Magnus Carlsen Wins Chess Masters Final

Lubomir Kavalek

International Chess Grandmaster

Magnus Carlsen Wins Chess Masters Final with a Blitz Game

The Huffington Post, 10/12/11 06:14 PM ET

They flew from Europe to Brazil, played five rounds in Sao Paulo, crossed the equator again on the way to Bilbao, Spain, where they played another five rounds. After the world's best chess grandmasters have done all this traveling and playing, the outcome of the Chess Masters Final was still up in the air. It came down to a tiebreaking blitz game in which Norway's Magnus Carlsen, the world's top-rated player, defeated Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk, at 42, the oldest participant.

Txapeldun: champion Carlsen in a traditional Basque beret

Ivanchuk had a blistering start with one draw and three wins in the first four games, but things changed in a hurry. He lost to Carlsen in the next round and suddenly the Norwegian GM had a chance to catch up. The first part of the double-round event was over and the players had to fly to Spain.

On the way to the airport, still on the hotel premises, Ivanchuk and his wife were robbed. But the thugs didn't get Ivanchuk's laptop, a necessary tool of today's chess players, and the Ukrainian resumed play in Bilbao on time. He beat the American GM Hikaru Nakamura, but managed only two draws and two losses till the end. The loss to Carlsen catapulted the Norwegian into first place. Had the organizers used the traditional results, the final crosstable would have looked like this:

But to encourage fighting chess, the Chess Masters Final was scored differently. Based on soccer scoring, the Sao Paulo/Bilbao results were kicked up to 3 points for a victory, one point for a draw and zero points for a loss. It enabled Ivanchuk to share first place with Carlsen.

Regardless of the soccer-style scoring, the organizers will be submitting only the traditional crosstable to FIDE for ratings. It is the only way to align it with other tournaments and to be able to make a historical comparison.

The Championship Game

Since the classical games did not produce a clear winner, Carlsen and Ivanchuk had to play a blitz game tiebreak. The first game was drawn, but Carlsen won the second game and became the champion. What if Ivanchuk had won the blitz? The tournament results would have become meaningless. Strange, very strange, indeed.

Carlsen just played 39...Qg3+, the final move in the championship game

Here is the game with some notes:

Ivanchuk,Vasily (2765) - Carlsen,Magnus (2823) 
Chess Masters Final, Bilbao, 11.10.2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 (Not allowing the dreadful Berlin endgame after 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8.) 4...Bc5 5.Be3 Qe7 6.Bxc6 bxc6 7.Bxc5 Qxc5 8.Nc3 (By exchanging both bishops, Ivanchuk attained a simple position in which he can play fast. No fancy moves, just speed seems to be his strategy.) 8...0-0 9.0-0 Rb8 10.Qd2 Qe7 11.b3 c5 (Stopping any central play with the d-pawn. Both sides would like to open the game with the f-pawn, but who comes first?) 12.h3 d6 13.Nh2 Nh5 14.Nd5 Qd8 15.Rae1 (After 15.Qd1 g6 16.Nf3 f5 black comes first on the kingside. And 15.f4? c6 loses a pawn.) 15...Be6 16.Nc3 f5 (Black is first.) 17.exf5 Bxf5

18.f3?! (Threatening to win a piece with g2-g4, but it weakens the dark squares. The immediate 18.g4? loses to 18...Nf4 19.gxf5 Qg5+ 20.Ng4 Nxh3+ winning the queen.) 18...Bg6 19.Rf2 Qh4 (Black controls the dark squares and the open f-file helps him to increase the pressure on white's position.) 20.Nd5 Rf7 21.Qc3 c6 22.Ne3 Nf4 23.Qd2 Rbf8 (Aiming all pieces at the white king. Ivanchuk can only wait and see what Carlsen can come up with.)

24.Nd1 h5 25.Nc3 Bf5 26.Ne2 Ne6 27.Qe3 Rf6?! (Carlsen would like to switch the rook on the g-file, but the rook move is blocking the escape route for the black queen.) 28.Kh1?! (Ivanchuk is still waiting, but he could have jumped out of the box with 28.f4!? [threatening 29.Nf3 to win the queen] 28...exf4 29.Nxf4; or 28...Nxf4 29.Nxf4 Bc8 30.g3 exf4 31.gxh4 fxe3 32.Rxf6 Rxf6 33.Rxe3 with equal chances.)28...Rg6 (28...Nd4 29.Nxd4 cxd4 30.Qd2 c5 would increase the space advantage, but Carlsen does not want to reduce his forces. He probably thought the knight was important enough to be kept on the board.)29.Rg1 Nc7 30.Rgf1 Nd5 31.Qd2 Rgf6?! (Carlsen gives Ivanchuk another chance to run for freedom and blocks his queen again.)

