Wesley So versus Anish Giri
The popular Web site Chess.com is sponsoring the 2017 Speed Chess Championship. This is an invitational event featuring knockout (KO) matches between 16 players including Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, Sergey Karjakin and Anish Giri.
Each match will feature 90 minutes of 5-minute games (with two seconds added to your clock after each move), 60 minutes of 3-minute games (likewise 2-second increments) and then 30 minutes of 1-minute ( bullet games) with one second increments.
Now, these are not classical games and you should not read too much into the results, but when your players are in the elite class it ensures that a lot of entertaining and interesting games are played.
For the first round Wesley So was matched against his contemporary, Anish Giri of the Netherlands. Both players were known for their solid accurate play and so long-winded positional maneuvering battles were expected, but it did not turn out that way — both players showed aggressive play and the match turned out to be a thriller.
At the end of the match, Giri revealed that he was having so much fun that he lost track of the score and only got wind of the standings with only one game left to play. On Wesley’s end he said that he was very nervous towards the end and his hands got sweaty and fingers were sticking to the mouse. Anybody who plays bullet chess in the Internet servers will understand these feelings. Here are the raw results: In the 5/2 section there were a total of nine games. Each player won three games, lost three and draw three, so 4.5-4.5.
In the 3/2 section there were another nine games. Wesley won two, lost one, six draws. Final score 5.0-4.0 In the final bullet stage Wesley won four, lost four and drew four, a 6.0-6.0 tie.
Final result therefore was Wesley So 15.5 vs Anish Giri 14.5.
At the beginning there were a lot of rook and pawn endings played. Remember, in fast-time controls there is not much time to calculate all the subtle nuances of these difficult end games — if your end game technique is not up to speed then you will be squashed mercilessly. In general Wesley played them better — here is the best one.
*** So,Wesley (2759) - Giri,Anish (2767) [A48] Live Chess Chess.com (2.4), 25.05.2017
This game was played at a time control of 3 minutes with 2 seconds added to your time after every move.
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.Nbd2 h6 5.Bh4 c5 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Ne4 Qb6 8.Nxf6+ Qxf6 9.c3 d6 10.Qd2 g5 11.e3 g4 12.Ng1 cxd4 13.cxd4 e5 14.Bb5+ Bd7 15.Bxd7+ Nxd7 16.Ne2 Rd8 17.Rc1 h5 18.h4! gxh3 19.Rxh3 Qe6 20.Qb4 Qxa2 21.Ng3 Qe6 22.Nxh5!?
Looks like a very risky move, but Wesley has it under control. 22...Qg6?
He could have simply ignored White’s threats with 22...Ke7 23.Nf4! Qg7 24.Nd5 Nb6
[24...Rxh3 25.Qxd6 Rh1+ 26.Kd2 f6 27.Rxh1 White is clearly winning] 25.Qb5+ Kf8 26.Rxh8+?!
Maybe not the most accurate. 26.Rg3 Qh6 27.Nxb6 axb6 28.Qxb6 Re8 29.Rh3 Qf6 30. dxe5 Qxe5 31. Rxh8+ Qxh8 32.Qxd6+ simplifies the position with two pawns up.
26...Qxh8 27.Nxb6 axb6 28.Qxb6 Qh1+ 29.Kd2 Qh4 30.g3 Qf6 31.f4 exd4 32.Qxd4 Qxd4+ 33.exd4 Rd7 34.Kd3 f5 35.Rh1 Rg7 36.Rh5 Rxg3+ 37.Kc4 Ke7 38.b4 Rf3 39.Rxf5 Ke6 40.Rf8 Ke7 41.Rb8 Rxf4 42.Rxb7+ Ke6 <D>
POSITION AFTER 42...KE6
The game has simplified down to a KR+2Ps vs KRP end game. Many players online expressed the belief that the position is probably drawn with best play but the 7–piece end game tablebases say that white is winning. 43.b5
But not this way! As usual the rook belongs on the “long” side of the board where it has scope to check the enemy king. The correct procedure is: 43.Rh7! d5+ (Otherwise Black loses the d6–pawn. 43...Rf2 44.d5+ Kf6 (44...Ke5 loses the d6 pawn 45.Re7+ Kf6 46.Re6+) 45. Kb5 Rc2 46. Rh5 Ke7 47. Kb6 Rb2 48. b5 Kd7 49. Rh7+ Kc8 50. Kc6 etc) 44. Kc5 Rf2 45. b5 Rc2+ 46. Kb6 Rb2 47. Ka6 Ra2+ 48. Kb7 Ra4 49. b6 Rxd4 50. Kc6! Rc4+ 51. Kb5 Rc8 52. b7 Rb8 53. Kc6 Black has to give up his rook for the pawn, but White still has to be careful: 53...d4 54.Rh5! now the win is as clear as day. 43...Rf1!
