Dominguez Drops Out; Firouzja Makes Late Bid For Wesley So's Candidates Spot

GM Leinier Dominguez has pulled out of the Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2023 at the halfway mark, explaining, “I’ve come to a point where I’m simply risking too much if I continue.” The U.S. star travelled to Spain hunting for the one rating point he needed to overhaul GM Wesley So in the race to qualify for the 2024 Candidates tournament, but two draws against lower-rated opposition have seen him lose 4.7 points instead.

So might not be safe yet, however, since GM Alireza Firouzja is set to play six games against three opponents in his hometown of Chartres from December 18-22.

• Candidates Dream For Dominguez
• Dominguez Drops Out After Round 5
• Wesley So Close to Candidates Spot, But Firouzja Organizes Late Event
• Dominguez Vs. Underrated Kids
• Dominguez Plays Blitz On Final Day

Candidates' Dream For Dominguez

It was almost a fairy tale. Dominguez only played the recent Sinquefield Cup in his hometown of St. Louis after World Champion Ding Liren withdrew, but the 40-year-old went on to beat GMs Anish Giri and Richard Rapport, finish second, and gain 12 rating points. That left him just a point behind leader So in the race to top the FIDE ratings list for January 2024 and gain the final one of eight spots in the tournament to decide the next world championship challenger.

A “clarification” by the World Chess Federation changed the written rules so that Dominguez would have to travel and play outside the U.S. to be eligible, and rather than protest he duly headed to Sitges, a coastal town south of Barcelona, to play the 10-round Chessable Sunway Sitges Open that runs December 12-22. 

Dominguez Drops Out After Round 5

Five rounds in, however, and Dominguez was struggling in 14th place on a 4/5 score that could have been worse—and had already cost him 4.7 rating points.

The Cuban-born U.S. star decided to call it a day.

We have some important news from GM Leinier Domínguez tonight at @chessable Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival (‼️) pic.twitter.com/jeD7LJnQXL

— Sunway Chess Festival (@SunwayChessOpen) December 17, 2023

Dominguez told WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili:

I made a decision, unfortunately, not to continue to play the tournament. The decision is based on my current situation, and although I have all the desire in the world to fight for the spot in the Candidates, and that’s why I came of course in the first place, I did feel from the start that I need to keep being objective all the time, and I think I’ve come to a point where I’m simply risking too much if I continue. It’s every time more and more unlikely to finally reach my goal.

I’ve come to a point where I’m simply risking too much if I continue.

—Leinier Dominguez

Dominguez thanked his fans and the organizers, and noted his health hadn’t been 100 percent. He also explained what he meant by risk: “The Candidates is a nice tournament, but it’s not the only tournament, and I also have to think about other invitations and other tournaments next year.”

The current sky-high world number-seven spot of Dominguez can mean, for instance, an invitation to the lucrative 2024 Grand Chess Tour, with GM Hikaru Nakamura recently suggesting that So’s conservative style and lack of classical games is partly down to wanting to ensure he keeps qualifying for that series.

So was sympathetic to Dominguez' situation.

As a friend and colleague of Leinier I want to encourage and support him. He is a real gentleman, a great player and one of the very best in the world. To gain +0.1 for a win and -4.2 for a draw is just crazy. Wishing him well and come back stronger than ever.

— Wesley So (@GMWesleySo123) December 18, 2023

The three-time U.S. Champion has a lot at stake personally.

Wesley So Close To Candidates Spot, But Firouzja Organizes Late Event

For So, who just finished runner-up in the Champions Chess Tour, the job is nearly done. Before Dominguez withdrew, he was still calculated as having a 26.2% chance of overtaking So.

Now that’s gone, and with GM Parham Maghsoodloo also failing to get the out-of-this-world result he needed in the Chennai Grand Masters, So was beginning to look safe. 

Not so fast, however, as Firouzja, who trails by just seven points, is now going to play an event this week that gives him the chance to snatch the spot.

Will the real farmer please stand up.👨‍🌾 pic.twitter.com/0udYZeYYjZ

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) December 18, 2023

Firouzja will play two classical games each against GMs Alexandre Dgebuadze (2439), Andrei Shchekachev (2506), and Sergey Fedorchuk (2546), in that order. The 20-year-old will need to score very heavily against the veterans, but the former 2800-star is clearly capable, and he will know if he can afford a draw going into the final game.  

For Dominguez, meanwhile, the Chessable Sunway Sitges tournament was a rare chance to experience the world of modern chess open tournaments.

Dominguez Vs. Underrated Kids

Dominguez has carved out a position at the top of world chess by being incredibly stable and hard to beat in events featuring only the world's very best players. The tournament in Spain was something entirely different, with tournament organizer Oskar Stober Blázquez telling Chess.com that getting Dominguez was a rare coup.  

We have had some some great players here in recent years, but to have someone who is fighting for his spot in the Candidates, a top-ten player, could never be a realistic goal, so it's great to have this option. Personally I feel kind of "bad" for him that he has to play an open tournament, but on the other hand I'm obviously glad that we get to have him here.

