Mission: Impossible

Anish Giri – Vassily Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk
7th Chess World Cup; match game 2; Tbilisi, September 13, 2017
King’s Indian Defence E68

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 d6 3. g3 g6 4. d4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Bg7 6. Bg2 Ngf6 7. 0-0 0-0 8. e4 a6 9. Qc2 exd4 10. Nxd4 Re8 11. Re1 Ne5 12. b3 c5 13. Nf3 Nfg4!? Maybe a new promise ring. For 13. ... Nc6 14. Bf4 Bg4 see Donchenko – Shoker, 32nd Open, Metz 2014. “Giri has to take on e5 and try to play with Bc1-b2, f2-f4, Qc2-d2 preparing f4-f5 at any appropriate moment with a lot of tricks”, Azerbaijani Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov argued. 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Bb2 Nc6 16. Qd2 Qa5 17. Rad1 Bg4 18. f3 Be6 19. Nd5. Maybe it was time for White to move on by f3-f4 eventually followed by f4-f5. 19. ... Qxd2 20. Rxd2 Bxb2 21. Rxb2 Bxd5 22. cxd5 Nd4 23. f4? As often happens in must-win situations, the one committed to win ends up playing all out when it is, by now, too late. White had probably nothing better than 23. b4 b6 (if 23. ... cxb4 then 24. Rd1 followed by Rb2xb4) 25. bxc5 bxc5 with an approximate equality. Now Ivanchuk promptly takes the upper hand: 23. ... a5! 24. Kf2 f6! 25. h4 Re7 26. g4 h6! 27. Ke3? 27. e5 fxe5 28. fxe5 Rf8+ 29. Kg3 was White’s last chance to hope for a draw. However, Giri couldn’t afford anything but the win... 27. ... f5! 28. Kd3. White’s King abandones the ship. However, White would also stand very badly after 28. gxf5 gxf5 29. Kd3 Kf7 followed by ... Ra8-g8. 28. ... fxg4 29. e5 Kg7 30. Re4 Nf5. Game over. 31. Kc4 Ra6 32. a3 h5 33. Ree2 Nd4 34. Re4 b5+ 35. Kc3 b4+ 36. Kc4 bxa3 37. Ra2 Rb7 38. Rxa3 Nf5 39. Kc3 Rab6 40. Bf1 g3 41. Bh3 Nd4 42. Kd2 Nxb3+ 43. Kd3 Nd4 44. exd6 Rxd6 45. Kc4

45. ... Rb4+! An elegant way to offer a draw to a defeated opponent. In other circumstances, Ivanchuk would have surely played 45. ... Rdb6! 46. Rxg3 (both 46. Rxa5 Nb3 and 46. Kxc5 Nb3+ lose right off) 46. ... Rb4+ 47. Kxc5 Nb3+ winning heavy material. 46. Kxc5 Rdb6 47. Rxd4 R6b5+ 48. Kc6 Rb6+ 49. Kc5 R6b5+ ½ : ½. A noble soul!