[pgn]

[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.22”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Bacrot, Etienne”]
[Black “Ponkratov, Pavel”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2678”]
[BlackElo “2629”]
[TimeControl “5400+30”]
[ECO “C15”]
[Opening “French Defense: Winawer Variation, Alekhine-Maróczy Gambit”]
[Annotator “https://lichess.org/@/foreignspidey”]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Ne2 dxe4 5. a3 Be7 6. Nxe4 Nf6 7. Qd3 Nc6 8. Be3 { Up until this point, the game seemed to be within theory from both sides. White here took a considerable amount of time. } 8… O-O 9. O-O-O Ng4 10. h4 { This moves seems like it hangs a pawn but realistically it is just a bit too dangerous to taks because white castled on the opposite side so opening up the H file for white’s rook is less than ideal. Especially with white’s queen eyeing the h7 square. } 10… f5 { This is a preparation move because white is almost guaranteed to play Ng5 with a checkmate threat. } (10… Bxh4 11. Ng5 Qxg5 12. Bxg5 Nxf2 13. Qe3 Nxd1 14. Kxd1 Bxg5 15. Qxg5 { And this is an easy win for white. }) 11. Ng5 h6 12. Nf3 Bd6 13. g3 { The idea behind g3 is that otherwise black can play something like Bf4 threatening a 3-way fork between all the major pieces. } 13… Rb8 14. c4 b5 15. c5 Be7 16. Nf4 b4 { Black has the plan of opening the B file for the rook to start an attack on white’s king who is not all that safe once the pawn structure is undermined. } 17. a4 { White obviously does not want to give the rook full access to the B file so pushes instead of taking. } 17… b3 { This move is a pretty big inaccuracy almost giving white the game. Once white cuts off the vision of the rook the white queen can pick up the pawn on the B file and start causing pressure on the center diagonal. } 18. Qc3 Nf6 19. Bb5 Ne4 20. Qxb3 Na5 (20… a6 21. Ne5 Na5 22. Qb4 c6 23. f3 Nf6 24. Bd2 axb5 25. Qxa5 Qxd4 26. Bb4 { Despite everything looking scattered there are no clear weaknesses in the position. } 26… Qxe5 27. Rhe1 { Almost traps the queen so black must give back the minor piece. }) 21. Qa2 { Removing the queen from danger but keeping pressure on the center diagonal not allowing black to activate the light-squared bishop. } 21… a6 { At this point the computer evaltuation is at +3.0. White has a completely winning position. } 22. Nxe6 { This was a blunder giving away all of the advantage that white had. This ended up being an issue with the move order rather than the move being inherently bad. This was the winning idea had white played Bc4 first. } (22. Bc4 Nxc4 23. Qxc4 Bf6 24. Nxe6 { And the black’s position is busted. }) 22… Bxe6 23. Qxe6+ Kh8 24. Bd7 { This move was too slow and does not focus on any of black’s positional weaknesses such as the pawn on f5 or on a6. } (24. Qxa6 { Important to note while this is pretty much the only move to keep the advantage, white must also find the move Ne5 otherwise white blunders the game as it is the only move that does not trap the queen. } 24… c6 25. Ne5 (25. Bxc6 Nxc6 26. Qxc6 Rf6 { White’s queen is trapped. }) 25… cxb5 26. Ng6+) 24… Rf6 { While the white’s Bd7 was a bit to slow because it gave black the time necessary to coordinate pieces this was if and only if black had played the move Bf6. } (24… Bf6 25. Qxf5 { If white picks up the seemingly free pawn then } 25… Nxc5 { And taking the knight leads to a loss almost automatically. } 26. Qxc5 (26. dxc5 Bxb2+) 26… Nb3+) 25. Ne5 { Black is completely lost here, despite temporarily sacking the queen white would follow with a fork on f7 } 25… Rxb2 { This is a major blunder for black. Maybe the idea was that there was dynamic compensation after the queen infiltrates with both knights eyeing the area but white can ignore and play the devastating Qxf6. } (25… Rxe6 26. Nf7+ Kh7 27. Nxd8 Rf6 28. Ne6 { White is just up 2 pawns. }) 26. Kxb2 (26. Qxf6 Rb1+ { Black needs the white king to step onto the B file for the black queen to infiltrate. } 27. Kc2 Rb2+ 28. Kd3 Rb3+ 29. Ke2 Nc3+ 30. Kf3 Bxf6 31. Nf7+ Kh7 32. Nxd8 Nxd1 33. Rxd1) 26… Qb8+ 27. Ka3 Rxe6 28. Bxe6 Qb6 29. Bf7 Qf6 { The only move to keep the advantage is Rhe1. } 30. Bg5 (30. Rhe1 Bxc5+ 31. dxc5 Qxe5 32. Rd8+ Kh7 33. Bd4 Qe7 34. Rg8 Qxf7 35. Rxg7+ { Although this is winning for white it is not exaclt clear cut from a human perspective as white still has to win a rook vs two knights end game. }) 30… Nxg5 (30… Bxc5+ { Only move to keep the game at 0.0 after white’s blunder. } 31. dxc5 Qxe5 32. Rd8+ Kh7 33. Bg8+ Kh8 { Because the white king is so weak in this position if black is given any free move then the attack will be too strong for white to defend. So it is a draw by repetition. }) 31. hxg5 Qxg5 32. Rb1 g6 { Because black took with the knight on Nxg5, the queen got moved and now black does not really have any counter play. } 33. Rb8+ Kh7 34. Rd1 Bf6 35. Bxg6+ { At this point white is slowly just moving the pieces to better squares and creating better coordination. Meanwhile black has no coordination among the pieces and the king is now wide open. } 35… Kg7 36. Bf7 Kh7 37. Bg8+ Kg7 38. Bd5 Kh7 39. Rg8 Bg7 40. Re8 Bxe5 41. Rxe5 Qg4 42. Rd3 f4 43. Kb4 fxg3 (43… c6 44. Be4+ Kh8 45. Kxa5) 44. Re7+ *

