Two rounds before the end of this year’s Tata Steel Masters, Jorden Van Foreest, the Dutch no. 2, declared himself ‘excited to play the role of spoiler’. Van Foreest was placed near the bottom of the leaderboard, but had yet to face two of the leaders.
His opponent in the penultimate round was Anish Giri. True to his word, Van Foreest attacked him with abandon, and had his compatriot on the ropes, but their game was finally drawn after more than six hours of play. In the final round, Van Foreest faced tournament debutant Nodirbek Abdusattorov, hitherto the star of the event. The 18-year-old from Uzbekistan had led almost from the start, beating Magnus Carlsen along the way. But his play in the final round looked uncertain, allowing Van Foreest to fully embrace the role of spoiler. Abdusattorov was leapfrogged by Anish Giri, who scored a well-deserved tournament victory, undefeated on 8.5/13. Van Foreest’s upheaval of the standings was a pleasing restitution for Giri, since in the 2021 edition he narrowly missed out on the title after losing a tiebreak against Van Foreest.
Earlier in the event, Giri had also scored a win over Carlsen, though his most spectacular game was played in the second round against one of India’s top teenagers.
Anish Giri-Dommaraju Gukesh
Tata Steel Masters, Wijk aan Zee 2023
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 Bg5 h6 6 Bxf6 Qxf6 7 e3 O-O 8 Rc1 dxc4 9 Bxc4 c5 10 O-O cxd4 11 Ne4 Qe7 12 a3 Ba5 13 exd4 The isolated queen’s pawn is a double-edged sword. Lacking defenders on adjacent files, they can become weak in the long run. But in this middlegame, the latent possibility of advancing d4-d5 to open more lines of attack proves to be the more significant factor. Rd8 14 Rc2 One would usually be content to have this rook already deployed on an open file. But Giri’s clever little rook move foresees that planting both rooks opposite the black queen poses difficult practical problems. Bd7 14…Nc6 is a decent alternative, when I suspect that Giri intended 15 Ba2, whereupon 15…Bb6 16 Rd2 demonstrates another perk of his rook manoeuvre. Black must then contend with ideas of Rf1-e1 and d4-d5. 15 Re2 Bc6 16 Qc2 Bb6 17 Rfe1 A powerful move, since the d4 pawn is poisoned. Kh8 (see diagram) Gukesh surely looked at 17…Bxd4 18 Neg5! hxg5 19 Rxe6! fxe6 20 Rxe6 with a devastating discovered check to follow, so his sidestep with the king could not be more natural. But the lesser evil was 17…Bd5 18 Bxd5 Rxd5 19 Nc3 Rd6 20 d5 Nd7. Still, the exchanges on e6 will leave Black with a weak e6 pawn and a thankless position. 18 Neg5! Giri’s attack is so powerful, it will succeed even without Black’s king on the a2-g8 diagonal. hxg5 19 Rxe6 fxe6 20 Rxe6 Qxe6 After other queen moves, White simply plays Nf3xg5, with overwhelming threats. 21 Bxe6 Bxf3 22 Qf5 Threatening mate (Qf5-h3+) recovers material in better circumstances than the immediate recapture. Be4 23 Qxe4 Rxd4 23…Re8 was more stubborn. After 24 h4 Nd7 25 hxg5 Rxe6 26 Qxe6 Nf8, the queen and pawns should triumph, but the game isn’t over. 24 Qf3 g4 25 Qf8+ Kh7 26 Bf5+ Kh6 27 Bc2 Black resigns in view of multiple threats, e.g. Qf8-h8+ or Qf8-f5.
Comments