Already posted two matches from the first round today, so was gonna skip it for tonight. #1613921, #1613935

...but then Levy's recap of one game I had overlooked during the live stream caught my eye and I got inspired and glad Mr. Dash is having a blast (#1614070), so here we go.

Game Review says it's technically a "Knight Attack" variation of the Italian game, not a fried liver but whatever. SAME SAME

It's the e4-version of my London-based bishop-knight attack! (#1608022)... and just like in that line, you have to throw a pawn into the middle of the board not to be immediately losing. From Levy's recap:

"It's a big memorization battle... and MVL wins the memorization battle!"

He gets out of the opening position, 19 moves of more or less immediately played prep, and has a comfortable +0.00 position. Welcome to top-level chess...

...Hans immediately goes wrong... by playing the most natural developing move: Bg4 to pin the f3 knight to the queen. I can't even tell you what's wrong with that. He trades the bishop for the knight, queen recaptures and somehow the computer (and all the elite commentators) know that this is bad. I dunno... imbalance... worse-quality minor piece is the best I can come up with.

A few transformations and trades later, we're here... MVL comfortably up and wins himself a neat little pawn on f7:

Hans takes back on d2, and I mean, the a2 pawn is hanging, too, and black's queen has a direct line of sight to e2 and BAD THINGS COMING... Nah, MVL just moves in for the kill with his queen, Hans tries to protect via queen trade... MVL just sacs the knight for another pawn. BRILLIAAAANCE

Not sure why, really... it's quite an obvious move, even for me. If nothing else, it's the most direct attack and by process of elimination, the only workable move: can't trade the queens -- it's a drawn endgame, then -- my queen is unprotected so I gotta move it... there are no checks and no good attacks... but the most direct, obvious checks-captures-attacks move is Nxh6...
At my level, I would probably just misevaluate/not see the power of it, but I would at least see the potential of it and, hopefully, by way of elimination, figure out that there's nothing else and thus go for this.

So what's the big deal? Black can't take back with the pawn, obviously, since it's holding the queen in the queen-staring contest... so you gotta capture with the queen. OK, cool, now f7 is nice and juicy, and after shoving the king backwards, I at least win back my sacrificed piece.

When the dust settles, white is up ~2 pawns~ (update: 1... Hans gobbled a2; but then later MVL won b4, so I guess it's still +2) in a queen-rook endgame

...but I'm at a lose to understand why it's +5 and completely winning for white. Oh well. Hans resigned a few moves later; MVL wins a cool game.

Den and his HORRID predictions

Well. First off, I completely botched my Predyx bet (#1612279, #1610239) my being sats cheap and only offering 4 peeps to win it all. #1613921

THEN, I completely misjudged the groups and their winners. I said:
A = Nodirbeck,
B = Pragg,
C = Magnus, and
D= MVL.

Well, with two rounds to go, here are the standings:

A.: Firouzja dominating, my guess at the bloody bottom

B: Fabiano killing it, (and today almost overtook Magnus as world #1 in the live ratings!! #1613515), my guess at the bloody bottom

C: Pretty even, but the least-known guy topping the table, my guess tied for the bloody bottom

D: Well, OK fine, I got one... MVL. And that was my least confident guess... could just as well have been a Niemann show, or Erigaisi fire, or Wesley So-oh-so-stable.

TOMORROW THERE SHALL BE FIRE. Two rounds to go before the knock-out stage. Only group winners move on to the championship bracket!