Anish Giri grabbed an early lead at the London Chess Classic as the only winner of the first round. The Dutch star tricked Veselin Topalov, but a tremendous trick it was.
The Grand Chess Tour resumed on Friday with the first round of the London Chess Classic. Now turned into a 10-player round robin, the Classic is the third and last leg of the Grand Chess Tour.
The first, Norway Chess in June, was won by Veselin Topalov. The second, the Sinquefield Cup in August-September, was won by Levon Aronian. In each tournament the first prize is $75,000 and the winner of the tour gets an additional $75,000
Veselin Topalov played the sideline 5.Qa4 in the Fianchetto Grünfeld, but Giri knew the best reply (5...Nfd7) and even came up with a new plan in the opening. He got very active play but still ended up worse, which he felt was “unfair."
“First of all it was unfair after my 17...Nd3, it was undeserved that he is better. I don't like undeserved victories,” he said. “And I felt I should be able to hold this position.”
Giri did more than that. He played accurately, centralized his pieces and then outsmarted his opponent when the tactics appeared. 35...Qd5! was a nasty shot missed by Topalov, who soon got himself checkmated.
I felt like a kid; I was doing very strange things,” said Giri about seemingly playing for tricks. He was reminded of his younger years, when he was surviving his way “with cheap tricks and zero understanding,” adding: “Today it worked again!”
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