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Upsetting a Grand Master

Chess upsets are always entertaining, more so for the upsetter than the upsettee, but once in a while there's an upset of such magnitude that it gets attention way beyond the tournament itself.  So it was in the 2000 Malaga Open when a 14-year-old girl defeated a leading grand master it made chess headlines around the world. 

The grandmaster was Vladimir Epishin (2667) and the girl was Arianne Caoili (2078).  Epishin played 37...Qxe4 leaving his unguarded queen up for grabs.  The problem was that if Arianne snatched it he would win it back with a family fork and her position would have been in tatters.

She didn't panic.  She thought, "I'll have that queen, but I'm not going to take it just yet.  Let's have a check first."

So, check she did and Epishin resigned.

Play through the game--it's worth it.

Arianne was the young lady who again made world headlines six years later when she became the the centre of the Gormallygate ruckus.  (I wrote a story about it at the time for our chess club web page.  You can find it here:  

http://www.rootyhillchess.org/caoili.html)


Comments


  • 3 years ago

    1wa

    Outstanding game! That one is for the RECORD BOOK. Thanks for sharing.

  • 5 years ago

    Dozy

    She makes good use of her hussars, cgs.  And even though she's no longer a little girl she still plays well.  I believe she has represented Australia at four Chess Olympiads, apart from her other achievements.  (Arianne's father is Filipino but her mother is Dutch-Australian.)
  • 5 years ago

    cgs

    "The game of chess is a lake, in which a mosquito can bathe and an elephant can drown." (Indian proverb) Now, the elephant drowned. The Hussar (Knight) is a powerful weapon in in hands of mosquito (the little girl) too.
  • 5 years ago

    Dozy

    Twas that indeed, batgirl.  I did some research on her before writing the Gormallygate piece and she travelled extensively as a child playing in tournaments.

    As far as I know she's not playing much at present.  I saw her at the Sydney International last year but think that's her only recent appearance.

    You're obviously aware of her performance in Dancing with the Stars  where she proved to be an excellent dancer.  She made the final and her performance was probably good enough to win but one of the judges had swung the viewing (voting) audience against her after the penultimate round when he accused her of cheating.  So far as we can ascertain that was untrue and he didn't win any friends--but, because of him, neither did Arianne.  He may have been instructed to sabotage her by the Channel 7 management who apparently like to have a hand in deciding who wins.  Certainly their own on-air personalities have done very well in past seasons.


  • 5 years ago

    batgirl

    Great move by blunder-eyes Caoili, dancing with the GMs.
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