Efimov goes for a solid approach

It's likely that the veteran grandmaster is looking to avoid any tactically heavy terrain against the prodigious teenager. This first move is a good way of keeping things solid in general.

Gurel immediately stakes his claim in the center.

Efimov continues the modest play

He steps his king's pawn forward just one square, opening up the vision of his light-squared bishop though entombing his dark-squared along the central diagonal at the same time. It's a conservative approach, in keeping with his first move.

Natural play from Gurel for now, bringing his first piece into the game.

Efimov contests the center

With the bishop's scope having been opened up, the pawn is supported. So Efimov decides to challenge Gurel's early central advantage.

Gurel supports the center

He opens up the path for his own dark-squared bishop, while supporting his attacked pawn. A quiet start to this game for now.

Development and pressure

Efimov brings his second knight into the game, adding to the pressure against Gurel's central pawn.

The Semi-Slav structure

A very popular opening in chess involves the pawns set up in this triangular formation in the center, with the light-squared bishop inside of the chain. That's exactly what Gurel has gone for. It's considered solid, but also extremely complex and (down the line) quite tactically rich. Perfect terrain for Gurel to try to later outplay his opponent, without taking undue risk.

Efimov supports his central pawn

At the same time, he's looking to drive his bishop onto the long diagonal in the near future. This is a typical maneuver, known as a fianchetto.

Gurel proceeds with development

He brings his knight out towards the center. The light-squared bishop may be entombed behind pawns and pieces for now, but in the future it will likely find a strong diagonal on the queenside.

Efimov fianchettoes his bishop

There's no major rush to get castled for either player, since the closed center makes it impossible for either side to launch a quickfire attack.

Gurel prepares to castle

At the same time, now that the bishop has reached the main diagonal, it supports a possible central pawn push to try to grab more space in the future.

Cagey play

Efimov continues to delay his kingside development and castling, instead trying to improve his queenside piece setup as much as possible for now.

The players inch towards the middle game move-by-move, as Gurel brings his king to safety.

Efimov prepares to castle

With no obvious improving moves left on the queenside or center, he turns his focus to kingside development and is ready to castle next.

Gurel prepares to activate his bishop

His light-squared bishop is the only minor piece that is yet to take part in the game, so he prepares to bring it to the long diagonal.

Efimov brings his king to safety, as we approach the middlegame.

Gurel follows through on his idea from the previous move, bringing his bishop onto the diagonal. For now, it's passive behind the pawn, but in the long run Gurel will be hoping to crack open the diagonal by pushing his pawn forward.

The game continues to march at a slow pace, with Efimov happy to advance his pawn in order to grip more of the center. Things will heat up only when Gurel makes a push to activate his light-squared bishop, as that would inject a lot of pawn tension in the center.

Gurel keeps things flexible

He brings his rook to the file, hinting that he might instead look for a central pawn break in the future. It's almost like neither player wants to make the first committal move, instead choosing to make slow improving moves at every turn.

An unusual-looking move

It seems like Efimov has gone for such a timid strategy, that he's finding himself running out of useful moves. The rook lift does allow his queen to slide to the left, but it's not clear what he wants to achieve by doing so. It feels more like a waiting move, but one that takes all the pressure off Gurel who can start to think about seizing the initiative.

Gurel brings his final piece into play

He's now got a near-perfect setup, while maintaining full flexibility. What is likely to make Efimov somewhat uncomfortable is the fact that Gurel can aim for a pawn break on either central flank.

Efimov sets up a bishop-queen battery

He reveals what his intention was behind his previous rook lift. The queen may look a little strange on this square, but it does make sense. After all, Efimov knows that Gurel wants to play for a central pawn break sooner or later. And once he does that, the diagonal will open up for both his bishop and queen.

Gurel brings his queen out, again further supporting the potential pawn breaks in the center while also connecting his rooks.