[/pgn]

Bacrot, one of the top Frenchman in chess, and Ponkratov, a top Russian player. The game was relatively tame as the players opted to play a Winawer variation of the French defense. In retrospect maybe not the best idea to play the French defense against a French player. All jokes aside the game continues in theory until around move 6 where there are still plenty of super-GM games in the database. We see early on that black is a little bit overextended into the white territory. When white plays the move h4 it is quite clear that black must quickly find a way to stabilize the position otherwise the attack pointing at the h7 square would be too hard to defend.

This game held a lot of moves by Bacrot baiting Ponkratov into blundering. It was on move 17 that Ponkratov made the first mistake of the game playing g3 which allows white to pick up a pawn as well as put tremendous pressure on the center. At this point, both players were already down to 30 minutes on the clock. Then on move 24 Bacrot plays the move Bd7 giving away all the advantage if black were to find the move Bf6 rather than Rf6 questioning the placement of the queen. Furthermore, maybe in a desperate fashion. Ponkratov sacks a rook trying to infiltrate the queen, the problem is that Bacrot does not have to take. Calling the bluff anyway is still too slow for black because white is just a move ahead at this point. For example, if white were to waste a move then black’s attack would be undefendable leading to a mate.

The final issue is that around move 25 both players were already entering into time troubles as they were starting to dip under 10 minutes each. Overall a strong game by Bacrot taking advantage of the mistake made by Ponkratov. Conversely, Ponkratov missed the ability to take the game to a drawn position. I believe the game was also complex enough that with time trouble either player could have won if Ponkratov took advantage of Bacrot’s inaccuracies.

Bacrot had a lead in the match because of the win in game 1. Usually, when there is a situation in which a player just needs a draw to move on in a tournament, the resulting game tends to be a symmetrical game with a solid structure. In this match, Bacrot went ahead and played a Sicilian Defense against a king’s pawn opening which is usually an opening played when black wants a decisive result. It seems as if it was a poor strategical choice to play into such a confrontational line when one does not need to win.

