Category: English

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.

Before commenting on these July tournaments, I’d like to take a look back at the first half of 2024 as a whole, during which I played no classical tournament, only a few isolated games in team competitions, as in the German league, the Austrian league and of course in the French Top 16.

Even though Rapid and online tournaments went well at times (including winning Division 2 of the Champions Chess Tour in May), I still had a lot of questions before the start of this 2024 Grand Chess Tour, not least because I hadn’t played against the world’s elite in the classical chess for quite some time…

BUCHAREST

Half of the participants in the Romanian capital were familiar faces, but the other half were not, since for the first time in ages two players were included against whom I had never played a classical game: Abdusattorov and Gukesh! That leaves Erigaisi as the only player left in the world’s Top 20!

After two uneventful draws against Nepo and Prag, I was white against Alireza (Firouzja), who this time opted for the Berlin endgame. After Black showed very deep preparation, we ended up in a rather odd position to play and evaluate. It’s also complicated with the new rate of play (2h KO + 30”/move), where you have all the time in the world as there is no intermediate control! As a result, there were certainly fewer errors in the middlegames, and the overall chess quality was clearly better.

But this game is the exception that proves the rule!

Here, I found the difficult move 23.Re1, avoiding 23.c3 f5 24.Bg5 (24.g5? Bb3!) 24…Bxg5 25.Nxg5 Bb3 26.Re1 fxg4 27.hxg4 Rbg6 28.f4 h6. After 23…f5 24.g5, Alireza made a big miscalculation 24…Ba2?! 25.Kf4 Rxb2? as he missed 26.c4! Rxd2 27.Nxd2 a4 28.Ra1 Bb3 29.Nxb3 axb3 30.Rb1 and the King’s activity gives white a winning endgame.

Nevertheless, the technical conversion of the advantage wasn’t that simple, as there’s still a lot of work to be done to get the pawns moving. In this critical position, Alireza played his practical card with 35….b5!?. My horrible answer 36.cxb5? (36.Kg4 Rh1 37.f4 fit the bill perfectly) is explained by the fact that after 36…c4 37.Rb4 Rxf3+, my basic idea was 38.Ke6, but then there’s 38…cxb5 39.Rxb5 Rb3! (the defense I’d forgotten!), which draws on the spot. Despite this crucial oversight, I felt I could still push with 38.Ke4 Rxa3 39.bxc6, but he defended the Rook endgame after 39…Bc7! very well and saved the half-point. A cruel disappointment!

The next round, with black against Abdussatorov, I was surprised that he persisted in playing the 6.Qd3 line against the Najdorf. I managed the opening quite well, finding two really difficult moves (11…Qc8 and 12…h5). I was even much better because he let me take the e4 pawn under very favorable circumstances.

It was when I’d done most of the work that I played 16….Be7?! little too quickly. But it wasn’t easy to play 16…d5! (which is the best move) because there would have been more complications and I just thought I could consolidate my extra pawn. But it’s true that after
17.c4, strangely enough, white’s compensation for the pawn is quite huge. In the end, after
17…Rb8 18.Bd2 0-0 19.Nc3, I should have simply sacrificed the exchange with 19…Rxb4 20.Nd5 Nxd5 21.cxd5 Bb5 22.Bxb4 Bxe2. Instead, I opted for 19…Nb6 20.Rc1 Bb7, giving him the opportunity (which I’d anticipated though!) to bring the Knight to e3 with 21.Nd1! after which I think white would have taken the advantage. Fortunately, he chose 21.Qd3
and I jumped at the chance to give up the Queen with 21…Qc6!.

22.Bf3 Qxc4 23.Nd5 Bxd5 24.Rxc4 Bxc4 obtaining a position that seemed almost better for black. Indeed it is, in practice anyway, but after 25.Qc2 g6 26.Be3 Bb5, he found a rather sumptuous defence sequence with 27.Bxb6! Rxb6 28.Ne6! Rfb8 29.Nc7! Rg7 30.Nd5; white gives the h4-pawn, but doesn’t care. He won’t take the d6-pawn and will use his Queen to come to c7 and his Bishop to d5 to create a fortress. My pieces can’t move and we agreed to a draw a bit later! All in all, it was a good game. It somewhat echoes the one against Alireza, in the sense that it was also a missed opportunity for me, although it was much more difficult here.

Five more draws later, we can stop at the final result, 9 draws, which I know doesn’t sound dreamy 😊. I’m still on a long (ongoing) run of 17 consecutive draws in classical games. On the plus side, I’m not losing and I’m solid. On the downside, I’m also missing chances. We’ll have to come up with something sharper at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis (Usa) in August.

But overall, in terms of content, it’s much more encouraging, especially as I’ve had several opportunities to win games.

I’m also pleased that I wasn’t in danger in any of the games. So I’d say the balance sheet is pretty positive, even if it’s not quite what I’d hoped for (at least +1).

To be confirmed in Saint-Louis!

The Grand Chess Tour caravan made its way from Bucharest to the Rapid & Blitz in Zagreb. Ironically, and despite all geographical logic, our flight between the two capitals had a stopover in… Paris!

Zagreb Rapid

In Rapid chess, I was a little more confident as I’d been playing pretty well recently. I won the Tata Steel India and the last Champions Chess Tour tournament in September 2023, I was 2^nd at the Rapid & blitz in St-Louis in December, and I’ve also won online tournaments etc… Here in Zagreb, I was able to show once again that I’m always alert when the pace quickens 😊

In the very first round, with black against Aronian, I used an old preparation in a 3.f3
Grünfeld. I couldn’t remember all the details, but it made for an extremely unbalanced position; I think we were both happy!

