True to his nature, Firouzja starts with the king pawn on the first move. We have even more chances of a dynamic clash today!
With Italian almost replacing the Ruy Lopez at the top, the opening has become almost a rarity. The problem is, of course, the Berlin Wall, 🧱🧱🧱 which the white players are almost weary of dealing with!
No Berlin Wall - Niemann goes for a main line of the Ruy Lopez!
The closed variation of the Ruy Lopez. Among the mainlines, we shall be seeing the most famous and incidental opening variations, full of complexities and possibilities for both sides.
Firouzja has been a regular customer to the line, with vast experience in the middlegame positions. If Niemann had indeed decided to play the Ruy Lopez today, we can rest assured that he would be very well prepared for this solid but equally interesting variation of the closed Ruy Lopez lines.
White doesn't want any immediate action and hence solidifies the center first. He will undertake any action only after developing all his queenside pieces. This is the very essence of playing the variation, unlike the mainlines of the closed Ruy Lopez, where White's queenside pieces will find it difficult to develop themselves quickly in the opening.
One of the main lines of the variation. White wishes to preserve the light bishop as long as possible, and hence wants to tuck it inside the a2-g8 diagonal, in case Black decides to attack the bishop with his own knight. Firouzja has played this too a lot in the past—no surprise there.
There were two possible lines here: to move the rook pawn two steps or one (as in the game). The current one doesn't want any break on the queenside, preferring a modest move. He wishes to concentrate all his energy on the center and the kingside.
Niemann is quite experienced in the position, having employed this variation against Ponomariov and MVL in the past. Since White is not indulging in any immediate operation in the center, Black too will utilize the time to consolidate his position first, which he starts with castling his king to safety.
An important deviation. By developing the knight on its natural square, White either delays pawn operations in the center or wishes to abandon them altogether. Knowing Firouzja, we suspect that he wishes to play a long game, preferring to develop his pieces first before doing anything in the center later on.
Firouzja plays his moves quickly and confidently, while Niemann has taken more than fifteen minutes on his clock so far, curiously. Do we need to deduce that Niemann actually did not expect this line on the board today? Highly unlikely!
Niemann has never played this move before, having resorted earlier to more dynamic choices. His long thought probably nudged him towards surprising Firouzja more than anything, and hence, he has employed the bishop development.
The light-squared bishop now pins the white knight to the white queen. Black is also threatening to move his queenside knight towards the center, conducting an attack on the white knight.
Firouzja discourages the black knight from advancing to the center, where he can now be captured by his dark bishop. The pin on the white knight is quite annoying here for White to deal with, and White must actively fight against it, getting his kingside coming under fire.
Black is almost obliged to move the knight to the center, not worried about his pawns getting doubled in case of being captured by White's dark bishop.
The point is that White already has the light square in the center in the queen's file firmly under his grip (controlled by the knight and the light bishop), and Black has to try his best not to let the dark square also be under White's influence.
The white bishop walks the talk, exchanging off the black knight and creating doubled pawns in the center. Will these remain permanent weaknesses? Black would hope they wouldn't be so!
Firouzja already played this position way back in 2019 against Levon Aronian in an online blitz game! Hoping that Niemann is well-prepared for this game, can we expect him to have come armed for this position, specifically?
Having created doubled pawns in the center for Black, White takes advantage of the advanced square being available for his knight, and wishes to exchange off the knight. In the long run, he wishes to take advantage of the weakness of the squares to empower his light-squared bishop to dominate the position.
Black definitely cannot afford to let the white knight enjoy the outpost and hence exchanges it away.
The position is slowly getting simplified, which means White will soon get a typical 'position for two results': one where White can operate risk-free, playing for a win, not worried about any counterplay from Black.
He will soon be completely unchallenged and serve as the bulwark of White's entire game strategy. The light squares in Black's camp will forever be watched by the bishop sternly, being a force to be feared.
The attacked rook moves away, getting ready to defend the queenside in case if needed. With two pairs of minor pieces having been exchanged away, the position has become quite strategic, with not many chances of a dynamic encounter today.
Niemann is forced to give up his light-squared bishop, as otherwise he may end up losing the pawn in the center, which will be captured by the white Knight.
