DaniilDubov has beaten Hikaru Nakamura in Armageddon to win the 2020 Lindores AbbeyRapid Challenge, claiming not just the $45,000 top prize but also a placealongside Magnus in the $300,000 Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Grand Final. Afterlosing on the first day of the final the Russian grandmaster hit back on Day 2and then took the lead in the second game of the final day. Hikaru Nakamura bounced backin the next but was doomed to defeat after falling into a trap on move 12 of the decisiveArmageddon game.
We couldnt have asked for a more exciting knockout stage ofthe Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, and we couldnt have asked for a moreexciting final day (replay the games here):
You can replay all the drama in our live commentary by PeterLeko, Peter Svidler and Tania Sachdev, who were also joined by Peter HeineNielsen and Jan Gustafsson:
Pascal Charbonneau later recapped the day's action:
And heres Daniil Dubov, whose first reaction on winning thetournament was perhaps not what you would expect!
First of all its a relief, obviously, and secondly itssome small disappointment. It has been a wonderful journey, actually. I dontmind having one or two rest days, but in general I would be ready to play moregames. But yeah, todays a good day, of course!
Lets take a look at the day game-by-game:
On paper Hikaru Nakamura began the day well. He had theblack pieces and, facing the English Opening line in which Daniil had scored awin on Day 1 of the final, he achieved a comfortable 25-move draw with apawn sacrifice. Daniil remembered analysing it with his coach Boris Gelfand,but went astray and was worse when the game ended abruptly after 23.Ba6:
Black repeated moves with 23Qd7 24.Bb5 Qc8 25.Ba6 and it was a draw. Daniil commented:
Its quite significant that he decided not to play on in theend. Qa8 - hes just slightly better. In general, throughout the match, I hadthis feeling hes absolutely sure he will win the Armageddon with Black. It wasactually weird. I had a feeling hes probably a favourite, but still, if yourethat sure, you can actually lose, in fact. He basically didnt try to play inGame 4, he was also slightly better in Game 1 and decided to repeat the moves.
Dubov said Blacks position would be much easier to playafter Qa8, noting that the engine agrees: its not even a bluff!
SoDaniil felt the game gave him some information about his opponents mood, and laterhed talk about how the 3-day match system suits his approach. On the first dayof the match hed begun with two losses to Hikaru, eventually losing 2.5:1.5,but felt it was about himself not his opponent: There are 200 people, at thevery least, who will beat me when Im playing like an idiot, so you dont needto be Hikaru for that. And hed learned something from the day:
When you play these matches Day 1, obviously you try to win,but its also very important to get some information. In these terms I was sortof satisfied with Day 1. So I realised what hes doing, it was obvious. Hesgoing to play it simple, he will play fast and he will just wait for me to dosomething sharp and then blunder in time trouble, or try to trick me, but hewill not play something very sharp himself. Then it was also obvious that hewill repeat this English Opening with Nb6 forever, which has always beenmysterious to me, but ok, if he plays it he plays it.
So in terms of getting information it was actually sort of adecent day. I normally tend to improve my play against someone when I play moregames against him, so I feel these long matches basically suit my, not evenchess style, but in general my way of thinking of chess. I think in general Itry to understand whats going on in the match, what my opponent is doing, andits not only in terms of moves but also in terms of his match strategy and ifhe plays fast or he tries to be more sharp or not, and then after Day 1 ofcourse you have much more information and feel more confident and ready.
Daniil felt that it wasnt his day in terms of the opening:
He came very well prepared, basically, so today I think ingeneral it was not like our typical matches. Normally its him who playsslightly better and Im better prepared, but today I think it was exactly theopposite! What he did was extremely smart and I didnt remember what to do, andthen I think I was much worse.
Hikaru repeated the3.Nc3 Sicilian line hed played the day before but varied on move 9 and managedto get a very good position that all our Peters approved of
until 25.Rd2?was a serious inaccuracy (25.Rc4! is strong):
25g5! suddenly putBlack right back in the game, and then after 26.Rd5!? gxf4 27.Rxc5 Daniil was further able to blow open theposition with 27f3!
After 28.gxf3 Bxh329.Rxa5 it was clear that Blacks h-pawn was the most dangerous passed pawnon the board and when one chance to eliminate it was missed (34.Ra5!) the onlyquestion remaining was whether Dubov would safely navigate a complicatedposition with little time left on his clock. He did, and for the first time inthe final Daniil was ahead.
