The Real Grünfeld!
Review by Bob Long
If one were to make a movie
about chess, like the Cincinnati
Kid was about poker,
then Alexei Shirov would
be the equivalent of Steve
McQueen’s character!
Shirov ponders, he reflects, he acts, and he has a
pretty incredible memory
despite his reliance on some
chess notes.
And, he has that touch of aggravation, caused by the screwing he took when he
beat Kramnik in a match
(1998) by 2 points, and yet
Kramnik went on to play
Kasparov and become the
world chess champion. (Shirov’s
record against Kasparov
was terrible and it became
clear that sponsorship was
what mattered—money).
Shirov doesn’t say much
about this, but after he shows
games with the Grünfeld he
says he wants to get on with
some other games. But, Shirov
is the guy, somewhat
brooding, Mr. Fire on Board,
and brilliant.
His English is in the heavy
Russian brogue but he is totally understandable though
sometimes he seems to mutter.
He’s THE guy.
These games are from the
black side. He has about 5-6
wins on the DVD and the rest
are draws—some hard fought
draws.
He unashamedly talks
about certain losses and lots
of sidelines. In the middle of
such a sideline he can STOP
and begin thinking making
you wonder if he will
come back to the game. And
right there on the DVD he
will announce a better move
than the one in the notes or
played—he’s just checking
out the variations—his mind
is really traveling.
Click here for replay
the fist part of Aronian-Shirov (Elista 2007).
While he complains about
his games against Topalov,
who has beaten him may
times with the white pieces,
he shows a nice game with
mutual mistakes where Shirov
wins. This is the ver y
amazing …Bh3 game which
flashed all the way around
the world AND Alexei says
he will be proud of this game
until he is no more. Not only
that, but at the time this DVD
was made, he said NO chess
engines were finding this
move—so as I’ve said before,
they don’t know everything
yet (problems with candidate
moves shifting on them).
But there is a lot of depth
in this DVD as Shirov discusses
plans, bold moves,
and what he thought his opponent
was going to play and
what he was prepared for.
Even though Shirov has
played against the Grünfeld,
those games are not presented
on this platter.
While there are meat y
Grünfeld Defense Exchange
variations, there is a 3. g3
line too (Kramnik wasn’t
getting anywhere with the
Exchange) and two of the
4.Nf3 games (Piket and Radjabov).