And we have entered an endgame with just major pieces and opposite color bishops on the board. In such positions, one of the sides has a chance to develop an attack on the opposite king. The logic is that the bishops do not have an opposing counterpart and hence cannot be challenged in their diagonals. This gives them the power to rule over certain squares unchallenged. With Black having doubled pawns in the center, Firouzja has a long-term advantage in the position, though only mild.
The black queen moves up, connecting his rooks - an important middlegame principle. She also gets ready to drive the white bishop away from his commanding position in the center.
Black's play won't be glamorous anymore. He is forced to now wait and watch for White's plans rather than be able to make any of his own. This is a classic position where White will have a slight edge and push for an advantage, and Black will be defending against it for his lifetime.
These are the type of moves that Grandmasters make, which underlines the complexity of their thinking and the depth of their understanding.
The point was that White has to be ready to advance his own rook pawn on the queenside when Black moves his pawn. In such a case, keeping the bishop on his latest square is important for White to support such an advance. Fantastic!
Firouzja wishes to open an avenue on the queenside to get his rooks to find activity. Since the center is almost closed now, White does not want to undertake any operations there, preferring to operate on the queenside now.
Black gets ready well in advance, preparing to meet White's onslaught on the kingside. If and when White starts to advance his pawns on the kingside, Black wants a certain flexibility to advance his own pawns to stop them. He also wishes his king to 'get some air' in case there would be an active fight on the kingside.
Extremely interesting, these shadowboxing maneuvers!
White opens up the rook file, having made meticulous maneuvers for the past few moves.
This is where another example of a class player can be observed by a spectator: Firouzja is playing in both flanks! With his rooks, he is operating actively on the queenside, and with his queen and bishop, he is keeping pressure on the kingside!
White shows off his control of the rook file and gets ready to double his rooks there. He also fixes an eye on Black's bishop pawn, which keeps the black queen a little overloaded, being forced to remain on her current square.
This is what we say, in chess parlance, applying the screw on your opponent and pin him down with his own weaknesses.
The black king gets some room to breathe. Now that Black's kingside bishop pawn isn't pinned by the white bishop against the black king anymore, Black has the option to move the pawn forward. That was the main intention behind giving the Black king some space. Black has to thus cautiously tread the game, covering his weaknesses closely.
The white rook is threatening an invasion on the seventh rank—the most important lateral control on the chessboard. Though this is not easy to repulse, White's absolute control of the file guarantees him a long-term advantage.
This also has a psychological effect on the Black player: the fact that white possesses a positional advantage, which is no more disputable, is not an easy concession to digest and overcome.
Niemann defends against the rook invasion on the queenside. The Black rook on the queenside plays the important role of defending the seventh rank.
Now, the most important question: does White have any active measures to pursue, to push for any advantage? After all, his pieces seem to have exhausted any attacking potential...
Firouzja decides to create some breathing space for his own king, also, while cautiously looking to expand on the kingside.
We might be seeing a long waiting game now, with each side probing for minute concessions and advantages. While White will probe to see if Black makes any defensive errors, Black will look for indecision from White, enabling him to equalize the game.
Niemann decides to wait with a small move, not committing anything, defending the bishop pawn with his rook. He also creates a small threat here to capture the kingside pawn with his Queen.
As expected, Firouzja did not opt for an exchange of queens as suggested by the engines!
But the current move doesn't seem to be effective, as it is questionable if White would be able to achieve anything tangential with this pawn push.the
Instead of keeping it quiet and defending passively, Niemann has decided to take decisive action and open up the position. This was precisely what we predicted before the game, commenting about what these two players of capable of playing on the board.
White goes for a rook challenge, aiming to nullify the dynamism of Black's rook in the kingside. Once the kingside gets opened up, it is important for White to remove the defenders of the king, leaving the monarch weak without protectors.
Black sacrifices a pawn to find more activity for his pieces! Niemann seems to be sure of what he wants to do: activate his bishop, which was getting suffocated for a long time. Also, in the current position, the white bishop has been suffocated for space, due to Black achieving an excellent pawn structure in the center!
Now, the black bishop gets activated drastically, while the white bishop gets caged by Black's pawns in the center.
