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Wenjun Ju vs Alireza Firouzja
Tata Steel Masters (2024), Wijk aan Zee NED, rd 5, Jan-18
French Defense: Exchange Variation (C01)  ·  1-0

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
1-0

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jan-18-24  SilverWolf: Definitely didn�t expect Firouzja to lose to Ju Wenjun of all people. Congrats Ju!
Jan-18-24  Mississaugan: 鞠文君,恭喜你打得漂亮!
Jūwénjūn, gōngxǐ nǐ dǎ dé piàoliang!
Jan-18-24  Whitehat1963: Big scalp!
Jan-18-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  OhioChessFan: 22...e2 is an awful positional mistake. What in the world was Ferocious Ali thinking?
Jan-18-24  Ilkka Salonen: What happened? Firouzja looked destined to win the World Championship as it seems that anyone can beat Ding. But then this game appears. I suppose I would have trouble concentrating sitting near to Ju too.
Jan-19-24  cormier: depth=36 | Stockfish 16
+0.24 23... Qf8 24. Ne5 Qf4 25. g3 Qh6 26. g4 Bg6 27. Qxe2 Rb8 28. Nxg6 hxg6 29. Rf1 a5 30. Kg2 a4 31. Kg3 g5 32. Rf5 Qh4+ 33. Kh2 Qh6 34. Kg2 Rf8 35. Rxf8+ Kxf8 36. Qf2+ Ke7 37. Qf5 Kd8 38. b3 axb3 39. axb3 Qf6 40. Qxf6+ gxf6 41. h4 Kd7

+0.27 23... Bxf3 24. Qxf3 a5 25. Rxe2 Qf7 26. Qe3 a4 27. Kh2 h6 28. Rf2 Qe8 29. Qg3 Qe7 30. Rf3 Rf8 31. Rxf8+ Qxf8 32. Qxc7 Qf2 33. Qe5 Qxb2 34. Qe8+ Kh7 35. Qxc6 Qxa2 36. Qd7 a3 37. Qf5+ Kg8

+0.30 23... Qe4 24. Qxe4 dxe4 25. Ne5 a5 26. Nxc6 e3 27. d5 a4 28. g4 Be8 29. Rxe2 Bxc6 30. dxc6 Ra5 31. Rc2 Kf7 32. Kg2 Ke6 33. Kf3 Kd5 34. Kxe3 Rb5 35. Kf4 Kxc6 36. Ke4 Rb8 37. h4 Rb4+ 38. Kf5 Rb5 39. Re2 Kxc5

+0.47 23... Qe6 24. Qxh7+ Kxh7 25. Ng5+ Kh6 26. Nxe6 Re8 27. Nxc7 Re7 28. Na6 Rb7 29. Kf2 Kg5 30. b3 Rf7+ 31. Ke3 Re7+ 32. Kd2 Re4 33. g4 Be8 34. Kd3 Kf4 35. Rxe2 Kf3 36. Rd2 Re3+ 37. Kc2 g5 38. Kb2 Ke4 39. b4 Rxh3 40. Re2+ Re3 41. Rxe3+ Kxe3 42. b5 cxb5 43. Nb8

+0.75 23... Qe7 24. g4 Bg6 25. Qxe2 Be4 26. Ne5 h5 27. Rf1 Qg5 28. Qf2 hxg4 29. hxg4 Rb8 30. b3 Rb4 31. Rd1 Rb8 32. Qd2 Qh4 33. Qh2 Qg5 34. Rf1 Rf8 35. Rxf8+ Kxf8 36. Qh8+ Ke7 37. Nxc6+ Kd7 38. Ne5+ Ke7 39. Qd8+ Kxd8 40. Nf7+ Ke7 41. Nxg5 Bb1 42. a3 Bc2 43. b4 Bd1 44. Nh3 Bxg4 45. Nf4 Bf3 46. b5 Kd7 47. Kf2 Be4 48. Ne2 c6 49. a4 Bc2 50. Nc3 g5 51. Kg3 Bf5 52. b6 Kc8 53. a5 Bd7 French Defense: Exchange Variation

Jan-19-24  cormier: depth=34 | Stockfish 16
+1.48 23. g4 Bg6 24. Qxe2 Rb8 25. Qxe8+ Bxe8 26. Nf3 Kf8 27. Re2 Rb4 28. Kf2 Rc4 29. Kg3 a5 30. h4 h6 31. h5 a4 32. Kf4 Bd7 33. Re3 Rb4 34. b3 Be8 35. Rd3 Kf7 36. g5 Ke7 37. Ne5 Ke6 38. Kg4 axb3 39. axb3 Rxd4+ 40. Rxd4 Kxe5 41. Rd1 Bd7+ 42. Kf3
Jan-19-24  cormier: depth=44 | Stockfish 16
0.00 22... Qb8 23. Qxe3 Qxb2 24. Nf3 Bxf3 25. Qe6+ Kf8 26. Qf5+ Kg8
Jan-19-24  greed and death: <OhioChessFan: 22...e2 is an awful positional mistake. What in the world was Ferocious Ali thinking?>

"Passed pawns must be pushed"?

Jan-19-24  thebully99: This game shows that Firouzja's positional judgement is not that much more mature than when he made his first appearance 4 years ago, playing his first game vs Carlsen.
Jan-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: A top GM drops a game and his epitaph is written by a brigade of pundits here at CG.
Jan-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Exchange variations can be quite dangerous. I have been studying Mir Sultan Khan games recently and he was a big fan of exchange variation lines. Playing with the early c4 adds spice though.
Jan-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: < thebully99: This game shows that Firouzja's positional judgement is not that much more mature than when he made his first appearance 4 years ago >

That assessment can't be made based on 1 game. Rather, one must examine a larger sample of games, comparing similar positions from past and present.

Jan-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  saffuna: <greed and death: <OhioChessFan: 22...e2 is an awful positional mistake. What in the world was Ferocious Ali thinking?>

"Passed pawns must be pushed"?>

Which in this case was <greedy> and led to <death>.

Jan-19-24  lentil: So much criticism of 22 ... e2, but no suggestions for improvement! It's dead, either on e3 or e2.
Jan-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <lentil>, that was obvious to me also, but I saw no reason to mention it. The error came before 22....e2.
Jan-21-24  Saul Goodman: The position is drawish before 22 . . . e2. Firouzja wanted to win against a 2550 and made the more aggressive move. It takes a lot of patience to play for a win as black in a boring position, and patience is not Firouzja’s strong point.
Jan-30-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: It turns out 22...e2 was indeed a mistake, not because the pawn is lost but because Black missed the opportunity for 22...Qb8! Then Black either grabs a pawn and infiltrates the queenside after 23.Rxe3 (or Qxe3) Qxb2 or forces White to misplace the knight with 23.Nb3 a5 24.Qc3 e2 25.g4 Bg6 26.Rxe2 Qb5 27.Re1 and now Stockfish 16 says 27...Qa4, 27...Qc4, 27...a4, 27...h5, and 27...h6 are all 0.00.

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