Malcolm Pein continues his coverage of the best games from the FIDE Candidates Tournament in today’s Daily Telegraph chess column, watching Anish Giri moving up a gear with a powerful performance in the Catalan Opening.
Malcolm Pein on…Giri Moving Up a Gear
Anish Giri made his move in the ninth round of the Candidates Tournament just resumed in Ekaterinberg, Russia. The Dutch number one easily outplayed Wang Hao to join Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in second place, half a point behind the leader Ian Nepomniachtchi. Five games remain.
Nepo defended stoutly in the face of a novelty played by Alexander Grischuk against the Gruenfeld Defence, while MVL looked to be on tilt in the early stages of his game against Ding Liren, before holding what had been an awful position in the middlegame. Caruana outplayed Kirill Alekseenko with black from an inferior position, but the Russian held the resulting rook and pawn endgame by a tempo – a chance missed.
The Catalan in Action
A. Giri – Wang Hao
Catalan
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bf4 Bd6 11.Nc3 Bxf4 12.gxf4 a5 (Black secures some queenside squares and a solid if slightly inferior position) 13.e3 Na6 14.Ne5 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 c6 16.h3 (Creating luft for the king on h2 if required) 16…Qb6 17.Qe2 c5 (This looked positionally dubious to me and, in commentary, Carlsen was unimpressed. The c4 and b5 squares are weakened and, as Carlsen pointed out, the knight on f6 is not participating in the queenside battle. 17…Nb4 18.Rac1 g6 keeps it solid) 18.Rfd1 cxd4 (18…Rfd8 19.Qb5 Qc7 20.Rac1 with an edge) 19.Rxd4 Rad8 20.Rxd8 (20.Qb5! Qxb5 21.axb5 Rxd4 22.exd4 Nc7 23.Rxa5. I should have done this – Giri) 20…Qxd8 (20…Rxd8 21.Qb5 Qc7 22.Nc4 wins a pawn) 21.Rd1 Qa8 22.Kg1 Nb4 23.Qb5 Nbd5 24.Nxd5 Nxd5 25.Rc1 h6 26.Qd7 Nf6?! (26…b6! 27.b3) 27.Qd6 g6? (Too weakening. Now Nd5 can be met by Nxg6. 27…Qe8!) 28.b3 h5 29.Kh2 Kg7 30.Qd4 (The white queen shadows the black king, creating strong threats)
30…Rd8 31.Qb2 Qb8 32.b4! axb4 33.Rc4 b3 34.Rb4 Qa7 (34…Qd6 35.Rxb7? Qd2!; 34…Qd6 35.Rxb3 Qd2 36.Rxb7) 35.Rxb3 Qxa4 36.Rxb7
Test Your Strength
For today’s puzzle, how would you answer 36…Rd8-f8?
36…Qe8 37.Ra7 (Even stronger than 37.Rxf7+) 37…Rd5 38.Qb7 Ne4 39.Nxf7 1–0
Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.
36…Rf8 37.Nd7.
