Wei Yi (Photo by Rafal Oleksiewicz for FIDE) NEW DELHI: The last game of Wei Yi's first Candidates Tournament lasted 32 moves. Javokhir Sindarov had already clinched the title and the right to challenge India's Dommaraju Gukesh in the upcoming World Championship match; Wei Yi had nothing left to chase.
And subsequently, neither player pressed for a win, and the game ended in a draw after roughly ten minutes. China's Wei Yi, who more recently clinched an individual gold on Board 2 in the open section of the Chess Olympiad in Samark and, Uzbekistan, does not dress things up when you ask the Chinese No.
1 how he felt when his first Candidates Tournament ended in Cyprus. There is no talk of glory or regret."
com during an exclusive interaction. " I remember taking a long rest after the final round.
It was a relief that the tournament was finally over." For a game that involves little physical activity, with players seated across a board and moving pieces, the admission might seem unusual to some.
But the remark points to something the sport rarely acknowledges openly. At the highest level, the game of 64 squares is far from a comfortable place to be."
It was my first Candidates Tournament, and playing 14 classical games in such an intense atmosphere, against opponents of such a high standard, was certainly not easy," he added. Fourteen games, ten drawsOn paper, the 2758-rated Grandmaster had a steady rather than spectacular debut in Cyprus, including two wins, two losses, ten draws, 7/14, and a fourth-place finish.
5. 5) and Praggnanandhaa (6).
He had earned his seat by beating Andrey Esipenko in the Goa World Cup semi-final, and he opened with draws against fellow debutant Matthias Bluebaum and Praggnanandhaa. The damage came in rounds three and six.
Caruana beat him in 19 moves, the game he singles out. Sindarov, playing him in classical for the first time, won a queen-and-rook endgame under time pressure, his fourth straight victory on the way to a runaway finish.
Both of Wei Yi's wins came against Esipenko, in rounds seven and 13. In the second, a sharp Petroff, he admitted he had been lucky to survive the opening."
Looking back, I'm not particularly satisfied with my overall performance," he explained. "" That said, I was also somewhat fortunate during the tournament.
