Swiercz tends to enjoy quite sharp and dynamic positions, so he sticks to the favorable terrain of the Sicilian Defense.
Niemann brings his knight out, preparing the typical central pawn push next.
Swiercz moves his queen's pawn forward, opening up the scope of his light-squared bishop.
Niemann takes control of the center.
The players are jumping into heavy theoretical terrain right out of the gates, as Swiercz goes for the Najdorf. It's an aggressive and very extensively studied system among the various Sicilian defenses that the Black side can go for.
Niemann is up for a fight!
And Hans doesn't hesitate to go for the most aggressive setup against the Najdorf. This move can even lead to something called the 'Poisoned Pawn' variation of the Najdorf, which leads to complete chaos and used to be very popular some 10 or so years ago. Check it out if you enjoy a good old-fashioned tactical mess!
Niemann puts a modern spin on the variation, and rather than pushing his pawn out two squares, he instead supports his center.
Swiercz targets the invader bishop.
Niemann drops his bishop back, to safeguard the weakened dark squares near the center.
Swiercz develops his bishop, readying to castle.
Niemann steps his queen out, forming a battery with his bishop and at the same time keeping his options open regarding which side to castle towards!
Swiercz goes for the typical Sicilian pawn pushing on the queenside, setting up attacking possibilities that will become especially relevant if Niemann castles queenside.
Niemann castles into the line of fire
From a piece perspective, this move is best as it lines up his queen and rook against Swiercz's most vulnerable pawn along the central file. But his king is now at risk!
Swiercz wastes no time progressing his attack, forcing Niemann to waste time dropping his knight away from the vision of the pawn.
Niemann moves towards the side
There's a slight risk that the knight will end up off-side on the edge of the board, but at the same time it makes it harder for Swiercz to attack his king. Although, one thing to watch out for is a possible drawing line that is 'hidden in sight'!
Swiercz targets the knight
He steps his queen out, hitting the undefended piece.
Niemann defends the knight, and now is the moment when we realize that the players are heading towards a quick draw by means of an unusual-looking tactical pattern!
The point!
This is the issue. Niemann has no good way of defending his knight, except to uncork a sequence that draws by force, by sacrificing his knight!
He steps his knight out, inviting it to be captured. His point is that he's going to set up a series of strikes on Swiercz's queen that is going to lead to a draw by repetition.
Swiercz has nothing better than to take the strong invading knight. Otherwise, Niemann would stand much better after playing knight takes bishop next.
Niemann shows his idea
Now, the queen has only one square to turn to, in the heart of the center.
Swiercz escapes the strike on his queen, moving the piece towards the only available square.
Niemann drops back with his bishop, targeting the queen once again.
Swiercz has to return to her original square, since dropping back would run into a strike from Niemann's light-squared bishop that would leave Swiercz in a close to losing position.
Niemann continues with the repetition
He's down a piece, so by now there is no turning back on his plan to force a quick draw.
Swiercz for his part, cannot do much other than to also accept the draw. Then again, as the lower rated player, I don't think he would necessarily try to avoid it even if he had a choice.
Niemann hits the queen again.
Swiercz returns to the edge of the board, as the players prepare for a handshake very soon.
One last strike on the queen.
A deceptive turn of events, as the game started off with the ultra-sharp Sicilian Najdorf, to which Hans responded with a very sharp line of his own.
However, not all was as it appeared, as the game took a quick turn towards a well-known sequence that leads to a fast draw.
Hans invited it, understandably not satisfied with his second-half performance in St.Louis, and happy to call it a day as soon as possible.
And as for Swiercz, the implicit draw offer was always going to be too tempting to refuse. He's had a solid showing at the tournament, but a draw against a rising talent like Hans Niemann from the Black side is a fine way to bring his participation to a close.
Not much excitement from a spectator's perspective unfortunately, but that is how the cookie sometimes crumbles. Hope you enjoy following the rest of the games, and perhaps we might be back again tomorrow. All eyes on Wesley So, as he looks to catch up with Fabiano and force tiebreak play-offs!
Until next time!
Niemann hoping to end on a high note
It's been a tough second half to the tournament for Hans Niemann, who looked to be in threatening form in the earlier stages of the event.
Back-to-back losses against Caruana and Woodward put a damper on his ambitions, and yesterday's defeat from a near-winning position against Sam Sevian will likely have left him looking forward to calling it quits in St.Louis.
Still, it's been far from a disastrous tournament for him, as he sits on a 50% score. He may be looking to end things on a high note, and the White pieces against bottom-seeded Dariusz Swiercz offers an excellent chance to do so.
Of course, Swiercz will have other plans. He's performed exactly on par with his rating so far. A win today would represent his biggest scalp of the tournament, so both players have good reason to arrive in a fighting mood!