Yes, this event is stupidly intransparent... it's very unclear how and when you play what and where you progress after winning/losing. #1610239 #1609473

Anyway, today the 24 players in Budapest played a 9-round Swiss blitz (3+2, meaning 3 minutes + 2 sec bonus times).

We'll be covering matches and results every day here, mostly with an aim to teach and explore the wonderful world of chess.

Today: Vaishali Rameshbabu, best known as the sister of Pragg but a strong grandmaster in her own right, defeated fan favorite Hans Niemann.

Hans, whose chances of winning the tournament were always slim and the efficient markets over at @Team_Predyx ranks at 3%, now looks at a pretty dire pairing.

Anyway, I looked through the game manually (e.g., without engine or analysis board to tell me what went wrong), and what I thought was typical Hans eagerness was not the error that lost him this opening game.

Hans had at his best opportunity in the middlegame against Vaishali (+4.5, after having snagged pawn)...

Here Hans loses his d4 pawn and decides to get some imbalance for it:

Rook takes f7 wasn't a bad move, even though it, to my silly little 1700 eyes, clearly just loses an exchange after rook(whichever)xd6, removing the guard of the f7-rook that just captured a pawn. Hans, of course, saw that and realized he'd get the b7 pawn also and, most importantly, TWO connected passed pawns.

... and then Vaishali took the knight with the wrong rook, but whatever. Computers, go away. And after this transformation, it's a straight draw. where's the final error?!

Even after Vaishali starts eating pawns, the computer is unfazed: DRAW, everybody go home.

I did not see the next move being a mistake:

you should, for some incredible reason, have just defended your rook from b6 instead. No idea why.
(update: looking at it now, I suppose it's because the a-pawn has to be stopped somehow, and when it's stopp by the king in later lines, it loses the game, whereas a bishop on b6 could have stopped it on a5 already... hashtag board geometry!)
Seems so counterintuitive to allow opponent to force you into a king endgame two pawns for a bishop... with a stupid doubled g-pawn and white with two protected passed pawns. (I guess white just doesn't have a way to defend them...?)

But the final, losing, mistake comes right thereafter. Can't be running with the king; too slow:

now, with the white rook stuck and the bishop interposing the rook's defense of the pawn, the white pawns will perish... AND, importantly, you're not in time with the a-pawn, and white kicks your rook away with the e-pawn.

Fair, the players were in time trouble... still insane. I understand nothing about chess.

From the Total Chess recap:

Each group plays a double round robin at 45 minutes plus 30 seconds per move, and with three points for a win and one for a draw, playing for the full point pays. Only the four group winners reach the title bracket, but nobody goes home: every player moves on to a knockout bracket and places 5 to 24 are also decided over the board. A total of $650,000 in prize money is at stake.

I say this a lot around here: I'm in the wroooong line of work (#1586065, #1507003) ...or maybe it's just a typical Mike Munger/elite basketball players situation #1553596

here are the groups that, over the next few days, play fast classical (45+30) with soccer scoring. Only one from each group qualifies

My guesses: Nodirbek, Pragg, Magnus, MVL