Chaos and Beyond

Aryan Tari – Alireza Firouzja
83rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament; Wijk aan Zee, January 19, 2021
Caro-Kann Defence B12

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 Ne7 6. c3 Ng6 7. 0-0 Nd7 8. Ne1 h5 9. Be3 Qb6 10. b3 f6!? A sharp novelty, implying an Exchange sacrifice. A previous game went 10. ... h4 11. Nd3 c5 12. dxc5 Qc7 13. b4 Ngxe5 14. Nxe5 Qxe5 15. Bd4 Qc7 16. c4 dxc4 17. Bxc4 h3 18. g3 Qc6 19. f3 ½ : ½ Khairullin – Grigoriants, 59th Russian Chess Championship Superfinal, Moscow 2006.

11. Bxh5 fxe5 12. g4 Rxh5 13. gxh5 Nf4 14. dxe5 Nh3+ 15. Kg2 c5. 15. ... Bc5!? was also worth considering. 16. f4 Qc6 17. Nf3 0-0-0. Heterogeneous castling further confirms the highly double-edged status of the game. 18. Nbd2 Nb6

19. Qe1. As humans go crazy, engines give its best as kibitzers: here, for instance, both 19. Kg3!? (Δ Nf3-h4) and 19. Nd4!? were strong — and probably stronger than the text. 19. ... Be7. 19. ... d4! 20. cxd4 Nd5 at once was probably better and saved time. 20. Rc1 d4 21. cxd4 Nd5 22. Nc4. 22. Kh1! at once saves a tempo — probably vital — on the game continuation, but they both, although short of time, take a walk on the wild side. 22. ... Ndxf4+ 23. Bxf4. Now 23. Kh1 Nd3 wasn’t appealing either. 23. ... Nxf4+ 24. Kg1 Bg4. The pseudo-sacrifice of the second Exchange with 24. ... Rxd4! suggests itself, as White cannot take the Rook due to mate on g2. 25. Rc3 Rxd4 26. Nd6+ Kb8 27. Qe3 Bg5? (27. ... Bxh5)

28. Rxc5? 28. Kh1!! is the engines’ refutation of Firouzja’s gamble, but Tari is caught by a cruel Fata Morgana. 28. ... Qxc5! 29. Nxg5 (29. Nxd4 Ne2+−+) 29. ... Ne2+? Luckily for Tari, Firouzja — he too without time — did not notice a thing: 29. ... Be2! 30. Rxf4 (or 30. Re1 Rd1!−+) 30. ... Rd1+ 31. Kf2 Rf1+ 32. Kxe2 Re1+! winning easily. 30. Kg2 ½ : ½. All’s well that ends well.

“I think it was a completely crazy game. It was just psychological torture from the beginning to the end, with so much to calculate and so many tactical possibilities”, Tari afterwards told TV2. “I thought I was going to lose, but then he overlooked something and went out of control. I offered a draw, but maybe I should have kept playing. We both were in time trouble, but I felt so happy at being able to slip away”. Photo © Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021.