Here, I should have played 21…Rfe8, in order to take back with the f-pawn on g6. I didn’t want to forget to attack on the Queenside and I thought I’d have time for 21…a5… But after 22.hxg6, I realized that 22…fxg6 would allow 23.Ne6. Of course, I can’t take back with the h-pawn either, because there’s 23.f4! and then 24.Tdh3 and I’m checkmated. So 22…Qxg6 isn’t ideal, but it’s forced!

What has been a constant in the Rapid tournament, but even more glaring in this game, was my time advantage: I’ve been able to get 10, even 15 minutes ahead in many of the games.

Here, Levon navigated a little too slowly through the complications, but in terms of position, it was still very, very hot!

Here, I took 2 minutes to validate the choice of 27…Bf1, having in mind the whole variation 28.Be3 Bxe3 29.Rxe3 Nc4 30.Re2 Ne5 31.Rexg2 Bxg2 32.Rxg2 Ng4, which allowed me to play this series of moves extremely quickly!

Obviously, after 33.Nd7? (33.Nf5! still left a very nebulous position) there’s that little regret of not seeing 33…Ne3! which was a very nice move (34.Rxg6+ fxg6 followed by 35…Rf1 which wins instantly).

That said, he only had 20 seconds left, and I had 10 minutes! I thought I’d be able to make the difference, and indeed I did, thanks to one or two smart moves at the end.

Here, I took 2 minutes to validate the choice of 27…Bf1, having in mind the whole variation 28.Be3 Bxe3 29.Rxe3 Nc4 30.Re2 Ne5 31.Rexg2 Bxg2 32.Rxg2 Ng4, which allowed me to play this series of moves extremely quickly!

Obviously, after 33.Nd7? (33.Nf5! still left a very nebulous position) there’s that little regret of not seeing 33…Ne3! which was a very nice move (34.Rxg6+ fxg6 followed by 35…Rf1 which wins instantly).

That said, he only had 20 seconds left, and I had 10 minutes! I thought I’d be able to make the difference, and indeed I did, thanks to one or two smart moves at the end.

I thought it was a bit strange that he hadn’t taken on a3 earlier. But here I thought it was really time to play 23…bxa3 24.Nf5 Rg8 25.Nd6 Ra7 for example, and after 26.Qxa3 I have clear compensations, but it’s probably close to a draw. After 23…Rg8 24.Qf3, he was now obliged to find difficult moves, like 24…Qf8 or the improbable 24…f5! to stay in the game, which he didn’t manage to do. After 24…Qd8? 25.axb4 Rb8 26.Rd1 Qe7?! (26…Qf8 27.Qxf6+ Qg7 was a lesser evil) 27.Nf5 I gained a lot of tempi on black’s pieces and a very clear advantage.

I always had ideas with h4-h5 in mind, especially here 29.h4 Qxb4 30.h5 Rh6? 31.Nf5! Qxc5+ 32.Kh2 Qf8 33.Rd7 and the way black is tied up is very photogenic! But in this variation 30…Rg7! 31.Qxf6 Qxc5 32.h6 Qxe3+ 33.Kh1 Qg5 saves the day, and that’s why I played 29.Nd5; obviously with such a Knight, I knew it was going to go well 😊.

It took me a long time to find the win, because although I quickly saw the position after
36.Kf2! Rxc5 37.Rxc5 Qxc5 38.Qd7, for a long time I had the impression that 38…f5
was a draw. Until I realized that the very pretty 39.Qd8+ Rg7 40.Ke2! would unpin the Knight, renew the mating threats, and leave black defenseless! (but especially not 40.Qg5+? Rg6! 41.hxg6 f4, which makes a draw).

So I arrived on the second day with a score of 2.5/3 and a good deal of certainty, and then… crash!

Against Gukesh with white, in a game that went extremely well for quite a long time, (huge time advantage and a position that seemed completely overwhelming), I failed to capitalize. Not only did I squander my advantage, but I also blundered and was trivially mated!

The advantage was already gone and I had to make do with 43.Rf1. Instead, despite my 2 minutes against a handful of seconds, I played the terrible 43.Rh1??. For the record, I had calculated from a distance 43…Qg4? 44.Rxh6+ gxh6 45.Qd7, which wins for white. But
43…Qf3+ was quite a cold shower! Inevitably, this shock had a bit of an impact on the following games, in which I wasn’t really able to get back into the swing of things.

On the last two days of Rapid, I played at a much more uneven level than on the first day. I did, however, perform a few small feats of defense to save quite a couple of half-points 😊. And I had a good game with white against Vidit to my credit; for the record, in an old line I’d played 12 years ago against Étienne Bacrot (1.c4 e6 2.e4 d5). I knew that it didn’t promise any advantage, but that it was a little more pleasant for white to play, and that it was easy to make a mistake. And that’s exactly what happened!

