Anish Giri vs Sam Shankland (2019) Tata Steal

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Anish Giri vs Sam Shankland
"Tata Steal" (game of the day Feb-25-2019)
Tata Steel Masters (2019), Wijk aan Zee NED, rd 11, Jan-25
Italian Game: Giuoco Pianissimo. Italian Four Knights Variation (C50) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 5 OF 5 · Later Kibitzing>
Feb-02-19		parmetd: <DonChalce> It is. See above for interview with Giri confirming Shankland resigned.

Feb-02-19		ChessHigherCat: Okay, but let's shut up about it now, the poor guy will probably be haunted by it all his life anyway.

Feb-25-19		offramp: <Jan-26-19 Cedroke: What a Tata Steal.> Well done, User: Cedroke!

Feb-25-19		perfidious: It is ironic that, despite this gift late in this event and Giri's pacific tendencies receding to some degree, he still found himself unable to overtake Carlsen for first overall.

Feb-25-19		OrangeTulip: What a nasty comment, perfidious. Giri played again a great tournament, but Carlsen played even better.

Feb-25-19		HeMateMe: why did Shank make the middlegame recapture that left him with double isolated 'b' pawns? Those pawns were useless.

Feb-25-19		moronovich: <HeMateMe: why did Shank make the middlegame recapture that left him with double isolated 'b' pawns?> Shankland is a clever man. If he hadn´t recaptured he would have been a piece down. Last time I checked,the same rule applies for N.Y.

Feb-25-19		HeMateMe: he could have recaptured with the Knight on d7? why mangle your pawn structure?

Feb-25-19		moronovich: All comes with a price.Try to investigate why Shank does as he does.You can be shure he has his reasons.

Feb-25-19		Muttley101: <perfidious: "It is ironic that, despite this gift late in this event and Giri's pacific tendencies receding to some degree, he still found himself unable to overtake Carlsen for first overall."> This isn't even irony.

Feb-25-19		The Kings Domain: Nice play by Giri, smooth and efficient.

Feb-25-19		offramp: <Muttley101: <perfidious: "It is ironic that, despite this gift late in this event and Giri's pacific tendencies receding to some degree, he still found himself unable to overtake Carlsen for first overall."> This isn't even irony.> I think you may be right. A better word would be "noteworthy" which is nothing like "ironic".

Feb-25-19		offramp: Today's Pun is credited on the home page to User: rcs784, but it is incongruously, mockingly, paradoxically, ridiculously, sardonically, satirically, twistedly, unexpectedly and wryly the creation of <Cedroke>. Harsh!

Feb-25-19		rcs784: <offramp> Yes, of course the title belongs to <Cedroke>. I just thought somebody should submit it as GOTD. It's not my fault CG.com gave me credit for it.

Feb-25-19		OhioChessFan: I thought it might have been coincidentally entered by someone who didn't know it had already been mentioned. It happens. In any case, it's a very nice pun.

Feb-26-19		offramp: I was not impugning anyone's veracity or traducing his or her propriety. I was simply making a post avoiding the word "ironically".

Feb-26-19		perfidious: So long as my voracity is not questioned, makes no difference to me--I can work up a fair appetite now and again.

Mar-12-19		kamajiro: Draw ¡¡ 55..kd6¡= the black king can not be expelled from c8 ,stalemate

May-17-19		Howard: NIC said that Giri had read Shankland's "body language" and suspected that Shankland was getting ready to resign. So, he kept playing rather than offer a draw. And it paid off !

Oct-20-19		Messiah: What a terrible misfortune for Sam! I am by no means comparable to any grandmasters, but I know (and probably all of us know) how bad feeling is to have a blackout. A several weeks ago I played with a friend in the pub. After surviving the middlegame, I was ready to seek for repetitions. He moved a dubious one, that immediately allowed me to go for such a draw, so I have done it without thinking, and continued drinking the beers in a satisfied manner. Later, when I checked the game with the computer, I was forced into the conclusion that my opponent's abovementioned strange move actually allowed me to sacrifice the bishop for immense pressure on the queenside (earlier I was never able to make this idea work, no matter how hard I tried to calculate), with a huge, although not immediately won position. click for larger view Here I continued with the flawed plan of Rc1-Rcb1-Rc1, leading to an easy-to-understand repetition. Can you see what had to be played instead? I accept my mistake by magnitudes more easily than Sam might accept his own, and the reason is very simple: he is actually capable of playing strong chess - but I am not. So yes, blackouts 'happen', and they are horrible in every case.

Feb-06-21		FSR: Very impressive that after this debacle Sam was able to win his last two games (against Nepo and Kramnik, no less) to salvage an even score. Tata Steel Masters (2019)/Samuel Shankland

Feb-06-21		keypusher: <FSR> Thanks for reminding me of this one. Jesus de la Villa's excellent <100 Endgames You Must Know> gives a fortress similar to what Shankland could have reached: click for larger view As de la Villa notes, even if you move the bishop to the light squares it's still a draw. <Very impressive that after this debacle Sam was able to win his last two games (against Nepo and Kramnik, no less) to salvage an even score.> As someone said, resigning against Giri was a give-up-chess-level blunder. Glad Shankland didn't do that.

Feb-08-21		FSR: <keypusher: . . . As de la Villa notes, even if you move the bishop to the light squares it's still a draw.> Yes. Very surprising (to me anyway). click for larger view Black's only winning try is 1...Bf3! 2.Kg1!▢ (serene as a queen) 2...Ke2! 3.gxf3!▢ Kxf3 and now either king move - the pedestrian 4.Kf1 or the much funnier 4.Kh1!! - draws. Of course White's king must be in the corner. If White's king is on e1 and Black's bishop is on the a6-f1 diagonal shutting out White's king, Black wins with Ke3-f2-xg2. In that respect, the ending differs from the one that should have been seen in the game after 45...Kc6 46.Kg4 Kd7 47.Kxh3 Kc8 48.Bf4, where Black draws despite his king being barred from b8 (and a8). Sam evidently "knew" without thinking about it that that ending was lost.

Feb-08-21		FSR: Incidentally, if anyone wants to know how to make the box symbol, use this: &# 9634 (without the space). It's actually not quite right (the corners of the square shouldn't be rounded), but &# 9633 results in a square that's too small: □.

Oct-12-22		Sally Simpson: ' ChessHigherCat: Okay, but let's shut up about it now, the poor guy will probably be haunted by it all his life anyway.' Dave Smerdon has included it his book on Swindles adding Giri guessed correctly due to Sam's body language that Sam thought he was lost so Giri played 46.b6 which gives up any hope of winning chances. Sam thought the fortress only worked with the King on a8 so resigned. In 1975/76 a club member was showing me how Fischer was trying to get this fortress v Spassky in Game one 1972. The final position. click for larger view Of course Spassky was never going to let the Black King get to c8 but it's wee things like that seem to have stuck. I have found a few other games between much lower rated players where the loser has also failed to spot the fortress.

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