FIDE Chess World Cup 2021 – Final Round
On 4th August, we had the first match of the Grand Final of the FIDE World Cup 2021, where the two finalists playing on the first table were GM Sergey Karjakin (2757) from Russia and GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2738) from Poland.
They played the Vienna Game, where Karjakin played a great move that he has used in a previous game against Carlsen, Rd1. This move was followed by a quick defence by Duda, following which Karjakin went for a Draw by Threefold Repetition.
The exciting game of the day was on the second table between Carlsen and Fedoseev, where the game began with the King’s Indian Defence and Fedoseev’s third move, h4, was a surprise for everyone. The eventful part of the game began in the middle game, where Carlsen made a sacrifice on the 16th move, which instantly unbalanced the position.
Fedoseev was now an exchange and a pawn up but had to play a defensive game. The game saw a beautiful example of a zugzwang position, and on the 40th move, Carlsen regained his exchange and pawn and maintained all the positional advantage he possessed. It was at this point that Fedoseev decided to resign.
Second Game of The Grand Finale
The second game of the Grand Finale of the World Cup was held on 5th August, where the famous Russian hockey player Sergei Tolchinsky played the first move for Duda, who played White. Thus, the game began with d4, and Karjakin played the Semi-Tarrasch Queen’s Gambit that he used to play against Fedoseev in the semi-finals.
Duda played an excellent move on the 12th move, and after a couple of exchanges, Duda had a slight advantage in the end game. Karjakin was low on time and made a blunder on the 26th move by playing Na5. Karjakin resigned soon after, making GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda the champion of the 2021 FIDE World Cup.
Simultaneously, an exciting match was taking place on the second board for the third position. Fedoseev began the game with the Caro-Kann Defence, and Carlsen responded with the Advanced Variation. Carlsen played an attacking game in the middle game when Fedoseev made a mistake while playing defensive.
Soon Fedoseev was in a position where he could not castle, and Carlsen had a strong attack. Carlsen then went on to make a sacrifice on the 24th move, which strengthened his attack further. Towards the end, Carlsen executed another exchange sacrifice, and the game saw a final position with Fedoseev’s Rook trapped, which forced him to resign. Thus, Magnus Carlsen became the second runner up at the FIDE World Cup 2021.