32.Nc3?! (Ivanchuk misses 32.f4! e4 [32...Nxf4? 33.Nf3 wins the queen.] 33.dxe4 Bxe4 34.Nf3 Bxf3 35.Rxf3 with equal chances.) 32...Nf4 33.Ne4 Rg6 34.Rg1 Qd8 35.Nf1 Qe7 (Carlsen prepares to push away the knight on e4. He could have done it right away: 35...d5 36.Nxc5 Qg5 threatening to take on h3. But in a blitz game your plans are often realized slowly.) 36.Nfg3 d5 (Carlsen could have won also with 36...Bxh3 37.gxh3 Nxh3 38.Rgf1 Nxf2+ 39.Qxf2 d5 40.Nxc5 Rf4.) 37.Nxf5 Rxf5 38.Nc3 Qh4!(Threatening to win with either 39...Nxh3 or with 39...Rfg5, Carlsen's attack is breaking through.)

39.Kh2 (Ivanchuk blunders with 93 seconds on his clock, but he had no good defense anyway against 39...Nxh3 40.gxh3 Qxh3+ 41.Rh2 Qxf3+ 42.Rhg2 Qh3+ 43.Rh2 Rxg1+ 44.Kxg1 Rf1 mate. White cannot challenge the black knight: 39.Ne2 Qxf2 wins.) 39...Qg3+ (After 39...Qg3+ 40.Kh1 Nxh3 41.Rff1 Rf4 42.gxh3 Qxh3+ 43.Qh2 Qxh2+ 44.Kxh2 Rh4 mates.) White resigned.

Nakamura threw away his chance to finish first when he got up to get a drink, thinking he has made the time limit, and overstepped the time after 39 moves against the Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons. At the end, the American shared places with the world champion Vishy Anand and Levon Aronian of Armenia.

The Most Treacherous Defense

Lubomir Kavalek

The Most Treacherous Defense in Chess

International Chess Grandmaster

The Huffington Post, 10/5/11 12:25 PM ET

Named after the Austrian master Ernst Grunfeld, the defense has been around for nearly 90 years. At first, it was looked upon with suspicion: giving white a strong pawn center that could only be tickled by black's dark bishop and other pieces didn't seem to be a fair deal. Those who played the Grunfeld defense knew that it could turn into a nightmare in an instant. But the defense also brought them bright moments, tempted them again and again, and they could not live without it.

Bobby Fischer created the "game of the century" in 1956 against Donald Byrne and he almost beat the world champion Mikhail Botvinnik at the 1962 olympiad in Varna, Bulgaria, with the Grunfeld defense. Garry Kasparov picked it up and played it in the world championship matches against Anatoly Karpov.

The most unlikely convert was Nigel Short, a classical player who liked his pawns to be present in the center. For him the Grunfeld belonged to another universe, but as his coach I thought it made perfect sense to use it against Jonathan Speelman in the 1991 Candidates match in London. Speelman was one of those "diagonal players" who liked to place his kingside Bishop on the long diagonal h1-a8 as white. The Grunfeld steals the diagonal play from white because black's dark bishop has a target in the center. I taught Short the Grunfeld defense in three months and it won him the match.

Image by Jan Brychta

When they met in the 1988 Candidates quarterfinal, Speelman won convincingly 3.5 - 1.5. He seemed to have a psychological edge and what was even worse, Short didn't have suitable repertoire for the black pieces against him. No matter what he did, he was playing to Speelman's strength. The Grunfeld changed all that and Short had suddenly something new, fresh and surprising up his sleeve.

Speelman was switching from variation to variation, but in four Grunfeld games he was able to surprise Short only once. When he tried to win in the same variation again, Nigel easily drew by repeating all 27 moves I have analyzed for him the previous night. In the final game Speelman developed his light bishop on the diagonal, but ran into a prepared setup we used to play in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s around the time Short was born. Nigel won the game and the match. Considering the limited time we had to prepare the Grunfeld, it was a miracle.

