The Dutch heavyweight wishes to keep control of the position and play a long game in a strategic battle. The Catalan is a favorite of Giri, and it is no surprise that he chooses it for this important battle.
A typical capture in the Catalan Opening. Black cedes the center temporarily, with the hope of developing his queenside pieces rapidly and attack White's central pawn immediately, thus aiming for equality.
Van Foreest aims for early queen exchange, which is common in this variation. Just when we all hoped that he will continue with his tradition of aiming for a sharp opening setup, he is willing to let Giri play a long game with a slight pull, a typical 'play for two results' variety.
We are not convinced with Van Foreest's opening choice here!
Just as expected, we have reached a middlegame without queens. White's light-square bishop, the so-called Catalan bishop, is a monster here! The entire game will have the bishop's gaze permanently felt, and black's entire play will sometimes be based on escaping the Catalan bishop's pressure on the long diagonal.
Giri is an expert in this opening, well-versed and experienced with its nuances. Van Foreest has not entered into this endgame before, as his published games from databases show.
So, it will be interesting to know Van Foreest's psychology in employing such a strategic endgame against an expert like Giri in this crucial game.
A fashionable move from this variation, though it looks anti-positional to move the same piece twice in the opening!
Black wishes to develop his queenside knight on the next move and hence shields the square from the gaze of the Catalan bishop.
Remember what we told you about White's light-bishop earlier!?
Giri confidently plays the same way he played against Nepo in a classical game last year. Of course, White is not worried about his pawn structure getting shattered in case Black exchanges the knights. After all, the Catalan bishop will once again get active in such a position.
This is a typical kind of position where current moves are played with the concentration being focused more on what could happen in the future!
Van Foreest is not interested in a knight exchange. In fact, he doesn't mind accepting even an isolated pawn for himself. After all, if Giri goes on a knight exchange now, Black's position gets freed up quite well, and he can develop his queenside bishop immediately.
Though our protagonists aren't really blitzing out their moves, both are playing fluently, both having consumed around 20 moves on their clocks.
Though the move looks puzzling, there is logic to it.
Giri doesn't want to develop his dark bishop immediately, wanting to delay it, as of now. Hence, he wants to move the rook.
He doesn't want to move the rook to the open file, as Black will immediately exchange off the rooks with a knight move. Also, White protects the king pawn in case Black brings out his light bishop attacking it.
As if he reads his opponent's mind immediately, Van Foreest aims to develop his bishop out, attacking the white knight.
This is exactly the moment when Giri has to step up his game by finding the accurate moves to scout for any advantage in the position. After all, if Black successfully develops all his pieces, White will be left with no advantage.
Giri misses his chance to keep up the pressure and allows Black to equalize.
The knight has landed on an awkward square, where it scuttles the development of his own side's dark bishop. Black can simply achieve more than equality here by pulling the attacked knight backwards.
There was no reason to part with the dear bishop! Black voluntarily gives up the bishop pair and will have to fight for dark squares for the rest of the game now.
Van Foreest's decision to part with the bishop is especially puzzling, as he had a simple knight retreat here to equalize the game.
Black hopes to achieve equality here by keeping his central knight planted on the square. But White has a king pawn, which he can use later to drive away the knight anyway.
White has a long-term advantage now, especially the variety that Giri loves to have!
Though this was not necessary, there was no need for Giri to indulge in piece exchange. However, the position becomes more active now, as White will get a chance to further his advantage with concrete play.
Black has completed his development, and it is not easy for white to further find ways to increase his advantage. It will be interesting to see how Giri formulates his play here. After all, possessing the bishop pair does not bring instant advantage. One has to use those bishops to further probe the opponent's position.
This is the kind of position that requires White to start active operations to benefit from his advantage of possessing the bishop pair. It will be interesting to see how he intends to proceed, as there are almost no pawn breaks available in the position. After all, maneuvering cannot bring drastic benefits when the opponent doesn't have any pawn weaknesses in the position.
The black knight retreats to a natural square, where he can keep an eye on the pawn. Now, the weaknesses of the black squares show a little in Van Foreest's position, but White still has to find ways to further the advantage.
