7/22/2019 – Game one of the FIDE Grand Prix final in Riga finished surprisingly quickly, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took down Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld Defence in 28 moves. The second classical game of the finals will be played on Tuesday, July 23rd, starting at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST, 8:00 AM EDT), with Vachier-Lagrave in need of a win to take the match-up to tiebreaks. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess
new: ChessBase 16 - Mega package Edition 2021
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training!
Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training! Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).
€29.90
Two fighters at heart
In his debut at this year's Grand Prix series, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave astonished by reaching the final without needing tiebreaks in any of the first three rounds, thus securing at least eight points for the GP overall standings (after this loss, he could get up to eleven points if he wins on tiebreaks). And he did it by showing his trademark uncompromising style with both colours.
The only player that showed comparable fighting chess (accompanied by good results) in Riga is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, making the final match-up a fair and highly anticipated affair — and the players did not disappoint, as they did not hesitate to go into a sharp line of the Grünfeld which ended up favouring the Azerbaijani, who put his initiative to good use and got a 28-move win.
Match results
Click or tap any result to open the game via Live.ChessBase.com
Who will be the last man standing in Riga? | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess
When Mamedyarov joined the commentary team to talk about his game, Evgeny Miroshnichenko quickly compared his win to the one he had got against Wesley So in game one of the semi-finals, as the Azeri both times played a nice novelty with White and defeated his opponent in no time. Mamedyarov explained that it was not quite the same, however, because in this game there was no forcing drawing line had his opponent found the right continuation, as had been the case against So — it simply was a playable position in which White had good chances.
The Grünfeld Defence was invented by the famous Austrian Grandmaster Ernst Grünfeld in the early twenties of the last century. One of the first reactions to it came from the great Akiba Rubinstein - the g3 system, fianchettoing the bishop to g2. After that many systems were tried to refute the Grünfeld and nothing really worked. So, Rubinstein's recipe remains a very important positional approach against this dynamic opening.
12.♗f4 was the novelty found by the Azeri's seconds, and Vachier-Lagrave could not adjust to the new situation quickly enough as he faltered after 12...cxd4 13.cxd4 with 13...♞c6:
White continued with 14.d5 and the knight is forced to recluse itself on a5 — in fact, the knight never joined the fray again, as it remained "on the rim" until the end of the game. The players occupied the open file with 15.♖ac1 ♜fc8, and here Mamedyarov noted that it is all but impossible to find a plan for Black. The player from Sumqayit, therefore, considered the quiet 16.h3 to be a very good move, which reminded him of his victory over Anand in round nine of the Zagreb GCT.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov fully in control | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess
What followed brought to mind another game from Zagreb — Vachier-Lagrave's final round loss against Magnus Carlsen, another Grünfeld gone wrong for the Frenchman.
It was already difficult to find any sort of plan for Black and, when Vachier-Lagrave tried to untangle with 17...f6, his opponent needed less than five minutes to find the correct response:
The Grünfeld is a highly dynamic opening in which Black's position often seems to hang together by a single thread; and yet, this apparently precarious equilibrium appears to be enough to make it entirely viable — up to the highest level.
White pushed 18.e5 and Black is pretty much busted. Vachier-Lagrave used almost a half hour on the sequence 18...♝xf3 19.exf6 ♝xf6, but after 20.gxf3 e5 White has 21.♗d2, when the bishops are ready to target the kingside with decisive effect:
Black's knight remained out of play while White calmly created threats against the opposite king until Vachier-Lagrave decided it was time to call it quits after 28 moves.
Game analysis with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Vachier-Lagrave now has a +2 performance in classical chess, as he has yet to play a rapid tiebreaker in Riga. If he does not manage to bounce back with a win on Tuesday (starting at 12:00 UTC) he will leave the Latvian capital without showing his skills in accelerated time controls — he has also collected eight GP points, though, the same amount awarded to the champion (without counting extra points).
Regarding his upcoming challenge in game two, the Frenchman declared:
A must-win situation is never pleasant but, you know, I'll just be ready to play for as long as it takes.
The downside of playing sharp openings almost exclusively | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess
On this DVD GM Yannick Pelletier offers Black a repertoire against the London System that you can employ no matter which opening (Systems with d5, systems with g6, Queen's Indian, Queen's Gambit, Benoni, Benko, Dutch) you usually play against 1.d4 followed by 2.c4. Thematic games explain and illustrate the theory and ideas of the repertoire Pelletier proposes.
Commentary webcast
Commentary by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and Arturs Neikans
Antonio PereiraAntonio is a freelance writer and a philologist. He is mainly interested in the links between chess and culture, primarily literature. In chess games, he skews towards endgames and positional play.
In this opening Black opts for active piece play and is not afraid to fight for the initiative from an early stage. One of the many good features of this opening is that Black is often the side which controls the pace of the game.
The French Defence Powerbase 2021 is a database and contains 9839 games from the Mega 2021 and the Correspondence Database 2020, 644 of which are annotated.
The main part of the material on which the French Powerbook 2021 is based comes from the playchess.com engine room: 637,000 games. An impressive number to which 80,000 games from correspondence chess and the Mega were added.
Looking for a surprise weapon against 1.e4? Try the Stafford Gambit! After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5, rather than following the solid lines of the Petroff after 3...d6, Black prefers to sacrifice a pawn with 3...Nc6 4.Nxc6 dxc6.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.