Ice Sculpting

Anish Giri – Fabiano Caruana
45th SchachBundesliga, Baden-Baden, May 24, 2018
Russian Defence C42

Apparently, before going to Stavanger, Fabiano Caruana wanted to express his esteem for Anish Giri, who was not invited to participate in the 6th Altibox Norway Chess for reasons that could be termed unconventional. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. 0-0 0-0 8. c4 c6 9. Nc3 Nxc3 10. bxc3 dxc4 11. Bxc4 Bf5 12. Bg5 Qa5. If 12. ... Qc7 then 13. Re1 h6 14. Nh4! Bh7 15. Bxh6! Bxh2+ 16. Kh1 and White stands better, Nepomniachtchi – 李超 (Li Chāo), Grand Prix 2017, 1st stage, Sharjah 2017. 13. Nh4 Be6 14. Bxe6 Qxg5 15. Nf3 Qd8. 15. ... Qa5 16. Qb3 Qb6!? was also worth considering. 16. Bb3 Nd7 17. Re1⩲ g6 18. g3 Kg7 19. Qd3 Nf6 20. Rad1 Rc8 21. h4 Rc7 22. Kg2 Re7 23. Rxe7 Qxe7 24. Re1 Qd7 25. Ne5 Bxe5 26. Rxe5 Re8. Grandmaster Rafael Duailibe Leitão also considers 26. ... Ng4 aiming to repeat moves (27. Re2 Nf6). 27. Qe2 h5 28. f3 Kf8 29. Rxe8+ Nxe8. “Noteworthy game. In the gradual shift from nibble to edge to pull to yank to slightly better to clearly better to winning, it reminded me of an old Kasparov – Karpov game. Black looks OK but lacks constructive moves. 27. ... h5 and 29. ... Nxe8 both questionable, but very difficult to play”, Grandmaster Jonathan Rowson tweeted. 30. Qe5 Nd6 31. Kf2 Kg8? As it was noted by most commentators, better to sit and wait with 31. ... b6 in order to answer 32. g4 by 32. ... hxg4 33. fxg4 Nb5 with a holdable game.

32. g4! hxg4 33. fxg4 Qd8. As a sad consequence of 31. ... Kg8, now 33. ... Nb5 would be met by 34. Qf6! (Δ Qf6xg6+) 34. ... Kf8 35. h5 with great trouble for Black. 34. Kf3 Kh7?! Leitão suggests 34. ... a5, most likely to reply 35. h5 with the Pawn sacrifice on a4. Such an advice – which may be regarded as an extreme countermeasure – demonstrates that Black stands very badly already. 35. h5± f6 36. Qe6. White appears to have penetrated into the heart of Black’s defence. 36... Kg7 37. Kf4 a5 38. a3 gxh5 39. gxh5 Kh6 40. Bc2 Qf8 41. Kf3!+− Ne8 42. Kg2 Nd6 43. Kf2 b6 (43. ... Ne8 44.Qe3++−) 44. Kf3 Ne8 45. Qxc6 Nd6 46. Qxb6 Qe7 47. Qb8 Nf7 48. Qg8 Ng5+ 49. Kf4 Nh3+ 50. Kf5 Qd7+ 51. Kxf6 1 : 0.

Fabiano Caruana (left) vs. Anish Giri (right). Photo: Guido Giotta.