Black wasn’t precise enough in the opening, I’ve already managed to put all my pieces on the right squares and white is clearly better after 18.c4!. This time, the conversion phase went well after 18…Nxd2 19.cxd5 Nxb3 20.Qxb3. There’s not much he can do, sometimes there’s d6, sometimes there’s dxc6, Nxf7…. Besides, he had to think for a long time because it was really hard for black to play. Vidit only made things worse with the sequence 20…Bg6?! 21.Re3! Rb8, and the tactical conclusion was quite nice, 22.dxc6 bxc6 23.Nxc6!; white remains a central passed pawn up, and winning is now just a matter of technique.

I finished the Rapid tournament with 5/9, in ambush before the two days of blitz.

Zagreb Blitz

My blitz tournament was good, even very good, as I scored 6.5/9 each day. In terms of content, I played some very good games, and I only have one small regret: my two games against Nepo, which were my only defeats in the 18 rounds…

However, there’s always room for improvement, and I deplore the occasional blunder or oversight, even though I know it’s inevitable, especially as you get older 😊. But I’ve made up for it with a much more energetic play on many occasions…

Overall, I’m satisfied with this performance and with my shared 2^nd in Zagreb. Fabiano (Caruana) was unstoppable from start to finish, and fully deserved his victory. My last chance to compete was in the last round of the Rapid against him, but I was non-existent in that game, which allowed him to take off a little more.
Well done to him! What’s more, he had won Bucharest just before, so he continues his total domination of the Grand Chess Tour stages. He’s leaving us the crumbs, but I’m going to try to get a little more in Saint-Louis 😊.

CHAMPIONS CHESS TOUR, CrunchLabs Masters

On my return from Zagreb, I had 3 days’ respite before moving on to the third tournament of the 2024 Champions Chess Tour, where I was playing in Division 1 following my Division 2 victory in May. The starting line-up was truly sumptuous, with Carlsen, Caruana, Nepo, Firouzja, So, Duda, Andreikin and myself!

In my first match against Andreikin, it was the third game that was decisive. I decided to avoid the Sicilian Kalashnikov of the first game, which had gone badly for me I lost with white). I chose the line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3, which was a little more positional and where I knew a number of details, both from white and black’s side.

The key moment was when he decided to castle long, which surprised me enormously because it’s very easy for me to create an initiative on the Queenside. Even if his pieces are in the center, because of the d6 pawn and the blocked d-file, they can’t easily get back to defense. After 15…0-0-0 16.b4, he can’t really open up, hence 16…Qg4 17.Rb1 (but not immediately 17.Qb2? h4! and black is faster) 17…e4 and now 18.Qb2!. The attack is too strong even if I wasn’t necessarily very clean afterwards.

I also won game 4 and following this 2.5-1.5 victory over Andreikin, I met Carlsen in the semi finals.

After losing the first game, I immediately levelled the score with a performance that earned me the prize for « best game of the tournament »! I played an anti-Marshall, even though I knew that Magnus excels in this type of position. It’s true that it’s very hard to beat him in this opening. It was his former second Laurent Fressinet who recently gave me this stat; in classical play, Carlsen hasn’t lost a Spanish with black since June 2015, against Anand!

Here I think I took a slight edge with the energetic 20.d4! Bf8 (20…cxd4 21.cxd4 Nxd4 22.N3xd4 exd4 23.Bf4 with the idea 24.e5 or 24.Qxd4) and here I had to choose between 21.d5 and 21.dxc5. I decided to have the long-term center advantage rather than the space advantage. I felt that I’d always be at least a little better after the exchange, so it was a practical decision, especially as he already had very little time left, 4 minutes 30. In these situations, it’s good to have long-term pressure.

The critical moment! Here, I was looking at 26…f5 27.Qf3 f4 when he played 26…Qc8?, a move I wasn’t particularly expecting, and which would have been excellent without my reply! After 27.Qxc8 Nxc8 (otherwise, fork on b6), the manoeuvre 28.Bd8! Nc6 29.Bc7 Rb7 30.Nc4 immediately caught my eye. I have complete control of the Queenside, which I didn’t necessarily optimize in the following moves. Clearly, I should have! I felt I should have hit harder, but at the same time I had this more conservative intuition which told me not to try and force matters, but rather use the fact that his time pressure was a real problem.

But it was a bit risky and I almost paid for it because here, if he had played 41…g6! followed by 42…Bh6, I wasn’t at all sure I could progress! Fortunately, he preferred 41…Rd7? perhaps anticipating 42.Kd2. Except that now, with the Nd6 pinned, I was able to pull out all the stops with 42.f4! exf4 43.gxf4 Rb7? (43…g6 was the only move to avoid going under straight away) 44.f5+ Kf7 45.e5! and black’s position collapsed.

After two more draws, I managed to win the Armageddon, an exercise in which Magnus nevertheless has breathtaking statistics!

In the Franco-French final against Alireza (Firouzja), I’d single out the first game of the match…

I wasn’t necessarily expecting 6.Rg1 against my Najdorf, but I’d been looking at this line a bit recently, especially after my game against Jordan Van Foreest in the Top 16; I wanted to find alternatives to surprise my opponents. And so did I, even if I didn’t negotiate the beginning of the game very well, because it’s hard to remember all the details! After 6…g6 7.g4 Bg7 8.Be2,

I remembered planning this new idea 8…h5, but during the game I started to get scared when I saw the « funny » variation 9.gxh5 Nxh5 10.Bxh5 Rxh5? 11.Qxh5! gxh5 12.Rxg7; I felt it could go very wrong… Fortunately, I realized that there was 10…Bxd4! 11.Qxd4 Rxh5 which more or less would stabilize the position. Nevertheless, Alireza surprised me a lot by playing 10.h3?.