Hikaru Nakamura managed to strike back straight away withthe black pieces, with Daniil commenting:
Im not Magnus! Its sort of normal. He just went forsomething sharp and won It was an interesting game, I felt I was better atsome point, but then I got outplayed.
This time Hikaru met the English by playing f5 on move 3 andsoon there was chaos on board. It didnt seem what youd want in Dubov's position
though in a way Daniil welcomed it:
In this game I felt c4 obviously allows all kinds of sharplines for Black, its not that solid, but I thought on the other hand it wasbasically obvious if I will make some safe draw then he will gokamikaze mode in the last game, and he has White there, so I thought if he willgo kamikaze mode anyway then probably its better for me to allow him to do itwith Black. At least Im White, Ill be slightly better but it didnt goaccording to plan.
Once again, however, despite trouble in the opening a g-pawnbreak saw Dubov right back in the game:
Daniil confessed to feeling very safe after 25fxg4 26.Bxg4, and that assessmentlooks correct, but he let his guard down and, while briefly playing for a win,allowed a strong Nh4-Nf3-Nd2 manoeuvre that escalated quickly into the loss ofthe entire white queenside. The last clear chance for White to equalise requiredfinding 32.Bc2! Na1 (the move that stopped Dubov playing Bc2) 33.Ng6! Kf734.Nh8! Dubov:
If I would play it, it would be the end of my career! They would neverbelieve Im not cheating.
There was no miracle escape, however, and Hikaru hadlevelled the scores with one game to go.
This was a repeat of Game 2 until Daniil varied with 11Rd8 12.Qf3 c5!
He credited 2016 Russian Chess Champion AlexanderRiazantsev:
Game 4 was actually a very important moment, and first ofall I want to praise my friend and coach Sasha Riazantsev, who managed, while Iwas losing like an idiot with White, to come up with this completely new ideaof c5, so it was just prepared by him between the games and I think he did abrilliant job. I didnt have time to check it myself yet, but there was a bignumber of lines and it looked very convincing, although the engine doesnt getit originally It was very typical of me that you have 30 minutes and then youor one of your friends prepares something brilliant and its just in time. So Imlucky to have Sasha around, obviously!
Hikaru spent a minute on 13.e5 which was met by 13c4!,and after 14.exf6 Bxf6! 15.Ba4 Qa5Black went on to win back the piece with, if anything, a slightly better position.The game fizzled out into a quick draw and we were headed for Armageddon.
Hikaru Nakamura had beaten Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen inArmageddon with Black already during the knockout, and he knew he would have Blackagain since winning the preliminary stage earned him the right to choose. Thatmeant he had 4 minutes to Dubovs 5, but only needed a draw to win thetournament. What could go wrong? Well, Daniil felt Hikaru was tempting fate:
In general there is some, you can believe it or not, but Ithink in general there is some sort of justice. In general all the stuff Hikaruwas doing was a little bit over-optimistic. Because first of all, when heplayed Magnus he said that the winner of that match is a very big favourite towin the whole thing. Why do you say it, normally? I mean, probably you are, butjust why do you say it? It only gives me motivation! It doesnt make a lot ofsense. Then again, the way he played yesterday and also today it was justobvious that he wants this Armageddon so much. He will pick Black and he willjust play. Ok, I understand everything, hes obviously a favourite, but it feltlike hes a little bit too confident. So I thought I just need to playsomething a little bit sharp and something strange, I have to make him thinkearly, and then well see.
The plan worked like a dream, since in an offbeat structureDaniil got to play 12.Bxd5!
Nobody falls for this somehow, said Peter Svidler of the positionwith colours reversed, to which Daniil responded, You should probably try itagainst Hikaru! Daniil was puzzled afterwards why Hikaru hadnt gone for 12fxg3+!13.Nxg3 (the point is distracting this knight) 13Bxd5 14.Qh5 Ne7 15.Nxd5 Qxd516.Qxd5 Nxd5 17.Rf5 0-0-0 18.c4 Nb4 19.Rxc5 Nxd3 and Black has two pawns forthe piece. White is better, but the game goes on.
