Candidates Tournament 2020 / Round 5

by National Life Master Loal Davis

Images at post end courtesy of Derrick Bartotto

Ian Nepomniachtchi

There was a single decisive game in the fifth round of the 2020 Candidates Tournament. This victory put Nepomniachtchi in the lead.

Candidates Chess Tournament 2020
Date “2020.03.22”
Round “5”
White “Nepomniachtchi, Ian”
Black “Wang, Hao”

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4

(5. Qe2 Qe7 6. d3 Nf6 7. Bg5)

This was Morphy’s continuation, later taken up with tremendous results by Lasker and Capablanca. It effectively knocked the stuffing out of Marshall and other Petroff practitioners and turned the Black side of this opening into a “draw if you can” scenario. A side note; Spassky tried this Morphy line twice against Petrosian in their World Championship in 1969; Petrosian carefully steering both games into draws.

5… d5 6. Bd3 Bf5 7. O-O Be7 8. Re1 O-O 9. Nbd2 Nd6 10. Nf1 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 c6 12. Bf4 Na6 13. h4 Nc7 14. Ng5 Bxg5 15. Bxg5 f6 16. Bf4 Qd7 17. Ng3 Rae8 18. Bxd6 Qxd6 19. Nf5 Qd7 20. Qh3

OK – Yes – White is threatening the Black Queen with a Knight check. Do you think there is a chance that Black will not see that?

Kh8

White has shown that he has virtually nothing to say with this opening, or this position.

21. h5 Rxe1+ 22. Rxe1 Re8 23. Rxe8+ Nxe8 24. g4

(24. Kf1)

24… a6 25. b3 Qe6 26. Ne3 Nd6 27. h6 g6 28. c4

Questionable; playing around with tactics while loosening White’s Pawn structure. It turns out that this works fairly well. This is very dangerous; well thought out or lucky. (28. Qg3)

28… dxc4 29. bxc4 Kg8

Wang is having none of it; or so he thinks. 29… Nxc4 30. Nxc4 Qxc4 31. Qh2 will produce back row problems for Black. However 29… Qe4 has got to be better.

30. Qh2 Kf7 31. c5 Nb5 32. Qb8 Qd7 33. Qh8 Ke6 34. f4 Nxd4 35. Qg8+ Qf7 36. Qc8+

A slip – or playing with the clock. (36 . Qd8 covers the e7 square and stops Black’s King from using it. …. Qd7 (36… Nb5 37. Qc8+ Ke7 38. Qxb7+) 37. f5+)

36… Qd7 37. Qg8+ Qf7 38. Qd8

Ah – There we go.

Qd7 39. f5+ gxf5 40. gxf5+ Nxf5 41. Qxd7+ Kxd7 42. Nxf5 Ke6 43. Ne3 1-0