Blundering The Game: It Is Never Too Late
Reading the title you must have thought I'm joking. Two top grand masters fighting out on a chess board, and match is determined by a blunder. Yes, you read that right. Top GMs blunder too...
It was the round 6 of Tata Steel Masters 2022, in Netherlands. The homeboy, GM Anish Giri is fighting with the black pieces against 2018 World Champion Challenger, GM Fabiano Caruana. Giri did lose a game, that was in round 2 against Magnus Carlsen, you can check that game in my previous blog, and he is trying to catch up with others in the leaderboard.
Game starts. Caruana opens with Nf3, the Reti opening. Giri responds sharp, with the triangle formation, having the light square bishop outside the pawn formation. Caruana did the fiancheto with both of his bishops. The e4-d5 pressure was tense for a while, until Caruana decided to push e5, and attack Giri's knight. The knight was retrieved, but Giri had a slight lead on the board positionaly, but it was nothing that can be converted in something bigger.
The b file opened up, and Caruana wasted a few moves like Kh1, giving Giri all the time to set up his pieces for an attack. Caruana found amazing attack on kingside, playing f4 and then f5, and later winning an exchange, rook for a knight. After a few moves he got completely lost.
He couldn't keep his advantage, and they both had about 2 minutes plus the 30 sec increment for 7 moves to reach move 40 and additional time. Giri managed to hold on to the very strong pawn on e3, that ultimately had big influence on who the winner is. He also landed a knight on c4, an amazing outpost, eyeing up so many squares and potential forks. Keep in mind, the players have no time and they're just trying to get to move 40 so they can think deeply and calculate all the lines. Giri managed to put a rook behind the passed e3 pawn that just became even stronger.
And then, the blunder happened. On move 40, Caruana played a move that ultimately lost him the game, he played 40.Rb6. He forgot that the knight can jump backwards, capturing the rook and giving the exchange back, but now having far worse position, being two pawn down. The commentators even stoped for a second, looking at the board in disbelief. It happens to everyone, even GMs are human. He just couldn't handle the time pressure.
After that, Giri executed the rest of the game nicely, forcing the resignation by Caruana after move 51. The game did not dissapoint, it was a beautiful game full of drama and so many lead changes, with all the time scramble. The homeboy takes the win.
After this win Giri jumps to 3/6 points at the 7th place. At the top, the lead just gained Magnus Carlsen, who shares the first place by points with Vidit and Mamedyarov. Caruana, with this loss, dropped down to 9th place in the tournament.
