Grischuk Beats Vidit Twice To Win Division II, Arjun Tops Division III With Game To Spare

Divisions II and III of the CrunchLabs Masters 2024 came to a close on Tuesday. GM Alexander Grischuk rose from the ashes of the Losers Bracket and defeated GM Vidit Gujrathi in two matches to win Division II, while GM Arjun Erigaisi beat GM Evgeny Alekseev 2.5-0.5 in a much quicker duel, winning with a game to spare.

The weeklong tournament ends with the Division I Grand Final between GM Alireza Firouzja and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, on Wednesday, July 24, starting at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m.

• Division II: Grischuk Rises From The Ashes, Completes Redemption Arc
• Division III: Undefeated Arjun Wins With Game To Spare

Division II: Grischuk Rises From The Ashes, Completes Redemption Arc

Grischuk convincingly won Division II and defeated two of the world's top-10 along the way, GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. He lost against Vidit in the Winners Final but got his revenge on Tuesday when he defeated his rival twice in consecutive matches. 

The first match was four games, and the second was two.

Grand Final: Vidit 2-3 Grischuk

After exchanging victories in games two and three, Grischuk took the first match by winning with White in the armageddon tiebreak.

Vidit was the first to lead after game two, where his opponent started to err once he reached under 10 seconds against a minute. The Indian grandmaster brought his rook to a2 with decisive effect.

In game three, Grischuk converted a long endgame with the imbalance of queen against rook and knight and, after a draw, won again in the armageddon. It featured a London System with opposite-sides castling (something you don't see every day), and a positional squeeze eventually erupted into a direct assault against the black king.

GM Rafael Leitao covers the full game from start to finish in the annotations below.

Grand Final Reset: Grischuk 2-0 Vidit

The second match was a sweep, and unfortunately for Vidit, he missed direct chances to at least hold a draw in both games. In his interview, Grischuk praised Vidit's tenacity, saying:

He's like a rock. It's very difficult to beat him, so you need to keep pouncing on him to make small holes in the rock, and maybe, eventually, he can collapse. But it takes huge effort to beat him once, and I managed [to win] several times today.

We certainly saw holes in the rock in the second match. In the first game, Grischuk outplayed his opponent and exhibited flawless technique—until he hung an entire knight in one move. In the time scramble that ensued, Vidit was equal, then losing, equal, and losing again until finally, the game ended with a point for the three-time world blitz champion.

Grischuk conducts the advantage admirably, then hangs an entire knight, and then wins the game anyway!https://t.co/MqGSAG9OJ9#ChessChamps pic.twitter.com/kIgYD3d2XB

— chess24 (@chess24com) July 23, 2024

In the second game, Vidit achieved a winning position in a must-win game. Grischuk's expression when he blundered 30...fxg5? 31.Rxd3! is worth more than words:

Vidit was a piece up but had a slightly exposed king. If he could manage to avoid any perpetual checks, the game should have been in the bag, but alas, after 39.Rd1? Grischuk found a miraculous way to reach a draw. Vidit resigned in an equal position as it made no difference to the match score:

Grischuk wins $15,000, 50 tour points, and an automatic spot in Division I of the next event. There, he'll have a chance to qualify for the end-of-year CCT Finals. He said it would be nice, but he also has no specific strategy to get there: "It's not a Swiss tournament where you can try to settle for a +2 score... there's no strategy except trying to win every match you play."

... there's no strategy except trying to win every match you play.

—Alexander Grischuk

More proximally, we will see Grischuk at the 2024 Speed Chess Championship, which starts this Thursday. He is scheduled to play Firouzja in the round of 16 on July 29.

As runner-up, Vidit earns $10,000, 40 tour points, and a spot in Division I Placement Round 2 of the next event, so he won't have to go through the Play-in again.

Division II Bracket

Division III: Undefeated Arjun Wins With Game To Spare

Arjun 2.5-0.5 Alekseev

It was a smooth and relatively speedy victory for the world number four, who improved on his victory against Alekseev in the Winners Final (with a 2.5-1.5 score) by not losing a single game in the Grand Final.

In game one, after 40.Qe3, Black found himself practically in zugzwang, where White had the plan of doubling on the eighth rank and most black moves were met with some tactic, as we saw in the game.

After a threefold repetition in game two, Arjun clinched the match with a game to spare. The Indian grandmaster found an interesting combination to trade a knight for three pawns, and the defense proved to be so difficult for Alekseev that he lost on time when the engine said the position was still close to equal.

It's a great bounce-back for Arjun, who suffered a series of unfortunate events on the first two days of the tournament. In the Play-in, he went 5.5/7 before losing the final two rounds, thus missing out on Division I. Then, in Division Play, he was swept 2-0 by GM Abhimanyu Puranik and thus didn't qualify for Division II either.

From then on, however, Arjun went back to his winning ways and claimed the third division without losing a single match. He earns $7,500, 30 tour points, and a spot in Division I Placement Round 2 of the next event. Alekseev earns $6,000 and 25 tour points and will have to play in the Play-in of the next event.

Division III Bracket

You can see the leaderboard of the 2024 Champions Chess Tour below. Please note that it will be updated after the match between Firouzja and Vachier-Lagrave on the next day.

 Leaderboard

Speaking of that Division I match, Firouzja gave us a behind-the-scenes peek at what his preparation for the match looks like. Tomorrow will show how effective it is:

Preparation. pic.twitter.com/qVn3x77kgz

— Alireza Firouzja (@AlirezaFirouzja) July 23, 2024

The 2024 CrunchLabs Masters is the third of the Champions Chess Tour's four events and determines one of the players who'll make it to the in-person CCT Finals. The event started on July 17 at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST and features a $300,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • Firouzja Neutralizes Nepomniachtchi's Killer Prep, Sets Up All-French Grand Final
  • Vachier-Lagrave Reaches Div I Grand Final As Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi Set Up Repeat Clash
  • Vachier-Lagrave Surpasses Carlsen, Sets Up All-French Winners Final With Firouzja
  • Firouzja Recovers After 9-Move Loss, Joins Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Duda In Winners
  • Caruana, Wesley So, Nepomniachtchi, Duda, Andreikin Advance To Division I
  • Nepomniachtchi Wins Play-in On Tiebreaks Over Nakamura, Antipov
  • Announcing The 2024 CrunchLabs Masters, Champions Chess Tour's Third Even