Wesley So vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, A04 Reti
2018 Grand Chess Tour Paris (Rapid), Day 1, 06/20/18
Wesley So continues his remarkable streak! After winning the Leuven Rapid and Blitz, he is sharing first in Paris after day one as well. He scored 2/3 and has a best possible start coming into day 2. The format played in the rapid portion in 25’ per game with a 10’’ delay, meaning that you lose no clock time if you make a move within the first 10 seconds.
He played Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with the white pieces. They played an attacking Reti-Larsen hybrid and got out of livebook on move 7. Even though the position was symmetrical, Wesley managed to gain a minute edge out of the opening. Miraculously though, MVL managed to equalize and had an almost certain draw, but…
He played a losing positional blunder which opened the door to Wesley’s pieces. The queen infiltrated the position and created a tactical hook which Maxime swallowed. He fell into a trap in which Wesley sacrificed the queen for rook and bishop, but got a very favorable endgame which black could in no way hold. A beautiful sacrifice!
Standings after day 1:
Viswanathan Anand 2/3
Levon Aronian 2/3
Wesley So 2/3
Vladimir Kramnik 1.5/3
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 1.5/3
Sergey Karjakin 1.5/3
Alexander Grischuk 1.5/3
Hikaru Nakamura 1.5/3
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 1/3
Fabiano Caruana 0.5/3
Game moves:
1. Nf3 c5 2. b3 b6 3. Bb2 Bb7 4. c4 Nf6 5. g3 g6 6. Bxf6 exf6
7. Nc3 Bxf3 8. exf3 Nc6 9. Bg2 Bg7 10. Qe2+ Kf8 11. O-O f5
12. f4 Bf6 13. Rae1 Kg7 14. Qd3 Rc8 15. Re3 Nd4 16. Nb5 a6
17. Nxd4 Bxd4 18. Re2 Re8 19. Rfe1 Rxe2 20. Qxe2 d6 21. Qe7
Bf6 22. Qb7 a5 23. Bd5 Rc7 24. Qxb6 Re7 25. Rxe7 Qxb6
26. Rxf7+ Kh8 27. Rf8+ Kg7 28. Rf7+ Kh8 29. Rxf6 Qb4 30. Rxd6
Qxd2 31. Rc6 Qd4 32. Kg2 Kg7 33. Rc7+ Kh8 34. h4 h5 35. a4 1-0