We recently saw former World Champion Magnus Carlsen suffer in the Qatar Masters, getting into trouble and even losing against young opponents rated hundreds of points below him. Seven of Carlsen’s nine opponents were Indian, and it was similar in Sitges, where of the 329 players no less than 72 are Indian, with Spain in second place on 50. Dominguez must have known it wasn’t going to be easy. 

He started against 17-year-old Akos Kocsmar, an untitled Hungarian player rated 630 points lower. A draw or loss would be ruinous, but Dominguez opened with a nice win, gaining 0.8 rating points and in fact drawing exactly level with So, whose 2757.4 rating will be rounded down to 2757.0 on January 1. 

That meant a win over a fellow American, 2373-rated FM Shubh Jayesh Laddha, in round two would take Dominguez ahead of So. Everything seemed to start off well…

Bad news @GMWesleySo123.

Lenier has got The Course. https://t.co/MoZWu18xIB pic.twitter.com/w9ZpDA1DZm

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) December 13, 2023

…but alas, no opening course can show you how to win on demand with the black pieces if your opponent plays well. Dominguez took risks and was on the ropes before eventually escaping with a draw, which cost four rating points and meant he was already playing catchup. 

A quirk of the pairings system then saw Dominguez face a 14-year-old Indian kid Pranav K P,  who was clearly underrated, since he’d just beaten an FM and IM in the first two rounds.

I think this is the perfect image for how chess is changing...@ChessbaseIndia @aicfchess pic.twitter.com/ea7AQAedxs

— GM Jacob Aagaard (@GMJacobAagaard) December 14, 2023

“Let’s go, Pranav!! You got this,” tweeted So, while Dominguez simply had to win—to gain 0.1 rating points instead of suffering a heavy loss. He did, with the final move a nice one to make. Can you spot the way to win in style? 

A good win with Black against Ukrainian GM Petro Golubka kept Dominguez’ hopes alive, but the round-five clash with 17-year-old Indian GM Pranav Anand would be the final straw. It likely wasn’t so much that Dominguez was held to another costly draw—one So found time to celebrate even while playing Carlsen in the Champions Chess Tour Finals…

At least someone cheered me up today. Thank you, Pranav. pic.twitter.com/RqwjHZTA0B

— Wesley So (@GMWesleySo123) December 16, 2023

…but it was a chaotic, traumatic game. Pranav gave up his queen for two rooks, and followed up with the brilliant board-splitting sacrifice 30...d5!!. In the chaos that followed Pranav was briefly winning, though Dominguez escaped with a draw.

Dominguez had taken his task in Sitges very seriously, coming along with his coach GM Vladimir Chuchelov, who has also coached GMs Fabiano Caruana and Giri, but this was a game that could easily cause anyone to consider their life choices in taking on the challenge. 

GM Leinier Domínguez 🇺🇲 in the analysis room checking his game with his coach GM Vladimir Chuchelov and his oponent GM Pranav Anand 🇮🇳. A draw that he will need to recover in the next rounds if he wants to take @GMWesleySo123 spot in the @FIDE_chess Candidates 2024.#SunwaySitges pic.twitter.com/UURxKMBB0r

— Sunway Chess Festival (@SunwayChessOpen) December 16, 2023

It’s not just Dominguez who has struggled, however. Second-seed GM Kirill Alekseenko, who played the 2020-1 Candidates, has lost two games and dropped 13 rating points. One game was to 29-year-old Australian IM James Morris. The other was to 16-year-old Turkish IM-elect Adar Tarhan, who opened with 1.a3!? against a player who outrated him by 225 rating points.

Alekseenko recently became the Austrian number-one after switching federations, but it’s another Austrian player, 20-year-old IM Dominik Horvath, who leads the tournament on a perfect 5/5, with five rounds to go.

Chessable Sunway Sitges Standings After Round 5 (Top 15)

Dominguez Plays Blitz On Final Day

Dominguez leaves Sitges after the rest day, which was also the day of the Chessable Sunway Sitges Blitz. He took part, but the pattern continued, with losses to an IM and FM seeing him finish in seventh place. Morris proved the win over Alekseenko was no fluke by scoring eight wins to take the title—and he did it despite giving himself the handicap of playing a4-h4 or a5-h5 in every game!

The moment after Bxh6!!, followed by a devastating attack, which gave IM James Morris the @SunwayChessOpen Blitz title (8/9) after upsetting GM Bharath, Subramaniyam (7.5/8) until this game) in the final round! 🇪🇸

But there is more! IM Morris opened the game with 1. a4 2. h4 3.… pic.twitter.com/jUImjC9veq

— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) December 18, 2023

That tournament was also notable for the participation of 10-year-old FM Faustino Oro, an Argentinian prodigy dubbed the “Messi of chess” who has now moved to Barcelona with his parents.

He beat an IM and drew a GM on the way to a 2172 performance that saw him take 20th place after starting as the 52nd seed. Oro isn’t playing in the main event.

GM Lenier Dominguez is watching the game of 10 y.o FM Oro Faustino from Argentina💫🇦🇷 @chessable @SunwayChessOpen #chess pic.twitter.com/VnwRsThVv5

— Keti Tsatsalashvili (@keti_chess) December 18, 2023

The Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival continues with round six at 10:40am ET/16:40 CET/9:10pm IST with all the action live on our events page.