Anish Giri vs Gukesh D ─ Tata Steel Masters (January 15, 2023)
Great attacking game by Anish Giri, perennially ranked in the top ten chess players in the world, against the sensational young chess talent Dommaraju Gukesh.
Here is the game for you to run through:
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- d4 Nf6
Gukesh plays the Queen’s Indian Defense.
- c4 e6
- Nf3 d5
- Nc3 Bb4
- Bg5 h6
- Bxf6 Qxf6
In this opening, Giri gives up the bishop pair to save time from retreating his dark-squared bishop and to put the black queen on a rather awkward square before the black queenside pieces are developed.
At the same time, we will soon see that the white knights will become quite active.
- e3 O-O
This opening has become the Ragozin Defense of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. e3 is the final book move.
- Rc1 dxc4
Giri develops his rook with possibilities of activating it on the potentially semi-open c file. He has a very solid classical chess type center.
Gukesh appears to want to bust up this center, to open things up, and to try to gain the initiative.
- Bxc4 c5
Giri develops his light-squared bishop, and Gukesh continues to explore the chances of an open game.
The players maintain these dual themes of development and opening everything up on the next move as well.
- O-O cxd4
- Ne4 Qe7
Rather than immediately recapturing the black pawn on d4, Giri plays a sort of Zwischenzug (in between) move to attack Gukesh’s queen, gain time, and place his knight on a good square.
Gukesh pulls his queen back a diagonal square, to defend his dark-squared bishop at b4, instead of pushing the black queen forward to f5 to attack the white knight at e4.
- a3 Ba5
White kicks back the black dark-squared bishop, and black keeps that bishop on what is a good diagonal for now.
- exd4 Rd8
Giri recaptures the black pawn on d4, creating an isolated white d pawn, but gaining space in the center.
Gukesh puts pressure on that pawn right away, placing his rook on the open file, still playing the open game, and arguably neglecting the development of his queenside pieces.
To paraphrase GM Rafael Leitao, white has more space and more active pieces in this position, but needs to play quickly, building up an attack (which is exactly what Giri does) before black can try to catch up in development.
- Rc2 Bd7
Giri moves his rook to perhaps an unlikely square, blocking the diagonal of his queen. More standard would be the move Qc2.
But now he can move this rook to the d file to defend his isolated d pawn or to the semi-open e file.
The Rc2 move, is this concept departing from the usual opening theory of the Ragozin that threw Gukesh off his game? He reacted with Bd7, threatening a skewer of the white rook and white queen with Ba5.
- Re2 Bc6
Gukesh moves his light-squared bishop for the second time, to activate his bishop, attacking the troublesome white knights in the center. His bishops look to be on strong diagonals, but it remains to be seen how effective they will actually be.
- Qc2 Bb6
White develops his queen, pointing it on a diagonal towards the black king. He is playing aggressively.
Instead of taking one of the centralized white knights with Bxe4 (maybe a better idea) or developing his knight to d2 (which blocks his rook on the d file, maybe not such a good idea), black puts more pressure on the isolated white d pawn, attacking it twice along with his black rook, since the pawn is no longer guarded by the white queen.
- Rfe1 Kh8
Giri doubles his rooks on the e file, since the black dark-squared bishop has moved off the diagonal that would allow the bishop to attack the white on e1. All of his pieces are activated and looking good, like they know they should, ready for dynamic play. Giri does not pause to defend his d pawn.
On the other hand, Gukesh does not follow up by taking the d pawn, but loses time by moving his king. Maybe he wants to get off of the diagonal of the white light-squared bishop, but it does him no good.
It’s also worth noting that he has no pieces on the kingside to defend his king.
- Neg5 hxg5
Giri’s amazing move begins a brilliant attack. He threatens Qh7#. Even after the white knight is taken, the h file is opened for the white queen to invade with the black king on it.
In this position, as an attacking player, we can look for checkmating patterns for the white pieces, possibly with the queen and a knight, or the queen and the light-squared bishop, maybe even the queen and a rook.
