GM Kirill Shevchenko is the absolute underdog in the 2024 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland, but he scored a perfect 6/6 on day one of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour after pouncing on blunders by GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Vincent Keymer. GMs Magnus Carlsen and Nodirbek Abdusattorov are second, two points back, after a wild start to the tournament.
Day two starts Thursday, May 9, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
No one could have predicted the standings after the first day’s action in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland Standings After Day 1
21-year-old Shevchenko, born in Ukraine and now representing Romania, is playing as a wildcard chosen by the sponsors, and had no illusions about what awaited him. He commented, after his amazing first day, “For me it is the strongest tournament I ever played, because the field is really without underdogs… except me!”
The field is really without underdogs… except me!
āKirill Shevchenko
Shevchenko mentioned that this year he was trying to put no pressure on himself, since a year ago he’d approached the event with clear goals, only to crash and burn in the rapid section.
Although Shevchenko did recover well in the blitz, to score seven wins, he might have feared a repeat in rapid when he found himself on the defensive against newly-minted world championship challenger Gukesh. “Heās better, but his king is weak, my king is weak, so itās a fight,” was Shevchenko’s hope, and suddenly things went his way after the shocking time-trouble blunder, 34.Qd3??.
Shevchenko in fact proved to be a blunder-magnet, as in the very next game another hugely-talented Indian star, Praggnanandhaa, went astray early on.
9…Bg4? was a disastrous move, but this time you needed to be eagle-eyed to spot the winning shot: 10.Nxe5!. Shevchenko did, though his opponent fought back and the last, decisive mistake only came on move 36.
Shevchenko was on a roll, and his third game, against Keymer, would also be determined by a shocking blunder. Once again, however, he’d earned it, by taking the decision not to win back a pawn and make a draw but to play on a pawn down in an unclear position.
Down to seconds, his German opponent slipped with 41.Rhc1?, which ran into 41…f4!, winning the pinned knight on e3.Ā
It’s going to be hard for Shevchenko to follow up such a start, but he’s already scored almost half as many points in one day as he managed in five in 2023.
For the first two rounds the one player to match Shevchenko was Abdusattorov, who carried his momentum from winning the TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament in Malmo into the start in Warsaw. His first game, against GM Anish Giri, had some shaky moments, but then an absolutely wonderful queen-sacrifice finish!
Don’t miss GM Rafael Leitao‘s full analysis of our Game of the Day:
Abdusattorov followed that up by inflicting more misery on Gukesh, who once again played well only to miss a detail that allowed his opponent to trade down into a winning endgame.
It wasn’t to be a perfect start for the Uzbekistan star, however, since Praggnanandhaa bounced back from his blunder against Shevchenko to overcome huge resistance and defeat Abdusattorov in the final round of the day.Ā
Abdusattorov is one of just four Grand Chess Tour regulars playing in Warsaw (the others are Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Giri) who will be eligible for prizes at the end of the season, while no less than six players are wildcards. They’re led by a certain Carlsen, who joined Abdusattorov in second place after ending the day on an unbeaten 4/6.Ā
The former world champion is, at 33, the oldest player in the tournament, with the next oldest 29-year-old Giri. Another former champion knows how that feels.Ā
Oldest player!? Donāt you hate it when your young generation is being asked about the new young generation?! š https://t.co/m3WM1IllVH
ā Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 7, 2024
Carlsen commented at the opening ceremony:
“Iām really happy to be the only representative of adults, 30 and older. Itās going to be an interesting challenge, for sure. Iāve played tournaments where thereās a mix, but I donāt think Iāve played a tournament like this where itās almost exclusively young players, so itās going to be fun. Sometimes itās easy to underestimate younger players because you donāt know how quickly they develop. You expect them to have a certain level and then the very next tournament theyāve actually gotten a bit better, so itās going to be super fun and super interesting to see, and hopefully I can still teach them a thing or two.”
The first game against GM Arjun Erigaisi felt like a case of being the adult in the room, but that was mainly down to Arjun, who made three draws on Wednesday with 98.2, 98.9, and 96.9 Chess.com accuracy scores.Ā
Carlsen’s win, against Chinese GM Wei Yi, came from what the Norwegian confessed was a “pretty suspicious opening,” but he was happy with how he went on to win.
Carlsen, not famous for making fast starts, shared his feelings going into the final game of the day against local hero GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda:
“Before the game I was thinking Iāve sort of survived the first day, letās try and be safe, and the game starts and Iām out of control from the get-go. I could feel that he was not completely on form, he was probably a bit tilted after losing the previous game, otherwise he might have punished me harder in that game.”
The game looked set to be a Najdorf, before Carlsen met 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 with 3.h3!?, which was a theme for his day. Against Arjun he’d used an early h3 in the Exchange French recommended by Nikos Ntirlis, and now he followed the Sicilian recommendation.
āļøThe h2-h3 trend is real!
Let us see how it can help you challenge the Sicilian Defense š
Our starting position is 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 and we basically pre-move 3.h3 as it works well whatever Black plays on move 2!
Here’s a š§µ with some basic presentation of the main ideas š pic.twitter.com/ivQAhs9mdW
ā Nikos Ntirlis (@NikolaosNtirlis) May 7, 2024
When GM Chirila suggested that it’s hard to find anything against the Najdorf, Carlsen countered:
“You can always play something against the Najdorf. If the Najdorf was the only playable opening against 1.e4 everybody would play e4, I think.”
If the Najdorf was the only playable opening against 1.e4 everybody would play e4.
āMagnus Carlsen
What followed was a fine bar brawl of a game where both players missed winning chances.
That eventful day left Carlsen in a healthy second place, since there were ups and downs for almost all of the players.
One game that deserves to be mentioned is Keymer-Wei, which saw the young German GM sacrifice a knight in the opening for a winning position, then a queen (a sound sac, though not even the best move!), then a bishop (three times!), before Wei got in on the act and sacrificed material of his own to make a 130-move draw, though he also missed a chance to win. It’s too much to try and annotate, but you can play through the rollercoaster below!Ā
The tournament is just beginning, with another six rounds of rapid chess to be played on Thursday (including Gukesh-Carlsen) and Friday, before 18 rounds of blitz over the weekend.
It’s a tough schedule for the players, but it’s noteworthy that Carlsen and Keymer will both be playing the Champions Chess Tour Chess.com Classic from Friday, while the likes of Giri, Abdusattorov, and Duda are playing today’s Play-In as they attempt to join them.Ā Ā
The 2024 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland is the first event on the 2024 Grand Chess Tour and runs May 8-12 in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. The 10 players first compete in a single rapid round-robin with a time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, followed by a blitz double round-robin with a 5+2 time control.
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