Peter Svidler vs Teimour Radjabov (2013)

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Peter Svidler vs Teimour Radjabov
World Championship Candidates (2013), London ENG, rd 3, Mar-17
King's Indian Defense: Saemisch Variation. Normal Defense (E81) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Given 4 times; par: 107 [what's this?]

Annotations by Stockfish (Computer). [35434 more games annotated by Stockfish]

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Mar-17-13		fisayo123: Teimour falls into Svidler's prep, wastes too much time to in the opening. Svidler/Vituigov already analyzed the position to move 17.

Mar-17-13		offramp: Well played Peter! Off the mark with a single.

Mar-17-13		John Abraham: After this game, Radjabov joins Kramnik and Grischuk at 1.5/3 with 1 win, 1 loss, and 1 draw (Kramnik and Gris have 3 draws)

Mar-17-13		LIFE Master AJ: What a bad idea by Radjabov, he never got much play for his conception. Meanwhile, Svidler just keeps on improving his position ...

Mar-17-13		Hesam7: Two questionable ideas from Radjabov neither of which is forced: (A) 17...Nb2?! 18 Qb2 Nd3 19 Qd2 Nc1 20 Rc1, I am not sure why Black went for this line. I can't figure out why he rejected the simple 17...h6 18 Bf4 Rfb8. (B) 20...Bc3?! 21 Rc3, again why trade the Bishop? 20...Rfb8 looks much better and after 21 Nge2 (White has to play this because with a Rook on b8, ...Bc3 is a real threat) 21...Rb4 Black is worse but not by much.

Mar-17-13		Blunderdome: <17...Nb2?! 18 Qb2 Nd3 19 Qd2 Nc1 20 Rc1, I am not sure why Black went for this line. I can't figure out why he rejected the simple 17...h6 18 Bf4 Rfb8.> I believe the commentary team thought 19. b3 there would give white a serious edge. Might be better than the game continuation, though.

Mar-17-13		Hesam7: <Blunderdome: <17...Nb2?! 18 Qb2 Nd3 19 Qd2 Nc1 20 Rc1, I am not sure why Black went for this line. I can't figure out why he rejected the simple 17...h6 18 Bf4 Rfb8.> I believe the commentary team thought 19. b3 there would give white a serious edge. Might be better than the game continuation, though.> Alright lets take a look, after 17...h6 18 Bf4 Rfb8 19 b3 Na3! click for larger view What should White play? Note that White does not have time for something like 20 Nh1?! because of 20...c4!. The engine suggests 20 Be5 but after 20...Be5 21 f4 Bd4 22 Kh1 Nb5 23 Na4 (forced if White is looking for an advantage) 23...h5! 24 Qd2 (making room for the other Knight) 24...h4 25 Ne2 Qg4 26 h3 Qh5 27 Nd4 Nd4 click for larger view White has an edge but it is not that big.

Mar-17-13		Eyal: The basic idea of b3 is to follow with f4 & e5 after the knight is driven away from c4 (both Svidler & Radjabov seemed convinced after the game that it's rather bad for Black if he allows it) - so I'm pretty sure Svidler was going to meet 17...h6 with 18.Bh4, not Bf4. 18...g5 doesn't seem to be a problem in such a case - 19.Nf5! looks very good for White (19...gxh4/Nxb2 20.f4).

Mar-17-13		JENTA: And 21... f6 is stronger than the actual 21... Rfb8 22. Qc2! f6 23. Bc1! played. Black simply lost a tempo. Bc1 and a2-a3 is the way how white defends one's queenside.

Mar-17-13		Hesam7: <Eyal: The basic idea of b3 is to follow with f4 & e5 after the knight is driven away from c4 (both Svidler & Radjabov seemed convinced after the game that it's rather bad for Black if he allows it) - so I'm pretty sure Svidler was going to meet 17...h6 with 18.Bh4, not Bf4. 18...g5 doesn't seem to be a problem in such a case - 19.Nf5! looks very good for White (19...gxh4/Nxb2 20.f4).> First after 17...h6 18 Bh4 Nb2 Black gets a better version of what happened in the game. Next there is also 17...h6 18 Bh4 Nb6 19 f4 (I believe this is forced) 19...Nec4 20 b3 Bd4 21 Kh1 Na3.

