the way, I thought he would play) 23.Nd2 (to play 25.Kf1; if 23.Kf1 at once, then 23…Re4 24.Nh2 f6, my Rook lands on f4, and even if it’s a bit acrobatic, it’ll come out!) 23…Bh4 and if 24.Rf3? Nxd4.

With the Rook on d1, I played 22…Bg5 since 22…Re2? no longer works due to 23.Nd2 Bh4 24.Nf3 and taking on d4 is no longer possible, the Cd2 being protected.

After 23.Ne1 Rc1 24.Rxc1 Fxc1, despite its apparent symmetry, this endgame isn’t completely straightforward because black is still short of space and, if white manages to play f4-f5, it can quickly become complicated on the Kingside. However, I managed this situation quite well and even got a few small chances around move 40 when he was running out of time; but he defended very well and everything simplified towards the draw.

In the end, we lost the match because Maxime (Lagarde) blundered in a rather promising position against Levon, and our opponents secured the rest of the match.

Against Italy, I played an insipid game and was totally neutralized by Vocaturo with white, but we ended up winning a match that had started quite badly. After that, we got things under control against England (I won against Vitiugov), and we went into the final round against the young reigning champions from Uzbekistan, with at least a fifth place at stake.

Unfortunately, we ended up losing this match, though we had a great opportunity because once again it was Maxime (Lagarde), in time trouble, who lost a very promising position. We can also regret Étienne’s draw, more or less without playing with white against Yakubboev, because while against So, we had collectively agreed that it was the right strategic choice, there, for a last round, we would have preferred him to play…

As for me, I was black against Abdusattorov, and it was a morning game where, out of necessity, the revisions are less thorough.

Abdussatorov (2766) – Mvl 1/2

Here’s the position we got after 20 moves of a very complex Najdorf.

For the record, Vladimir Kramnik, who was the captain of the Uzbekistan team, said to me right after the game, with his legendary optimism 😊: « but you were completely lost had Nordibek played this… ». On the spot, I thought he was telling me that I was completely winning, because later in the game, it did look more promising for me. But even so, I didn’t understand where I would have been winning either! I finally understood he was referring to the diagrammed position, arguing that if white had played 21.Nxe6 fxe6 22.Qd3 (instead of 21.Qd3 right away, allowing 21…Bd7!) « [Nordibek’s position] would have been winning ».

He’s not entirely wrong, in the sense that I’m actually worse in this variation, but certainly far from losing! It’s a tricky position to be in, but it doesn’t look that bad and, above all, it leaves plenty of play for both sides.

In the end, I managed the rest of the game rather well, and got quite a bit of play afrer sacrificing a pawn ; but it wasn’t enough to win.

In terms of final results, the Olympiad was rather disappointing, as we finished in 15th place. As we didn’t have one of the best line-ups, everyone would have had to outperform to keep any hope of a podium. But it’s clear that no-one in the French team was in exceptional form. There were certainly some good things. Laurent (Fressinet) at the end, Marc’Andria (Maurizzi) over a large part of the tournament (apart from his defeat against England, which was a bit damaging); for his part, Maxime (Lagarde) set the tournament alight, even if it backfired in the two matches we lost at the end. But in other circumstances, it could have been a very good tournament, and in any case, he’s in the right frame of mind.

On a personal level, 7/10 is good, but not prodigious either. In fact, it’s a result that suffers from comparison with other first board players, such as Gukesh or Abdusattorov, who achieved stratospheric performances in Budapest!

