Max Euwe Matches 2010 (3)
Giri plays Short in Amsterdam
IM Malcolm Pein - Tuesday 18th May 2010
There are five matches underway between experienced GMs and the best young players in Holland.
There are five matches underway between experienced GMs and the best young players in Holland. The event is being hosted by the Max Euwe Centrum in Amsterdam. The highest rated contest is between Nigel Short and Anish Giri, the fifteen year old GM who was a sensation at Wijk aan Zee where he won Group B. The other four matches are Lubomir Ftacnik - Robin van Kampen, Yasser Seirawan - Benjamin Bok, Sebastian Siebrecht - Lisa Schut and Dennis de Vreugt - Anne Haast.
Short nearly won game two when he surprised his opponent with the Modern Benoni but triumphed in game three by confounding the youngster with the rarely played Veresov Opening which is 1.d4 and 2.Nc3 as opposed to 2.c4 the Queen's Gambit. Giri can hardly have been prepared for that as it went out before he was born. Tony Miles, England's first ever GM, was the only leading player to use it regularly and that was in 1982. Short played a very interesting novelty as early as move 5 and Giri blundered on move 14 in a sharp position.
N Short - A Giri
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 Nbd7 4.e3
(Miles also played 4. Qd3!?)
4...e6 5.Qf3
(New at the top level but a natural attacking move. Miles played quietly with 5.Nf3)
5...c5
(Aronian played 5...Bb4 6.Nge2 h6 in the Bundesliga)
6.0-0-0 a6 7.Nge2 Qa5
(7...b5 8.e4 b4 9.Nxd5 exd5 10.e5!? is strong so perhaps 7...h6)
8.Bxf6 Nxf6 9.g4! b5 10.g5 Nd7 11.Nf4 cxd4
(Sacrificial ideas abound 11...Bb7 12.Qh3 b4 13.Nce2 Qxa2 14.g6!)
12.Ncxd5!
Anish Giri
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Nigel Short
Position after 12.Ncxd5!
12...exd5 13.Qxd5 Ra7 14.Bh3 Be7?
(14...Rc7 15.Qe4+ Kd8 16.Rxd4 or 16.Kb1 with the attack but not 14...Rc7 15.exd4 Bb4 16.a3 0-0 ! 17.axb4 Qa1+ 18.Kd2 Qxb2)
15.Qxd4 0-0
(15...Qxa2 16.Qxa7 and 15...Rc7 16.Qxg7 Rf8 17.Nd5 Rc5 18.Nxe7 Kxe7 19.Bxd7 Bxd7 20.Rxd7+ Kxd7 21.Qxf8 are worse)
16.Nh5 f6 17.Be6+
(A bonus, Short defends a2 eliminating all counterplay)
17...Kh8 18.Qxa7 Bc5 19.Qa8 Ne5 20.gxf6 gxf6 21.Qg2 Ng6 22.Qc6 Bb4 23.Kb1 1-0
Anish Giri
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Nigel Short
Final position after 23.Kb1
Short has a big material advantage and a rook arriving on d7 soon.
A Miles - L Christiansen
Phillips & Drew London 1982
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 Nbd7 4.Nf3 g6 5.e3 Bg7 6.Bd3 0-0 7.0-0 c5 8.Re1 h6 9.Bh4 b6 10.e4 dxe4 11.Nxe4 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Bb7 13.c3 Rc8 14.Qe2 Nc5 15.Nxf6+ exf6 16.Bc4 Qd7 17.f3 f5 18.Be7 Rfe8 19.Bb5 Bxd4+ 20.cxd4 Qxd4+ 21.Kf1 Qb4 22.Bxe8 1-0