The game despite being rather complex was even for most of the match. It was not until Bacrot made a positional error in allowing the knight to move to and remain dominant right in the cluster of pieces. Getting further into the game Bacrot took a poisoned pawn which allowed Ponkratov to move all the major pieces to the H file and exert unstoppable pressure. The issue with Bacrot’s attack earlier on was that when the knight moved away from the attack there was not enough firepower to break through the pawn and bishop combination defense. Another interesting point is that after move 40 both players made mistakes and blunders but they both had more than sufficient time especially after the extra time was added.

In the end, Ponkratov was able to take advantage of the positional blunders by Bacrot and we see the on-demand win causing the two GMs to move into the rapid portion of the match-up!

[pgn]

[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.23”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Ponkratov, Pavel”]
[Black “Bacrot, Etienne”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2629”]
[BlackElo “2678”]
[TimeControl “5400+30”]
[ECO “B68”]
[Opening “Sicilian Defense: Richter-Rauzer Variation, Neo-Modern Variation”]
[Annotator “https://lichess.org/@/foreignspidey”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 { Main line Sicilian defense. } 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 { Transposing into the Richter-Rauzer Variation of the Siciliain Defense which is known to be extremely confrontational. } 6… e6 7. Qd2 a6 8. O-O-O Bd7 9. f4 Be7 10. Nf3 b5 11. e5 b4 { This move is looking at the danger levels of what is being attacked because the queen is directly behind the knight diagonally this move can cause a lot of complications as well as open the B file for the rook. } 12. exf6 bxc3 13. Qxc3 gxf6 14. Bh4 { In this opening black usually ends up not castling and with the blob of pieces just hanging out in front of the king. Despite staing in the center black is actually quite safe. } 14… Rg8 15. Kb1 Rb8 { Black now has control of both of the open files while white has not quite figured out a plan of attack as all the pieces are scattered. } 16. Bf2 { It is not until this position that a novel move is played and the position has never been reached before. } 16… f5 17. Nd4 Bf6 18. Bxa6 { White probably has the plan of taking the A pawn and giving away the G pawn because white wants to trade rooks on the G file gaining control. } 18… Rxg2 19. Rhg1 Rg6 { The bishop and pawn look free at first glance but would quickly lose the queen with Rg8+. } (19… Rxf2 20. Rg8+) (19… Rxh2 20. Rg8+) 20. Bc4 { Neither side want to trade rooks on the G file because this would help in the structuring of the pawns. } 20… Qb6 21. Rg3 Ne7 (21… Qc5 22. b3 Qa3 23. Rxg6 hxg6 24. Nb5) 22. Bb3 Qb4 { Black wants a queen trade because in order to move on in the tournament black only needs to draw but the problem is that the way the moves played out there was a sequence where white was forced to trade pieces. With Qc5 rather than a reroute of the knight. } 23. Qd3 d5 24. Qe2 Qd6 25. Be3 Kf8 26. Qh5 (26. Qf2 { The difference is that in a few moves since the queen never went to h5 white can push the pawn to start building up the attack. } 26… Kg8 { [%csl Gd4] } 27. Nf3 Rb4) 26… Kg8 27. Nf3 Rb4 { Here black blunders into the move Ne5 which starts to cause a lot of problems for the black position. } 28. Ne5 Be8 { Black needed to remove the knight from the center where it is creating a lot of pressure on the position. } (28… Bxe5 29. fxe5) 29. Nxg6 hxg6 30. Qf3 Qb8 { Despite having two major pieces putting pressure on white’s king there is no way to break through the barrier of the bishop on b3. } 31. h4 Bxh4 { Black tries to call the bluff but this was in fact a poisoned pawn if taken. Now white has an open H file with no real way of defending the king. } 32. Rh3 Bf6 33. Qf2 g5 { Black’s position was pretty bad but now the position is completely busted. } 34. fxg5 Bg7 35. Bc5 Rf4 36. Qh2 Ng6 37. c3 (37. Rh1 Rf1+ 38. Rxf1 Qxh2 39. Rxh2 { In this position white would be up a rook and an exchange and it would just take a little bit of time to convert but is easily winning. }) 37… Qb5 38. Bd4 (38. Be7 Rf1 39. Bf6 e5 40. Bxg7 Kxg7 41. Rh7+ Kf8 42. Qh3) 38… e5 39. Bf2 Bc6 40. Bc2 Bd7 41. Rhd3 Be6 42. Bb3 d4 43. cxd4 e4 44. Rc3 Bxb3 45. Rxb3 Qe2 46. Rb8+ Bf8 47. Rh1 { At this point, the only way to avoid mate is to end up in a position where white is up two whole rooks and this would just be an easy conversion especially with just having two passed pawns that can just walk down the board unopposed. } *

