Game of the Week XVI- Caruana,Fabiano (2820) - Giri,Anish (2776)

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once declared: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” I think he had a good point with the river part, but I am not sure about the other part, as I don’t think that humans can change that fast.

However, I do think that a year-long timeframe can change any person substantially. Is this not what we are observing in the second half of the Candidates Tournament? It appears that the participants are not the same players who played the first half of the tournament over a year ago.

Most notably, Anish Giri, whose performance didn’t particularly stand out during the first half of the tournament, has since improved his chess abilities drastically. His games have captured my attention ever since the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, at which point it was clear to me from his games that he had been significantly improving his gameplay each month.

Finally, he performed extremely well in Tata Steel and the latest stage of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. Frankly, I thought of him as the favorite of winning the second part of the Candidates Tournament before it had even started.

Game of the Week is: Caruana,Fabiano vs. Giri,Anish