Wesley So vs Zviad Izoria, Queen’s Pawn Game (D02)
2018 US Chess Championship, Round 6, St. Louis, 04/23/18
Wesley is playing amazing chess at the 2018 US Championship. He was sharing first place after round five (with Akobian) and wanted to win this clash against Izoria in order to most probably emerge in clear first. It didn’t go as planned, though. Shankland won against Akobian, catching up with the leaders, and Wesley didn’t manage to convert a superior position. Izoria is a dangerous opponent and he already won against Caruana so he was to be feared. Wesley opened with a quiet Reti, but the soon transposed to an uncommon queen’s pawn opening with only 3 games played on move 7!
This led to a very complex middlegame position in which Wesley So temporarily went a pawn down. It was a central d4 pawn, so Izoria did his best to make its recapture complicated. They got a very volatile position in which Wesley had a one-move win. The sacrifice he could have played was technically only slightly worse for black, but, in order to find the correct moves, Izoria would have surely spent the majority of his time on the clock (If he’d found them at all).
Instead of the beautiful tactical sacrifice Wesley played a passive move which forcibly exchanged pieces and transposes to a drawn opposite colored bishop endgame. It’s unfortunate that he missed the tactic, but it was complex, and some of the variations seem as if they lead for total domination for black. Calculating over the board, without moving the pieces is hard and Wesley shouldn’t be too hard on himself for missing this.
He is now sharing second place with 4/6, and Shankland is in clear first. Here are the standings after round 6:
Samuel Shankland 4.5/6
Wesley So 4/6
Fabiano Caruana 4/6
Varuzhan Eduardovich Akobian 3.5/6
Hikaru Nakamura 3/6
Yaroslav Zherebukh 3/6
Zviad Izoria 2.5/6
Jeffery Xiong 2.5/6
Aleksandr Lenderman 2.5/6
Awonder Liang 2.5/6
Alexander Vasilyevich Onischuk 2/6
Ray Robson 2/6
Game moves:
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 e6 3. c4 a6 4. Nbd2 Nf6 5. g3 c5 6. Bg2 Nc6
7. O-O cxd4 8. cxd5 Qxd5 9. Nb3 d3 10. e4 Qb5 11. Nbd4 Nxd4
12. Nxd4 Qd7 13. Be3 Bc5
06:58 This is where Wesley could have played Nxe6! Instead of 14. Nf5
14. Nf5 exf5 15. Bxc5 Nxe4 16. Re1
Qd5 17. Qa4+ b5 18. Bxe4 fxe4 19. Qxe4+ Qxe4 20. Rxe4+ Be6
21. Rd4 Rd8 22. Bd6 f6 23. Rxd3 Kf7 24. Rd2 Rd7 25. Bb4 Rxd2
26. Bxd2 Rd8 27. Bc3 Bg4 28. Re1 Rd1 29. Rxd1 Bxd1 30. f4 Ke6
1/2-1/2