The King's Pawn

Gurel does not go for a quieter move, instead happy to take the game into the tactical waters of king's pawn openings!

the sicilian defense

Efimov's choice makes a lot of sense. He's looking for a sharp system to try to unbalance the fight, as only a win today will keep his tournament chances alive.

Gurel develops his kingside knight, getting ready to contest the center by pushing his queen's pawn next.

Efimov opens up the path for his dark-squared bishop.

Gurel pushes in the center, looking to take control over the most important part of the board.

In the Sicilian, the pawn capture is practically automatic for the Black side. Otherwise, the White side would be able to keep pushing the pawn forward and grab too much space for comfort.

Gurel takes back with the knight

Capturing with the queen would be a little reckless, as then she would become a very easy target for Efimov's queenside knight.

Efimov takes control of a key square

The knight could jump to that point, and from there create threats against the weak dark squares in Efimov's camp. So he shuts down those ideas definitively.

The Maroczy Bind

Gurel goes for a somewhat positional approach. This structure, with these two pawns on light squares in/near the center, is known as the Maroczy Bind. It takes its name from an old master by the name of Geza Maroczy, with the idea being to build a clamp in the center and secure a tonne of space.

A provocative choice

Efimov seeks to develop his bishop onto the long diagonal. One concern for him, however, is that now the dark square that cannot be defended by a pawn (marked in red) becomes extra weak as the dark-squared bishop prepares to move to a new diagonal.

Gurel brings his knight out, perfectly placed behind the pawn he pushed previously. His main goal over the coming moves will be to organize his pieces in a harmonious way, and then hope to squeeze Efimov with his extra space long-term.

Efimov continues his development, pressing both of Gurel's knights along the main diagonal.

Gurel supports his knight

That piece was a little shaky, as it only had one defender and one attacker. So Gurel overprotects it to keep things stable.

Efimov prepares to castle

He continues his development, bringing his knight directly in front of his king. This makes sense, since it ensures to keep his bishop active along the main diagonal, while also possibly supporting his other knight in the next move or two.

Gurel continues his development

Both players progress towards the middlegame, with Gurel ready to castle next. He doesn't however have to do that, there is also a chance that it's a bluff and that if Efimov castles next, then he'll switch to a fast attack by pushing his right-hand pawn forward!

Efimov castles

The first key moment, as Efimov brings his king to the right hand side before Gurel has done likewise. Now, the Turkish grandmaster could do the same and keep things quiet. But he might also be tempted into keeping his king in the center and pushing his right-hand pawn forward. He might however feel that that's a little too risky given he only needs a draw today, let's see.

Gurel plays it safe

He decides to keep things solid, which from a viewer perspective might be a little less exciting, but it makes sense that he doesn't want to take any undue risk.

Efimov already in trouble!

This game really feels like it's going to be plain sailing for Ediz Gurel. His opponent has just stepped his pawn out to the very poorly defended square. Now, Ediz should be able to set up a queen-rook battery, and then drop his knight back. It's going to be very tricky to avoid losing the pawn!

Gurel looks to be embarking upon exactly the plan outlined in the previous move. Efimov is in big trouble, as there is no way for him to both defend his pawn and avoid problems on the queenside (more on that second part in a future comment).

Efimov steps his queen out, a logical choice given that he knows he'll soon need to defend his vulnerable pawn. His idea is to bring the rook to the central file, but the problem is that soon Gurel will be able to start dancing with his knights to target the weaknesses on the left of the board.

Gurel begins by driving his rook to the central file, and from now on Efimov's weak pawn is going to be at risk of getting snapped up in a tactical sequence if he is even a little careless.

Efimov moves his rook onto the central file, supporting his weak pawn.

Gurel establishes the ideal setup

The way that Ediz has arranged both his minor and major pieces, is considered to be the best formation that you can aim for in this type of structure (the previously mentioned Maroczy Bind). While the same cannot be said for Efimov's own arrangement.

Efimov is looking to fianchetto his bishop. But the problem is that this now becomes a new target, and one which Gurel can immediately latch onto by driving his knight to the edge.

Gurel takes aim at the pawn

The same idea as highlighted on the previous move. Gurel's idea is to clear up the diagonal of the dark-squared bishop, so that when he brings his other knight towards the edge then the pawn will be under immense pressure.

There's going to be no way for Efimov to save his pawn if Gurel now targets it with his knight. I wonder what he will even do against this, in order to try to keep the fight even a little alive!