Giri acknowledges the attack on his bishop and moves him to an active square. Though White's dark bishop doesn't have any immediate targets, he has potential in the long run, eyeing squares inside the black camp.
Accurately played! With this move, Giri restricts the black knight from gaining any freedom by moving forward. White need not do anything active here - his prophylactic moves restricting the opponent will gradually give him the better position by means of domination, an important strategic principle.
Giri has an excellent sense of strategic initiative and has won countless games in such a style. The most memorable of them was against Peter Leko in the World Cup 2015, an unforgettable classic. The current game is quite similar to that, the way he has handled the white pieces so far.
The black knight understands its own lacks of activity, and plans to get back into the game through the kingside and center. Though there is not much of tactics happening on the board, it is quite interesting to see concrete strategic play between these top Grandmasters!
Another prophylactic move. Seeing that the black knight is coming out of his shell through the kingside, Giri gets ready to block the knight coming to the center with a pawn push.
White also turns his attention on the black pawns in the queenside, aiming to attack them at some point with his own pawn thrust.
The black rook comes to the open file, but the pawns on the queenside get abandoned! Now, by advancing his pawns on the queenside, White can wrest the initiative in the position.
Giri plays a little safe, not ceding control of the open file to the black rook. But he could have played much more actively here, pushing his pawns on the queenside and starting an attack on the black pawns on the queenside. This is a typical Catalan device, by the way, attacking the black pawns fixed on the dark square on the queenside.
Using the breather provided by Giri, Van Foreest brings back his knight into the center, creating an outpost. This is typical counterplay, and now White's chances to create play in the queenside are quite difficult.
After the exchange of all the rooks, White almost doesn't have any great advantage now. After all, the black knight can occupy a central outpost, after which it will be difficult for White to undertake any great operation now.
Supporting the central pawn and relieving the white bishop to get active on other diagonals. Now, White's endgame play will start, trying to prove the superiority of the bishop pair against a bishop and a knight.
The most fundamental rule of endings is being fulfilled: King is a strong piece in the endgame - use it!!
It is important for the side with the bishops to open up the position so as to increase the scope of their bishops, being long-range operators. Also, such moves always create the dilemma in the mind of the defender: to allow capture of the pawn, which would create a weakness, or to effect the capture, which would create a passed pawn for white?!
With this knight move, Van Foreest almost challenges Giri to enter an endgame with bishops of the same color. Van Foreest estimates his chances to be equal in such an endgame. Giri plunges into a deep think now.
The point of Black's earlier play: Van Foreest dares Giri to exchange the bishop for the knight and enter a bishop endgame with the same color. He estimates such an endgame to be drawn, which means Black has nothing to worry about in the position.
The point is that White almost doesn't have any other means to further his advantage here.
White suddenly offers an exchange of the bishops, challenging Van Foreest to play an endgame of a bishop against a knight. Once again, the position requires concrete thinking, always a tough task under time pressure. Black has 11 minutes on the clock now, to White's 15.
Van Foreest decides to fight it out in a Knight versus Bishop endgame, where he is slightly worse. The black knight will have to defend accurately to force a draw here, which is practically not easy, but we are dealing with strong Grandmasters here!
With less than a minute on his clock, Van Foreest makes a huge mistake. The black knight is in a precarious position now, having wandered too much into enemy territory!
Excellent play by Anish, but this is his forte! The black knight will now find it difficult to get out of enemy territory! The white king and the bishop will now harass the bishop and white will atleast win a pawn.
Optically, it looks like Black has saved himself, but in reality, White has a forced sequence to enter either in a won King and Pawn endgame, or a Bishop vs Knight endgame with an extra pawn. It is for Giri to spot it now!
Giri once again finds the best move, moving closer to the black knight and forcing him to lose a pawn in the process. Anish has more than 12 minutes on the clock, compared to Van Foreest's two minutes.
The only move to save the knight. White was threatening to win the knight almost for free by trapping him in the queenside.