Mar-18-13		Eyal: <Hesam7: First after 17...h6 18 Bh4 Nb2 Black gets a better version of what happened in the game. Next there is also 17...h6 18 Bh4 Nb6 19 f4 (I believe this is forced) 19...Nec4 20 b3 Bd4 21 Kh1 Na3.> I still think both of them (the second after, say, 22.f5) are considerably better for White than the 18.Bf4 line that you gave earlier. But anyway, I'm not saying that 17...Nxb2 was necessarily the best move, only trying to explain Radjabov's motivation for playing it. You started by saying that you can't figure out why he rejected the simple 17...h6 18 Bf4 Rfb8; I'm saying that's not what he rejected - rather, he was worried about the f4 ideas (in combination with b3).

Mar-18-13		Hesam7: <Eyal: I still think both of them (the second after, say, 22.f5) are considerably better for White than the 18.Bf4 line that you gave earlier. But anyway, I'm not saying that 17...Nxb2 was necessarily the best move, only trying to explain Radjabov's motivation for playing it. You started by saying that you can't figure out why he rejected the simple 17...h6 18 Bf4 Rfb8; I'm saying that's not what he rejected - rather, he was worried about the f4 ideas (in combination with b3).> No, you are quite right, I totally missed 17...h6 18 Bh4! (it is such an ugly looking move). But I still believe that 17...Nb2?! is a mistake that in combination with 20...Bc3?! lands Black in a lost position.

Mar-18-13		Chessmaster9001: Great game by Peter. He played simple and powerful moves. I don`t think black could save the game after 24. a3

Mar-18-13		jussu: As I watched the game live, I was just baffled by the combination starting with 17...Nxb2. I thought Black sported a decent compensation for his pawn, and suddenly he chose give up two pieces for a rook; my gut feeling was that White should be winning after that somehow. Maybe Radjabov miscalculated or misevaluated something (e.g. maybe he hoped to pick up the a-pawn, or to put enogh pressure on it, to prevent any winning attempt [then again, I'm not so sure about Black's position after the sac even if we simply removed the a-pawn from board]). Or maybe I was overly optimistic about Black's compensation before 17...Nxb2 (or should I say pessimistic, given that I was definitely rooting for Svidler). The end was enjoyable, very nice mating net leading to the win of exchange, and then another one ending the game by force.

Mar-18-13		jancotianno: I saw this game and wondered why Radjabov spent so much time on 10...Nd7 to sacrifice a pawn for a benko gambit style position. I thought 10...Rb8 followed by Bd7 and trying for b5 looked easier, much simpler and more like his Kings Indian style.

Mar-18-13		Eyal: Svidler, who is always very self-critical, seemed annoyed with himself after the game for playing 38.Re2 instead of <38.Rc1> which would have allowed for a cleaner finish (or as he put it, allow him to win a game without having to calculate a single line...). The point is that after 38...Rb8 (or 38...Rxc1+ 39.Rxc1 followed by 40.Bf4 & 41.Bxd6 with a transition to a trivial pawn-endgame) 39.Re1 Rf8 40.g3 Rf5 41.Re6 Rxd5 42.Rxg6 White gets a tempo-up version of the game where he plays g3 "for free," and as a result 42...Rd4 43.Rxd6 doesn't drop the h-pawn. When Svidler played 38.Re2 he intended to meet 40...Rd4 with 41.g3?? but later realized it's a blunder because of 41...Rxc4+! 42.Kxc4 d5+.

Mar-18-13		WiseWizard: Amazing that Radjabov would play speculative in a World Championship qualifier, Nice game from Svidler, 22. Qc2 is very nice, preparing Ba1 and defending the a pawn with a3 and then Nc4 is perfect it defends the pawn while attacking d6, Svidler must be happy now, he managed to win against one of the top players and he must like his chances against Gelfand, Grischuk and Ivanchuk.

Mar-18-13		YouRang: Not that it was the decisive move or anything, but it seems that 22...f6 was a case of pushing the bishop where it wanted to go.

Mar-19-13		Anderssen59: The finish is really beautiful: 55.....,Rd2. 56 Nb5!! h2. 57 Kb6!! Rd8. 58 Nc7+ Kb8. 59 Na6+ mates.

Mar-19-13		flipflop: Sure Radjabov's 17...Nxb2 was speculative, but great that he tried this sacrafice! Bravo. Rad would have probably won or drawn against most players, however, Svidler is many times Russian Champ, and played very solidly to mop up. Well done Svidler!

Mar-21-13		Robyn Hode: Nice to Rad still willing to play a KID at this level. Courage. Would prefer he went in for the 7...Qa5 line or if not that then 8...Ne5.

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