The hacking of steely sprogs

by Jonathan Speelman
11/21/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman returns to his explorations of remarkable games by the world’s top juniors. Naturally, he looks at games by Kirill Shevchenko (pictured), Arjun Erigaisi and Alireza Firouzja, three young stars who left a strong mark in top tournaments during the last month or so. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

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Played “by the hand”

[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]

A month ago, I looked at some games by the world’s top juniors and, after a diversion a fortnight ago to endgame analysis, we return to them today.

One of my lesser eccentricities is a habit of linking items that have the same scansion, and so the hacking of steely sprogs brings me to the patter of tiny feet, and in this case the b-pawn which in two of the three games rather unexpectedly jumps to b4.

Two of the three games are admittedly “just” blitz, but when your hand is working, blitz games can still be very aesthetic. And I very much enjoyed both.

Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal SarinThey come from the Lindores Abbey Blitz Tournament in Riga, which marked 85 years since the birth of the great Mikhail Tal (1936-92).

Sponsored by a whisky distillery in Fife in Scotland, it followed immediately after the FIDE Grand Swiss. Blitz is a wonderful way to burn off the tension of a horribly serious (classical) tournament, and it was surely much appreciated with 120 players from both the open and women’s sections taking part in 9 double rounds (2 games against the same opponent) of combat.

To recap (of course it’s been covered on ChessBase before), almost everybody played except for the Grand Swiss winner Alireza Firouzja himself. The early leader with an incredible start of 10½/11 was 18-year-old Arjun Erigaisi from India, but he lost his second game to Fabiano Caruana in round 6.2 and then hit the buffers. 19-year-old Kirill Shevchenko (Ukraine) took over and in the end he got 14/18, ahead of Caruana and Erigaisi on 13½.

Neither of the games below by Shevchenko and Arjun is at all flawless, and indeed if you were foolish enough to feed them to one of our silicon lords and masters and listen (and watch) then they would harrumph mightily, beep a great deal, and if they still had diodes there would be cascades of despairing lights.  

Of course this doesn’t matter a jot. Good blitz is played “by the hand” with minimal conscious input to supplement and occasionally override the instinctive moves, and both games flow wonderfully.

Following them, we finish with Firouzja at the European Team Championships in Slovenia, with b2-b4 in a position where I can hardly imagine thinking of it even in my pomp.

[Pictured: Arjun chatting with Nihal Sarin in Riga | Photo: Anna Shtourman]

