Mementos and Memories

丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) – Viswanathan Anand
7th Sinquefield Cup; Saint Louis, August 24, 2019
Bogo-Indian Defence E11

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Be7 5. Bg2 d5 6. Nf3 0-0 7. 0-0 Nbd7 8. Qc2 c6 9. a4 a5 10. Na3 Bd6 11. Ne1 Re8!?TN 12. Nd3 e5 13. cxd5 e4 14. Nf4 cxd5 15. Nb5 Bb8 16. Rac1 Ra6! 17. Bh3? 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) would have certainly gone for 17. Nc7 Rc6 18. Nxe8 Rxc2 19. Nxf6+ Nxf6 20. Rxc2 with a two Rooks vs. Queen battle, had he imagined what was coming. 17. ... Rc6! 18. Qb3. On other Queen moves there follows ... g7-g5-g4 winning a piece. 18. ... Nb6! 19. Bxa5. It goes down straight, but 19. Bxc8 Nc4! is also very bad. 19. ... Bxh3! 20. Nxh3 Qc8! 21. Kg2 Rxc1. 21. ... Nc4! is the engines’ “best move”, but Anand’s continuation is also perfectly good. 22. Rxc1 Qxc1 23. Bxb6 e3! 24. f3

24. ... h5!!−+ 25. Ba5 h4 26. gxh4. A sign of desperation. 26. ... Qc6?! It takes just a few seconds for the engines to spot 26. ... Ne4!! which wins in all variations (27. fxe4 Rxe4 may well run into a mating attack). 27. Be1 Nh5? Her Majesty was still in time to infiltrate White’s realm by 27. ... Qc1! with still lots of possible attack scenarios. Now 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) gets out of the nightmare: 28. Bg3! Qc4. Of course, Anand might still win the endgame, but after throwing away so much “mementos” of his glorious past, he was probably lucky not to end up losing the game. 29. Qxc4 dxc4∓ 30. Ng5 Nf6 31. Na3 Bxg3 32. hxg3 Ra8 33. Nxc4 Rxa4 34. Nxe3 Rxd4 35. Kf2 Nd5 36. Nf5 Rb4 37. h5 Rxb2 38. h6 f6 39. Ne4 gxh6 40. Nxh6+ Kf8 41. Nf5 b5 42. Ne3 Nb6 43. Ke1 b4 44. Kd1 Na4 45. Nd5 f5 46. Nd2 b3 47. e4 fxe4 48. fxe4 Kf7 49. g4 Nc5 50. Nb4 Ke6 51. Kc1 Na4 52. g5 Ke7 53. Nc6+ Kf7 54. Nd4 Kg6 55. N4xb3 Ra2 56. Nf3 Nc3 57. Nbd2 Rxd2 58. Kxd2 Nxe4+ 59. Ke3 Nxg5 60. Nxg5 ½ : ½. And yet, that must have been a hard lesson for 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) to learn.

Only Anand’s anagraphic age prevented him from taking the sole lead in the 7th Sinquefield Cup. Photo © Austin Fuller/Grand Chess Tour.