[/pgn]

Game 1:

[pgn]

[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.24”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Ponkratov, Pavel”]
[Black “Bacrot, Etienne”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[WhiteElo “2609”]
[BlackElo “2700”]
[TimeControl “1500+10”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 a6 8.
O-O-O Bd7 9. f4 Be7 10. Nf3 b5 11. e5 b4 12. exf6 bxc3 13. Qxc3 gxf6 14. Kb1 Rg8
15. Bh4 Rb8 16. h3 h5 17. f5 e5 18. Be1 Qb6 19. g4 d5 20. Rxd5 Bb4 21. Qb3 Bxe1
22. Nxe1 hxg4 23. hxg4 Qxb3 24. axb3 Rxg4 25. Ng2 Bxf5 26. Ne3 Be4 27. Nxg4 Bxh1
28. Rd3 Ke7 29. Nf2 Rh8 30. Bh3 Rg8 31. c3 Rg1+ 32. Ka2 Nb8 33. b4 Bc6 34. c4
Nd7 35. Ra3 Bb7 36. Ng4 Be4 37. Re3 Bb1+ 38. Ka3 Nb8 39. b5 axb5 40. cxb5 Nd7
41. Rc3 Bf5 42. Nxe5 Bxh3 43. Nc6+ Kd6 44. Rxh3 Kc5 45. Rc3+ Kxb5 46. Nd4+ Kb6
47. Rc6+ Kb7 48. Rd6 Ne5 49. Rxf6 Rg4 50. Nb5 Nc4+ 51. Ka2 Rg2 52. Rxf7+ 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

Game 2:

[pgn]

[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.24”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Bacrot, Etienne”]
[Black “Ponkratov, Pavel”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2700”]
[BlackElo “2609”]
[TimeControl “1500+10”]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Be2 Nh6 7. Bxh6 gxh6 8. Qd2
Rg8 9. O-O Bd7 10. dxc5 Bxc5 11. b4 Bf8 12. Re1 Rg4 13. Bd3 d4 14. a3 dxc3 15.
Nxc3 Nd4 16. Qe3 Bc6 17. Be4 O-O-O 18. Rad1 Bxe4 19. Nxe4 Nc6 20. Rxd8+ Nxd8 21.
Rc1+ Nc6 22. Nf6 Qxe3 23. fxe3 Rg6 24. b5 Bxa3 25. Rc2 Be7 26. bxc6 Bxf6 27.
exf6 Rxf6 28. cxb7+ Kxb7 29. Rb2+ Kc6 30. Ne5+ Kd5 31. Ng4 Rg6 32. Nf2 Kc6 33.
Nd3 Rg5 34. e4 a5 35. Kf2 a4 36. Ke3 Ra5 37. Kd4 a3 38. Ra2 Ra4+ 39. Ke5 Kb5 40.
Ne1 Kc4 41. Nc2 Ra5+ 42. Kf6 Rg5 43. Rxa3 Kb5 44. Rg3 1-0

[/pgn]

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