The Giri Curse

Vugar Gashimov Memorial Shamkir, Azerbaijan April 19-28, 2018 Final Standings 1. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2843, 6.0/9 2. Ding Liren CHN 2778, 5.5/9 3. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2778, 5.0/9 4-7. Teimour Radjabov AZE 2748, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2814, Radoslaw Wojtaszek POL 2744, Anish Giri NED 2777, 4.5/9

8-9. Rauf Mamedov AZE 2704, Veselin Topalov BUL 2749, 4.0/9 10. David Navara CZE 2745, 2.5/9 Average Rating 2768 Category 21 Time Control: Players receive 120 minutes for the first 40 moves then 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 61.

World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen had three wins (vs Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Veselin Topalov and Anish Giri) and six draws to win the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan.

Our friend Tarjei J. Svensen, a coadmin with the Internet Chess Club and Magnus Carlsen biographer, summed it all up very nicely. According to him, Carlsen just won his second tournament of 2018. This was his 30th supertournament victory. Remained undefeated after 32 games Got rid of the “Giri curse.” Gained four ratings points.

The BW reader might be wondering what the “Giri curse” is all about. Well, back in 2011 when Anish Giri was only 17 years of age the two of them met for the first time in Wijk aan Zee and Magnus Carlsen lost very badly.

Carlsen, Magnus (2814) — Giri, Anish (2686) [D76] Tata Steel-A 73rd Wijk aan Zee (3), 17.01.2011 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nf3 Nb6 7. Nc3 Nc6 8.e3 0–0 9.0–0 Re8 10.Re1 a5 11.Qd2?!

This move doesn’t make any sense. Some commentators surmised that Magnus intended 11.Qe2 but a hand slip put the queen on d2.

11...e5 12.d5 Nb4 13.e4 c6 14.a3 cxd5!

Black now gets the better game. What’s worse is that the position of the white queen on d2 is what makes this maneuver possible. 15.axb4 axb4 16.Rxa8 bxc3

See? White has to waste time protecting his queen because it is on d2. 17.bxc3 Nxa8 18.exd5 Nb6

Now Black will be piling up on White’s d5–pawn. 19.Rd1 e4 20.Ng5?

White should have resigned himself to the loss of his d5 pawn with 20.Nd4 Qxd5 . The text move just blunders away a piece. 20...e3! 21.Qb2 Qxg5 22.Bxe3 Qg4 23.Qc2 0–1

This was quite a sensation. At that time Magnus Carlsen was already the highest- rated player in the world and Anish Giri was only a promising 17-year- old ranked no. 52 in the world and playing in his first superGM tournament. Magnus obviously wanted to get back at him right away but, try as he might, he could never quite defeat Giri despite getting a vastly superior game many times.

For example:

Carlsen, Magnus (2876) — Giri, Anish (2773) [B51] Norway Chess 3rd Stavanger (3), 18.06.2015 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.c3 Ngf6 5.Qe2 a6 6.Ba4 b5 7.Bc2 e6 8.d4 Bb7 9.0–0 Be7 10.Re1 0–0 11.Nbd2 cxd4 12.cxd4 Rc8 13.Nf1 Re8 14.Ng3 Bf8 15.Be3 Rc7 16.Bd3 e5 17.d5

Obviously White is much better from the opening — Giri’s bishop on b7 has no scope and there are weaknesses in his queenside.

17... Nc5 18. Bc2 b4?! 19. a3! b3 20.Bxc5 Rxc5 21.Bxb3 Qb6 22.Bc4 Rec8 23.Bd3 g6 24.Nf1 Bh6 25.Ne3 a5 26.b4! axb4 27.axb4 R5c7 [ 27... Qxb4? 28. Reb1 Qc3 29. Nd1 where is the queen going to go?]

28.b5 Qc5 29.h3 Nh5 30.Qb2 Qb6 31.Qb4

Threatening Nc4.

31... Bxe3 32. Rxe3 Rc3 33. Rae1 f5?! 34. exf5 Nf4 35. Be4! R3c5 36.fxg6 hxg6 37.Bxg6! Rxb5 [37...Nxg6 is refuted by 38.Qg4! Kf7 39.Qe6+ Kg7 40.Nh4! and mate soon]

38.Qe4?!

What a waste! 38.Bf7+!! Kxf7 39.Qe4 wins for White.

38... Rf8! 39. Nxe5 dxe5 40. Rg3 Rxd5! 41. Qb1 Qxb1 42. Bxb1+ Kh8 43.Be4 Rd7 44.Bxb7 Rxb7 45.Rxe5

Theoretically this is a draw but with three connected passed pawns White should at least try to win.

