Leinier Domínguez Falls to Wesley So in Berlin

February 8, 2022

Grandmaster Leinier Domínguez fell this Monday in the fourth round of the Berlin Grand Prix and lost the top spot in his group, with two rounds remaining before this phase closes.

The Cuban-American (ELO 2752) was unable to capitalize on the advantage of the white pieces and conceded in 39 moves of an Italian Opening against one of his teammates on the United States team, Wesley So (2772).

That result, combined with the draw between Indian Pentala Harikrishna (2717) and Spanish Alexei Shirov (2704), left So at the top with 3 points, followed by Domínguez and Harikrishna tied at 2. Shirov occupies the basement, just a touch behind.

Tuesday will be a rest day, and on Wednesday the Cuban will play the black pieces against the Indian. If he wants to advance to the semifinals of the tournament, Domínguez will have to lead his group at the end of the double round-robin.

The competition format establishes that the best in each of the four groups will play a semifinal whose winners will then compete for the crown.

The Berlin tournament marks the beginning of a series of three events that will ultimately award two spots for the Candidates Tournament for the world crown, held by Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.

Among the elite players registered for the German event are Chinese Ding Liren (2799), Americans Levon Aronian (2772) and Hikaru Nakamura (2736), Russian Alexander Grischuk (2764) and Hungarian Richard Rapport (2763).

Those seeking to obtain one of the aforementioned tickets to the Candidates will participate in two of the three Grand Prizes scheduled, after which players with the most global points will be entitled to join the six men with secure spots. Namely, American Fabiano Caruana (2792), Russians Sergey Karjakin (2743) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (2773), Polish Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2760), Azerbaijani Teimour Radyabov (2753) and French Alireza Firouzja (2804).

The other two phases of the Grand Prize will be in Belgrade (February 28 to March 14) and Berlin again (March 21 to April 4). The prize fund for each tournament amounts to 150 thousand euros.