^{GM Anish Giri. Source: official website}

In the Round 11 of a FIDE Candidates Tournament, Anish Giri destroyed Ding Liren using his small mistake to perform a pleasurable Bishop sacrifice ripping up Liren’s defense. Today we are going to see an exemplary strategic deconstruction of Fabiano Caruana in the Round 12…

If we are to believe chessgames.com database Anish Giri and Fabiano Caruana have played 59 games before this one.

Classical games: Fabiano Caruana vs. Anish Giri 3 to 2, with 27 draws.
Rapid/exhibition games: Fabiano Caruana vs. Anish Giri 7 to 6, with 14 draws.
Total: Fabiano Caruana vs. Anish Giri 10 to 8, with 41 draws.

It is pretty hard to surprise an opponent you know so well. But not impossible…

GM Fabiano Caruana vs GM Anish Giri

The Candidates Tournament 2020/21 – Round 12, Yekaterinburg, April 24th, 2021
B40 Sicilian Defense: Four Knights Variation

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6

^{B40 Sicilian Defense: Four Knights Variation}

Is it wise to play Sicilian against an Italian? Only if you are extremely well prepared, and if you know your stats!

Giri vs Caruana 0-1 2014 London Chess Classic (Blitz), B41 Sicilian, Kan
Caruana vs Giri 0-1 2015 Norway Chess (Blitz), B90 Sicilian, Najdorf
Giri vs Caruana 0-1 2016 Grand Chess Tour Paris Blitz, B28 Sicilian, O’Kelly Variation
Caruana vs Giri 0-1 2016 Grand Chess Tour Paris Blitz, B90 Sicilian, Najdorf
Giri vs Caruana ½-½ 2018 Your Next Move (Blitz), B42 Sicilian, Kan
Caruana vs Giri 1-0 2019 GCT Paris Rapid & Blitz, B90 Sicilian, Najdorf
Caruana vs Giri 0-1 2020 Magnus Carlsen Invitational B90 Sicilian, Najdorf

You see? Seven games in Sicilian, and five wins with black pieces (Giri had three) and only one win with white pieces, with one draw. So, his choice of opening should really not be a surprise, but rather a safe bet. What Caruana has to say about it?

6. a3 Be7 7. Be3 O-O 8. Be2 d6 9. Qd3 Bd7 10. f4

Fabiano has filled the center with his pieces, is ready to castle short side, and all he need now is a plan how to break through Giri’s wall.

10… e5 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. O-O exf4 13. Bxf4 Be6 14. Qg3 Nd7

Black pawn from Giri’s frontline cannot be captured with 15. Bxd6 because 15… Bxd6 16. Qxd6 Qb6+! and all the Queen’s side pawns are in danger. Therefore, Fabiano rather increases the pressure to that central black pawn.

15. Rad1 Re8 16. Kh1 Qb8 17. b4 Ne5 18. b5 Rc8 19. bxc6 Rxc6 20. Nd5 Qf8 21. c3 Rac8 22. Rc1 Ng6 23. Bd2 Bh4 24. Qe3 Rc5 25. c4 h6 26. Qb3 Bg5

At a glance, you would say that Fabiano has quite good position. He has centralized Knight, more space, open b-line, dominant Bishops… But now Giri presents his plan. First, change your weakest pieces for the opponent’s strongest:

27. Bxg5 hxg5 28. Qg3 Qd8 29. Rcd1 Bxd5 30. exd5 Nf4 31. Qf2 R8c7

Then, put your pieces out of remained Bishop’s reach. Look at this: All black pieces (with the exception of one pawn and a King) are on black squares. White Bishop is reduced to a bystander, while black Knight will merrily jump around on all squares.

This is called a strategy lesson!

Even stupid machine would jump out to warn Fabiano of the weak spots in his position…

32. Rd4 Qe8 33. Bf3 Rxc4 34. Rxc4 Rxc4 35. Qxa7 Ra4 36. Qf2??

And the a3-pawn is gone. The last chance to hold the position was 36. Qc7. Now even stupid machine is giving an advice to Fabiano to resign.

36… Rxa3 37. h4 Qe5

Fabiano does not accept. He has more mistakes to make. Like this one:

38. hxg5?! Qxg5 39. Re1 Ra8 40. Be4?!

He still didn’t resign? Cheap tricks with closing the escape route for the King while hoping that Giri will overlook 8th rank? That’s pure desperation!

40… Ra2 41. Rb1

Don’t mind the stupid machine, Rook cannot be taken because of simple 42. Qh4+ … 43. Qxe1+ … 44. Qxe4. I can‘t believe Caruana still didn’t resign!

41… Ra8 42. Re1 f5 43. Bb1 Kf7

Opening a file for the Rook to attack on the h-line… I can‘t believe Caruana still didn’t resign!

44. Re3 Rh8+ 45. Kg1 Nxg2!!

Fabiano finally has to accept the truth that someone else is going to play title match with Carlsen this year, and he resigns in this position:

^{GM Caruana resigning, photo by Lennart Ootes. Source: official website}

As we have said, in a stormy Round 12 all four games were decided.

White	Round 12	Black
GM Caruana, F.	0-1	GM Giri, Anish
GM Vachier-Lagrave, M.	1-0	GM Alekseenko, K.
GM Ding, Liren	1-0	GM Grischuk, A.
GM Wang, Hao	0-1	GM Nepomniachtchi, I.

It was true fireworks on all boards. Here is IM Levy Rozman, a.k.a. GothamChess with a quick review of all the games:

[00:00] Intro
[00:26] Ding Liren vs. Grischuk
[05:33] MVL vs. Alekseenko
[10:55] Caruana vs. Giri
[17:25] Wang Hao vs. Nepo

The standings after twelve rounds looks like this:

Place	Name	Score	Rating
1	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	8/12	2789
2	Giri, Anish	7.5/12	2776
3	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	6.5/12	2758
4	Caruana, Fabiano	6/12	2820
5	Grischuk, Alexander	5.5/12	2777
6	Wang, Hao	5/12	2763
7	Ding, Liren	5/12	2791
8	Alekseenko, Kirill	4.5/12	2696

And now something completely different…

Chess betting, anybody?

Unfortunately for Giri, despite the brilliant play in the continuation of the tournament, it probably won’t be enough for a leading position. As you can see from the crosstable, he just have half a point in direct duel with Ian Nepomniachtchi, which means if they are tied, Ian goes to Dubai in November.