RECAP DAY 4 CHAMPIONS SHOWDOWN: CHESS 9LX
While none of the matches truly went down to the wire, the players did an excellent job of entertaining the audience with exciting games. Garry Kasparov may have been out of the match since day 3, but he continued to fight admirably and picked up some nice wins for his efforts. Wesley So clinched his match with a draw in the first game, then proceeded to continue dominating his match against Veselin Topalov. Peter Svidler officially won his match half way through the day by holding a long endgame against Leinier Dominguez. Levon Aronian couldn’t slow down the momentum of U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura, and the American finished off the match two rounds before the end of the tournament. Let’s take a look at the final results and see what happened in each match.
Fabiano Caruana vs. Garry Kasparov
The top American player officially won the match on day 3, but that didn’t stop both players from entertaining audiences with some exciting games on the final day. Garry had his best day of the event, and scored a highly respectable 3.5 out of 8 today, not a bad result for anyone against the world #2. Fabiano won the match with a final score of 19 - 7.
While he didn’t perform as well as he hoped, Garry scored some nice wins on day 4
Wesley So vs. Veselin Topalov
While So technically didn’t clinch his match yesterday, it was quite clear that there was no way he wasn’t going to win this match. He officially sewed it up with a draw in the first blitz game of the day. Despite this, both players played a lot of entertaining games, and it was mainly Topalov’s penchant for time pressure that hindered him in this match. Once the match was decided, Wesley didn’t lose a single step and continued to dominate. So won the match with an impressive 18 - 8 score.
Wesley clinched his match with a game 7 draw, then continued to dominate
Leinier Dominguez vs. Peter Svidler
Svidler carried a considerable four point lead into the final day, but after inexplicably blundering a pawn in the first blitz game of the day, it looked like Dominguez might make a comeback. The Russian regrouped impressively, however, and got 2.5 out of the next 3 games to clinch victory in the match. Game 10 was particularly exciting, as it took Peter 153 moves to finally fend of Lenier in a rook and knight against rook endgame. Svidler won the match with 15.5 points to 10.5.
Peter had his ups and downs, but he never really lost control of his match
Hikaru Nakamura vs. Levon Aronian
The Armenian went into the last day with a one point lead, but the momentum was all with the U.S. Champion. Aronian got great positions in each of blitz games 7-9, but bad blunders caused him to lose all three, and after drawing the 10th was trailing two points going into the last four games. Game 11 looked promising for Levon, but he was unable to beat Hikaru with his exchange exchange. Game 12 saw the American secure a pawn on g3, then win the Armenian’s rook to clinch the game and the match with two rounds to spare. Hikaru ended up winning the match with 14.5 points against Levon’s 11.5.
Hikaru was absolutely relentless on the final day
Today concluded the 2019 Champions Showdown. Thanks to our commentators GM Yasser Seirawan, WGM Jennifer Shahade, and GM Maurice Ashley. The next event on the calendar will be the Fall Classic, which takes place September 10-18. Be sure not to miss it!