The only move. 44.d5+ Kf6
Black has to be careful he does not allow the Rb7–e7–e6 trick to win the pawn on d6. 45.b6 Rb1 46.Rb8 Kg7
Keeping an eye on the h7–h8 squares to prevent white’s b6–b7 and Rb8–h8 maneuver. 47.b7 Rb2 48.Kd4!
Wesley realizes that the white king cannot penetrate through the queenside and so he heads for the kingside. 48...Rb1?
It is the turn of Giri to err. He should have kept Wesley’s king from f5 with 48... Rb4+! 49.Kc3 Rb1 50.Kc4 Rb2 51.Kd3 Rb4 White cannot make progress. 49.Ke4! Rb5 50.Kf4 Kh7
Of course not 50...Rxd5? 51.Rg8+ and queens. 51.Rd8!
Excellent! With the black king on h7 the KRP vs KR end game is won.
51...Rxb7 52.Kf5 Re7 53.Kf6 Re1 54.Rxd6 Rf1+ 55.Ke7 Rd1 56.Rd8 Kg7 57.d6 Re1+ 58.Kd7 Kf7 59.Ra8! The same idea, the rook belongs on the “long” side of the board.
59...Rd1 60.Ra2 Kf6 61.Rf2+ Ke5 62.Ke7 1–0
If 62...Rxd6 63.Re2+ Kd5 64.Rd2+ wins the rook.
Around the halfway point of the match Giri decided to sharpen his playing style. He noted that it didn’t make sense anymore to trade pieces and go for end games. “Normally it’s my strength, but he played it better. I realized I just have to mate Wesley,” he said after the match.
Giri went to the King’s Indian attack and really targeted Wesley’s king. Interestingly enough, Wesley remarked that this “Anish-style” attacking was very effective. He had to step up himself and match a lot of really blood-thirsty games were played.
Let’s take a peek at one such melee.
Giri,Anish (2767) - So,Wesley (2759) [C00] Live Chess Chess.com (3.4), 25.05.2017
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 e6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.0–0 Be7 5.d3 0–0 6.Nbd2 c5 7.e4 Nc6 8.e5 Nd7 9.Re1 b5 10.Nf1 a5 11.h4 The King’s Indian Attack is one of the most popular lines in amateur play. I am sure that most of our readers have reached this position in their own games. 11...b4 12.Bf4 a4
Black’s idea is to play 13...a3 14.b3 followed by ...Nc6–a7–b5–c3.
13. a3 bxa3 14. bxa3 Re8 15. Ne3 Bb7 16.h5 Bf8 17.Rb1 Rb8 18.c4 dxc4 19.dxc4 Qc7?
Better is 19...h6. By putting his queen on the same diagonal as White’s darksquared bishop Black can already entertain thoughts of 20.Nf5 exf5 21.e6 or 20.Nd5 or 20.Ng5. 20.Qxa4?!
It looks like 20.Nd5! is the most accurate. 20...Qc8 (20...exd5? 21.e6 Nde5 22.Nxe5 fxe6 23.Nxc6 Qxc6 24.Bxb8 wins) 21.Ng5 (threat of Qd3) 21...h6 22.Nxf7! Kxf7 23.Qg4 Ne7 24.Be4 White has a very strong attack, possibly winning. 20...Nd4 21.Nd2
[21.Nd5 is still possible]
21...Bxg2 22.Nxg2 Ra8 23.Qd1 Rxa3 24.h6 g6 25.Nh4 Qc6 26.Ne4 Be7 27.Bg5 Nxe5 28.Bxe7 Nef3+ 29.Nxf3 Nxf3+ 30.Kf1 Nxe1 31.Qxe1 f5!
[ 31... Rxe7? 32. Nf6+ Kf8 33. Nxh7+ Ke8 (Not 33...Kg8 34.Nf6+ Kf8 35.Rb8+ Re8 36.Rxe8+ Qxe8 37.Nxe8 Kxe8 38.h7) 34. Rb8+ Kd7 35. Qd2+ Qd6 36. Rd8+! White wins]
32.Bxc5 Rd3 33.Nf6+ Kf7 34.Nxe8 Qh1+ 35.Ke2 Qf3+ 36.Kf1 Qh1+ 37.Ke2 Qf3+ 38.Kf1 Qh1+ ½–½
Wesley will now play the winner of the first round’s last match on October 2017 between Magnus Carlsen and Gadir Guseinov.
At the end of the day a lot of fun was had by all and Wesley banked an extra $1,516.67 for playing chess. What a nice gig!