Anish Giri entertains

by Macauley Peterson
5/11/2019 – Anish Giri is one of the more extroverted Grandmasters on the professional circuit. He can be quite witty, and always has something interesting to say. He's also one of the more proactive social media presences on "chess Twitter" where he can be biting at times. He's been making the interview rounds following his win in the Shenzhen Masters in China last month. A few months ago he gave an entertaining blindfold simultaneous at his sponsor's office, Optiver in Amsterdam, which has recently published video of the event.
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Shenzhen post-mortem

Earlier this week, Anish Giri gave a long interview / masterclass with IM Sagar Shah of ChessBase India, discussing his recent victory in the Shenzhen Masters in China.

He starts off with some blindfold exercises, the first of which Giri surprisingly had already seen via his Twitter feed. The second problem, however, was new to him:

 
White to move, mate in three

The problem took Giri a few minutes to work through. You'll find the solution in the video below.

The pair then had a look at Giri's three wins in Shenzhen against Harikrishna, Yu and Jakovenko.

Full interview

You can watch the full interview below and replay the games beneath the video player.

Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.Re1 Bg4 9.Nbd2 C54: Giuoco Piano: 4 c3 Nf6, main lines with 5 d4 and 5 d3 Nb6 10.h3 Bh5 11.Bb3 The position is equal. 11.b4 feels hotter. Be7 12.b5 Na5 13.g4 Bg6 14.Nxe5 Bf6 15.Nxg6 hxg6 16.Bb2 11...Qxd3 12.Nxe5 Bxd1 Black should try 12...Qf5!= 13.Nef3 Rae8 13.Nxd3 Bxb3 14.axb3 Be7 15.b4
Black must now prevent b5. 15...a6N Predecessor: 15...Rfe8 16.Nb3 Rad8 1/2-1/2 (39) Van Foreest,J (2614) -Ragger,M (2687) St Petersburg 2018 16.Ne4 Nd7 17.Bf4 Rac8 18.Rad1 Rfd8 19.g4 Bf8 20.Kg2 Re8 21.Bg3 f6 22.f4 Re7 23.f5 Rce8 23...Ree8± 24.Nf4+- Nd8 24...Nde5 might work better. 25.Ne6 Rxe6 25.Rxd7 Remove Defender, Decoy Rxd7
26.Nxf6+! Discovered Attack gxf6 27.Rxe8 Kf7 28.Re3 Rd2+ 29.Re2 Rd1 30.Ne6 Nxe6 31.fxe6+ Endgame KRB-KRB Ke8 31...Ke7 32.Bxc7 Bh6 32.Bxc7 Rd3 33.Bf4 Rd5 34.Kf3 Ke7 35.Re4 Bg7 36.Be3 White is clearly winning. f5 37.Bg5+ Bf6 38.Bxf6+ Kxf6 39.g5+ Kxg5 40.Re3 Accuracy: White = 100%, Black = 32%. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Giri,A2797Harikrishna,P27231–020193rd Shenzhen Longgong Masters Dute Cup2.2
Giri,A2797Yu,Y27511–020193rd Shenzhen Longgong Masters Dute Cup6.3
Giri,A2797Jakovenko,D27191–020193rd Shenzhen Longgong Masters Dute Cup10.3

Optiver blindfold simul

Since 2016, Optiver, a leading trading firm with over one thousand employees globally and offices in Amsterdam, Chicago, Sydney and Shanghai, has been sponsoring Anish Giri as he endeavours to qualify for the World Championship Candidates tournament.

Giri periodically participates in special events at Optiver's offices in Amsterdam and Chicago. The firm also partners with the Chess societies at Universities, and hosted blitz simultaneous games for the students. Company staff visit the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee each year to watch Anish play.

The latest event at Optiver saw Giri taking on three employees of the firm at their Amsterdam office on February 28th. The video was published on May 1st and the company was kind enough to send us a PGN of the games for posterity.

Full simultaneous exhibition

Replay the games below. 

Running time: 23 minutes

 
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1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 b6 4.d5 Na5 5.e4 d6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bd3 e6 8.0-0 Be7 9.Re1 e5 10.Nd2 0-0 11.Nf1 Ba6 12.b3 h6 13.Ng3 Rb8 14.Nf5 Bc8 15.Qf3 Bxf5 16.exf5 Qd7 17.h4 h5 18.Bg5 Rbe8 19.Bxf6 Bxf6 20.Ne4 Qe7 21.Qxh5 Bxh4 22.f6 Bxf6 23.Nxf6+ Qxf6 24.Qh7# 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Giri,A2787Blom,K-1–0 Blindfold chess simul event at Optiver
Giri,A-de Vries,J-1–0 Blindfold chess simul event at Optiver
Giri,A-van Straaten,M-1–0 Blindfold chess simul event at Optiver

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Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

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