But Giri comes up with an even more amazing follow-up to his knight sacrifice here.
- Rxe6 fxe6
One way to look at this truly astounding tactic by Giri is that white has three pieces attacking the black pawn at e6, and Gukesh has it defended only twice.
While it was obvious that the white d pawn was being pressured, moving the white knight from e4 to g5 towards the black king to open up the h file also uncovered a double rook attack on the black e pawn, in addition to the white light-squared bishop already attacking the black pawn.
Another thing to consider in this position is that Giri is able to sacrifice both his knight and rook because the black rook at a8 and the black knight at b8 are not in the game.
With this rook sacrifice, Giri breaks through, and Gukesh’s position falls apart. The connection between the assault on e6 and a direct attack on the black king will become readily apparent.
- Rxe6 Qxe6
At the end of the exchanges, after a beautiful flow, the black queen is attacked by the defended white rook. The queen cannot move to f6 to still guard the black pawn at g5 because the black queen would be still be attacked by the white rook.
And the black queen moves elsewhere, the black pawn at g5 would be left hanging for capture by the white knight with decisive effect.
For example, the game could end like this: 20. Rxe6 Qf8 21. Nxg5 Qg8 22. Qg6 Be8 23. Rxe8 Rxe8 24. Qh5+ Qh7 25. Qxh7#.
Or here’s a possible finish to the game if black moves his queen at this point to f7 (also provided by GM Leitao): 20. Rxe6 Qf7 21. Nxg5 Qh5 22. Rh6+ Qxh6 23. Nf7+ Kg8 24. Nxh6+ Kh8 25. Bg8 Rxg8 26. Nf7#.
Therefore, Gukesh gives up his queen for defense. As it is, the game continues as follows:
- Bxe6 Bxf3
By taking out the serious attacking piece, the white knight, with Bxf3, black eliminates white’s threat of Nxg5 and then Qh7#.
- Qf5 Be4
Giri again makes a Zwischenzug type of move. He does not bother to recapture the black bishop on f3, sacrificing his other knight!
His queen move forks the black bishop on f3 and the black pawn at g5, but more importantly, Qh3+ is threatened, with checkmate on the next move.
Gukesh desperately throws away his light-squared bishop, attacking and distracting the white queen, as well as placing the bishop on the diagonal to block the Qh3+ threat, with Bh7.
Had Gukesh played Bh5, Giri can play Qxg5, and checkmate on the next move.
- Qxe4 Rxd4
After Qxe4, Giri threatened Qg6, followed by Qh5#.
In response, black finally takes the isolated d pawn, suddenly threatening Rd1#.
But pinning the white bishop with Re8 might have been a better idea. White should still have a winning position, but would have to work a little bit harder.
- Qf3 g4
Such a smooth move by Giri, next threatening Qh5# and preventing Rd1#. Somehow, only the white queen and the white light-squared bishop seem to be enough to win the game with a checkmating pattern.
Gukesh again blocks a checkmating threat, putting off the inevitable.
- Qf8+ Kh7
- Bf5+ Kh6
- Bc2
White has time to stop and defend against black’s Rd1# with still a winning game, threatening Qh8+, with checkmate in a few moves. Black resigns. GM Giri, don’t call him Mr. Draw any more. Rather, maybe the Crusher.
To sum up, the way things worked out, from a strategical point of view, black was overwhelmed in the battle in the center, then did not have his king adequately defended, and as mentioned, did not properly develop his queenside.
Here are several possible conclusions to this game: 27. Bc2 Rd8 28. Qf4+ g5 29. Qf6+ Kh5 30. Qf7+ Kh6 31. Qg6#.
Or alternatively, 27. Bc2 Rd8 28. Qf4+ Kh5 29. Qf5+ Kh4 30. g3+ Kh3 31. Qh5#.
And one more: 27. Bc2 Rd2 28. Qh8+ Kg5 29. Qxg7+ Kh5 30. Qg6+ Kh4 31. Qh6#.
