Europe Trailing China After Day 3 FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup
China continues to lead the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup with four regular rounds to go. It is Europe that has the best chances to join them in Sunday's Superfinal.
Team USA defeated and leapfrogged Russia in the standings, while India and the Rest of the World are out of contention by this point.
All games will be played on the Chess.com live server and can be followed on our events page and in our Android and iOS apps under "Watch." Commentary by GM Robert Hess, IM Daniel Rensch, and special guests can be enjoyed at Chess.com/TV where the games will be discussed and explained.
The Chess.com Day 3 Live Broadcast for replay.
Round 5
| Bo. | Fed | India | Rtg | 2 : 2 | Fed | Russia | Rtg |
| 1.1 | Anand, Viswanathan | 2751 | 1 - 0 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2778 | ||
| 1.2 | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2690 | 0 - 1 | Artemiev, Vladislav | 2769 | ||
| 1.3 | Adhiban, B. | 2624 | ½ - ½ | Karjakin, Sergey | 2709 | ||
| 1.4 | Harika, Dronavalli | 2450 | ½ - ½ | Girya, Olga | 2471 |
The round started with a stunning victory for GM Viswanathan Anand against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, a game that was over in about five(!) minutes. Nepo got caught in preparation, and was already lost by move 14!
In his post-game interview in the live broadcast, Anand said that 12.Nf3 (which seems mostly a tricky move order) was one of several ideas his second GM Grzegorz Gajewski had recently shared with him, adding that his former second, GM Radek Wojtaszek, told him that everything was already in their files 10 years ago!
Wasn’t the best or the luckiest day to say the least, but many credits to @vishy64theking for a brilliant novelty & cunning opening trap. After rather logical 13...Be6 black is already lost 🤕🤯🤷🏻♂️🤹🏻#NationsCup #fide #chess
— Yan Nepomniachtchi (@lachesisq) May 7, 2020
This shockingly quick win did not bring India's first victory in the tournament, as GM Pentala Harikrishna suffered a painful loss due to a mouse slip against Vladislav Artemiev. In what was an equal position, look what happened on move 44:
| Bo. | Fed | USA | Rtg | 1½:2½ | Fed | China | Rtg |
| 2.1 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2829 | ½ - ½ | Ding, Liren | 2836 | ||
| 2.2 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2773 | 1 - 0 | Wang, Hao | 2750 | ||
| 2.3 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2786 | 0 - 1 | Yu, Yangyi | 2738 | ||
| 2.4 | Krush, Irina | 2392 | 0 - 1 | Hou, Yifan | 2621 |
China continued on their winning path with another victory in round five against the U.S. despite GM Fabiano Caruana scoring his third win in as many games. It seemed GM Wang Hao brought the pain on himself with the unnecessary 39.h5 which had a tactical flaw:
GM Hou Yifan doesn't seem to be suffering much from her inactivity in recent years as she is playing powerful games so far in the Nations Cup. It must be said that her win against GM Irina Krush was based on one big miscalculation, but after that Hou was merciless:
| Bo. | Fed | Rest of the World | Rtg | 1½:2½ | Fed | Europe | Rtg |
| 3.1 | Radjabov, Teimour | 2758 | ½ - ½ | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2860 | ||
| 3.2 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2703 | 0 - 1 | Aronian, Levon | 2778 | ||
| 3.3 | Amin, Bassem | 2608 | 1 - 0 | Giri, Anish | 2731 | ||
| 3.4 | Saduakassova, Dinara | 2412 | 0 - 1 | Dzagnidze, Nana | 2447 |
Europe played into second-place behind China at the halfway point in the round-robin phase thanks to a hard-fought victory over the Rest of the World. GM Levon Aronian scored his third win in a row as he outwitted GM Alireza Firouzja in a basic but complicated rook ending. Annotations were shamelessly snatched from the tablebase:
Round 6
| Bo. | Fed | Russia | Rtg | 1½:2½ | Fed | Europe | Rtg |
| 1.1 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2778 | 0 - 1 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2860 | ||
| 1.2 | Artemiev, Vladislav | 2769 | ½ - ½ | Aronian, Levon | 2778 | ||
| 1.3 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2709 | ½ - ½ | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2774 | ||
| 1.4 | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2502 | ½ - ½ | Muzychuk, Anna | 2533 |
This is not Nepomniachtchi's tournament. The Russian top GM ended up losing his second game as well, although in a very different way.