But Short was not comfortable with the new defense and shortly after the match, he dropped it from his repertoire. With the appearance of Vladimir Kramnik, Kasparov got rid of the Grunfeld defense. But others like Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Svidler continue to play it. It made huge strides in the last 20 years and more and more people are playing it now.

New books covering the defense come out almost every year and the number of pages grows. Boris Avrukh's two-volume work The Grunfeld defense, published recently by Quality Chess, is more than 600 pages long. The Israeli grandmaster presents ideas from black's point of view, mixing known games with many original analyses. It is a wonderful Grunfeld manual that gives tournament players advice on where to move and what to avoid. And there are many slippery slopes as the miniature game from the recent European Club Cup in the Slovenian town of Rogaska Slatina shows.

In the last round, the Danish grandmaster Pieter Heine Nielsen, who is known as the second of the world champion Vishy Anand, faced Andrei Volokitin. The Ukrainian grandmaster played the Grunfeld reasonably well, followed Ivanchuk's idea of exposing one weak spot in white's camp - the square d3. Volokitin first controlled the weakness from a distance before occupying it with his knight. We all know what the black knight can do on the third rank and on the square d3 in particular. Remember Garry Kasparov's knight from the 16th game of the 1985 world championship match? How it tied up Karpov's pieces almost to the point of zugzwang?

Karpov-Kasparov, Moscow 1985, Game 16, after 16...Nd3

Volokitin aimed his knight at the same square, but didn't react well to Nielsen's novelty. When his horse leaped to d3, it was a losing blunder. Volokitin spent only 21 minutes on his 17 moves before he resigned.

Nielsen,Peter Heine - Volokitin,Andrei27th ECC Rogaska Slatina SLO (7), 01.10.2011

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 
(This line against the Grunfeld defense could be tricky and requires a precise reaction. White develops with speed.)
4...Bg7 5.e3 c5 6.dxc5 Qa5 7.Rc1 dxc4 8.Bxc4 0-0 9.Nf3 Qxc5 10.Bb3 Nc6 11.0-0
(White developed his pieces nicely and black has to play a catch-up game.) 11...Qa5 12.h3 
(A quiet positional move, creating an escape on h2 for his dark bishop and limiting black's light bishop.)

12...Qa6 (The queen controls the diagonal a6-f1 and black is ready to make the white queen uncomfortable with Rf8-d8. Avrukh recommends the natural 12...Bf5 only, which leads to complications after 13.Ng5 e5 14.Bh2 Rad8 15.Bxf7+ Rxf7 16.Qb3 Rdf8 with roughly equal chances.
The swashbuckling exchange sacrifice 13.Qe2 Ne4 14.Nd5 [The currently fashionable 14.g4!? requires a careful study according to Avrukh.] 14...e5 15.Rxc6!? played in London's Park Lane hotel in the 11th game of the 1986 match Karpov-Kasparov, lost its luster. After 15...bxc6!? [Kasparov didn't challenge the sacrifice and played the weaker 15...exf4.] 16.Ne7+ Kh8 17.Nxc6 Qb6 18.Ncxe5 Be6 19.Bxe6 Qxe6 20.Qc2 f5 black has a good game and scored well from this position.)
13.e4 Rd8 14.Qe1
(Solid and reasonable. The aggressive 14.Nd5!? is Romanian grandmaster George Gabriel Grigore's pet line. It could get hairy: 14...Nxd5 15.exd5 Bxb2?! 16.Qc2!? Bxc1 17.Qxc1 Nb4 18.Qc5 [18.d6! Is stronger] 18...Qb6? [An error, leading to a beautiful king's hunt. After 18...Nd3! 19.Qxe7 Bf5 20.d6 Rd7 holds comfortably.] 19.Qxe7 Nxd5 20.Bxd5 Rxd5 21.Qe8+ Kg7

22.Bh6+! Flushing out the black king. 22...Kxh6 [or 22...Kf6 23.Qh8+ Ke6 24.Re1+ Kd6 25.Bf4+ Kc6 26.Qe8+ wins.] 23.Qf8+ Kh5 24.Qxf7 Kh6 25.Qf8+ Kh5 26.Qg7 h6 27.Qe7 Qd8 28.Qe2 (28.Qe4!) 28...g5 29.Ne5+ g4 30.hxg4+ Kh4 31.Kh2 Qc7 32.f4 1-0 Grigore,G (2542)-Sanikidze,T (2559)/Baia Sprie 2009)14...Nb4 15.Ng5!? (A new attempt. Previously, the preferred choice was 15.Ne5 but black can utilize the Qa5-a6 move and play 15...Be6!, equalizing instantly.) 15...e6 (After 15...Nd3 16.Qd2 [16.Bxf7+?! Kf8 17.Qd2 h6 is weaker.] 16...e6 17.Rcd1 white is better.)
16.Rd1 Rxd1 (16...Rd3 or 16...Bd7 are better choices.) 17.Qxd1

