The challenging art of conversion

Having just returned from the Esports World Cup in Riyadh (see box at the end)
and after essentially changing suitcases😊, I arrived in the United States a few days before the start of the Grand Chess Tour tournaments, just to acclimatize myself. Indeed, in addition to the time difference, life in the United States is always a little different from that in Europe. So I visited friends, then arrived in St. Louis on August 9, two days before the start of the Rapid tournament. The slight change this time was that, as the club was still undergoing renovations, we were playing 15 minutes away by car, in a building that normally houses the commentators’ studio. The playing conditions were a little different, but just as good, so no worries there.

The restart was a little complicated… Even though, overall, I did well in the Rapid tournament, especially in the last games of each day (against Shankland, against Oparin, where I won on time, and against Wesley, against whom I played a good game). But the first two days were particularly difficult. I was +1 on the scoreboard, but it could have been much worse and it could easily have been -3. My play wasn’t very controlled overall, starting with the very first game against Fabiano, where I made a mistake in the opening and was lost after ten moves! (but I still managed to draw😊). After those two difficult days, I regained my composure on the third day of the Rapid tournament, and it was much better.

In the Blitz, it was also not bad, especially on the first day, but with a theme that will come back later, a lot of missed opportunities…

In the end, the final tally at the end of the tournament was pretty good with this 3rd place, which allowed me to lead the Grand Chess Tour and virtually guaranteed qualification for the final in São Paulo. But in terms of play, it was a bit mixed, a bit like in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) where there were ups and downs (admittedly, with far fewer games).

With that, we move seamlessly on to the Classic tournament, where the objective was simple: to secure the two and a half or three points that (according to my calculations!) were needed to more or less guarantee qualification. In my mind, I could almost finish last and still qualify, even if that wouldn’t have been the case with the same trio as the final podium: in fact, if I had finished last, Wesley would have taken my place!

I was pretty confident, I had white five times, I was in pretty good shape, and I had been able to review my opening lines. I thought I had prepared myself pretty well. In the openings, things went very well overall. Maybe I was a little light with the white pieces at times, but that was the case for everyone; even Fabiano drew immediately against Levon, without really trying; that says it all!

In the games themselves, the real regret is obviously the many missed opportunities (or half ones). A half-opportunity against Alireza, where I made a mistake in a position that was certainly winning for the machine, but not so trivial for a human. Behind, with very little time left on the clock, he came up with the perfect defense. It’s almost a fact of the game, he’s used to these defenses, but in any case, let’s say it’s not a huge mistake.

On the other hand, here are the three scoring opportunities, one clear and two unmissable, that I created without converting them:

MVL – ARONIAN, Round 3

After a chaotic game, I gained the upper hand and deliberately entered this winning endgame, even though I probably had a more direct solution a few moves earlier. But it seemed to me that this endgame would be easy to convert, and I may have relaxed a little too much.

48.Bb2?! (not a mistake per se, as the verdict on the position remains unchanged, but undoubtedly a first step in the wrong direction. Simpler was 48.Bc5 with the idea of putting the bishop on b4 and the pawn on a3 before attacking the h-pawn with the Rook). 48…Kc7 49.Kh3 Re4 50.Kg3 Kc6 51.Ra5 h5 52.Kf3?! (A second step sideways. As we will soon see, quickly placing the pawn on a3 was a sure bet!) 52…Rc4

53.Bf6??
(and the blunder happens! Black had only one way out: exchanging Rooks or winning the a-pawn. This catastrophic move will allow Levon to blackmail the first threat in order to achieve the second! After 53.a3 Rc2 54.Bd4 h4 55.Rh5 Ra2 56.Bc5 h3 57.Bb4 h2, the machine confirms that the position remains winning, but with black’s pawn on h2, the task would have been much more difficult)
53…Rc5! 54.Ra6+ Kb7 55.Rxe6 Ra5!
(a cold shower! The a-pawn is lost because if 56.Re2 Rf5+ takes advantage of the unfortunate position of the bishop on f6). After a few moves trying to play the R+B vs R endgame, I had to relinquish my hopes and share the point…

GUKESH – MVL, Round 4

I managed not to get carried away by the easy win I missed against Aronian, and I played a very good game against the world champion. Unfortunately, I made a stupid miscalculation in this position, which cost me another half point. I should have played the most natural continuation, namely 31…Rg8+ 32.Kh2 Rf2, and white has no way out: 33.Bf3 (33.e5+ Ke6 34.Bf3 Bc6 35.Bxc6 bxc6 36.Rg1 c3! is hopeless) 33…c3! 34.Rac1 (34.e5+ Ke7! 35.Bxb7 Bf5 followed by 36…c2 and white is tied up) 34…c2, and then I saw 35.Kg1?, completely forgetting 35…Rxf3! (35…Rd2 also wins, by the way!). So I changed tack to
31…cxb3? 32.axb3 a6, which loses the advantage after 33.Bf3. (1/2, 53 moves).