This time he was the last one playing, against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and after an eventful game, the draw was imminent when he blundered on move 91 to end a terrible day at the office.
| Bo. | Fed | Rest of the World | Rtg | ½ :3½ | Fed | China | Rtg |
| 2.1 | Radjabov, Teimour | 2758 | 0 - 1 | Ding, Liren | 2836 | ||
| 2.2 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2703 | 0 - 1 | Wei, Yi | 2752 | ||
| 2.3 | Amin, Bassem | 2608 | ½ - ½ | Yu, Yangyi | 2738 | ||
| 2.4 | Muzychuk, Mariya | 2506 | 0 - 1 | Ju, Wenjun | 2610 |
China bulldozed over the Rest of the World with a 3.5-0.5 win, further cementing their status as favorites to win the event.
You might expect fireworks in a game between GM Wei Yi and GM Alireza Firouzja, but in this case, the Chinese player won a beautiful, technical endgame that GM Anatoly Karpov would have been proud of:
| Bo. | Fed | USA | Rtg | 2½:1½ | Fed | India | Rtg |
| 3.1 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2829 | ½ - ½ | Anand, Viswanathan | 2751 | ||
| 3.2 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2773 | ½ - ½ | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2636 | ||
| 3.3 | So, Wesley | 2741 | 1 - 0 | Adhiban, Baskaran | 2624 | ||
| 3.4 | Krush, Irina | 2392 | ½ - ½ | Koneru, Humpy | 2483 |
Even after six rounds, India is still waiting for its first win as they went down against USA in their second match of the day.
It was GM Wesley So who opened the score with a crushing win against GM Baskaran Adhiban that included the threat of a pretty combination:
Another key game was the board-one encounter between Nakamura and Anand. With 2-1 on the scoreboard, Naka had to save the draw to secure the match point. After a few inaccuracies he had been outplayed on the kingside and was later down material, but his fighting spirit saved the day:
The final moments of @GMHikaru holding the draw vs. @vishy64theking thus giving USA the win against India thanks to Wesley So's nice win against Baskaran Adhiban!#NationsCuphttps://t.co/sK5GtxMnW7 pic.twitter.com/2YkxP2KStL
— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 7, 2020
FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup | Round 6 Standings
| Rk. | Fed | Team | 1a | 1b | 2a | 2b | 3a | 3b | 4a | 4b | 5a | 5b | 6a | 6b | MP | BP | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | China | 3 | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 3 | 3½ | 11 | 16,5 | 0 | 171,8 | 39 | |||||||
| 2 | Europe | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 9 | 13,5 | 0 | 150,8 | 34,5 | |||||||
| 3 | USA | 1½ | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 7 | 12,5 | 0 | 137,8 | 34 | |||||||
| 4 | Russia | 2 | 2 | 1½ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 11,5 | 0 | 136,8 | 27 | |||||||
| 5 | India | 1½ | 1½ | 2 | 1½ | 2 | 1½ | 2 | 10 | 0 | 123,8 | 24,5 | |||||||
| 6 | Rest of the World | 1 | ½ | 1½ | 1½ | 1 | 2½ | 2 | 8 | 0 | 100,3 | 21 |
The FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup is a team competition held from May 5-10, 2020 on Chess.com featuring Russia, USA, Europe, China, India, plus a team representing the "Rest of the World." The total prize fund is $180,000, sponsored by Chess.com.
The first stage consists of a double round-robin, with each team playing each other twice. The top two teams after 10 rounds qualify for a "Superfinal" match.
All matches are played on four boards: three with male players and one with female players. The time control for all games is 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move one.
Games Day 3 for replay/download
Many chess fans have been wondering why @MagnusCarlsen isn't playing in the @FIDE_chess https://t.co/EufIHvcIFK Online #NationsCup. Here is why; of course, we would have loved to have had Magnus compete.
— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 7, 2020
Comment per https://t.co/EufIHvcIFK's Nick Barton. pic.twitter.com/Q7r2KrVHB8
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