But here I reacted too quickly. After 10…hxg4 11.hxg4, I played the natural move in this position, 11…Nc6?. Obviously, a few seconds later, it jumped out at me; but what would he have done after 11…Nxg4 ?. 12.Bxg4 Bxg4 13.Qxg4 Bxd4 or 13.Txg4 Th1+. I barely had time to say to myself « what an idiot to have missed that! » that Alireza unleashed 12.Be3?.I realized that 12…Nxg4? 13.Bxg4 Bxg4 14.Nxc6 didn’t work anymore, but I quickly thought of 12…Bxg4!… I calculated and checked everything, because there are quite a few variations. Notably 13.Bxg4 Nxg4 14.Qxg4 Nxd4 15.0-0-0 Nc6 16.Nd5, which was actually the best option for white. He gives away a pawn and I had to be sure that the compensation wouldn’t be too great, which wasn’t the case. But Alireza, despite much thought, had completely missed the point. So he played 13.Nxc6, which seemed to me to be a poor practical decision, since after 13…Bxe2 14.Nxd8 Bxd1 15.Nxf7 Kxf7 16.Rxd1, the endgame looks at least fine for black. I continued with 16…Nd7?! because I didn’t want to allow 16…Rac8 17.e5!? dxe5 18.Kd2 and 19.Kc1, but the computer disagrees!

Here, he definitely went down after 28.Nb2? Rh8 29.Rf1 Rh2+ 30.Kd1 g5! 31.Nd3 Nxd3 32.Rxd3 g4 0-1. The machine indicates that white could have held in the diagrammed position by preventing penetration on the h-file at the cost of a pawn, after 28.Nf2! Rcf8 29.Rh1 Rxf3 30.Rxf3 Rxf3 31.Nd3, then defending the Rook endgame thanks to black’s doubled e-pawns. From a human point of view, I think this is untraceable, and in any case impossible to defend in this format, even if it’s a computer 0.00!

I eventually won this match 2.5-0.5, then waited to see who would emerge from the losers’ bracket. And it was Alireza who once again presented himself to me, having eliminated Nepo, who had himself previously disposed of Carlsen.

In this Grand Final, I still got two lives, while Alireza had to win two matches to come out on top. But in the end there was only one, after 4 tumultuous draws and an even more tense Armageddon, which I finally won with white – and here it is!

I had this position from the Berlin endgame in my files, and the right move here is
19.f4!. It’s true that, at one time, it was thought that white shouldn’t venture into the structures arising from 19…gxf3 20.Nxf3. But things change, and in recent years we’ve realized that this is not only completely playable, but even quite dangerous for black! For example, I played this type of position against Grischuk at the Candidates 2020. And if black doesn’t take en passant, like Alireza, the idea is obviously to gain space and always have f5 in sight. After 19…Nf5 20.Nf1 Ra6 (the best; 20…Nxh4 21.Ng3! with the idea 22.Ne3 and f5, and if 21…Nf5? 22.Nxf5 Bxf5 23.e6! loses material) 21.g3 (21.Kf2 was more precise
) 21…Nd4 22.Nd2 c6 23.Ne3, I think he could equalize by simply playing 23…Be7 and 24…Rd8 (instead of 23…Rb6?!).

In this position, where I regained control after two inaccurate moves from black, I made a bit of the same mistake as in my primed game against Magnus 😊. I wanted to use the fact that he was in time trouble to keep the tension and keep the pieces on the board, especially as we were playing an Armageddon with no increment at all! So I chose 28.Nc2?. But this is a rather ridiculous move because I could simply have exchanged on f5 and, for example, brought my King back to e3 and then the Rooks on the d-file. He’d be forced to waste time with his Rooks, and at some point I’d manage to penetrate to the Kingside via a timely Nd6. What’s more, there’s probably something even more precise than 28.Nxf5; I can also wait for him to exchange on e3, for example with the little move 28.Rb2, and save even more time that way. But in any case, 28.Nc2? was completely off the mark, which I could have paid for dearly, as he managed to liquidate into an objectively defensible endgame.

Here, I knew that in the event of 36…Rd8? 37.Rxd8 Kxd8 38.Ke4 Ke7 39.f5 followed by Kf4-g5, despite the opposite-colored bishops, black would probably lose. At least, that’s what I thought during the game. After 36…Re8, I proceeded by elimination. He’s threatening 37…f5! and it looks a lot like a fortress, so definitely not 37.Ke4?. Which left me no choice but to play 37.f5 myself! I had a feeling it probably wouldn’t be enough objectively, but at least I could cause problems with every move after 37…Bxf5 38.Kf4. Should he consolidate with 38…Bg6 or counter-attack the Queenside with 38…Bc2 ? It turns out that both are ok, and he chose the second option. But he only had 1’41” left (compared to over 4’ for me!). And after 39.Rf6, another dilemma: 39…Bxb3 or 39…Re7,
the move finally chosen. And again after 40.Kg5 Bxb3 41.Kxh5, should he take a4 or c4? So many difficult and time-consuming decisions!