However, that chance was gone in a flash as Hikaru played 12Bxd5? after 239 milliseconds, and was already dead lost. Play continued 13.Nxf4 Ne714.Qh5 (14.Nfxd5 was a prosaic but even more convincing way to win) 14c615.Ncxd5 cxd5:
16.Ne6! was a move that Dubov admitted hed got excitedabout as soon as hed seen it a few moves earlier. He half-expected Nakamura toresign on the spot, but instead the game went on with 16Qd6 17.Nxg7+ Kd7 18.Rxf7 Raf819.Bf4 and here, already two pawns down, Nakamura gave up his queen with 19Rxf7.Hikaru played on until move 45, but Dubov stayed calm and was also comfortably upon the clock when resignation came.
It had been a fantastic tournament for 24-year-old DaniilDubov, who beat Sergey Karjakin, Ding Liren and Hikaru Nakamura towin not just $45,000 but qualify automatically for the $300,000 Magnus ChessTour Grand Final this August.
Dubov will be joined there by Magnus (who won the MagnusCarlsen Invitational) and the winners of the next two events on the tour. IfCarlsen or Dubov were to win again then there would be a place for thetop-performing non-winner, which is currently almost certain to be HikaruNakamura after he reached the final of both events so far. Hikaru can of coursealso qualify directly if he wins a future event, so that his runners-up spotleaves him well-placed as well as $27,000 better off:
But lets return to the man of the hour! How does thissuccess rank among Dubov's career achievements?
Its obviously a very nice moment, so what do you expect meto say? I dont think after winning the World Rapid I can say its my biggestachievement. Obviously winning the World Rapid is still much more important,but its a very strong tournament and Im obviously happy that I managed towin.
I actually had the same feeling after this World Rapid thatbasically its a bit of a weird feeling when you win a tournament with Magnusparticipating without beating Magnus, to be honest. It always felt a little bitunfair to me. Even in this World Rapid I felt he will probably win the lastgame and then well play a tiebreak and then if I win, then its brilliant, Imanaged. But then he didnt win, and I finished in clear first, but still Ifailed to beat him and it didnt feel like a real win. Here as well, obviouslyHikaru is a brilliant player, but the one who beats Magnus gets all therespect, I guess.
There were a couple of ways to counter that. You could startby pointing out that Daniil did actually beat Magnus, at least in a singlegame, and it was a crucial win with the black pieces that enabled him toqualify for the knockout section by the finest of margins! (Grischuk, who shared 5.5 points, missed out)
The other way is to ask, as Peter Svidler did, So we are now announcing Hikaruas the winner of the Lindores Abbey? Daniil first joked, You can do whateveryou want, Peter, to be honest, before elaborating:
I think in general itkind of makes sense. Not too many people have beaten Magnus in a match. Itsvery, very impressive by Hikaru, so if you had asked me what would I prefer - towin the Lindores Abbey or to win a series of matches against Magnus - I woulddefinitely think about it. Definitely! And in terms of my own, the way I seethings, I would probably prefer to win against Magnus, to be honest.
What was Daniils highlight from the tournament?
I think I played a very, very interesting match againstKarjakin. I think it was just a brilliant match, 0 draws, as I remember. Itspretty remarkable, especially against Karjakin... There were a lot of strange ideas, I played many different openings. Iplayed many cool moves - even in the game I lost I was very proud of thisKe8-d7. I thought its probably my best move of the tournament.
I was sort of very excited about it. I think it was the mostenjoyable match for the viewers and for all the rest. And the match againstHikaru I think it was exactly the opposite. He basically decided to limit myoptions and I was not allowed to play these fancy games as often as I normallydo. It was a little bit worrying in terms of moves. There was a lot of pressure,but those were not the games you will remember for years, for sure - so itsjust sport.
Daniils next tournament will be the next event on the MagnusCarlsen Chess Tour, starting in just over two weeks time on June 20th. Onceagain the top four finishers get automatic invitations so hes likely to bejoined by Hikaru Nakamura, Ding Liren and Magnus Carlsen. More names anddetails will be announced soon, but where will Daniil play from? Will he stillbe in the Yekaterinburg, where he initially only travelled for the CandidatesTournament?
Ill actually have to make that decision. I dont know. Itssort of tricky because the problem is that the situation in Moscow hasntreally improved, Im afraid. I will think about it. In a way I will have tothink, but my prediction is that I will probably play the next thingfrom Yekaterinburg again, to be honest.
In any case, we'll see Daniil and co. in action againvery soon! Meanwhile, in case you missed it, check out Daniil Dubov: From Russia with Ideas, an in-depth profile that looks almost prophetic after what we witnessed.
See also:
The rest is here:
