Persistent Bortnyk Takes Freestyle – Chess.com

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk is your Freestyle Friday winner on January 9, after he recovered from a loss in round three by never losing again. It was Bortnyk’s sixth win of the tournament, more than anyone besides GM Hikaru Nakamura. Bortnyk still needed tiebreaks in the end to overcome second-place GM Benjamin Bok. The path to the podium went through GM Magnus Carlsen, who began 6/6 but surprisingly lost three of his last five games, including to both Bortnyk and Bok.

By the time of the first break, only four players were on a perfect 4/4, none of them a surprise but also none of them destined to win a prize in the end: Carlsen, GM Pranav Venkatesh, GM Vincent Keymer, and GM Sam Sevian. While Sevian came from behind to beat Pranav in the fifth round, Carlsen was also in trouble against Keymer, but not lost, almost from move one. But Carlsen’s devilish magic wasn’t through quite yet, and Keymer blundered a rook.

In the ensuing round, White again was better on both top boards early on, and Carlsen was able to gain the tournament lead by winning, while GM Jeffery Xiong flagged GM Bogdan Daniel Deac.

But, seemingly out of nowhere, things began to fall apart for Carlsen, as Xiong took the tournament lead when his esteemed opponent flagged in a dead-drawn rook endgame. Carlsen remained a half-point back of the lead, but things deteriorated further when he came up against Bortnyk.

Carlsen now found himself equal with or behind 10 other players, while Xiong and Sevian still led the tournament. Despite exiting the second break and entering the ninth round as coleaders, and having yet to face off, Xiong and Sevian were both coming off two straight games with White. So, Xiong faced Bortnyk while GM Dmitry Andreikin challenged Sevian. The situation after the ninth round could not have happened otherwise, as Xiong lost while Sevian drew. That was better news for Sevian, of course, who also retained a share of the lead, now with Bortnyk and GM Vugar Rasulov.

Carlsen recovered to win again, finding himself back in striking distance, but now it was Bok’s turn.

The 10th round was in general rather stunning, with Black winning on the top five boards. That was bad news for Carlsen, Sevian, and Xiong, all the early contenders now all but eliminated from first place possibilities.

Bortnyk and Rasulov were instead the tournament co-leaders with one round to go. They had already battled to a draw in the sixth round, so Bortnyk wound up playing Andreikin and Rasulov played Bok. Bortnyk and Andreikin were happy to keep their pawn structure closed and played to a draw. Bok, who had lost in the third and sixth rounds, completed a five-game winning streak to end the tournament. Rasulov looked like he might win after the brilliant 26…Nac3+, but missed the correct follow-up on the next move and Bok found himself up a free piece, which turned into a queen before Rasulov was mercifully checkmated on move 63.

This result was great news for Bortnyk, who was close in tiebreaks to Rasulov but well ahead of Bok. Rasulov was able to keep third place with his 8.5/11 score, while GM Mitrabha Guha finished fourth and Andreikin was an unlucky fifth on the same points. The women’s prize went to IM Anna Sargsyan.