Friday, May 9, 2014

Game of the year 2013 - Anand's Brilliancy !!

Hey friends,

This game which I am about to present today, I am sure many of you may have already seen and analyzed it. It was played last year in Tata Steel Chess 2013 - Group A, Round 4 Aronian-Anand




It was given the award as 2013's Best Game. Some also refer to it as Anand's Immortal / Anand's Brilliancy as in today's day when Chess is supposedly becoming an equal drawish game, with rise of chess engines and other computer software, the Black side crushes the enemy's defense and just gets on tactics, and more tactics and finally gets a full point within 23 moves !!




Aronian (2800+ rated) defeated in just 23 moves !! (Something you don't get to see everyday)

So here is how it went about with a Semi-Slav variation

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3


With White's last move 6. Bd3, here black has a good opportunity to develop at the cost of this move. 6...dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 Prepares for a Bb7 and this is exactly what happened in the game.


6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 Bd6 9. O-O O-O


10. Qc2 Bb7 11. a3 Rc8 12. Ng5


White's last move here was 12. Ng5 threatening the h7 pawn
Black has developed with the idea to open up the position via c-file. This does 2 things
1. Opens up the way for Bishop on b7
2. Opens c-file for the Rook on c8 (Which is good as it is directly opposite the white queen) 

So Black completely ignores the threat on h7 and goes for what he had planned.
12...c5 (Leaving the pawn on b5 hanging, the pawn on h7 attacked thrice) 13. Nxh7 Ng4
White threatened to take on f8, but black again ignored the threat and went for the kill

Look at the position after just 13 moves and how black can attack in many ways.


The only move that stops this attack is f4, and white does play it, in turn weakening his d4-e3-f2 diagonal and black has the right tool to attack here.

14. f4 cxd4 exd4 15. Bc5!! 


Because if 15. dxc5 then Nxc5 followed by Qd4+ or taking the bishop on d3 if not defended for the second time.

So white here decides to try to remove a threat, the knight on g4
16. Be2 Ne5!! Leaving everything under attack. Variations shown in the entire game play below.


The Bishop on c5, Kinght on e5, Rook on f8, pawn on b5 all hanging !!

Guess what happens next ! We are just 16 moves into the game, we got a result just after 23 moves, which means, 7 strong moves only. Guess the result anybody ??

View the game below to know more variations and how the game ended.

Comments from Anand, "I think if I have my worst score with anyone it;s him (on Aronian)"



For more articles about Anand, read my earlier blogpost on this staggering win in the Candidates tournament at Khanty Mansiysk 2014, Eye of the Madras Tiger!




Some post game analysis in the post game conference...




Comments from Levon Aronian, "The Bishop on b7 was monstrous"



Comments and feedback much appreciated...

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Continue playing, enjoy learning!!

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