Shenzhen Masters, Round 2: The winners lose

Anish Giri and Arjun Erigaisi were the two winners of the opening round of the highly competitive 5th Shenzhen Masters. Giri defeated Vladislav Artemiev and Erigaisi Xiangyu Xu. In the second round, however, this very small winning streak came to an end.

Anish Giri lost to Daniil Dubov and Erigaisi, who for a day was India's new number one in live ratings after his first round win - he had 0.5 rating points more than Anand - lost to Bu Xiangzhi.

In his game against Dubov Giri tried the Grünfeld and the two grandmasters then entered a theoretical duel in the Modern Exchange Variation with 8.Bb5. Both players had already gained experience in this line, in which White gives up a pawn for the initiative, and the first new move came with 19.Kf2. Dubov then gave up another pawn and went for an uncompromising attack on the king's side. With success.

Dubov, Daniil2708

1–0

Giri, Anish2749

5th Shenzhen Longgang Masters 2024 Shengzhen01.03.2024[Schulz,A]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bb5+ The lines 8.Rb1 and 8.Be3 have been analysed in considerable depth. 8...Nc6 8...Bd7 is almost as popular. 9.Bxd7+ Qxd7 10.0-0 0-0 usw. 9.0-0 9.d5 Qa5 10.Rb1 a6 was also played in a couple of games. 9...0-0 10.Bxc6 bxc6 11.Qc2 cxd4 12.cxd4 Bg4 13.Ne5 Qxd4 14.Bb2 Qb6 15.Rab1 Bxe5 16.Bxe5 Qa5 16...Qa6 17.Rfc1 f6 18.Bd4 Be6 19.a4 Rfb8 20.h4 Kf7= 0-1 Bluebaum,M (2655)-Navara,D (2679) Titled Tuesday intern op 09th Jan Early Chess.com INT blitz 2024 (7) 17.Bc3 Qc5 18.h3 All this is well-known, and in about 40 games White here tried 18.Qb2 18...Be6

19.Kh2 A new move. Both players had this position in previous games. 19.Rfd1 Qc4 19...Rfd8 20.Rxd8+ Rxd8 21.Qd2 Qd6 22.Qh6 f6 23.e5 Qd3 24.Rb7 Qxc3 25.Rxe7 Bf7 26.e6+- 1-0 Dubov,D (2711)-Abdusattorov,N (2651) Chess.com Rapid Wk4 Swiss Chess.com INT 2022 (7) 20.a3 Rfb8 21.Rxb8+ Rxb8 22.Rd4 Qa6 23.Qd2 Qc8 24.Qh6 Qf8 25.Qf4 f6 26.Qc7 Kf7 27.Qxa7 Rb1+ 28.Kh2 Qb8+ 29.Qxb8 Rxb8 30.Bb4 Rb5 31.a4 c5 32.axb5 cxd4 33.b6 Bc8 ½-½ Vidit,S (2723)-Giri,A (2761) Chess.com Rapid Wk13 Swiss Chess.com INT 2022 (7) 19...Rab8 20.Rbc1 Qc4 21.f4 Qxa2 22.Qd1 Bc4 23.Rf3 f6 23...Rbd8!? 24.Qe1 Rd3 24.Qe1 Qe2 25.Qh4 Bd3?! After 25...Qxe4 26.Re1 Qf5 27.Rxe7 h5 Black holds. With 28.Qg5 fxg5 29.Rg7+ Kh8 30.Rf7+ Kg8 31.Rg7+ White could force a draw. 26.e5 Be4 27.Rg3 Threatening to take twice on f6. Black needs a good idea now. Rb1 Another idea was 27...Rb2 to gain time. But after 28.Bxb2 Qxb2 29.Re1 Qb4 30.exf6 exf6 31.Rge3 f5 32.Rd1 White has the better game. 28.Rxb1 Bxb1 29.exf6 exf6 30.Bxf6 Black's king is rather vulnerable. Qe6 31.Be5 Be4 32.Ra3 Qd7 33.Qf2

33...Qe7? Black had to play 33...Rf7± 34.Qe3 Rf7 35.Bb2 The long diagonal is very weak. Qb4 35...Bd5 36.Qd4+- 36.Rb3 Qc4 37.Rb8+ Rf8 38.Qxa7 Qf7 39.Qd4 Qxf4+ 40.g3 Black will be mated on g7 or h8. 1–0

Bu Xianghzi

In his game against Arjun Erigaisi, Bu Xianghzi defended with the Russian Defence, following an idea from Caruana. After a few skirmishes, Bu was able to bring a pawn to b2, which ultimately decided the game in his favour.

Erigaisi Arjun2738

0–1

Bu, Xiangzhi2671

5th Shenzhen Longgang Masters 2024 Shengzhen01.03.2024[Schulz,A]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 d5 5.Nbd2 Qd7 An idea by Caruana. 6.Nd4 6.Bd3 Nc5 7.Be2 g6 8.Nb3 Ne6 9.Be3 c5= 0-1 Vitiugov,N (2735)-Caruana,F (2784) Grenke Chess Classic 5th Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden 2018 (9) 6...Qe7 7.N2f3 Nd7 8.Nb5 Nb6 9.Bd3 a6 10.Nc3 Bg4 11.0-0 0-0-0 12.h3 12.Re1 f5 13.exf6 gxf6 14.Be3 f5 15.h3 Bh5 0-1 Erigaisi,A (2712)-Vachier Lagrave,M (2727) Tata Steel India rapid Kolkata 2023 (7) 12...Bh5 13.Qe2 Nc5 14.Bf5+ Kb8=

15.g4 Bg6 16.Bg5 f6 17.exf6 gxf6 18.Qxe7 Bxe7 19.Rfe1 Bxf5 20.gxf5 d4 21.Rxe7 dxc3 22.Bxf6 Rhg8+ 23.Kf1 Who said the Petroff would be boring? Nd5 24.Re5? After this move Black quickly gains the upper hand. White had to play 24.b4 e.g. Nd3 24...Nxb4 25.Rxh7± 25.cxd3 Nxf6 26.Re3= 24...cxb2 25.Rae1 25.Rb1 Rd7 26.c4 Nxf6 27.Rxc5 Rd3-+ 25...Nxf6 26.Rxc5 Rge8 27.Rb1 Ne4 28.Rc4 Rd5 29.f6 Rf5 30.Kg2 Nxf6 White's position is rather shaky - and Black also has a strong pawn on b2. 31.Nd4 Rg5+ 32.Kh2 Reg8 33.Rb4 Rg2+ 34.Kh1 Ne4 35.Nc6+ Ka8 36.Rxe4

36...Rg1+ 0–1

Vladislav Artemiev won against Ma Qun. The 33-year-old Chinese grandmaster is not particularly well known, but still has a rating of 2651. In 2014, he won the Asian Team Championship with the Chinese team, and also won gold for the best individual performance on board 4. 

And the fourth game of this round was also decided. Yu Yangyi played with Black against Xu Xiangyu and had to defend against the Spanish Exchange Variation. According to classical theory, White has an advantage in the endgame due to his pawn majority on the kingside. This was not the case in this game, partly because White lost his extra pawn on the kingside. Yu won the game in the endgame.

After two rounds Dubov, Bu and Yu share the lead with 1.5/2 each.

Results

Table

Games

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