Incidentally, I’d like to take this opportunity to salute the Indians’ double gold medal, which really is beyond dispute…

Champions Chess Tour

Three days after returning from Budapest, I took part in the final tournament of the Champions Chess Tour, in Division 1. Having already qualified as one of the Top 8 players on the circuit who will compete in the face-to-face finals in Oslo from December 17 to 21, my main concern was to play good chess, at a rhythm of play I like (10+2). The result was mixed, as I won my matches against Nepo and Grischuk, but lost twice to Aronian, finishing in fourth place in the final rankings. But what I’ll remember most is that this is the second tournament in a row on this circuit where I’ve been awarded the beauty prize! This time, for my mating attack against Nepo…

Here, my Rook is under attack, but a retreat move like 29.Re2 would leave white with almost no advantage. I spent quite a bit of time (2 minutes) on 29.Ng5! because, even though it’s a fairly obvious move, I wanted to check that I hadn’t forgotten any defense. Of course, if 29…fxe6 30.Qxg6 wins instantly. If 29…Be7, the answer is easy, 30.Nxf7. I had also calculated 29…Re7 30.Qg3, although in that one you’d still have to find the punishment for 30…f6, namely 31.Bxf6! gxf6 32.Rxf6 and if white’s attack isn’t instantly winning, it’ll still be devastating. That leaves 29…Rd6. I’d planned 30.Qf3 as the simplest answer ; he still can’t take on e6, and if 30…Qd7, I’ve got 31.Rxd6 Bxd6 32.Qxd5. As for 30…Qxe6, it leaves black no chance of fortress at all. But since I also saw 30.Qg3, I didn’t hesitate to calculate it! If 30…fxe6 31.Qh4 is mate. Ditto after 30…Qxe6 31.Qh4. So it wasn’t so hard to understand that after 30…Qd8, 31.Re8! was so strong. It looks spectacular, but honestly, it’s extremely easy…31…Qxe8 32.Qh4 Qe4+ and now,33.Kg3!, the icing on the cake! I could have played 33.Kg1 or even 31.f3, but I chose the more aesthetic; I use the fact that the Rd6 blocks the Bishop’s check on d6!

As an anecdote, while I was playing, I thought of my 2011 game against Wang Hao (in Wijk aan zee), not at all featuring this opening but where I had this same attacking theme.

In this completely winning position, I’m spoilt for choice. 32.Nd2 followed by 33.Rh3 does the job, as does the aesthetic 32.Bf6, followed by 33.Ng5. But I chose 32.Be7? thinking that the threat of 33.Ng5 would force resignation, since if 32…Nd3 33.Rxd3 (33.Ng5?? Nf4+ 35.Kg3 Qxb3+ and if 36.Kxf4? Bd2#); but now black has a defense arising from nowhere, 33…g5!! and if 34.Nxg5? Qxd3 controls h7. Miraculously, white would still stay alive with 34.Rc3! gxh4 35.Rxc8+ Kh7 36.Bxh4, but in the game, I preferred to absorb the shock with 33.Rxb5 Nf4+ 34.Kg3 (34.Rh1 Rc1+ 35.Ng1 Ne2 would have been playing with fire!) 34…Ne2+ 35.Kh3 Nf4+ and perpetual.

My next stop is London. I’ll be taking part in two tournaments in a row: the Global Chess League from October 3 to 12, a team tournament with 20′ games and no increment! Then the WR Masters from October 14, which will feature a new and original formula. A bracket of 16 players with a KO system, and the fastest rate of play to be homologated as classic (1h/30, 30’/20 + 30′ ko). The icing on the cake is that both games of a match will take place on the same day, with a possible Armaggedon tie-break in the evening! A particularly busy program awaits us 😊.

Budapest’s games:

Champions Chess Tour games:

Maxime’s game against Wang Hao:

Every year in early September, the huge « Foire de Châlons-en-Champagne » is the place to be. A must-see for the country’s leading political figures, it’s also a place for conviviality and festivities, with concerts every evening. The closing concert on Sunday September 8 featured Patrick Bruel, one of France’s best-known singers and actors. L’Echiquier Chalonnais, which is very active in the Grand Est region and headed by former French Federation President Diego Salazar, invited the singer, as a good chess fan, to play a friendly game against Maxime. A similar initiative took place with Garry Kasparov in 2013. The game took place backstage just before the concert. Despite the help of French GM Marie Sebag, Patrick Bruel bowed out with a smile, before heading off to perform in front of the 18,000 or so spectators who were waiting for him!

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.