He now had just 53 seconds left (I remind you, with no increments 😊), and the task was no longer surmountable, even though the machine shows that after the only move 48…Rg8!, black retains excellent chances of a draw. The reason is that if 49.h6 Rg4+! 50.Kf3 Rg8, white can’t play 51.h7? Rh8 52.Rh6, because black now has 52…Bf5 since white’s King is no longer on f4! In the game, Alireza played 48…c5? 49.h6 Rh8 50.Bxc5 Kc6 51.Bd6 Kd5 52.g4 Ra8 53.h7 Rh8 54.Rh6 Kc4 (only 13” left, but it’s now as hopeless on the board as it is on the clock!) 55.Kg5 Kb3 56.Kf6 Bxg4 57.Kg7 1-0.

Delighted to win this 3rd Champions Chess Tour tournament! I’ll be playing in Division 1 again for the last tournament in September, and I’m already assured of being one of the 8 who’ll be competing in the live final in December.

In the meantime, I’ll be up for the Speed Chess Championship, with a first match on July 31st against Hans Niemann, and the prospect of the face-to-face finals in September in Paris!

From August 12, I’ll be in the USA for the American tour, Rapid & Blitz in St Louis and then the Sinquefield Cup! The two tournaments will take place one after another, with my aim being to finish in the top 3 of the circuit and qualify for next year.

I hope to continue to show the level of play I reached at the beginning of the summer, which answered the doubts that had been legitimately raised over the last year or two. I’m still capable of raising my game, and quite consistently.

To be confirmed though…

Maxime’s games in Bucharest:

Maxime’s games in Zagreb (rapid):

Maxime’s games in Zagreb (blitz):

Maxime’s games in the Crunchlabs Master:

A few weeks ago, Maxime recorded (in French!) a very long interview for César Mourot’s podcast:. It’s an opportunity to go really in-depth on a number of topics, as the exchange lasts over 2 hours! For those who don’t have the time, a detailed thematic summary takes you straight to the subjects of particular interest.

After more than a month without any competition, I took part in the second Champions Chess Tour online tournament, from May 8 to 14. The formula is a little complex: after a preliminary round in the form of an open (the « Play In »), the best players have access to a second day devoted to « Division Placement », which divides players into D1, D2 and D3. Thereafter, each Division is contested by direct confrontation, but with the new principle of a Winners’ Bracket and a Losers’ Bracket, allowing all players to have a second life.

I played well in the Play In, finishing just behind Caruana, but I completely missed out on the Division Placement, and had to settle for competing in Division 2. That said, with the presence of players like Caruana, So, Aronian, Dominguez, to name but a few, this second Division looked appealing!

I’m all the more satisfied to have won it in the end, after successively beating Van Foreest, Martinez, Dubov, Oparin and So, as it offers me direct qualification for Division 1 of the third and penultimate tournament, in July.

Over the eight days of play, I’ve had a lot of long games, and I’m going to take this opportunity to look back on a number of interesting endings.

MVL-Vokhidov, Play-In Round 4 : 1/2

In one of the games of the preliminary Open, I still managed to establish a fortress and survive, although I had to give away my Queen in the process.

Here, my opponent has just given check on e4; panic-stricken and running out of time, I replied 68.Kh2??.The problem with this move is that, after 68…Kg4, I can’t play 69.Rf4+? Qxf4! 70.gxf4 Kxh4 71.f5 gxf5 since black’s King takes the opposition! So the only move was 68.Kg1! which is a bit paradoxical because it allows 68…Kg4, but now there would be 69.Rf4+ Qxf4 70.gxf4 Kxh4 71.f5 gxf5 72.Kf2 recovering the opposition. And if not, on the next move I’ll be able to play Rf4 again and keep the fortress, knowing that if Black plays …g5, hxg5 Kxg5 at some point, with the Rook on f4 and the pawn on g3, it’s a well-known drawn position, even if it’s a little less easy than with the pawn on g2 and the Rook on f3.

In the end, my opponent missed the win and let me collect the half-point.

Van Foreest-MVL, round of 16 game 2: 1-0

I’d won the first game. I wanted to finish the 4-game match at once and I made a few decisions that were a little too risky. I tried to remain active while not trading too many pieces, but I ended up paying dearly for it in an endgame where I was just slightly worse.

Everything crystallized in this position. We were running out of time, and the endgame was a bit of a pain to defend. Here I had the choice between 54…Kg7 and 54…Kg6. The logical move is 54…Kg7, but I wanted to play 54…Kg6 to have my King in support of the h-pawn. The problem is that after 54…Kg6? there’s the move I missed 55.Re3! which is also very classical. Now the e-pawn goes to Queen because I can’t bring my King back to f8; I lost the game a few moves later.

MVL-Van Foreest, round of 16 Armaggedon : 1-0

A Knight’s endgame rather difficult to win for white. I put the pressure on as best I could, but Jorden had really defended well up to this point. The number of pawns is drastically reduced, especially as he’s going to exchange one more by force. So we’re virtually down to only 2 pawns each… But I kept coming up with ideas, starting with 58.Ke3!?; he can’t take on d5 right away, because he’d lose the f6-pawn, or the pawn endgame. But he played well again: 58…Kd6 59.dxc6 Kxc6. Here, the logical move would be 60.Kc4 to play b5 of course, but I thought I’d fish in troubled waters instead, choosing 60.Ke4 Kb5 61.Kd5 Kh3 62.Kf3 Kc4. Here, I first checked 63.Kg2 obviously, but 63…Kxd5 63.Kxh3 Kc4 and black is on time, tempo-wise. But there was still one last trap, which I’d calculated in advance anyway, so as not to give him time to figure it out! 63.Kxf6 and 63…Kxb4? loses after the pretty 64.Kh5! trapping the Knight. Jorden resigned after 64…Kg1 (64…Kc5 65.Kg2 Nf4+ 66.Nxf4 exf4 67.Kf3 Kd6 68. Kxf4 Ke6 69.Kg5 winning the opposition) 65.Kf2 Nh3+ 66.Kg2 1-0.