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,166,62354%2421---
1.d4947,29855%2434---
1.Nf3281,60256%2441---
1.c4182,10256%2442---
1.g319,70256%2427---
1.b314,26554%2427---
1.f45,89748%2377---
1.Nc33,80151%2384---
1.b41,75648%2380---
1.a31,20654%2404---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d395450%2378---
1.g466446%2360---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c343351%2426---
1.h328056%2418---
1.a411060%2466---
1.f39246%2436---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.e4       c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nf3 e6 5.0-0 a6 6.Bd3 Nc6 Instead Ne7 was normal and perfectly playable. 6...Ne7 7.Nxd4 cxd4 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.c3 6...Nf6 7.e5 7.Nd5!? Played after about 20 seconds. g6
Ignoring the knight which could be taken, but Black would then have immediately to return the piece. 7...exd5 8.exd5 Bd6 9.dxc6 dxc6 10.b4 A week or so after this game, Ravi Haria tried Nd5 again at the European Team Championship. He later got into trouble but held in the end: 7...Bd6 8.Ne3 Bc7 9.c3 d5 10.exd5 exd5 11.Re1 Nge7 12.b4 c4 13.Bc2 0-0 14.d3 b5 15.dxc4 dxc4 16.Qe2 Qd6 17.a4 Rb8 18.axb5 axb5 19.Rd1 Qf6 20.Nd5 Nxd5 21.Rxd5 Nxb4 22.Rd4 Nxc2 23.Qxc2 h6 24.Be3 Bb7 25.Rd7 Qc6 26.Rad1 Rbe8 27.R7d4 Re4 28.Rxe4 Qxe4 29.Qxe4 Bxe4 30.Nd4 Rb8 31.f3 Bd3 32.Nc6 Ra8 33.Na7 Rb8 34.Nc6 Re8 35.Kf2 Bxh2 36.Nb4 Bg3+ 37.Kxg3 Rxe3 38.Kf4 Re2 39.Kg3 Re3 40.Kf4 Re2 41.Kg3 Bg6 42.Rd8+ Kh7 43.Rb8 Rb2 44.Nd5 Bd3 45.Rb7 Bf5 46.Ne3 Be6 47.f4 g6 48.Kf3 Rb3 49.g4 Rxc3 50.Ke4 Kg7 51.f5 Rxe3+ 52.Kxe3 gxf5 53.gxf5 Bxf5 54.Rxb5 Kg6 55.Kf4 Bd3 56.Rc5 f6 57.Rc7 Kh5 58.Rc6 f5 59.Rc7 Kh4 60.Rd7 h5 61.Rg7 Kh3 62.Ke3 h4 63.Rg8 Kh2 64.Rh8 h3 65.Kf2 c3 66.Rc8 c2 67.Rc7 Be4 68.Rc5 Bd3 69.Rc7 Be4 1/2-1/2 (69) Haria,R (2497)-Kurmann,O (2458) Terme Catez SLO 2021 8.b4!? After another 13 seconds or so, computer engines harrumph at it, but blitz chess between human beings is a very different matter. 8.c3 Bg7 9.Re1 d6 10.Ne3 8...Bg7 9.bxc5 exd5 10.exd5 Bxa1 11.Re1+ Kf8 After 11...Nge7! 12.c3 0-0 13.dxc6 dxc6 Houdini doesn't believe White at all. 12.c3 Nf6 13.Ba3 Qa5 13...Nxd5 14.Qxa1 Nf4 15.Bf1 f6 Again Houdini is very iffy about this, but it looks like decent compensation for a rook in a blitz game to me, and indeed when I allowed its highness to run a bit longer it went down to about -1, which is nothing at blitz. 14.Qb3 Kg7 15.Rxa1 Nxd5 16.c4
16...Nde7?! After this, White already gains a big advantage. 16...Nf6 17.Bb2 The pin looks very strong but Black is a whole rook up. Re8 Here I presume that Shevchenko would have tried something like 17...Qb4 18.g4 18.Bxf6+ is a reasonable attempt to bail out, but I can't imagine any blitz player worth his salt descending to such depths. And it doesn't quite work anyway: Kxf6 19.Qb2+ Ne5 19...Ke7? 20.Re1+ Kd8 21.Qf6+ Re7 22.Rxe7 Nxe7 23.Qh8+ Kc7 24.Qe5+ Kd8= 20.Nxe5 20.Re1 Qxc5 21.Bf1 d6 20...Rxe5 21.Re1 21.f4 Qxc5+ 22.Kh1 d6 21...Qxc5 22.Bf1 d6 23.d4 Qa5 24.dxe5+ dxe5 25.Re3 Black has good black square control, but the king is exposed so in practice White is doing quite well. 18...d6 19.g5 Kg8 20.Bxf6 Bg4 but unfortunately Black now has the initiative. 17.Bb2+ f6?!
17...Kg8 18.Bc3 Qxc5 19.Qb2 d5 20.Bxh8 d4 21.Nxd4 Kxh8 22.Nxc6+ Kg8 23.Nxe7+ Qxe7 White is much better, but Black could try to fight. 24.Bf1± 18.Bxf6+! Kg8 18...Kxf6 19.Qb2+ Kf7 20.Ng5+! Or simply 20.Qxh8 Qxc5 21.Re1 d6 22.h4 h6 23.Qxh6 20...Kg8 21.Qf6 Nd8 22.Re1! and Black is completely dead. 22.Qxe7 d5 23.Re1 soon mates. 19.Qb2 Qb4 20.Bxh8 Qxb2 21.Bxb2
The fireworks are over with White emerging with two extra pawns and the two bishops. Gelfand did his best but Shevchenko converted pretty easily: 21...Rb8 22.Re1 b5 23.cxb6 Rxb6 24.Ba3 Kf8 25.Ne5 Nb4 26.Bb1 d6 27.Nd3 a5 28.Nxb4 axb4 29.Bb2 Ba6 30.d3 b3 31.axb3 Rxb3 32.Bf6 Nc6 33.Bc2 Rb7 34.Bc3 Kf7 35.f4 Ne7 36.Kf2 d5 37.Ra1 Rb6 38.c5 Re6 39.Be5 Ke8 40.d4 Bb7 41.g4 Ra6 42.Rxa6 Bxa6 43.f5 Kf7 44.Ke3 Bc8 45.Kf4 h5 46.fxg6+ Nxg6+ 47.Bxg6+ Kxg6 48.gxh5+ Kxh5 49.Bc7
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Shevchenko,K2647Gelfand,B26741–02021B23Lindores Abbey Tal Mem9.19
Erigaisi,A2627Korobov,A26841–02021E73Lindores Abbey Tal Mem18.3
Firouzja,A2770Yilmaz,M26261–02021B9023rd European Teams4.1

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Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

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