Efimov hints at a queenside pawn break, though for now it might just be more about trying to grab a little extra space while he sits and waits for Gurel to make a decision in the center.

The action heats up!

Gurel goes for the pawn break, cracking open the position and activating his bishop. Now the game is going to pick up in pace, and already Efimov has to be careful at each turn. Otherwise, soon Gurel's pieces could explode to life and he may build up a fast advantage.

Efimov goes for the trade

His goal is likely to invite not just pawn, but piece exchanges. The hope being that, once the dust settles, the position will be simplified but remain equal. The less material on the board, the harder for Gurel it will become to outfox his veteran opponent.

take!

Gurel recaptures with his knight, in order to keep the diagonal open for his bishop.

take!

Efimov is happy to trade off the first set of minor pieces.

take!

Gurel recaptures with the bishop, pressuring the weakness that Efimov created when he pushed his left-edge pawn forward a couple of moves ago. This could be a real problem for him, as it's an awkward point to defend.

Efimov offers up the pawn

His idea, however, is that if Gurel snatches it then he will trade pawns in the center and get ready to win his pawn back on the opposite flank!

Patient play

An instructive choice of move from Gurel, who recognizes that he doesn't need to take immediate action in the center. Instead, he just improves his rook by occupying the central file. Plus, this move keeps as much tension on the board as possible, which will make Efimov's task of simplifying the position that bit harder.

Efimov is clearly worried about his pawn, but this move feels awkward as the bishop now sits clumsily on the first rank. Little by little, the position seems to be turning in Gurel's favor.

Gurel continues to find strong moves

Really professional play from the Turkish grandmaster here. With his last move, he covers the diagonal and cuts out any risk of the pawn in front of his king getting snapped.

Efimov resolves the last of the pawn tension in the center, opening up his bishop-queen battery.

A nice practical try!

This is very clever play from Gurel, who damages his pawn chain in order to set up the possibility of bringing his rook to the left hand side and targeting the pawn in the future. This purposeful unbalancing of the position is exactly the right way to try to play for the full point against a lower-rated opponent.

Efimov cracks

This is exactly the moment that Gurel will have been waiting for, and in a very real sense trying to induce. The point is that he can now bring his queen to take aim at the weak pawn and at the pawn in front of Efimov's king. And that's going to force a win of material if he finds it!

??MISTAKE??

Gurel misses his golden chance, though his move doesn't spoil his advantage. Still, it's surprising that he didn't go for the tactic that would have secured a pawn by force.

Efimov steps his rook away from the sights of the invader knight.

Gurel is happy to arrange his pawns in this way, as they completely blunt the bishop-queen battery that Efimov went to the trouble of setting up some moves ago.

Efimov takes aim at Gurel's bishop

If he could win this piece, he would definitely ease the pressure against his position significantly, as the bishop pair holds a lot of value in open positions like this one.

Gurel drops his piece back

He's not looking to simplify, and he's certainly not interested in giving up his strong bishop. That's a piece that he will hope to be able to use to pressure Efimov's king over the coming moves.

??MISTAKE??

Efimov makes a second mistake, and this time it is even simpler for Gurel to punish!

take!

Gurel spots the key idea, chopping off the knight in order to be able to invade with his own knight onto the seventh rank!

Efimov has no choice but to take back.

the key idea!

This is the reason why Gurel hurried to trade his bishop for the knight. Now he's set up a nasty double attack, and there's no way for Efimov to avoid losing a pawn.

Efimov moves his rook up, away from the attack by Gurel's knight.

Gurel nets a pawn

He's got every reason to believe he can push for the win from here, as Efimov finds himself with very little compensation for the missing pawn.

Efimov activates his passive bishop, which has been sitting awkwardly on the first rank for a long time.

Gurel is happy to snatch the bishop, as this will add to the strength of his own dark-squared piece.

Efimov takes back.