17...Nd3? (Blundering a piece, but black is already under huge pressure. For example
A. 17...Qa5 18.e5 Nfd5 19.Qf3 Nxc3 20.bxc3 Nc6 21.Rd1 Qc7 22.Ne4 with a clear advantage, e.g. 22...Nxe5 23.Qg3 Bd7 24.Qh4 with a winning attack,
B. 17...Nd7 18.Qf3 Qd3 19.Qg4 Nc6 20.Rd1 Qa6 21.Qf3 Nd4 22.Rxd4! Bxd4 23.Nxf7 Kxf7 24.Be5+ Ke8 25.Bxd4 wins;
C. 17...Bd7 18.e5 Nfd5 19.Nxd5 exd5 20.Nxf7! Kxf7 21.Bd2 Nd3 22.Qf3+ Ke8 23.Qxd5 with advantage.)
18.Bc2 (Simple. After18...Nxf4 19.Qd8+ Bf8 20.Qxf6 black is mated soon.) Black resigned.

The 27th European Club Cup ended last Saturday with a victory for the Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation (with Svidler on the top board), ahead of the Azerbaijani team of Socar (led by Teimur Radjabov and Alexander Grischuk). The Czech team of Novy Bor finished third on a tiebreak.

Chess World Cup: Peter Svidler

Lubomir Kavalek

International Chess Grandmaster

Chess World Cup: Peter Svidler All the Way

The Huffington Post, 9/21/11 03:06 PM ET

It was the most amazing move of the 2011 Chess World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, a wonderful coup de grâce you don't see every day. And it could have been enough to play it, go home and enjoy it for years to come. But it was not all Peter Svidler had done at the World Cup this month. The six-time champion of Russia easily carved through the 128-player knockout tournament and won it almost as efficiently and convincingly as Novak Djokovic did the tennis Grand Slams at Wimbledon, Melbourne and New York this year. It was Svidler's greatest result.

Svidler defeated his countryman Alexander Grischuk 2.5-1.5 in the final match.Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine finished third, eliminating his countryman Ruslan Ponomariov 2.5-1.5 in the match for the bronze medal. The top three players qualified for the next Candidates, a final 8-player event to determine the challenger for the world crown after 2012.

Svidler's Magic

Sliding his rook towards Gata Kamsky's pieces, Svidler sensed that his astonishing move didn't belong to 21st century. In the computer age such a brilliant move is not usually allowed. It belonged to the games of Adolf Anderssen, the great German attacker who in the 1850s created both, the Immortal and the Evergreen games; or to the Belgian doctor who played chess with Humphrey Bogart.

Kamsky had to win the game and played the Spanish Opening cleverly. Svidler was outplayed. The U.S. champion not only won a pawn, but his pieces were swarming around the black king. But as it often happens in chess, out of desperation beautiful ideas are born. Svidler launched a counterattack that was gaining strength and suddenly Kamsky could not handle the storm. The surprising rook move was a "blow of mercy."

Kamsky - SvidlerFIDE World Cup 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8.axb5 axb5 9.c3 d6 10.d4 Bb6 11.Be3 0-0 12.Nbd2 h6 13.h3 Re8 14.Qc2 (Svidler calls it a poisonous little move. 14.Re1 is the most popular choice.) 14...exd4 (After 14...Bb7 the connection between the rook on b8 and black's dark bishop is broken and white can proceed with 15.d5 Bxe3? 16.dxc6 Bxd2 17.cxb7. Not only doesn't white rook stand on e1, but the dark bishop is in trouble.) 15.cxd4 Na5 (One can alwyas talk about the Tarrasch dictum about a badly placed knight on the edge. Instead, black could have finished the development, bringing the bishop into play: 15...Bb7 and because the square b4 is free, the pawn advance is not dangerous anymore: 16.d5 Nb4 17.Qc3 Bxe3 18.fxe3 Na6 19.Bc2 Nc5 and black has no problems.) 16.Ba2 Bb7 17.e5 (After 17.d5 Bxe3 18.fxe3 c6 black holds quite comfortably, for example 19.b4 Nc4 20.dxc6 Bxc6 21.Nxc4 Bxe4.) 17...Nd5 ("Normally this set up is very much in black's favor," Svidler explained. "I just assumed I play next Nd5-b4 and take the bishop. He played Bb1 and I'm very lucky I'm not just losing immediately.") 18.Bb1 g6 19.Bxh6 Nc6 ("I'm not saying I'm fine but it's trickier than it looks." - Svidler)

