Matthias Blübaum vs Viswanathan Anand, D21, Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Rosenthal Variation
2018 Grenke Chess Classic, Round 6, Baden Baden, Deutschland, 04/06/18
Matthias Blübaum, the German GM (and the underdog in the Grenke Classic) played a very instructive game against the ex-world champion Viswanathan Anand. Vishy tried to get Matthias out of his preparation early on. First he played the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, a fairly uncommon opening for him, and then he decided to go for a major deviation from main line theory on move five! He went for a line which had only been played 30 times before (compared to thousands of games with the most common continuation).
Blübaum wasn’t surprised, though. He played the opening perfectly and got a slightly favorable position. At that point it was already obvious that Anand wasn’t feeling as comfortable as in one of “his” systems. He misunderstood the position and played a positional mistake which made white’s position far superior and all his pieces more active than black’s. Vishy must have felt he was in dire straits and he decided for a radical solution. He sacrificed a piece in the middlegame. It was a bishop for two pawns (and some compensation because of the passed b pawn, but not nearly enough for a piece. His position was lost. All Blübaum had to do was tame the b pawn and slow things down. He did that almost at engine level, without a single mistake, and Vishy’s resignation was soon to follow.
A very nice victory by the young German, especially sweet considering Vishy’s approach to the game, and the fact that he though he could surprise Matthias and get him out of his prep and his comfort zone with an uncommon line in the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. This victory now brought Matthias to 3/6, just a point behind the tournament leaders!
Standings after Round 6:
Nikita Vitiugov 4/6
Fabiano Caruana 4/6
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 4/6
Levon Aronian 3.5/6
Magnus Carlsen 3.5/6
Matthias Bluebaum 3/6
Arkadij Naiditsch 2.5/6
Yifan Hou 2/6
Viswanathan Anand 2/6
Georg Meier 1.5/6
Game moves:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 dxc4 4. e3 b5 5. a4 b4 6. Bxc4 Nf6
7. a5 a6 8. Nbd2 Bb7 9. O-O c5 10. Nb3 Nbd7 11. dxc5 Nxc5
12. Nxc5 Bxc5 13. Qa4+ Qd7 14. Qxd7+ Nxd7 15. Bd2 Ke7 16. Rac1
Rhc8 17. Nd4 Ne5 18. Be2 Bd6 19. Rfd1 Bd5 20. Rxc8 Rxc8
21. Bxa6 Ra8 22. Bf1 Rxa5 23. Nb5 Bc5 24. Rc1 Ra2 25. Rxc5
Rxb2 26. e4 Rxd2 27. exd5 exd5 28. Rc1 b3 29. Rb1 b2 30. Nc3
Nc4 31. Nxd5+ Rxd5 32. Bxc4 Rc5 33. Re1+ Kf6 34. Bd3 Rd5
35. Bb1 h5 36. g3 g5 37. Kg2 g4 38. Re2 Rb5 39. Re8 Rd5
40. Re2 Rb5 41. h4 Kg7 42. Re7 Rd5 43. Rb7 Rd2 44. Ba2 Kh6
45. Bxf7 1-0