It's not just about being down a pawn for Efimov. He's also got to worry about Gurel's very dangerous passed pawn and his stronger bishop.

Efimov pushes his pawn forward on to a dark square, looking to shut down the influence of Gurel's bishop.

Gurel searches for greener pastures

His bishop is no longer influential now that Efimov has shut down the diagonal with his last pawn push. So Gurel looks to reroute it to a more active diagonal next.

Efimov lifts his rook up, hoping to rustle up some play by coordinating with his bishop to drum up an attack against the enemy king.

Gurel ignores the plan for now, focusing instead on bringing his bishop to the ideal diagonal.

The rook is now combining with the bishop, so Gurel must parry the threat.

Gurel shuts down the main diagonal that Efimov's bishop is operating along, and now the problem for Efimov is that his rook may start to feel a little off-side on the right edge of the board.

Efimov uses his queen to block Gurel from advancing his pawn any further. The danger however, is that queens are not designed for such trivial tasks as blocking pawns!

Gurel lifts his rook up, preparing to double rooks along the central file.

Efimov maneuvers his queen towards the last rank, though it's not clear to me what idea he might have here, if any.

Gurel is practically playing on cruise-control here, up a pawn and with better piece coordination.

Efimov is desperate to shake things up. But this move has the drawback that it weakens his king further.

Gurel brings his bishop forward, targeting Efimov's queen.

Efimov sets up a bishop-queen battery, hoping that he might get some sacrificial chances to try to generate some kind of play against Gurel's king.

Gurel shuts down that diagonal, crushing any hope for Efimov of building play with his bishop-queen battery.

Efimov slides his rook over, setting up an x-ray (indirect attack) against Gurel's king.

Gurel is back to pressuring the weak pawn, as well as making Efimov's king sit uncomfortable on the same diagonal.

Efimov overprotects the vulnerable pawn, as he continues to try to passively defend a very problematic position.

??BLUNDER??

Efimov misses the tactic! Now it becomes very straightforward for Gurel to crash through.

!!GREAT MOVE!!

Gurel picks up another pawn to add to the tally, and at the same time blasts Efimov's kingside open.

Efimov steps his king forward out of the dark-squared diagonal, but it's too little too late. He needed to have played this move one turn prior.

Gurel drops his queen back, as now that the pawn was no longer pinned, she was under threat.

Gurel sets up a tactical threat!

He's aiming to play queen takes pawn next, if Efimov isn't careful!

Without the pawn cover, Efimov's king is now wide open along this diagonal. The bishop has danced around a lot, but now I think that from here it's not going to be moving too much more between now and the end of the game.

Desperation, as Efimov tries to open up some lines to activate his bishop and heavy pieces.

Now that Gurel is up so much material, he's happy to invite piece trades.

Efimov tries to use tactics, targeting the enemy queen. But there are several convincing ways for Gurel to handle this 'empty threat'.

Gurel wins!

A dream start for the 16-year old prodigy, as he convincingly outplays his grandmaster opponent from the Black side.

It was a case of too much timidity from Efimov, as he went for a very tame piece setup straight out of the opening. The result was that Gurel was untroubled, able to arrange his pawns in a solid Semi-Slav formation first, before later building complete piece harmony as the players settled into a slow-paced middlegame.

From there, it was textbook play from Gurel. He sat patiently for a while, and at the perfect moment he opened up the position by pushing his central pawn. This quickly shifted the game towards a tactical battle, and here Efimov was unable to keep pace with his much younger opponent.

Efimov soon made a blunder, allowing Gurel to net a pawn with a simple tactical sequence. And from that point on it seemed like there would only be one winner. Efimov's fate was sealed a few moves later, when he overlooked a tactical threat and allowed Gurel to pick up a second pawn on move 36 and force resignation just a handful of moves later.

Ediz Gurel looks to be in excellent shape here, with Efimov facing the unenviable task of having to win with Black tomorrow, in order to push the match into the tie-break day!