20.exd6 ("It seems that this is the move that throws away white's advantage," Svidler thought. Moving the white queen to the center was suggested by many experts, but it is not clear how white could have a big advantage after that. For example:
A. 20.Qe4 dxe5!? 21.dxe5 Nf6 [21...f5 22.Qe2 Nxe5 23.Nxe5 Qh4 24.Qxb5 Qxh6 25.Ndf3 with white's edge.] 22.Qh4!? Nxe5 23.Bg5 Ned7 [After 23...Nxf3+? 24.Nxf3 white wins either after 24...Kg7 25.Qh6+ Kg8 26.Bxg6; or after 24...Bxf3 25.Bxf6 Bxf2+ 26.Qxf2 Qxf6 27.Ra3!] 24.Bd3 Bc6 25.Rae1 with white's advantage.

B. After 20.Qe4 Kamsky looked at 20...Nxd4!? 21.Nxd4 [21.Bg5 is met by 21...Nf4!] 21...Rxe5, but after 22.Qg4 white's position is more pleasant either after 22...Nf6 23.Qg3!? Bxd4 24.Bxg6 Kh8 25.Bxf7 Nh5 26.Qg4 Qf6 27.Qxd4 c5 28.Qg4 Qxh6 29.Nf3; or after 22...Rh5 23.Bxg6 Rxh6 24.Be4+ Kf8 25.Nf5 Rg6 26.Qf3 c6 27.Nb3.)
20...Qxd6 21.Ne4 Qb4 22.Ba2 (Svidler thought first that he was lost, but it dawned on him that something spectacular is about to happen. After 22.Bd2 Nxd4 23.Bxb4 Nxc2 24.Bxc2 Nxb4 25.Nf6+ Kh8 26.Nxe8 Nxc2 27.Rac1 Bxf3 28.Rxc2 [ 28.gxf3 Nd4] 28...Be4 29.Rxc7 Rxe8 30.Rxf7 black is fine with the bishop pair.) 22...Nxd4 23.Nf6+ Kh8 24.Nxd4 (Kamsky had to win and 24.Nxd5 is petering out to a draw after 24...Nxc2 25.Nxb4 Nxb4 26.Bxf7 Re2 or after 24...Nxf3+ 25.gxf3 Bxd5 26.Bxd5 Qh4, threatening 27...Qg3+ with perpetual check and after 27.Be3 Bxe3 28.fxe3 Qg5+ 29.Kh2 Qxd5 the chances are equal.) 24...Nxf6 25.Nc6 
(Svidler's first reaction was that he had to capture the knight, but then he found something else.)25...Qh4! ("Here I'm probably already better but it isn't obvious immediately. After 25...Bxc6 26.Qxc6 Qh4 white has this horribly strong move 27.Be3. I realized black is in a huge amount of trouble because my pieces are not coordinated. As soon as this bishop is exchanged away, all my potential initiative is gone: pawn on f7 is hanging, pawn on c7 will be hanging. I think I'm close to lost here. So I started looking at some romantic variations starting with Qh4." - Svidler) 26.Nxb8? (Allowing a magnificent clincher. "There really isn't much white can do here. After 26.Be3 Rxe3 27.fxe3 Re8 for a single exchange I'm getting this horrible attack on the kingside and there really isn't much he can do. I definitely have a draw everywhere here and probably I'm already even winning. " - Svidler;
Perhaps the best way for white to resist is 26.Bxf7 Qxh6 27.Bxe8 Rxe8 28.Rae1.)

26...Re2!!

