{"id":11016,"date":"2021-04-15T17:29:33","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T15:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mvlchess.com\/?p=11016"},"modified":"2021-04-15T17:52:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T15:52:34","slug":"knocking-on-heavens-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mvlchess.com\/en\/2021\/04\/15\/knocking-on-heavens-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Knocking on heaven’s door"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than a year later, the Candidates’ Tournament will resume on 19 April, in Ekaterinburg (Russia) again. After a last minute ticket, I had done rather well in the first half of the tournament, as at the time of the break, I was leading ex-aequo with Ian Nepomniachtchi (but ahead of him in the tie-break). Remember that the winner of this tournament will face Magnus Carlsen for the World title, from 26 November to 15 December in Dubai (United Arab Emirates).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one year, the world has changed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The practice of chess has adapted, with a multiplication of online tournaments, in which I have had mixed fortunes \ud83d\ude42 . In the only face-to-face tournament I played during this period (Tata Steel, January 2021), my results were clearly bad<\/a>. I took this reminder as an incentive to better approach the resumption of the Candidates Tournament, which is the most important event of my career to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For weeks I have been concentrating on these seven upcoming games. Because of the circumstances, I have had time to prepare myself well, both physically and mentally. On the chess side, I have spent a lot of time with my coach Etienne Bacrot, who runs my seconds team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new start<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Rang<\/th>Nom<\/th>1<\/th>2<\/th>3<\/th>4<\/th>5<\/th>6<\/th>7<\/th>8<\/th>Score<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/strong><\/td>Vachier-Lagrave M.<\/td><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>4\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2<\/strong><\/td>Nepomniachtchi I.<\/td>0<\/a><\/td><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>4\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
3<\/strong><\/td>Caruana F.<\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>0<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>3\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
4<\/strong><\/td> Giri A.<\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>0<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>3\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
5<\/strong><\/td>Wang Hao<\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>0<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>3\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
6<\/strong><\/td>Grischuk A.<\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>3\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
7<\/strong><\/td>Ding Liren<\/td>0<\/a><\/td>0<\/a><\/td>1<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>0<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>2\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
8<\/strong><\/td>Alekseenko K.<\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>0<\/a><\/td>0<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td>\u00bd<\/a><\/td><\/td>2\u00bd<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Candidates standings after round 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the first half of the tournament<\/a>, I’m going into a seven-game mini-tournament as the leader. With so few rounds and only a small point difference between the top six, every half point will be crucial, and I’m obviously expecting some hard-fought games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sous
Under the sun with S\u00e9bastien Maz\u00e9 : running, chess studies and diner with the french consul are on the agenda of this Thursday<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I arrived in Ekaterinburg on Wednesday 14 April with GM S\u00e9bastien Maz\u00e9, not without a few administrative problems due to the difficulty of travelling at the moment. I now have four days to acclimatise and get used to the time difference (+3 hours compared to Paris). Of course, this will also be the opportunity to make the final adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My pairing at the beginning of this second half is not the easiest one, as I will successively face Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren with the black pieces. But in any case, I will have to perform well in every game to hope to win this tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White<\/th> <\/th>Black<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Caruana, Fabiano<\/td>–<\/td>Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime<\/td><\/tr>
Wang, Hao<\/td>–<\/td>Ding, Liren<\/td><\/tr>
Nepomniachtchi, Ian<\/td>–<\/td>Giri, Anish<\/td><\/tr>
Alekseenko, Kirill<\/td>–<\/td>Grischuk, Alexander<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Round 8 pairings<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
White<\/th> <\/th>Black<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Ding, Liren<\/td>–<\/td>Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime<\/td><\/tr>
Giri, Anish<\/td>–<\/td>Wang, Hao<\/td><\/tr>
Grischuk, Alexander<\/td>–<\/td>Nepomniachtchi, Ian<\/td><\/tr>
Alekseenko, Kirill<\/td>–<\/td>Caruana, Fabiano<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Round 9 pairings<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
White<\/th> <\/th>Black<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime<\/td>–<\/td>Giri, Anish<\/td><\/tr>
Caruana, Fabiano<\/td>–<\/td>Ding, Liren<\/td><\/tr>
Wang, Hao<\/td>–<\/td>Grischuk, Alexander<\/td><\/tr>
Nepomniachtchi, Ian<\/td>–<\/td>Alekseenko, Kirill<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Round 10 pairings<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
White<\/th> <\/th>Black<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Grischuk, Alexander<\/td>–<\/td>Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime<\/td><\/tr>
Giri, Anish<\/td>–<\/td>Ding, Liren<\/td><\/tr>
Alekseenko, Kirill<\/td>–<\/td>Wang, Hao<\/td><\/tr>
Nepomniachtchi, Ian<\/td>–<\/td>Caruana, Fabiano<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Round 11 pairings<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
White<\/th> <\/th>Black<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime<\/td>–<\/td>Alekseenko, Kirill<\/td><\/tr>
Ding, Liren<\/td>–<\/td>Grischuk, Alexander<\/td><\/tr>
Caruana, Fabiano<\/td>–<\/td>Giri, Anish<\/td><\/tr>
Wang, Hao<\/td>–<\/td>Nepomniachtchi, Ian<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Round 12 pairings<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
White<\/th> <\/th>Black<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Nepomniachtchi, Ian<\/td>–<\/td>Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime<\/td><\/tr>
Alekseenko, Kirill<\/td>–<\/td>Ding, Liren<\/td><\/tr>
Grischuk, Alexander<\/td>–<\/td>Giri, Anish<\/td><\/tr>
Wang, Hao<\/td>–<\/td>Caruana, Fabiano<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Round 13 pairings<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
White<\/th> <\/th>Black<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime<\/td>–<\/td>Wang, Hao<\/td><\/tr>
Ding, Liren<\/td>–<\/td>Nepomniachtchi, Ian<\/td><\/tr>
Giri, Anish<\/td>–<\/td>Alekseenko, Kirill<\/td><\/tr>
Caruana, Fabiano<\/td>–<\/td>Grischuk, Alexander<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Round 14 pairings<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

See you on Monday 19th at 4pm (local) for my first game against Caruana…<\/p>\n\n\n\n