MARK RUBERY CHESS
Holland’s Anish Giri (25) has the reputation as a drawing master amongst the chess fraternity although many of his draws are extremely hardfought. He good-humouredly defends himself on his twitter account where he often exchanges banter with world champion Magnus Carlsen. Giri is the son of a Nepalese father and Russian mother and grew up in St. Petersburg, where he was born on 28 June 1994. In 2002 his father took a job in Japan, with Giri eventually following him there (where his chess progress must have been severely hampered), although the family would still regularly return to Russia. In 2008 they moved again, this time to the Netherlands, and Giri soon switched chess federations. Thus Russia’s loss was Holland’s gain
Two years ago he defeated the rising super star Ding Liren in a match where the only decisive game was a masterpiece from the Dutch GM.
Ding Liren (2777) - Giri,A (2772) [C50]
Ding Liren vs Giri Match Wenzhou CHN (2) 2017
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0–0 Nf6 5.d3 0–0 6.h3 d6 7.c3 a6 8.a4 Ba7 9.Re1 h6 10.Nbd2 Be6 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Nf1 Nh5 13.Be3 a5 14.Bxa7 Rxa7 15.d4 Qf6 16.Re3 Nf4 17.h4 Qg6 18.g3 Raa8 19.dxe5 Nxe5 20.Nxe5 dxe5 21.f3 Rad8 22.Qc2 Nh5 23.Kh2 Rf6 24.Rd1 Rdf8 25.Rdd3 Qf7 26.Qd1 Rg6 27.Qe1 Qe7 28.Kh3? (An innocent move that loses to a deep rook sacrifice)…Rxg3+! 29.Nxg3 Nf4+ 30.Kh2
Qxh4+ 31.Kg1 Rf6! (Calmly bringing his rook to bear on the position is more than the White position can stand) 32.Rd8+ Kh7 33.Rd2 Rg6 34.Rg2 h5! (Putting the Chinese GM is in a curious zugzwang)
35.Rh2 Rxg3+ 36.Kh1 Qg5 37.Qf1 h4 38.Re1 h3 39.Rd1 Qh5 40.Rd7 Qxf3+ 41.Qxf3 Rxf3 42.Rhd2 Kh6 43.Rd8 Kh5 44.Rh8+ Kg4 45.Rd1 Ne2 0–1
Asya Kovalov was Giri’s coach in St. Petersburg and shared the following information on his talented pupil:
‘In the initial stages classes are held in groups, and of course you immediately pay attention to a kid if he raises his hand and is ready to answer your questions. After a couple of months it became clear the kid was talented, and in something like half a year I realised he wasn’t simply talented. He also had an extremely high intelligence. At one tournament Anish was given Karpov’s book “My Best Games: 100 Wins in 30 Years”, and a couple of days later he’d read the whole of it, although after all it wasn’t a work of fiction but an analysis of games. It was as if he’d photographed them and knew them by heart. An intellect of the very highest level.’