FIDE Grand Prix 2, Belgrade, 28 Feb to March 14 2022

[Mick Norris]

chess.com report looks like I missed a very interesting day

[Mick Norris]

Seems unfair for Group A to have two and perhaps three players with a serious chance for the two candidates places, while the other three groups each have only one such potential candidate.

I assume the players are allocated into groups under some kind of rating formula; clearly this format isn't optimal for determining the last 2 candidates, but they have all had other chances to qualify via the World Cup and Grand Swiss

I'd imagine Rapport is quite happy with the draw

EDIT

The distribution of the 16 players into 4 pools was done by drawing of lots

from a FIDE tweet

chess24 report reveals Rapport's prep

Maxime played the Grünfeld, which he pretty much always does. 10.Rc1 I think is completely harmless and actually I was not in the best spirit before the game, so I’d like to apologise to my wife, because she insisted that I try this line, that it is playable, but I was really upset about it.

[JustinHorton]

You would swear (looking at it after White's nineteenth) that this was an Accelerated Dragon, but it isn't.

The other game looking much the more interesting.

[JustinHorton]

Andreikin v Giri drawn without incident: meanwhile Rapport, apparently on the point of reaching the final, seems to have missed something and MVL has a +2 advantage.

[JustinHorton]

Meanwhile your opinions are sought as to what the chess.com computer thought it was up to at this point

[Peter Shaw]

Probably the result of the board glitch which had the rook originally appear on a4 rather than a5. Then for some reason the position on screen was corrected before the analysis caught up.

[JustinHorton]

Oh, I missed the glitch, thanks.

Talking of missing things, MVL had a late oversight and it cost him the win. Rapport into the final.

[Jonathan Rogers]

That whole "chess is hard" problem strikes again. Really good game, I thought, can't complain if Rapport has lots of games like this in the Candidates'.

And if Giri qualifies tomorrow to play him in the final, then Rapport's chances of getting there will be yet higher - they surely being rather high already.

[Mick Norris]

According to Chess by the Numbers, Rapport was favourite before today's game, so he definitely is now

[JustinHorton]

Giri favourite early doors to join him after Andreikin appears to have misjudged the opening - maybe he was expecting to be able to play 15 dxe5?

(EDIT: weirdly they then agreed a quick draw with Black, according to the computer, still much better.)

[JustinHorton]

[Mick Norris]

Andreikin through to play Rapport after Giri misses good chances in game 2

[LawrenceCooper]

Andreikin through to play Rapport after Giri misses good chances in game 2

Group A in the final leg even more competitive now!

[Mick Norris]

Yes, I assume it means that only the winner of that group can still qualify for the Candidates (maybe Oparin will win it!)

[LawrenceCooper]

Current standings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_Grand_Prix_2022