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Vidit Santosh Gujrathi vs Alireza Firouzja
World Championship Candidates (2024), Toronto CAN, rd 6, Apr-10
Sicilian Defense: Classical. Anti-Fischer-Sozin Variation (B57)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Apr-10-24  jphamlore: Do not allow children to see how Firouzja played this Sicilian. :-(
Apr-10-24  Voice without Words: I can see how desperate he wanted to get the point. But is but
Apr-11-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  Teyss: Only one other game in the DB with 8...Qd8 (S Ter-Sahakyan vs Gelfand, 2021). 8...Ne5 is generally played.

Apparently Vidit was then out of his prep because he started thinking for 25 minutes cumulated on moves 9 and 10, and then a full hour from moves 12 to 16! By move 20 he had less than 20 minutes left and by move 30 less than 10 minutes.

13...Qxf2 was very dangerous, wasting two tempos and opening lines for White's pieces. Surely Firouzja knew he was lost before the end but maybe was hoping for Vidit to miss the win with little time left. After move 40 and the extra time and increment, it was hopeless.

Firouzja apparently isn't prepared enough and is not in the right mindset to play highly motivated and prepared top GMs.

Apr-11-24  ultrausurper: The game is virtually over by move 21, I can't possibly imagine what Firouzja was hoping for after doing down an exchange. Does he not realize the level of the stage he's playing on?

11...Bb7? is already a big mistake, because the a4-d8 diagonal is weakened and black cannot play the desired 12...Ne5 because of 13.Nxb5! axb5 14.Bxe5 dxe5 15.Bxb5+ and black gets murdered on that diagonal.

Therefore black is forced to lose the d6 pawn, and he lost too much time in getting the f2 pawn in return, which allowed 14.e5! and total decimation of the black position.

Apr-11-24  ultrausurper: Black had some slim hope of survival if he played 13...Rd8 playing defense (instead of going insane like in the game), but after 14.Be3! Qc7 15.g5 Nd7 (all forced) 16.f4, black is effectively sentenced to solitary confinement with no access to food, water or air.


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Apr-11-24  Jamboree: Look at black's embarrassing queen moves in the first half of the game:

6....Qb6
8....Qd8
12....Qb6
13....Qxf2
15....Qb6
16....Qd8

37% of his first 16 moves were queen moves -- and after all that it ended up back at its starting square! And he moved to b6 three different times in the opening! Truly amateur level. With so much time wasted, any semi-competent opponent could have easily built up a huge advantage in development and a winning initiative.

Apr-11-24  ultrausurper: This position (diagram) looks like it could be Morphy vs NN. I'll cut Firouzja some slack because he's probably tilted from the painful loss to Hikaru the previous day, but he also pretty much brought that loss upon himself as well when he didn't go for the drawn rook endgame. It feels like he doesn't know the difference between the Candidates Tournament and Titled Tuesday.


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Apr-12-24  Andrew Chapman: At 13.. Qxf2, Daniel King was veering between pain, disapproval and bewilderment.
Apr-12-24  Saniyat24: If the mixing isn't alright, the cocktail tastes bad...!
Apr-16-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Alf badly outplayed, here.

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