Russian grandmaster Daniil Dubov — who bragged about using his cell phone for just 10 minutes to prepare for classical games against Praggnanandhaa and then defeated the Indian prodigy in tiebreaks — has crashed out of the FIDE World Cup after losing the tiebreaks to American GM Sam Shankland.
Dubov is a former World Rapid Champion, but was knocked out by Shankland in the rapid tiebreak on Sunday after losing both his games in the 15-minute time control (with 10-second increments per move). Dubov has used the strategy of playing out draws, especially with white pieces, in classical games before defeating his opponents in the tiebreaks.
How Daniil Dubov lost to Sam Shankland
Game 1 of rapid tiebreak
Game 2 of rapid tiebreak
After his win over Praggnanandhaa, Dubov had revealed that he had spent just 10 minutes preparing for the classical games against the Indian.
“Generally Praggnanandhaa didn’t show his best in this tournament, not only in this match. I would say it was very close but I think I had some little precious role in the match despite the will to make a draw with white pieces. I didn’t actually mind playing. But it’s just that with white against someone like Pragg who is prepared this well I actually don’t know how to get out of the opening like without taking too much risk. So I actually told my friends that this is the strategy: we make draws with white and with black we actually play, because he’s always ambitious with white. The same happened today: it’s not that I was scared or wanted to play blitz so much. It’s just that I kind of realized I will probably have better chances with black in the long run. He tried to play. I think he got outplayed frankly and somehow I managed to deliver. Maybe I played a little bit better, maybe not. Anyway, it’s very much about luck,” Dubov, right after defeating Praggnanandhaa, told FIDE in an interview.
Dubov then continued: “I have to say generally I’m not the biggest fan of classical chess. I like chess a lot and it’s not that I hate thinking. It’s just that with this amount of prep, I don’t even know… like preparing for two classical games against Pragg took me 10 minutes with the phone all together. I didn’t even use my laptop. Then I did it for the first time during the match in between the (rapid) games today. It’s like everybody knows everything. I don’t mind playing. I’m just saying I personally don’t know how to really get out of the opening with white and how to get an advantage. People don’t like it but then suddenly when I face Pragg and he’s someone who probably spends day and night looking at stuff. I mean he still fails to pose a single problem with white. So maybe it’s not about me. It’s probably about chess here. I mean we are getting to the point where like too many things will be well known. Still despite that it’s always nice to win.”
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