Instead of taking the b4-pawn, 63…Nf4! was the only move, but frankly after 64.Ke4, you’d think that the b-pawn could now be defended (since 64…Kxb4? 65.Nd5+), and with very little time on the clock, you’d tend to stop there. However, this was the right line to escape, because here 64…Nd3 65.Kd5 Nf2+ 66.Kf3 Nxg4 gets the draw!

Mvl-Dubov, ½ final game 1 : 1-0

After overcoming the Martinez obstacle in the ¼ final in a tense match, I faced Dubov.

I was a pawn up from the start of the endgame. My Knight is worth his Bishop and my King is supporting the pawn, but it feels like a draw with all the pawns on the same wing. I had some time to think, but I still played fast to keep the pressure on; I thought it would be more useful here than trying to find a win that didn’t yet exist 😊. At first, I looked at 46.Nd4 f4 47.Ne2 to keep the g-pawn, but I saw 47…f3 followed by 48…Bxg3. I then thought of 46.Ng7!? f4 47.Nh5 fxg3 48.fxg3. Here, I suspect it’s still a draw, but he’s going to follow the wrong plan; 48…Kd6 49.Kd4 Ba7+ 50.Ke4 Bf2 (Dubov must have thought I was in zugzwang and would lose a pawn) 51.Ng7 (I must say I hadn’t seen this resource in advance 😊) 51…Be1? (not 51…Kd7? either because of 52.Nf5 followed by 53.Kf4xg4. In fact, Black didn’t defend in the most precise way and was therefore forced here to find a difficult series of only moves. 51…Ke7! 52.Nf5+ [52.Kf4 Bxg3+!] 52…Kf6 53.Kf4 [53.d6 Ke6 54.Kf4 Be1! 55.Kxg4 Bd2 zugzwang, is an elegant way to draw] 53…Bb6 only square! 54.Kxg4 [54.d6 Ke6 55.Kxg4 Bf2 only one square! 56.Kf4 Be1 57.g4 Bd2+ 58.Ke4 Bc1 59.Kd4 Ba3 and white makes no further progress. Note that in this line, black’s last five Bishop moves are only moves] 54…Ke5 55.d6 Bd8! with an aesthetically pleasing mirror zugzwang [56.d7 Ke6]. Obviously, all this can hardly be found with a few dozen seconds on the clock) 52.Nf5+ (my Knight now protects g3 and also allows black’s King to be cut off from the d5 pawn) 52…Kc5 53.Ke5 and win a few moves later, the King accompanying the d-pawn while the Knight went to h5 to protect g3 while never being attacked by the opponent’s King.

Dubov-MVL, ½ final game 2 : 1/2

An opposite-colored Bishops endgame in which I was in great difficulty. Fortunately, I had succeeded in forcing his pawns on white squares by pushing mine on the Kingside, anticipating a possible counterplay. In these positions with two passed pawns, if I don’t have a target in his camp, white’s King is bound to infiltrate somehow, and one of the passed pawns will escape. Here, all my counterplay is based on the fact that I can attack the g2-pawn with my Bishop, while controlling the a6-square. However, the machine indicates that white could win by playing 37.Ke3! with the idea 38.f4. His mistake 37.Kc5? is a funny moment, because after 37…Bf1 38.e6+ Ke7 (I didn’t want 38…Kxe6 39.Bd8, but it turns out that 39…Kd7! 40.Bxg5 Bxg2 still works), we get a position where I can’t take the g2-pawn because the a-pawn goes to Queen; but as soon as his King moves, either he takes c6, in which case I now take g2 and the long diagonal is open, or he plays Kb6 and I reply …c5; he’ll then have to take c5 (or play a6, whatever) and I take g2 then f3 and after that, I have my own passed pawns on the Kingside, and it could quickly get out of hand for white! So he finds himself in a situation where he’s forced to accept the draw by status quo; 39.Bc7 f4 40.Be5 (40.Kb6 c5!) 40…Kxe6 and nobody does anything.

Dubov-MVL, 1/2 final game 4: 1-0

This was a game of great adventures, in which I was under huge pressure most of the time, and so missed a few wins in the process. But then, thanks to a good defense with very little time at the start of the endgame, I avoided forced wins for him and managed to reposition my pieces somewhat miraculously. Inevitably, there were still a few reciprocal errors and in the end, we found ourselves in an extremely difficult Rook endgame, which was probably losing for me though. But with only 5 seconds for him too, he navigated badly and we reached this objectively drawn position…

Instead of repeating the position a second time with 82…Rc4+, I suddenly remembered that I had my g and h pawns, so it looked easier to bring my King back with 82…Kf6…After 83.b7 Rxb7 84.Kxb7+ Kf5, « I’ll support the pawn advance, white’s King is too far away », I thought. True, except for the cold shower 83.Kc5! and I can’t move my Rook to b1 because there’s 84.b7 with check, then 85.Rb6. So I’m forced to sacrifice my Rook right away with 83…Rxb6 84.Rxb6+ Kf5 but now 85.Kd4 and white’s King returns. I still tried 85…Kf4 86.Rxg6 (86.Kd3 Kf3 87.Rf6+ was even simpler) 86…h4 but 87.Rh6 Kg3 88.Ke3 h3 89.Rg6+ also wins by one tempo, but that’s all it takes in chess!

