Special: AVRO 1938. "All in One": Anish Giri and Igor Stohl dissect two topical opening lines. Analyses from Norway Chess 2020 by Duda, Firouzja et al. Videos by Erwin l'Ami, Daniel King and Mihail Marin. 11 opening articles and much more!
1.e4 The start of the tournament had been extremely bad for me, as I had scored 0.5 out of 4, and now had to meet Magnus two times in a row. Fortunately there was a free day in-between.
1...c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6!?
But this was a real shocker. I have always found it difficult to believe in this system, even though I have given it a try a few times myself.
5.Nxf6+ exf6 6.c3 Bd6 7.Bd3 0–0 8.Qc2 Re8+ 9.Ne2 h5
That's the way they play these days, and it's the reason for the renaissance of this very variation.
10.Be3 Nd7 11.0–0–0 Perhaps castling short was more suitable, but somehow I found the king to be in a greater danger there.
11...b5!?
This is the idea. Instead of the usual Nf8 retreat, Black aims for an instant counterattack
12.d5 c5 13.Bxb5 Rb8 14.c4 a6 14...Rxe3!? is a very interesting idea I had seen in L'Ami's course before, and frankly speaking I was a bit surpised that Magnus didn't choose this.
15.Ba4 Re7 16.Ng3 Ne5 17.Ne4 17.Bd2! seems to be better, not allowing the Rb4 idea as in the game.
17...Reb7 18.b3 Rb4!
This surprised me, but in fact it's a brilliant idea, showing a good judgement by Magnus.
19.Bd2 19.Nxd6 Qxd6 is ok for Black. 19...Rxa4! 20.bxa4 Bf5
Black doesn't need to cash in immediately, he can rely on a long-term positional compensation here. Furthermore we were both approaching zeitnot, so basically it was getting random from now on.
21.Rde1 Daydreaming of the Re3–Rb3 manoeuvre. 21...h4 21...Ng4! holds the balance according to the computer.
22.h3 Ng6 23.Re3 Nf4 24.g4 Bg6 25.Kd1 f5!
Even though it's not good objectively, he had to do something.
26.Nxd6 Qxd6 27.gxf5 Bh5+ 28.f3 In computer language White is winning, but with so many targets on both flanks as well as shortage of time (only +10s increment), it's anything but easy to reduce Black's activity.
28...Qf6 29.Bc3?! 29.Rhe1 was perhaps more logical, to bring more toys to the party.
29...Qg5 30.Qe4? Objectively a poor move, however, it won the game pretty straightforwardly due to some lucky tactics in the game.
30...Qg2? The position is totally unclear after both 30...f6 (!) or 30...Kh7. (!)
31.Rhe1
I was lucky to have this move.
31...Qxa2? A tempting follow-up, but it's even worse than the move before. 31...f6! would have been a real test.
32.Qc2! Now it's almost game over. 32...Qxc4 33.Re8+ Kh7!? 33...Rxe8 34.Rxe8+ Kh7 35.Rh8+! Kxh8 36.Bxg7+ must have been a tactic Magnus missed from afar.
34.Rxb8 Qxd5+ 35.Qd2!+– Bxf3+ 36.Kc1+– Qxf5 37.Re3 Ne2+ 38.Kb2 Nxc3 39.Qxc3 Qf4 40.Qd3+ 40.Qe5!+–
40...f5 41.Rf8 Qb4+ 42.Kc1 Be4 43.Qb3 Qd4 44.Qc3 Qd6 45.Rf7 Qg6 46.Rd7 Qg1+ 47.Kb2 c4 Magnus defends creatively, but the position is just too winable even for +10s increment.
48.Rxe4!? If you exchange something, you wouldn't blunder it later :) 48...fxe4 49.Rd4 Qf2+ 50.Qd2 c3+ 51.Kxc3 Qg3+ 52.Kb2 Qxh3 53.Rxe4 Qg3 54.Qd4 Qg2+ 55.Kc3 Qf3+ 56.Kb4 Qf8+ 57.Ka5 Qf5+ 58.Kxa6 g5 59.a5 h3 60.Re7+ Kg6 61.Qg7+ Kh5 62.Qh7+ Kg4 63.Re4+ 1–0
A nerve-wracking game, but I was on the happy side of it this time. It felt great to be the one to break Carlsen's record of not-losing in classical time control for 125 games and 801 days (or 802 nobody knows for sure) :)
You will find the complete and much more detailed analysis by Jan-Krzysztof Duda in ChessBsae Magazine #199!
You have not yet read the ChessBase Magazine? No problem. We have something for you.
The trial subscription with 3 issues + 3 months Premium Membership (33% cheaper) for only €39.90
