See you in Riyadh! by Mvl

This was the individual objective of the last two months: to secure one of the qualifying places for the esport World Cup in Riyadh (July 29 – August 1). Then came the team target, with the Top 16 (French Team Championships).
A look back at these two competitions:

CHAMPIONS CHESS TOUR, Chess.com Classic

I played in the second Champions Chess Tour tournament from Vitality’s headquarters in Paris. They’ve been my esports team since the beginning of the year, and their « hive », the V Hive, is located in the heart of Paris, not far from my home. I thought it was important to get into the right mindset and not play from home, so I could feel like I was in a tournament setting. The V-Hive offers a rather pleasant environment for this kind of event: a well-equipped, modern venue with a gaming touch right to the spectators, but without being too noisy, which suited the audience of the day. As for me, I was placed in a separate room to avoid any distractions…

The tournament was indeed decisive: I had a wild-card for the 16-player final phase, but I had to win points to reach the Top 12 in the overall ranking and qualify for the World Cup. I had estimated before the competition that I would have to win 2 matches out of 4, but in the end I had to win 3 to secure qualification! I started with a match against Caruana, which I won quite convincingly, even though I won the only one of the 4 games in which I didn’t dominate, the last one!

Then Magnus stood in my way. Of course, I knew it was going to be a tough match, but I’d already beaten him in this format, so I wasn’t going to feel hopeless. But the first game was a huge setback for me, as I was completely winning and then I blundered a Rook in one move in the zeitnot. I never recovered from that.

Then I had a very important day in the Losers’ Bracket, where I had to win both my matches. First, against Erigaisi… It was a very tense match, decided in an Armageddon where anything could have happened. However, I managed to use my time advantage at the start, and in a slightly more pleasant endgame, very difficult to defend in this time control (10 + 0), I ended up winning. Then I beat Levon (Aronian) in a much controlled match. The main thing was done, as I had secured my place for the esport World Cup. I was more relaxed the next day, and won my three matches against Nepo, Abdusatorrov and Nakamura, before losing the Grand Final to Carlsen. Nothing to say, he played really well, and I was a bit under the weather. My mission now is to find a way of getting my revenge in Riyadh!

I’m satisfied with my tournament and overall with the level of play I produced; the idea is to be able to repeat this type of performance…

TOP 16, Belfort

I entered the tournament late because of my Champions Chess Tour journey, which caused me to miss the first two rounds.

So I left on Saturday morning, with the 8.27 am train from Gare de Lyon, not far from home. I headed for Belfort, normally arriving at 11.09 am, well in time for a round scheduled at 2.30 pm. All was well up to Dijon, but the station stop there seemed unusually long. And indeed, we were finally told that the train wouldn’t be leaving Dijon at all! From then on, I could either wait for the replacement bus to Belfort, almost 200 kms away, but that would have been very dicey. So I decided to go straight for a cab, and I have to say that it didn’t take long 😊 . Despite this little mishap, I still managed to play a good game, and help the team win the match. My ambition was obviously for my Asnières team to reclaim the title we won two years ago. Especially as last year we were never really in a position to fight for first place. For a long time, things went rather well; admittedly, we had some pretty tense matches, but most of them we won.

Unfortunately, we lost an important match against Cannes. We therefore found ourselves neck-and-neck in the last round with the other favorite, Chartres, but with the obligation to win this « final ». But in the third hour of play, we were down 1-2 and all that was left was my game, for honor’s sake. As usual, I faced Laurent Fressinet with white, and as always, he defended himself well. But he made a small mistake just before the 40th move and I found myself in a Queen + 3 pawns versus Queen + 2 pawns endgame on the same side, which is theoretically a draw, but still leaves room to work on the position. I tried to press on to the end, and I really wasn’t that far from achieving something, but in the end, it was a draw all the same…

I think I played pretty well overall. I won two good games against Yannick Gozzoli and Amin Tabatabaei. I put a lot of pressure with white, something I’d been lacking for some time; and here, between Bucharest and the Top 16, I’ve managed to do it again. Of course, it’s also the law of series, with, over a given period, the preparations working a little better, etc. But it’s still quite encouraging for the future.

Now it’s time for a vacation, before resuming my preparations in July. But in terms of competition, I’ve got nothing scheduled before a sequence that will take me first to Riyadh on July 27 for the esport World Cup. Then, from August 9, it’s on to the American season, with the usual Grand Chess Tour combo in St. Louis; Rapid & Blitz, followed by the Sinquefield Cup. Then, at the very beginning of September, it’s time to change hemispheres, heading for Uzbekistan for the Grand Swiss, a qualifier for the 2026 Candidates!

