White will gain time, but black will get counterplay attacking the advanced white pawn in the center.
The white queen is forced to stay in the center, supporting the pawn. Though he has a huge space advantage, black will gain tempi attacking the white queen around.
Taking advantage of the black Knight's unusual development on the kingside, White threatens to exchange it off for his own dark bishop. But note: this is the third move by the queen already in the game!
A bit of a surprising choice, not capturing the kingside knight with his bishop. But White has that option on his next move also.
White carries out what he deferred a move ago: White's dark bishop captures the knight on the rim, thus creating a huge hole in the kingside for Black.
This game is a bit unusual: We have Anish Giri, who has the reputation of a solid player, involuntarily playing dynamically against Maghsoodloo, who has the reputation of someone who always smells for blood!
Black doesn't seem to care much about his king's safety here, nor has he bothered about developing his minor pieces quickly. Instead, we have only a rook who is staring down upon the white kingside and raring to go out on a dynamic mission!
Maghsoodloo decides to go on the offensive immediately, bringing his rook to the open file. It looked more logical to develop his kingside, and thus aim to take his king to safety with castling.
Not displaying any care for his own king's safety, Maghsoodloo goes on the offensive immediately. But this is premature, and only helps to develop his own dark bishop with a check to the white king now.
Black develops his bishop with a check, forcing the white king to move. We have a curious situation in our hands now, where both the kings may be stuck in the center of the board!
Having made the white king move and thus prevented him from castling in the future, the bishop returns back to defense duties. He thus parries a deadly check threatened by the white knight.
White returns back to normal thinking, aiming to develop his light bishop in the long diagonal.
Threatening the undefended white pawn, and also bringing out his queen to offer an exchange. With this move, Giri has officially declared that his king will stay in the center, with both the rooks already having made a move.
Giri offers an exchange of queens. More than the merit of the move, he is probably happy to exchange off the piece, which is probably the most valuable for Maghsoodloo on the chessboard: the queen! Being a dynamic player, Maghsoodloo obviously values his queen. One will seldom find games where the Iranian grandmaster easily exchanges the queens, irrespective of which part of the game it would be.
Maghsoodloo's decision not to exchange off the queens is surprising. After all, in the resultant position, he has a tactical threat to be afraid of, where he will forcibly lose an exchange.
White has no choice but to exchange the queens. A capture by the white rook would have ended in a disaster for Maghsoodloo. There could have been a tactical sequence with devastating consequences for White.
The white rook is in trouble now, having got caught behind the enemy ranks. Giri threatens to win the white rook by moving his king up, and Maghsoodloo actually doesn't have a way to stop it!.
Trying a typical 'old pro' trick, to capture the black bishop with his rook, thus taking advantage of the black rook's position.
White captures the pawn with his pawn, whereas he should have captured it with his rook! He could have won an extra pawn that way, and had good chances to salvage a draw.
Bringing out his bishop towards the center, Maghsoodloo intends to keep it in the center, and put up a blockade for the white rooks
Giri defends his kingside pawn with the king move, in the process centralizing the monarch. It will be interesting to watch how Black will proceed in this position, as his path to realize his advantage is not very clear.
Keeping the rooks connected and getting ready to challenge the white rook in the open file. The black rooks will intend to penetrate into the white position soon, combining the strength of the rook's long-range attacking potential.
Giri isn't worried about the white rook swinging to his right and getting to check the black king, as there is no real danger to the black king now. With the offer of a rook exchange, he intends to enter a pure rook vs bishop endgame, to realise his material advantage.
Maghsoodloo has no choice but to look for counterplay. Now, White will aim to create activity on the kingside to ultimately create threats to the black king.
Maghsoodloo will now advance his pawns in the kingside, aiming to create threats to the black king. These threats should be manageable, but Giri needs to be attentive to his king, nevertheless.
Giri decides to ignore Maghsoodloo's threats on the kingside, and decides to go in for activity against the white king. After all, Black cannot forge any serious kingside attack due to lack of pieces. Giri would definitely do better by penetrating inside the second rank with his rooks, attacking the white king as well as White's pawns.
True to his style, Maghsoodloo goes for play against the black king, rather than hoping to defend his position, which was probably impossible anyways.
Giri makes a mistake after thinking for 15 minutes!
This is the correct rook, but the wrong check! Black had done better by checking the white king on the side, horizontally, with his rook. Now, White may actually gain some initiative on the board, attacking the Black king with his rook and bishop.
Black has doubled his rooks on the seventh rank, but the white king is out in the open, not easily attackable by the black rooks.
Even though the white king looks exposed now, he doesn't have to worry about a mating attack. Rather, it is the black king who has to be watchful, especially as White threatens to win a flank pawn in the kingside with his bishop.
Precious waste of time! White was right to move his pawn away from being captured by the black rooks, but he should have moved up two pawns, thus not allowing the next attack to materialize easily.
Giri misses a good chance here, as he goes for the capture of the pawn which he should have done after checkig the white king once.