Dubov-MVL, ½ final Armaggedon : 1/2

In the Armageddon I found myself in dire straits again in the opening, the same one as in the second game. For the record, I once again made the wrong move in relation to my files 😊, but afterwards I defended myself rather well.

My original idea was 35…Rf6? but there is 36.e7 Re6 and, for example, 37.Qd8; there are probably 36 wins, but 37.Qd8 Rxd6 38.e8=Q Rxd8 39.Qe5 mate is convincing! Anyway, I realized that I couldn’t play 35…Rf6 and so I fell back on 35…Rg7, with the idea that after 36.e7? there’s the unlikely 36…Ke6!… I thought he might fall for it, knowing that if white wins exist, they’re not so easy either. And that’s exactly what happened 😊. With the King on e6, all of a sudden my pieces control his Queen’s squares and as soon as it moves, I can now take e7 because there’s no more Bxe7 Qxe7, Qxc6+.

Dubov reacted well with 37.Kg3. I was very worried that the pawn endgame could be lost right away, so I thought about it for a minute or so. I played 37…h5, which is a good move because now if 38.Kf2, there’s 38…Qb6+! (but not 38…Qb2+? 39.Kg1! Qb7 40.Qxg6+! Rxg6 41.e8=Q+ Kxd6 [41…Kf6 42.Be5+ Kf5 43.Bd4! and it’s mate somewhere] 42.Qxg6+ Kc5 [42…Kc7 43.Qf7+] 43.Qxh5+ with a winning Queen’s endgame). After Dubov’s 38.a5, I was able to play 38…Qd7! (and not 38…Rxe7? 39.Qxg6+). The pawn endgame after 39.Qd8 Rxe7 40.Bxe7 Qxe7 41.Qxe7+ Kxe7 42.Kf2 Ke6 holds because if 43.Ke3, unfortunately for him, there’s 43…Kf5 44.g3 a6 and white is in zugzwang! So he played 43.g4 a6 44.Ke3 hxg4 45.hxg4 Kd5 46.Kf2 (46.g5 c5 and no zugzwang!) 46…Ke6 47.Ke2 Kd6 and a draw just after.

MVL-Oparin, Final game 1: 1/2

It all went down to a gift from me, as I blundered a piece in a good position. Still, I managed to create a few problems in this winning endgame for black, right up to the diagrammed position…

The technical realization isn’t so easy once my c-pawn has advanced. I thought I’d done the hard part, but in fact Black had 55…Be5! 56.c7 Rb4+! (very important) and I can’t take, while if 57.Ka6 Rc4, the pawn falls.
But Oparin played 55…Rf1? the logical move, which also sets a trap: after 56.c7 Rb1+ 57.Kc6? Rc1+ 58.Kb6 Rxc7! with the same idea. That’s what we both thought during the game, but in reality the « trap » doesn’t work because of 57.Ka6! Rc1 58.Rd7! (threat 59.Kb7) and Black can’t escape without self-pinning with 58…Kg6 59.Rd6+ Bf6 (59…Kf7 60.Rd7+) 60.Kb7 and the pawn will still cost the Rook. In the game, I had seen the other way out, 56.Rd5. The endgame still looks losing, but after 56…Rb1+ 57.Ka6 Rc1 58.Kb7 Kg6 59.c7 Bf6 60.Rd6 Rxc7+ 61.Kxc7 f4, I found the only move 62.Rd5!.But I hadn’t calculated the whole line to the end. By force of circumstance, I’m obliged to cut his King off: because if he plays …Kf5 and then …f3 my King is too far away. So the idea is 62…f3 63.Rd3 f2 64.Rf3 which comes back to the rest of the game, 62…Bxh4 63.Kd6 f3 64.Rd3 (especially not 64.Ke5? Kg5 65.Ke4 Kg4 66.Ke3 Kg3 67.Ke2 Kg2 followed by …Bg3 and the h-pawn triumphs) 64…f2 65.Rf3 and I’m just in time to draw after 65…Kg5 66.Ke5 Kg4 67.Ke4 Bg3 68.Ke3 Kh3 followed by 69.Rxf2.

MVL-Oparin, Final game 3: 1-0

A pretty cool game! I’d survived a scary attack in the second game, so I wanted to solidify my play a bit. But my Asnières teammate chose to take quite a few risks in the approach to this game. On the contrary, I tried to maintain a small, stable advantage as soon as I could. I knew that I had stronger moves at times, but that inevitably involved an element of risk that I didn’t want to assume at the time.

