GCT Superbet Day 1: Anish Giri takes the early lead

by Johannes Fischer
11/7/2019 – Anish Giri started well among ten world-class players, at the Superbet Rapid Tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest: He is in the lead after the first three rapid games with 2½ out of 3, half a point behind them are Vishy Anand, Anton Korobov and Levon Aronian on positions two to four. | Photos: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour
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Rapid, Day 1

The Grand Chess Tour pits ten of the star chess players in the world contesting rapid and blitz chess in Bucharest, but the star of the opening event was tennis legend Boris Becker. Becker is a chess aficionado the Stejarii Country Club owned — the tournament venue— is owned by Ion Tiriac, Becker's former manager.

The tennis start was invited to play against US number one, Fabiano Caruana and as his "serve" he tried an early queen sortie with 1.e4 e5 2.♕h5?!

Boris Becker in the fight against Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 g6 4.Qh3 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Nf3 Nd4 7.Nxd4 exd4 8.Ne2 0-0 9.Nxd4 Nxe4 10.c3 Ng5 11.Qg3 Re8+ 12.Kd1 d5 13.Bb5 Ne4 14.Qf3 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Becker,B-Caruana,F-0–12019Superbet GCT Opening Game1

After this light prelude, on Wednesday, November 6th the serious chess began with three rounds of rapid chess (25 + 10). Against his peers Caruana had to settle for 50%, ending the day with 1½ points from 3 games.

Fabiano Caruana | Foto: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

The player with the best start to the tournament was Anish Giri. He scored 2½ out of 3 and ended Day 1 as the sole leader.

In the first round, Giri beat Wesley So, the newly crowned World Champion in Chess960, in a minor piece endgame:

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c5 6.0-0 Nc6 7.dxc5 Qxd1 8.Rxd1 Bxc5 9.Nbd2 c3 10.bxc3 0-0 11.Nb3 Be7 12.c4 Bd7 13.Bb2 Rfd8 14.Nfd4 Rac8 15.Nb5 b6 16.Nd6 Bxd6 17.Rxd6 Be8 18.Rxd8 Nxd8 19.Rc1 Bc6 20.c5 Bxg2 21.Kxg2 Nd7 22.cxb6 Rxc1 23.Bxc1 axb6 24.Kf3 Nc6 25.Ke3 Kf8 26.Nd4 Nxd4 27.Kxd4 Ke7 28.Kc4 Kd6 29.Kb5 Kc7 30.g4 Nf6 31.Be3 Nd7 32.h4 f5 33.g5 g6 34.f4 Kb7 35.a4 Kc7 36.Bf2 Kb7 37.Bd4 Kc7 38.Bf6 h6 White decides the game in his favour with a small tactical trick: 39.Bd8+ Black gave up, as the h-pawn is unstoppable. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Giri,A2776So,W27601–02019Superbet Rapid 20191.2

Giri searches for a way to win | Photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

His feeling for dynamism proved an asset for Giri in round 3: He outplayed Sergey Karjakin with black in a Najdorf to grab the tournament lead.

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bc4 Be6 9.Bb3 Nbd7 10.0-0 Rc8 11.Nh4 Nc5 12.Bxc5 Rxc5 13.Re1 Qd7 14.g3 0-0 15.Ng2 Bd8 16.Qd3 Ba5 17.Rad1 Rd8 18.Re3 Bxc3 19.bxc3 b5 20.Qe2 Qc6 21.Qe1 h6 22.f3 Rc8 23.Rdd3 Bc4 24.Bxc4 Rxc4 25.h4 a5 26.Kh2 Qc5 27.g4 b4 28.g5 hxg5 29.hxg5 Nh5 30.Rd5 Qc7 31.cxb4 axb4 32.Re2 g6 33.Ne3 Nf4 34.Nxc4 Qxc4 35.Rdd2 Kg7 36.Re3 Qxa2 37.c4 Qxc4 38.Kg1 Qc5 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Karjakin,S2754Giri,A27760–12019B90Superbet Rapid 20193.1

Standings after three rounds

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All games of Rounds 1-3

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bd3 g6 7.Be3 Bg7 8.f3 b5 9.Qd2 Bb7 10.a4 b4 11.Na2 a5 12.c3 bxc3 13.Bb5+ Nbd7 14.Nxc3 0-0 15.0-0 Nc5 16.Qf2 Rc8 17.Rfd1 e5 18.Nc2 Qe7 19.Ra3 Rfd8 20.b4 axb4 21.Nxb4 d5 22.Nbxd5 Nxd5 23.Nxd5 Bxd5 24.exd5 e4 25.Ra2 exf3 26.gxf3 Nb7 27.a5 Qb4 28.Ba6 Qb3 29.Bxb7 Qxd1+ 30.Kg2 Rb8 31.a6 Qb1 32.Qc2 Rxb7 33.axb7 Qxb7 34.Qc6 Qe7 35.Ra8 Rxa8 36.Qxa8+ Bf8 37.Bh6 Qe2+ 38.Kg1 Qe1+ 39.Kg2 Qe2+ 40.Kg1 Qe1+ 41.Kg2 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Karjakin,S2754Korobov,A2670½–½2019B90Superbet Rapid 20191.1
Giri,A2776So,W27601–02019E04Superbet Rapid 20191.2
Caruana,F2822Aronian,L27720–12019A29Superbet Rapid 20191.3
Artemiev,V2731Anand,V27570–12019A08Superbet Rapid 20191.4
Le,Q2713Mamedyarov,S2772½–½2019C50Superbet Rapid 20191.5
Mamedyarov,S2772Artemiev,V2731½–½2019E60Superbet Rapid 20192.1
Aronian,L2772Karjakin,S2754½–½2019C65Superbet Rapid 20192.2
So,W2760Anand,V2757½–½2019A09Superbet Rapid 20192.3
Giri,A2776Caruana,F2822½–½2019A40Superbet Rapid 20192.4
Korobov,A2670Le,Q2713½–½2019D00Superbet Rapid 20192.5
Karjakin,S2754Giri,A27760–12019B90Superbet Rapid 20193.1
Artemiev,V2731Korobov,A26700–12019A07Superbet Rapid 20193.2
Caruana,F2822So,W27601–02019C53Superbet Rapid 20193.3
Le,Q2713Aronian,L2772½–½2019C50Superbet Rapid 20193.4
Anand,V2757Mamedyarov,S2772½–½2019C50Superbet Rapid 20193.5

On Thursday, November 7th, and Friday, November 8th, three more rapid chess games (4 to 6 and 7 to 9) will follow, with nine blitz games each day set for Saturday and Sunday. Each day's play begins at 13:00 UTC (14:00 CET, 8:00 EDT).

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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