The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
How Pragg beat Vidit using an out-of-book move in Round 3
R pr aggn an and ha a emerged victorious in the battle between two indian grandmasters in Round 3 of the Candidates chess tournament. The 18-year-old bounced back from his defeat to comp at riotgukeshb yb eating vi di ts an to sh Gujrathi in 45 moves early on Sunday.
The seeds of Praggnanandhaa’s victory were sown as early as the fourth move where he pushed his pawn forward to the f5 square — it was an unorthodox move in the Ruy Lopez (also called the Spanish Opening). The engine called the move an inaccuracy. But grandmasters watching it reacted with a mixture of shock and awe. On the FIDE commentary, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand termed the move a “Delayed Schliemann” while other commentators have called it a “Deferred Schliemann”.
“Pragg is just being very provocative,” said Anand before breaking down what the teenager was aiming to achieve with the move: “He’s baiting Vidit. He’s saying ‘You know what? You want to get me?’ That kinda thing. It’s quite likely that Vidit will know something about it, because this line has been played by Surya (Shekhar Ganguly, who is Vidit’s trainer for the candidates ). but does he remember it today? Pragg is saying I’m open for battle. I’m feeling lucky today, punk!”
Later, while analysing the game, Anand said: “There were some dramatic moments in today’ s candidates games, most of them came in the Vidit vs Pragg game.”
The seeds of Praggnanandhaa’s victory were sown as early as the fourth move where he pushed his pawn forward to the f5 square — it was an unorthodox move in the Ruy Lopez (also called the Spanish Opening)
Pragg explains his idea
In the post-match press conference, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit came together to analyse the game. There, talking about his opening move, Praggnanandhaa said: “I wanted to play something interesting after yesterday’ s game( where he lost toGukesh).T his is a very interesting line where white is probably better if it plays accurately.”
Praggnanandhaa revealed he had studied the line in the morning itself and knew what to do when white reclaims the f4 square with his knight (which Vidit did with his ninth move). However, it took Praggnanandhaa some time to recollect what the accurate response was.
“There are many possibilities for white, but I couldn’t remember what to do when he played knight takes f5. It took me some time to recollect that I play d6, which is very important, otherwise black is probably lost,” said Praggnanandhaa.
“Pragg played a completely insane variation in Spanish,” remarked World No 3 Hikaru Nakamura while he was being interviewed about his views on his own draw against Nijat Abasov. Praggnanandhaa’s aggressive move also stunned exp er ts.im rake sh kulk ar ni, who is part of Chess.com’s commentary panel for their live broadcasts on Youtube of the ongoing FIDE Candidates tournament, called it a “Mouse-drop moment”.
Talking to the indian express, kulk ar ni elaborated :“Pr ag gm ade the hyper-aggressive opening choice of Deferred Schliemann, which is an opening you would normally see in blitz games on Chess.com. But not in the Candidates Tournament! Playing something so risky with black demands very good preparation and total confidence in the calculation. despite the round 2 defeat, or perhaps because of it, Praggnanandhaa didn't seem shaken and played for a win. With 4 f5, without speaking a word, Pragg indirectly told Vidit that he is in a mood to fight and is not messing around.”
Kulkarni added: “Vidit is a universal player now, but is well known for his expertise as a solid and positional player, who rarely loses with white. With the unorthodox move, Pragg threw the kitchen sink as early as move 4 to get Vidit out of his comfort zone. The opening surprise caused Vidit to burn a lot of time on the clock and the time pressure led to major inaccuracies in the middle game. This home prep by Pragg and his trainer, GM Peter Svidler, was executed to perfection !” on the chess. com stream, grand master Peter Leko, who was the 2004 World Championship Challenger, said: “I’m speechless! I’m supposed to be a Ruy Lopez expert, but def in itelyihaven’ t seen this position in the last 25 years!”
American chess grandmaster Daniel Na rod it sky added that the move is“considered to be one of the most dubious responses to the Ruy Lopez!” But the move worked wonders for pr agg.v id it was constantly under time trouble in the game and eventually lost after 45 moves.