Anish Giri vs Magnus Carlsen, English Opening, Four Knights Variation Fianchetto Lines (A29)
2018 Shamkir Chess (Gashimov Memorial), Round 8, Shamkir, Azerbaijan, 04/27/18
Magnus Carlsen played one of the best attacking games of the year. He faced Giri with black in a Four Knights English which he played with the opposite color just a round ago in his win against Topalov. Obviously a popular variation at top level at the moment. He deviated from the most common opening line for black which might have confused Anish, but the position was still relatively equal out of the opening. What came in the middlegame, though, is from another world.
Magnus started playing more and more aggressive chess move after move and he put such immense pressure on Giri’s position that he gained quick initiative and piece activity in no time. He sacrificed a meaningless pawn which gave him enough time to get a dominating position on all areas of the board.
His pressure soon turned into a menacing onslaught on the kingside which not even an engine could easily resist, let alone a human played. Giri soon cracked under the pressure and resigned! With this win Magnus Carlsen is now at 5.5/8 and in clear first place. With only one round to go it might easily happen that the situation on the scoreboard remains the same and that he wins the Gashimov Memorial!
Standings after round 8:
Magnus Carlsen 5.5/8
Ding Liren 5/8
Radoslaw Wojtaszek 4.5/9
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 4.5/9
Sergey Karjakin 4/8
Veselin Topalov 4/8
Anish Giri 4/8
Teimour Radjabov 4/8
Rauf Mamedov 3.5/8
David Navara 2/8
Game moves:
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6
7.O-O Be7 8.a3 a5 9.d3 O-O 10.Be3 Be6 11.Rc1 a4 12.Nd2 f5
13.Bxb6 cxb6 14.Nxa4 Bg5 15.Nc3 e4 16.Kh1 Qd7 17.Rb1 Rad8
18.Nc4 Qf7 19.b3 exd3 20.exd3 f4 21.Ne4 Be7 22.gxf4 Qxf4 23.a4
Nb4 24.Qe2 Qh6 25.Rbd1 Nd5 26.Rg1 Kh8 27.Bf1 Rf4 28.Ne5 Rdf8
29.f3 Rh4 30.d4 Nf4 31.Qd2 Bxb3 32.Rb1 Bxa4 33.Bb5 Bxb5
34.Rxb5 Qe6 35.Qb2 Bd8 36.Ng5 Qe8 37.Rb3 Bxg5 38.Rxg5 Ne6
39.Rg4 Rxg4 40.fxg4 Qd8 41.Rh3 Qd5+ 42.Kg1 Qe4 43.Qb4 Rf6 0-1