(Svidler's coup de grâce: "It's something you see in Anderssen's games. Put on the cover of a book. Suddenly white is just completely lost."
Before arriving at this amazing deflection, Svidler considered two other continuations:
A. 26...Be4 was Svidler's initial idea, but after 27.Qd2 Qg3 [After 27...Ng4 28.Bf4 the whole thing collapses because black is running out of pieces.] 28.Qg5 black's attack is refuted.
B. 26...Qg3 27.Nc6 Re2 was Svidler's other idea, which can be met by 28.Qc3 Bxf2+ 29.Kh1 Qxc3 30.bxc3 Bxc6 31.Rfd1 with roughly equal chances.

"But why am I starting this with 26...Qg3? This is where it dawned on me what was happening," Svidler explained his thinking process. )
27.Qc3 (After 27.Qxe2 Qg3 nothing stands in the way of black's light bishop; the diagonal a8-h1 can't be blocked and white is being mated on g2.) 27...Rxf2 28.Nc6 Rxf1+ ("...and I'm just collecting the entire chess set. It's a very nice feeling to make a move like Re2 on the board. It really doesn't happen every day. It's a great feeling. It's something you don't really see in the modern game because you never have an opportunity to do anything like that." - Svidler) White resigned.

The Belgian doctor

During a team competition in Brussels in 1970 I met an older man who introduced himself as dr. Limbos. He put me quickly at ease, saying: "I love chess, but I do not have much time to play." I had not heard of him before and had not the slightest idea that it was the same dr. Paul Limbos who played chess with Humphrey Bogart during the filming of "The African Queen" in 1951.

Bogart did not know that Limbos was a strong player, strong enough to win the city championship of Brussels several times and the Belgian championship as well. Yet Limbos had a habit of making his opponents believe that he was just an amateur. Bogart agreed to play for a dollar a game with the Belgian doctor, but must have regretted soon his decision. Limbos was smashing him game after game even though Katharine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall kept helpfully filling Limbos's glass with whiskey in the hope to level the competition.

I didn't even know that dr. Limbos played for Belgium at the chess olympiads and when I had a chance to begin a reckless attack in Misha Tal's style, I jumped at the opportunity. The attacking material, a pair of bishops and the queen, was similar to Svidler's weapons. Soon I realized that my opponent, who acted like an amateur and spoke like an amateur was not playing like an amateur. He smashed my attack with an incredibly brilliant queen move, a game clincher one may produce once in a lifetime.

Dr. Limbos - KavalekBrussels 1970

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 Nc6 6.c4 e6 7.Nc3 Be7 8.Nc2 0-0 9.Be2 b6 10.0-0 Bb7 11.b3 Re8 12.Qd2
(White has an interesting plan in mind. He wants to play Rf1-d1 and Bc1-a3, but the queen move allows the central break d6-d5 black is aiming for. It could have been prevented with 12.Ne3.)
12...d5! 13.cxd5 exd5 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.exd5 Ne5 (I could have equalized immediately with 15...Nb4 16.Nxb4 Bxb4 17.Qxb4 Rxe2, but I tried to keep more pieces on the board.)
16.Rd1 (After 16.Bb5 Bc5+ 17.Kh1 Re7 the game is roughly equal.) 16...Bc5+ 17.Kh1 Qh4 18.Bb5 Bxd5!? (I should have been punished for this reckless move. It was sufficient to play 18...Red8 with a good game, but I couldn't resist the following attacking ideas with pieces flying around and hanging at the same time.)

19.Bxe8! (Dr. Limbos is on the right path. Taking the rook is stronger than 19.Qxd5 Rad8 20.Bb2 Rxd5 21.Rxd5 Nxf3 22.gxf3 Rc8 23.Rf1.) 19...Ng4! (Threatening mate on h2 and, at the same time, opening the diagonal h2-b8. 19...Nxf3 allows 20.Qf4.)
20.Bxf7+! (The doctor finds another strong move. Black's main idea is 20.fxg4 Bd6 and as in Svidler's game, black seems to have a raging attack with a bishop pair and the queen.)
20...Kh8! (One may argue that 20...Kf8 is better, forcing a king's chase 21.fxg4 Bd6 22.Kg1 Qxh2+ 23.Kf1 [On 23.Kf2? Qxg2+ 24.Ke3 Qf3+ 25.Kd4 Bc5+ 26.Ke5 Qe4 mates.] 23...Qh1+ 24.Ke2 Qxg2+ 25.Kd3 Qe4+ 26.Kc3 Be5+ 27.Nd4 Bxf7 but now 28.Qf2 pins the bishop on f7 and white has time to protect the knight with 29.Be3.
Other moves lose: 20...Bxf7 21.fxg4 wins.; 20...Kxf7 21.Qxd5+ wins.)
21.fxg4 Bd6

22.Qh6!!