Obviously, this endgame is likely to be drawn if Black defends perfectly, but in practice, the probability of winning isn’t that low at all. After the simple 43.Rd2, I protect b2 and it’s my King who will win the d3 pawn after 43…Kf7 44.Ke3 Rb3 45.Kd4 Ke6 46.Kc4. After 46…Rb8, 47.b4! is an important, time-saving move compared to 47.Kxd3?. So I didn’t know whether this endgame was winning or not. In my mind, it was most likely a draw, but the machine says it’s not! On reflection, it’s not so surprising, as Black doesn’t have much time left, with my King supporting the advancing b-pawn. For me, in this type of situation in a rapid game, the important thing is not whether it’s a win or a draw (it’s the opposite in a classical game, of course). What I want is for the defense to be as complicated as possible. By the way, in just a few moves, Oparine collapsed, proof of the difficulty of the task. After 47…Rh8 48.h3 Rh4+ 49.Kc3 Kd5 50.Rxd3+ Kc6, he missed 51.Rg3! and now if 51…g5, there’s 52.Rf3 and his Rook will be cut off one way or another, whether on h6 or h7. He preferred to play 51…Kb5 but 52.Rxg7, and he resigned since he has no way of recovering the b4 pawn.

So-MVL, Grand Final game 1: 0-1

This game wasn’t very clear at first, in which I preferred to opt for a line that was a little more solid than usual, even though I don’t normally play like this.

We got to an endgame at the start of which I was 5 minutes ahead on the clock. By the way, playing fast has helped me enormously in many matches; of course, it’s not without risks, but when you get to the money time with a lead of several minutes, it’s a big advantage…

Here, he should have played 36.Rd8 to control the advance of the d-pawn right away. He figured he’d play 36.Kg2? first, because after 36…d3, he’d have 37.c6 and since there’s no longer 37…Rb1 ith check, he can therefore take b7. Except that I had calculated all this and continued here with 37…d2!. The first idea is 38.Bxb4 d1=Q 39.cxb7 Qd5+! and 40…Qxb7. The second idea is 38.cxb7 d1=Q 39.b8=Q Rb1 or 39…Qd5+ and Black mates. The trivial 38…Kd6 also wins by the way, but that I hadn’t seen 😊.

So he played 38.Rd8. Here I made a little mistake; well, first I calculated 38…Rd4 39.Rxd4 Kxd4 40.cxb7 d1=Q? 41.b8=Q and I couldn’t find the win because the Queen protects g3! For example 41…Qf3+ 42.Kg1 Ne2+ 43.Kf1 and I no longer have 43…Nxg3+. But this is all a bit silly, as the simple 40…Nc6 would stop the pawn 😊. I said to myself that this was frustrating, but that I should look at the other candidate move 38…Nd4. Note that it took me a minute to play 38…Nd4, so everything I’m describing still went pretty quickly! 39.Bxb4 (39.c7 loses in the same way) 39…d1=Q 40.c7 Qf3+ and then you see 41.Kf1 Qh1 mate or 41.Kg1 Ne2+ 42.Kf1 Nxg3+ and it’s mate. After 41.Kh3, checkmate is a little different: 41…Qh1+ 42.Kg4 f5+ 43.Kf4 (43.Kg5 Ne6#) 43…Qe4+ 44.Kg5 and Black can choose between three different mates! In the game, he played 41.Kh2, and it’s mate too after 41…Qxf2+ 42.Kh3 Qf1+ 43.Kh2 Nf3#.

After many adventures in this match, including an Armageddon very well mastered by Wesley, I had to bow out. Except that, having won the Winner’s bracket, I was entitled to an extra life! In the Reset match, I was able to strike again as black in a beautiful Grunfeld.

So I had white in the second game, and once again, a draw was enough to win the tournament…

MVL-So, Grand Finale Reset game 2: 1-0

Wesley chose the Najdorf and I found ways of exchanging as many pieces as possible in the way I wanted, i.e. while remaining fairly active. That’s how you manage a game where you have to draw as white 😊.

Here, Wesley played 37…Nf5+. Given the match situation, knowing that a draw was sufficient, I could play 38.Bxf5 exf5 39.Ng6+ followed by 40.Nf4. I could also play 38.Kf4 without exchanging on f5, followed by Nc4-e3; I can do a bit of everything really, but I forced myself to calculate anyway! And what immediately catches the eye is to exchange on f5 and then 39.Nxc6 bxc6,to play the pawn endgame. I’ve got my passed pawn on g5, I’ve got a 3 vs. 2 on the Queenside, and my King controls the opponent’s two connected passed pawns. So, intuitively, this should be good. The simplest and most technical move to make it all work is 40.b4! which controls a6 and c6, and the next moves are c4, a4 and b5; especially not 40.c4? which doesn’t win because of 40…a5! and white’s majority is under control.

After 40…Ke6, I didn’t have to start with 41.Kf4, but there’s no reason to allow 41.a4 Ke5 42.c4 f4+, even if it’s still a win for white. In the game, Wesley resigned here, since after 41…Kd5, I have the choice between 42.c3 to prevent …Kd4, or 42.g6 Ke6 43.c4 Kf6 44.a4 Kxg6 45.b5 and black’s King isn’t in the drawing zone.

It’s a bit like the two weaknesses principle, but adapted to pawn endgames: the King can’t chase both pawns at the same time!

Thanks to this victory, next time in Division 1, I’ll be joined by Firouzja (brilliant D1 winner) and Carlsen (finalist), as well as 5 other players from the qualifiers.

Maxime’s games :

Maxime is regularly asked to travel to chess events, particularly in France, and when his schedule permits, he gladly accepts. On May 19, for example, he was present in the magnificent salons of the Mairie du XVe arrondissement in Paris, where the final phase of the Top Jeunes 2024, the flagship team competition for under-16s, took place. An annual gathering that Maxime knew well when he was one of the Espoirs himself, and which is very popular among French chess circles.