Still, we shouldn't overlook that White still possesses a bit of the initiative: the Black king isn't very secure anymore, having moved the pawn array in front of the castled position.
The white queen sidesteps from the attack of the black bishop while keeping an attack on the black rook by x-ray.
White has won a pawn now, which means that Black will definitely have the initiative on his side, at least for some time.
Black sidesteps the exchange of rooks, thus keeping pressure on the white queenside with his bishop and on the white queen with his rook.
This is the highest point of clash in this game: this phase of the game will decide if Niemann's adventure of sacrificing a pawn for initiative will be justified or not.
Firouzja decides to go for tactics, rather than playing solid and holding on to the extra pawn. He is now actually threatening Checkmate in One move!
But, black can simply recapture the pawn on the kingside, thus opening up the position and make the game wild!
Niemann doesn't worry about his kingside getting opened up and captures the pawn. Now, White doesn't have any real way to take advantage of this weakening, as he lacks pieces to mount an attack on the black king.
Firouzja defends against Black's threat to capture the queenside pawn. Now, White has lost his pawn advantage too, and almost doesn't have any advantage in the position.
Black offers a queen exchange, and with that, White almost no more hopes of playing for an advantage in the position.
With the queen exchange, we enter into an endgame with rooks and opposite-color bishops, which is fairly equal. With queens off the board, there is little chance for either side to make any dynamic threats
Niemann starts counterplay on the queenside, aiming to activate his bishop now. Black is now able to simplify the position, and achieve complete equality without any trouble.
The players decided to agree for a Draw here.
Both our combatants decided to test each other in their own comfort zone, playing an opening setup that they both know quite well. Firouzja seemed to develop a little bit of initiative, capturing the open file in the queenside and keeping the black king under some pressure.
However, his advantage fizzled out soon, as his aim to create any active play didn't bear any fruit.
Niemann has demonstrated one of his biggest strengths in the last few moves: his penchant for dynamism and concrete thinking 🧠
Niemann has sacrificed a pawn for compensation, spending remarkably less time on the clock with his decisions. He has actually gained over Firouzja on time, who is now trailing on the clock. Firouzja has about 31 minutes on the clock, against Niemann's 38, with both having to make 14 moves to reach time control.
In this position, the chess engines promise a good advantage for White if he exchanges the queens and enters a rooks and bishops endgame. This would be extremely difficult for a human mind to decide! After all, how can there be complexity if the queens get traded off the board!?
These are the moments when one realizes that chess engines do not have prejudices, while human brains do not possess die-hard logical thinking!
This is a typical position where White has to find a new direction to continue the game. Whatever plans he had for all his pieces have been exhausted, and this is when he has to find new directions for them.
Typically, White has to find a 'small plan' for anywhere between two to seven moves, which will find a new direction or further his current advantage. Such moments are where a player's understanding of the game will be tested.
The game is definitely going Firouzja's way, though not overwhelmingly. White has a tiny initiative, and Niemann is looking at a long and hard defense.
This game is definitely being played for two results: White will either win, or the game will end in a draw. Hence, Niemann is looking at a long evening of defending.
Firouzja also has some advantage on the clock, almost half an hour more than Niemann.
Such instances bring out the best defending / fighting qualities in a player. Let us see how it goes for Niemann!
In a position definitely well known to both the players, where both are supposed to be well prepared, Niemann has been thinking for about 16 minutes on his clock now!
So far Firouzja has hardly consumed any time for his move, whereas Niemann has already used up 28 minutes on the clock! 💤
Welcome to an electrifying eighth-round game of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025! We have two new joint leaders in Nihal Sarin and Matthias Bluebaum at the top with 5.5 points from seven games, while we have a hungry group of seven players with five points following them in suit.
And in that following-up group, we have two of the most interesting players in the world clashing with each other today!
Alireza Firouzja is one of the most exciting players in the world today, with a dynamic style of play, and is undoubtedly one of the most promising players expected to fight for the highest honors of the chess world someday.
On the other hand, we have Hans Niemann, who needs no introduction. He has always promised his 'chest to do the talking' and has been most outspoken about his ambitions and the controversies surrounding him.
What can we say!? We are guaranteed a show today!?