45...Rh7 46.Re4 Rhf7 47.Kh2 Kh7 48.Rf3 Kg6 49.h4 Nh5 50.Rxf7 Rxf7 51.Re2 Nf4 52.Rd2 Nh5 53.g3 Nf6 54.Kg2 Rd7 55.Ra2 Rd5 56.Ra4 Re5 57.g4 Re4 58.Rxe4 Nxe4 59.Kf3 Nd6 60.Kf4 Nf7 61.Ke4 Kf6 62.f4 Nd6+ 63.Kd5 Nb5 64.h5 Nc3+ 65.Kd4 Nb5+ 66.Kc4 Nd6+ 67.Kc5 Ke6 68.Kc6 Nf7 69. Kc7 Nh6 70. g5 Nf7 71. g6 Nh6 72.Kd8 Kf5 73.Ke7 Kxf4 74.Kf8 Kg5 75.g7 Kxh5 76.g8Q Nxg8 ½–½

This resulted in a lot of friendly ribbing both in person, in interviews, and via twitter from the Dutch GM that he is one of the few people with a plus score against the current world chess champion.

Finally, two years ago in the 2016 Bilbao Masters Carlsen broke his jinx and beat Anish Giri. That was his 16th try. And now, here in Shamkir, Carlsen beat him again to get a positive score.

Our statistician- in- chief Tarjei Svensen now points out that there are only three players left among the World’s top 20 that Magnus doesn’t have a plus score against (among those he actually played):

Ding Liren: two draws, no wins or losses

Ian Nepomniachtchi: four losses and four draws

Peter Svidler: one win, two losses and 12 draws

I am sure that our world champion is continuously taking steps to improve those scores!

To get back to Shamkir, Magnus was asked during a press conference what he thought was his best game. Which one do you think it was?

“I don’t think there is any game of mine of this tournament that will

enter any best- games collection but I thought the game yesterday against Giri was a nice fight. There were mistakes for sure, but it was difficult. But that’s probably the only game that I’m more or less satisfied with. There were a lot of uneventful draws for me. Normally I would be very concerned about that but at some point in the tournament I stopped caring about that and I only thought about trying to get a few wins with White and maybe not care so much about winning with Black as well.”

It is now time to look at that game. Giri, Anish (2777) — Carlsen, Magnus (2843) [A29] Shamkir Chess (8.3), 27.04.2018 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6 7.0–0 Be7 8.a3 a5

The main line is 8...0–0 9.b4 and it is still very popular. Magnus goes into this variation with a specific line in mind. 9.d3 0–0 10.Be3 Be6 11.Rc1 a4!?

Sacrificing a pawn. 12.Nd2

Taking the pawn right away seems to be imprecise. After 12. Bxb6 cxb6 13. Nxa4 e4! 14. Ne1 ( Not 14. dxe4?? which loses a piece: 14...Qxd1 15.Rfxd1 Rxa4) 14...Bg5! Black has excellent piece play and has full compensation for the pawn. 12...f5 13.Bxb6 cxb6 14.Nxa4 Bg5 15.Nc3 e4 16.Kh1

[16.dxe4?? Bxd2]

16...Qd7

In the press conference after the game Carlsen considered the position from a black point of view to be better — he had more than sufficient compensation for the pawn. 17.Rb1 Rad8 18.Nc4 Qf7 19.b3

[19.Nxb6? Bb3 20.Qe1 exd3 21.exd3 Rfe8 the queen has nowhere to go and White has to give up a piece to rescue it by 22.Ne4] 19...exd3 20.exd3 f4 21.Ne4 Be7 22.gxf4

There is no choice, otherwise the Black f-pawn will be going to f3.

22...Qxf4 23.a4 Nb4 24.Qe2 Qh6!

Black continues to build-up on the kingside. Winning the d3–pawn allows

White to exchange off a few pieces and relieve the pressure:

24...Nxd3 25.Rbd1 Nb4 26.Rxd8 Bxd8 27.Ned6 Bd7 28.Bxb7;

Or 24...Rxd3 25.Ng5 Bxc4 26.Qxe7]

25.Rbd1 Nd5 26.Rg1 Kh8 27.Bf1 Rf4 28. Ne5 Rdf8 29. f3 Rh4 30. d4 Nf4 31. Qd2 Bxb3 32. Rb1 Bxa4 33.Bb5!

Giri is putting up his usual resourceful defense. His two knights are powerhouses on the e-file and now one set of bishops is exchanged. 33...Bxb5 34.Rxb5 Qe6!

Black will reposition his bishop to c7. He can’t play 34...Bd8 right away because of 35.d5.

35.Qb2 Bd8 36.Ng5 Qe8! 37.Rb3 Bxg5 38. Rxg5 Ne6 39. Rg4 Rxg4 40.fxg4 Qd8 41.Rh3

Only here did White realize that 41.Rd3 is neatly refuted after 41...Qd5+ 42. Kg1 Rf1+! 43. Kxf1 Qh1+ 44. Kf2 Qxh2+ 41...Qd5+ 42.Kg1 Qe4 43.Qb4 Rf6! 0–1 <D>

FINAL POSITION

There is no defense to the coming ...Nf4.