Gurel immediately hits the weak pawn.

A very awkward move, but it's the only way for Efimov to hang on to all of his pawns.

not the strongest

Gurel misses a nasty combination instead. It was far stronger to sacrifice the knight and play knight takes pawn first, and only then play this pawn break. But this is also a path to a clear advantage, and from a human perspective it's the safer bet.

Efimov has to take back with this pawn, since the other one is pinned due to the pressure along the central file.

Gurel recovers his pawn

Not only is his knight now very active, but the file has opened up against Efimov's now very shaky queen. An uphill battle here for the Black side as he tries to escape the opening stage alive.

the only move

Efimov scrambles to finish his development, putting a piece in between Gurel's rook and his queen. Anything else was losing, so it's a very important move for Efimov to have found.

simplest

Gurel trades his knight for the bishop, locking in a slight positional advantage as the side with the bishop pair. It's a timid way of playing that objectively speaking surrenders a chunk of his advantage, but it makes sense given that Ediz's focus is on avoiding a defeat more than it is on playing for a win.

Efimov takes back

He can celebrate the fact that it looks like he'll be emerging out of the opening without any material losses. But winning from here, without the bishop pair and with a less compact pawn structure, seems close to impossible.

Cleanest

Gurel forces the trade of his remaining knight, a move that will lead to his queen being anchored on an excellent advanced square within Efimov's territory.

take!

Efimov has no choice but to accept the piece trade.

Gurel takes back, and is now threatening Efimov's undefended rook.

Efimov steps his knight forward, connecting his rooks in order to defend against Gurel's threat of queen takes rook.

Gurel covers his pawn

He moves his rook up, defending the pawn to the left of it. That said, it does give Efimov the time that he needs to go for the pawn break in the center. If he finds this move, the position is going to be very close to equal!

??MISTAKE??

A strange choice. This unforced error gives Gurel easy play here. He can play rook takes rook, when anything other than the awkward knight takes pawn will allow Gurel to win the central weakness.

take!

Gurel makes the right decision, and now the problem for Efimov is that only knight takes pawn hangs on to the weakness on the central file.

Efimov decides to recapture with the rook, but now it becomes very easy for Gurel to push home his advantage. He can win the central pawn, and sooner or later will pick up the one on the left-hand side to boot.

Gurel is cruising in this second game, and advancing to the second round is now guaranteed for him short of a terrible blunder.

Efimov restores material equality for now, but the problem is that Gurel can just pick up the pawn on the left hand side. That could soon lead to a hopeless endgame for Efimov, as he finds himself down a clean pawn and struggling against Gurel's strong bishop pair to boot.

Gurel takes the pawn, at the same time skewering Efimov's rook.

??MISTAKE??

An understandable choice from Efimov, who is banking on the fact that Gurel's back rank is weak.

!!GREAT MOVE!!

But the problem is it seems that Gurel has seen further than Efimov. This check is nasty, since Efimov's knight is ultimately going to find itself trapped and easy to pick off!

Efimov moves his king up, since rook takes rook would be met by queen takes rook followed by queen takes knight!

take!

Gurel chops off rooks, forcing Efimov to recapture and leave his knight caught on the back rank.

Efimov takes back.

Gürel goes through 2-0!

Ediz strikes the trapped knight, prompting resignation from his veteran opponent as the resulting endgame a piece down will be utterly hopeless.

Overall, a really convincing first-round performance from the 16-year old Turkish prodigy, who made light work of his grandmaster opponent over the course of their 2-game mini-match.

In the first game, timidity was the root of Igor Efimov's problems, as he tried to play for safe equality from the White side and was soon caught out once Gurel opened up the position and turned the battle into more of a tactical skirmish than the quiet positional play that Igor was aiming for.

As for the second game, it was an opening scheme that soon went downhill for Efimov. Gurel went for a 'Maroczy bind' setup, which is one where the White side tries to grab a lot of space in the center. That has to be handled with a lot of care from the Black side, and it seems that Efimov was not up for the task. He got his pieces a little jumbled up very early, and it always looked unlikely that he'd be able to emerge out of the opening with anything other than a hopeless position.

Things did seem to get better for a brief while for Efimov, but the pressure remained. And all it took was a couple of inaccuracies and overlooking a key tactical detail for his position to quickly collapse.

Congratulations to Ediz Gürel, who books his ticket to the second round!