The white bishop moves to attack the black pawn on the queenside, which cannot be defended.
Van Foreest has two choices now, both inefficient. He can either exchange the bishop for his knight and enter a King and Pawn endgame, which is lost for him. Or he can give up the pawn and try to defend a Knight vs. Bishop endgame, which is also a difficult one.
Giri kicks the black knight away from the queenside and forces him to move to the center. Now, he will have to find a way to keep his passed pawn in the center intact and hope to invade on the queenside with his king.
Giri centralizes his king, making the monarch a little closer to the queenside now, ready to venture to the side and attack the black pawn. The main plan for Giri in this endgame is to aim to win Black's queenside pawn, as he cannot successfully hope to push the central passed pawn and win the game.
The white bishop aims to curtail the black knight's activity, with characteristic domination. The black knight should not be allowed to move to the kingside and attack the white pawns.
In such bishop versus knight endgames, it is always a difficult task to fight with a knight, as the position is of an open nature, where the bishop will have long-range power, which makes him a formidable piece.
This is one of those rare situations where making a bishop a 'bad bishop' actually helps White to win the game! Keeping the kingside pawns in the dark squares and keeping them connected, Giri need not worry about their safety now. The white king can now concentrate on infiltrating the queenside or push the central passed pawn to progress towards victory.
The black king hurries to the queenside to prevent the white king from getting to his pawn. This is a clever ploy, making White work a little harder to progress in the position.
Attacking the black pawn and using the tempo to progress with his king to the center. At the level of Giri, such endgame technique is commonplace, and we can see a top-class Grandmaster display it flawlessly.
The white king occupies the center stage, and this effectively wins the game for White. Black's knight and king will soon be helpless against the march of the central passed pawn.
The knight tries his best to stop the white king from reaching the queenside. But the path for the white king is open right now, which Black cannot prevent.
The white king marches on to the queenside confidently, eyeing the hapless black pawn in the flank. It is only a matter of time before Black loses the pawn, and along with that, the game.
Van Foreest tries to cook up tactical tricks with his knight, targeting the white pawn in the center. But Giri should easily be able to prevent it.
The Knight checks the white king, challenging him to capture the pawn. Van Foreest's idea is to catch the white king in a 'shouldering' hold in case the white king captures the black pawn. But, this will be futile too, as White has another passed pawn in the center to win the game.
White is now winning, with this passed pawn's march forward. The black king and knight cannot contain both the passed pawns.
Deciding any further resistance would be futile, Van Foreest resigns
In his favorite Catalan Opening, Giri seemed to be doing quite well, creating a mild advantage in the early endgame. However, he wrongly exchanged both the rooks, aiming for an endgame with the bishop pair against the bishop and knight.
However, the endgame proved to be equal, and Giri exchanged the light-squared bishops to force a bishop versus knight endgame. Just when the draw seemed to be in his grasp, Van Foreest blundered under time pressure, losing a pawn.
It was a fairly straightforward win for Giri after that, as he played flawlessly in a pawn-up endgame to force victory.
With this win, Giri jumps into a joint lead, along with Firouzja, Keymer, and Bluebaum, with six and a half points from nine games, with two tense rounds to go!
Welcome to the ninth round of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025! As we enter the final final stretch of an important event, things get much more serious than before. After all, everyone will be aiming for a top-two finish to get a berth in the Candidates tournament 2026.
How do the final round tensions affect the play over the board? For example, everyone at the top point groups (i.e the six and five and a half pointers) knows that they cannot afford to lose a game anymore, which will virtually push them out of the race. At the same point, everyone knows that they cannot keep drawing their games! So, playing for a win with caution will be the key. Which means that the white player will be more inclined to play for a win, but in a game for two results. So, you can almost rule out any dynamic openings today!
I was fortunate to witness a gigantic clash between Jordan van Foreest and Giri at the Chennai Grandmasters 2025, India, just a month ago, which was a headspinningly complicated tactical game! After the game, Giri remarked that Jordan van Foreest always plays this way against him!
That's the most interesting part today, and let us hope that it continues that way!