(A coup de grâce! I overlooked this magnificent move that should have won the game. Instead, I thought I could hunt the white king and my chances didn't seem bad at all. Incredibly, running away with the king gives black a lot of play: 22.Kg1 Qxh2+ 23.Kf1 Qh1+ 24.Ke2 [24.Kf2? Qxg2+ 25.Ke3 Qf3+ 26.Kd4 Bc5+ 27.Ke5 Qe4 mate.] 24...Qxg2+ 25.Kd3 Qe4+ 26.Kc3 Be5+ 27.Nd4 Bxf7 with some attacking chances, for example 28.Qd3 [After 28.Qf2 Rc8+ 29.Kb2 Bg6 threatening 30...Rc2+, white has problems.] 28...Rc8+ 29.Kb2 Qg2+! 30.Ka3 (Black is better after either 30.Bd2 Rd8; or 30.Rd2 Qxg4.] 30...Bd6+ 31.b4 a5! 32.Rd2 Rc3+! 33.Qxc3?! axb4+ 34.Qxb4 Qa8+ wins.) 22...Bxg2+ (The only way to continue. After 22...gxh6?? 23.Bb2+ white mates soon.) 23.Kxg2 Qxg4+ 24.Kf2 Qf5+ (24...Bc5+ as later in the game, is better.) 25.Kg2?! (White should have taken advantage of my last move with 25.Ke2! gxh6 26.Bb2+ Be5 27.Ne3 Qf4 28.Rf1 Qxh2+ 29.Rf2 Qg3 30.Rg1 and white wins.) 25...Qg4+ 26.Kf2 Bc5+ 27.Ne3 Rf8(The desire to bring the last piece into play backfires. But collecting material does not help either: 27...Qxd1 28.Qh5 [28.Qxg7+ does not work: 28...Kxg7 29.Bb2+ Qd4!] 28...Bxe3+ 29.Kxe3 Qe1+ 30.Kd3! Rd8+ 31.Bd5 Qa5 32.Kc2 Qc5+ 33.Kb1 white wins.)

28.Qc6?

(Blundering the game away. White could have won with 28.Ke1!, for example
a) 28...Bb4+ 29.Bd2 Qd4 30.Qe6 Bxd2+ 31.Ke2+-;
b) 28...Qf3 29.Qh4 Qxf7 (29...Bxe3 30.Qg3+-) 30.Rd8;
c) 28...Qg1+ 29.Ke2.)
28...Rxf7+ 29.Ke1 Qh4+ 30.Ke2 (After 30.Kd2 Rf2+ 31.Kc3 Qb4+ 32.Kd3 Qd4 mates.) 30...Rf2+ 31.Ke1 (Or 31.Kd3 Qd4 mate.) 31...Rxh2+ (After 32.Kf1 Qf2 mates.) White resigned.

Anderssen's Evergreen masterpiece

The German master Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) was the world's leading player in the mid-19th- century. His attacks and combinations were remarkable and memorable. His friendly game against Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky in London in 1851 was called the "Immortal game." One year later in Berlin, he created the "Evergreen game" against Jean Dufresne. Svidler might had the former game in mind when he referred to Anderssen. The German maestro seems to be on the ropes when suddenly his white rook delivers the final blow on the same square as Svidler did with his black rook. Technically, the coup de grâce is the queen sacrifice on the next move.

Anderssen - Dufresne'Evergreen game' Berlin 1852

20.Rxe7+! Nxe7!? (After 20...Kd8 21.Rxd7+! Kc8 (21...Kxd7 22.Bf5+ Ke8 23.Bd7+ Kd8 24.Bxc6+ with mate; 21...Ke8 22.Re7+ Kd8 23.Be2+ Bd4 24.Bxf3 and white mates soon.) 22.Rd8+! Kxd8 (22...Rxd8 23.gxf3 wins; or; 22...Nxd8 23.Qd7+!! Kxd7 24.Bf5+ Kc6 25.Bd7#) 23.Be2+ Nd4 24.Bxf3 Bxf3 25.g3 Bxd1 26.Qxd1 and white should win the endgame.] 21.Qxd7+!! (Coup de grâce.) 21...Kxd7 22.Bf5+ Ke8 23.Bd7+ Kf8 24.Bxe7 mate.