ABDUSSATOROV – MVL, Round 6

After putting in a fine performance against Abdussatorov, who was admittedly out of form, I reached this winning position at the time control. I realized that there were four possible paths and that I therefore had an important choice to make. The first, and most obvious, was 41…Re6. But I wasn’t sure that the endgame after 42.Rxe6 Kxe6 was a sure win because, despite being two pawns down, white had a blockade on the white squares. 41…Re3 42.Rxb6 Rxd3 43.Nxf5 Rc3 also looked winning, but not in a clear and straightforward way. The same goes for 41…Rb1 42.Kf3 (but not 42.Rxb6 c4!).

So I looked at the linear solution, namely the pawn endgame after 41…Re2+? 42.Kf3 Rh2 43.Kxf4 Rxh4+ 44.Kxf5 Rh5+ 45.Rg5 Rh3 46.Rg6 Rf3+

47.Kg4? (Nodirbek told me at the closing ceremony that he had quickly rejected 47.Ke4 Re3+, forgetting he could just come back with 48.Kf5.)47…Kxg6? (thoughtlessly continuing my transition to a pawn endgame that I thought was winning. Here, with white’s King on g4 and not on e4, the Rook endgame after 47…Rxd3 48.Rxb6 Ke7! was indeed winning!) 48.Kxf3 Kg5 49.Kg3 and, against all odds, this endgame turned out to be a draw, which was really a stroke of bad luck! White has to play a long series of « only moves » with his King, but no matter how I prepare…b5, then…a4, there is always a mouse hole for white’s King, as long as he respects all principles of the famous « corresponding squares ». Despite all my efforts, Nodirbek was up to the challenge and saved the half point.

After this litany of missed opportunities, my game against Sevian was my last chance to win the tournament. My preparation was perhaps a little light, but it worked well and I got an advantage. Then I made the mistake of having too many choices. I ended up making the wrong decisions and the situation turned around a little.

From then on, the last two rounds lost some of their interest: against Fabiano, I didn’t want to prepare for the 10,000 lines he could play against me (in fact, he played one I hadn’t anticipated!). I preferred to play it safe, with a small, uneventful advantage. And in the last round, Duda, with white, chose to play a theoretically drawing line.

Drawing all your games is never very pleasant, but in the context, the overall result isn’t bad, although I do have a slight regret that I didn’t capitalize on my good form to move up in the Elo rankings; I could have almost returned to the world’s Top 10 right now. But on the other hand, I remain optimistic. I tell myself that the solidity and level of play I displayed bodes well for the autumn events (Grand Swiss, Grand Chess Tour final, and World Cup). There are five qualifying places for the Candidates Tournament up for grabs, two at the Grand Swiss and three at the World Cup. The goal is to take one of those places and also to try to win the Grand Chess Tour for the first time, after so many second places!

Maxime’s rapid games in Saint-Louis:

Maxime’s blitz games in Saint-Louis:

Maxime’s classical games in the Sinquefield Cup:

This summer, chess made a sensational entry into the world of esports, joining the prestigious World Cup, which brings together the main games in the discipline, I signed up at the beginning of the year with Team Vitality, one of the best teams in the world, which also has the advantage for me of being French! Things were looking pretty good because, like my teammate Javokhir Sindarov, I had made it through the difficult qualifying stages and joined the list of 16 players qualified for the final in Riyadh, which took place from July 29 to August 1. But the rate of play (10 minutes without increment) is relentless, and neither Javokhir nor I managed to finish in the top half of the bracket, which awards points to the teams. It’s all the more unfortunate because I failed by a hair’s breadth at the very end of an epic tiebreaker against India’s Nihal Sarin. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, but the few team points lost on that occasion would make the difference between the 3rd place in the World Cup ultimately won by Vitality, and second place! With, incidentally, a loss of $1 million for the team…

We will console ourselves with this podium finish, which improves on Vitality’s result last year (4th) and bodes well for 2026…