Tiger Balm

Viswanathan Anand – Levon Grigori Aronian
5th Zürich Chess Challenge; Zürich, February 13, 2015
Spanish C48

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bd6 5. 0-0 0-0 6. d3 Re8 7. a3 h6 8. Bc4 Bc5 9. Be3 Bxe3. A questionable decision. For 8. ... d6 9. h3 Be6 see Goumas – Iordachescu, 2nd Isthmia Open, Korinthia 2012. 10. fxe3 d6 11. Nh4 Be6 12. Nf5!? Bxc4 13. dxc4 Kh7? In the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the immediate 13. ... Nb8 would have put up a more reliable defence, though after 14. c5! White keeps a powerful initiative. 14. Qf3 Nb8? Black very optimistically underestimated the dangers involved. The only defence was probably 14. ... Ng8, after which both 15. Rad1 or 15. c5 would certainly give White very pleasant prospects.

15. Nxh6! The Tiger of Madras is back! 15. ... Kxh6. 15. ... gxh6 16. Qxf6 Qxf6 17. Rxf6 Kg7 18. Raf1 Rf8 19. Nd5 is equally hopeless. 16. Qh3+ Kg6. Or 16. ... Nh5 17. g4 g6 18. Nd5 and wins. 17. Rf3 Nh5 18. Rf5 Nf6 19. Qh4 1 : 0. It is now mate next move. “Wow! Mate in 20 moves!! Never seen it before on élite level”, Grandmaster Pavel Eljanov tweeted.

Vishy Anand gives his autograph to Ljubomir Ljubojević
Photo: Chess-News.ru ‏(@Chess__News)