Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Illusionism
Every year, in September, the city of Saint Louis (Missouri, USA) hosts the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz and the Sinquefield Cup. Both are part of the Grand Chess Tour.
The chess community will remember the Sinquefield Cup 2022 because of the “Niemann affair”. American GM Hans Moke Niemann took part in that edition and won his game against Carlsen in round three. An irritated Carlsen withdrew from the tournament in the next round without any public explanation but presumably because of suspicion of cheating by his opponent. The issue immediately created a global discussion in the chess community about cheating. As an immediate reaction, in round four anti-cheating measures stepped up.
In round four, the first game to finish was the one played by Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So. The game only lasted only 24 moves and was played in a record time of less than 10 minutes! Surprisingly, Nepomniachtchi entered a variation where he voluntarily trapped his queen. What was difficult to foresee was that his queen had a secret escape, as in an illusionist performance.
The story behind the game is that Nepomniachtchi repeated the same line as in his game against Nakamura in the previous event Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz played some days before. Wesley So obviously knew the game and prepared for it thoroughly as evidenced by the fact that he used only 40 seconds (!!) of the initial 90 minutes available for the first 40 moves. Nepomniachtchi, on his part, used a little more than 8 minutes.
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