Black still possesses some advantage, pursuing the white king in the middle of the road. However, it will be difficult for him to manage White's advanced passed pawn in the kingside
Even though he is defending an inferior position, Maghsoodloo plays courageously, taking his king out on the open for a walk! It is not easy for Black to attack the white king constructively, and hence has to be careful with the two moves remaining to make the time control at the 40th move.
Giri misses a good chance to create mating threats against the white king. With the check on the board, the white king escapes to the queenside, where he is actually safe against any mating attacks.
Optically, the white king enters the queenside, where Black has pawns to harass the white king into a mating attack. But, in reality, Black doesn't have a good attack against the white king anymore. The white rook stops all the checks by black rooks on the fifth rank, which is the main defensive point here.
Giri is bent on pursuing the white king and, hence, goes to the eighth rank, threatening lateral checks. Though the position is defensible, White has to be careful with black's threats here.
Right now, White's immediate problem is to decide where to keep the bishop. It might be risky to keep it in the center of the board, but that would be the best option for the bishop.
Maghsoodloo finds the best place for the bishop, in the middle of the board. Though it looks counterintuitive, White would do better to keep the bishop open to attack in the middle of the board, rather than tuck it into any corner.
Though it looks like the white king is moving into enemy territory here, it is not easy to create serious threats against the king.
But, it's anyone's guess here on "Who's job is more difficult? The attacker's or the defenders?!"
Giri seems to be taking a pragmatic decision, safeguarding his attacked pawn on the queenside, rather than pursuing any more attack on the white king. Now, with his passed pawn on the seventh rank and the black king too in a widely exposed state, White has enough counterplay to force equality.
Maghsoodloo decides to activate his rook with this check, thus getting him back into the game from the congested corridors he was stationed at! Is there any chance for White to pursue any advantage here? He has an advanced passed pawn in the flank, after all...
The white rook returns back to the flank, once again happy to be behind his own passed pawn, ready to be pushed to the eighth rank. White could not have made any progress in the position, but the rook could have been brought backwards, instead of sidewards, to get better mobility.
The black king wishes to go back to the kingside to keep vigil on the White passed pawn. Though Black cannot make much of progress here, it must be quite tempting for Giri to try more with his powerful rooks and a white king resigned to passivity on the queenside.
The white rook limits the black king's mobility and even threatens to win the black rook with a skewer.
This is a typical equal position, which, though it appears simple, can easily be made fatal by stepping onto any of the potential mines planted all over.
Even while he is down by an exchange, Maghsoodloo wants to play for a win, pushing the passed pawn towards the queening square, while sacrificing two pawns for free right away.
Though the push itself is not dangerous, it will be interesting to see if Black can gain any advantage by capturing two pawns for free.
For sure, Black is happy to capture the pawn on the queenside before capturing the other pawn on the kingside. White's passed pawn gets dangerous here and may even claim the life of one of White's rooks.
Even though it doesn't win the game, Maghsoodloo finds a spectacular move, forcing Black to be extremely careful in defending the position. Ultimately, White will be forced to settle for a draw, with perpetual checks against the black king. It is not possible for him to promote his pawn to a queen, after all.
White is taking advantage of the fact that the black rook cannot capture the white rook to force an exchange, as a bishop check would prove deadly for Black.
Only move! If black had tried to exchange the rooks, White would have had a deadly bishop check, winning the game for White.
Even though he is down an exchange it is Maghsoodloo who is pursuing the initiative here. Advancing with his king, he aims to harass the black king by checking with his rook. The black king will be forced into the eighth rank, thus rendering it super passive.
Giri simply abandons his ambitions and settles for a draw, ready to give up his rook for the passed white pawn while getting to capture the white bishop in the bargain. The game enters a forced sequence of moves after which it reaches an equal rook endgame.
After a forced sequence, the game peters out into a draw, with White about to force a basic drawn rook endgame.
A draw was agreed here, as the remaining rook pawn offers no winning chances for Black.
Maghsoodloo seemed to have made a huge error in calculation after his rook went too much inside the black territory, only to see himself being trapped and captured.
In the ensuing rooks versus rook+bishop endgame, Giri definitely had his chances but saw them evaporate by missing crucial moves under time pressure. Maghsoodloo created a dangerous passed pawn on the kingside, which saved him from defeat, finally.
After being in the lead till the sixth round, Maghsoodloo will rue his slump in form in the next two rounds, with tactical mistakes. Giri will definitely regret missing a great chance to win the game and jump into a joint lead, as the top board game between joint leaders Nihal Sarin and Matthias Bluebaum had ended in a short draw earlier.
Both our protagonists are short of time now, with Maghsoodloo having just a minute on his clock against Giri's seven!
Both our protagonists are short of time now, with Maghsoodloo having just a minute on his clock against Giri's seven!
Both our protagonists are short of time now, with Maghsoodloo having just a minute on his clock against Giri's seven!
Both our protagonists are short of time now, with Maghsoodloo having just a minute on his clock against Giri's seven!