Here’s a spectacular game from the Champions Chess Tour:

Mvl – Erigaisi
Champions Chess Tour (2.1), 21.05.2025

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 [Inviting my opponent to leave the waters of the Sicilian for those of the French, of which he is also a regular practitioner] 3…d5 4.e5 Nc6 5.d4 Bd7 6.Be2 f6 7.0-0 fxe5 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.dxe5 Qc7 10.Re1 0-0-0 [Erigaisi had already played this position several times, but his opponents had always replied 11.Bf1, protecting e5] 11.a4!? [A pawn sacrifice introduced by Hungarian GM Gabor Papp, which leads to massive complications!] 11…Qxe5 12.Na3 Nf6 13.Nb5

[My new idea. Even though Black should objectively get away with it, I knew that in a rapid game, the task would be arduous!] 13…a6 14.g3 Qb8 15.b4 e5 [The refutation of white’s sequence was to take the piece with 15…axb5 16.axb5 c4, then evacuate the King on e7 with 17.Be3 Re8! followed by …Kd8-e7. However, if we don’t let ourselves be influenced by the computer’s assessment, the position continues to be very frightening for black]. 16.Be3 axb5 [16…d4? is unplayable due to either the opening of the c-file or the opening of the h2-b8 diagonal, with fatal consequences for black’s King in both cases]. 17.axb5 c4 18.Bb6

18…Be7? [The first real mistake. 18…Be6 followed by 19…Bd6 would have consolidated the position and put pressure on white to justify the absence of his Knight!] 19.Ra7 [19.Ba7 Qc7 20.Bc5 led to an equal endgame following an untraceable sequence! 20…Bxb5 forced 21.Bg4+! (21.Ra8+? Kd7 22.Bg4+ Kc6-+) 21…Nxg4 22.Ra8+ Kd7 23.Qxg4+ Kc6 (23…Ke8? 24.Qxg7 Rf8 25.Rxe5+-) 24.Qe6+ Rd6 (24…Bd6 25.Rxd8 Rxd8 26.Rxe5+-) 25.Bxd6 Qxd6 26.Qxd6+ Bxd6 27.Rxh8 and after the only move 27….d4!, black develops enough play to compensate for being two exchanges down!] 19…Bxb5 [I was rather expecting 19…Be6 20.Qa4 Kd7 and the position remains on the razor’s edge] 20.Qa1? [A move played on instinct without much thought, and we both forgot a hidden defensive resource. Possible was 20.Bg4+ Bd7 21.Bf3; however, the best was to start with 20.Ra5! according to the machine, but these complex nuances were not detectable in blitz chess]. 20…Qd6? [A natural move, but a losing one. Yet Black had the opportunity to refute white’s play with 20…Rd6! 21.Bc5 (21.Qa5 Ba6 and the game’s maneuver doesn’t work: 22.Bf1 ((22.b5 Bd8!-+)) 22…g5 23.Rxe5 Rxb6!) 21…Qxa7! followed by 22…Ra6, missed by both of us!] 21.Qa5 Qc6

22.Bf1 [A rare backwards winning move! The double threat of 23.Rxe5 and 23.Bh3+ is too strong. Note that without this pretty resource, seen in advance, white would be lost here]. 22…Kd7 23.Rxe5 Rb8? [If 23…g5 24.Rxg5 I wasn’t sure I’d win the game. But I knew it was the only line able to offer black practical chances of defense]. 24.Bh3+ Ke8 25.Bc5 Ng8 [now I was sure I was clearly winning, but I calculated for a long time because there were too many tempting possibilities!] 26.Re6 b6 27.Raxe7+ Nxe7 28.Rxe7+ Kd8 [28…Kf8 29.Qa7] 29.Qa7 bxc5 30.Rd7+ Qxd7 31.Qxb8+ Ke7 32.Qe5+ Kf7 33.Bxd7 Bxd7 34.Qxd5+ Be6 35.Qxc5

[Erigaisi defended like a devil for 25 more moves, but the final outcome was never in doubt]. 35…Rd8 36.b5 Rd1+ 37.Kg2 Bd5+ 38.f3 Ke6 39.b6 Rb1 40.Kf2 Rb3 41.Qd4 g6 42.Re3 Kd6 43.Qg7 Rxb6 44.Kd4 Be6 45.Qxh7 Rb2 46.Qh8 Rd2+ 47.Ke3 Rd3+ 48.Ke2 Bd5 49.Qf6+ Kc5 50.h4 Kb5 51.g4 Ka4 52.h5 gxh5 53.gxh5 Kb3 54.h6 Bg8 55.Qg7 Rd8 56.Qe7 Rb8 57.Kd2 Rb5 58.Dd8 Bh7 59.Qd7 Rh5 60.Qb7+ 1-0

Maxime’s games at the Champion Chess Tour:

Top 16 Maxime’s games:

Maxime’s games at the world rapid & blitz team championship:

Just before the holidays, a final competition awaited Maxime in the English capital: the World Rapid & Blitz Team Championship, which he contested on behalf of the favorite WR Chess team. This 6-board competition requires 1 female player and 1 amateur player (-2000 Elo), and was held in London for its third edition. Despite a strong team, including Firouzja, Mvl, Nakamura, Duda, So and Hou Yifan, WR Chess only took a modest fifth place in the Rapid portion. But the team, bolstered by the last-minute arrival of Nepo for the Blitz, consoled itself by claiming the world title. After a rather modest 6/10 in the Rapid tournament, Maxime made a major contribution to his team’s Blitz title with an unbeaten score of 11.5/13, albeit against more heterogeneous opposition.