Ginebra: Radjabov lo consiguió

[Event "Geneva Grand Prix"] [Site "?"] [Date "2017.07.15"] [Round "9"] [White "Nepomniachtchi, Ian"] [Black "Radjabov, Teimour"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C54"] [Annotator "Aleksandr Lenderman"] [PlyCount "111"] [EventDate "2017.??.??"] {Welcome everyone! This is GM Aleksandr Lenderman presenting to you the Game of the Day of round nine in the Geneva Grand prix. There were some other interesting games this round, besides this draw between the leaders, but in the end I decided that since this was a critical game for the final tournament standings, and it was an interesting battle, it deserved to be the choice.} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 (3... Bc5 {is also very common leading to the traditional Italian Game.}) 4. d3 (4. Ng5 {is also interesting, leading to a very sharp game after d5.} d5 5. exd5 Na5 (5... Nxd5 $6 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 $40 {is a very dangerous attack for White, called the Fried Liver Attack.}) 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Bd3 {This move has been sort of the new main line these days, which leads to very sharp play.} (8. Be2 h6 $44 {Was the old main line.})) 4... Bc5 {And now we transpose into the main line.} (4... Be7 {is an additional line, which has the benefit of being flexible with Nf6 instead of Bc5.}) (4... h6 $5 {Even this is interesting, which allows the opportunity to play with d6 and g6 and Bg7, while stopping Ng5.}) (4... d6 $2 {Of course is a mistake here, since now White will play...} 5. Ng5 $1 d5 6. exd5 Nxd5 (6... Na5 7. Bb5+ c6 8. dxc6 bxc6 9. Ba4 $16 {Here Black barely has any compensation for the pawn.}) 7. Nxf7 {And be up a tempo.}) 5. O-O d6 6. c3 a6 7. a4 O-O 8. h3 h6 {Black deviates from another game Nepomniachtchi played before. However, this position after h6 did occur in the game Nepo-Mamedyarov, so it's likely that the top Azerbaijan players had studied this position together.} (8... Be6 9. Bxe6 fxe6 10. d4 Ba7 11. Re1 exd4 12. cxd4 e5 13. Be3 d5 14. Nc3 exd4 15. Nxd4 Bxd4 16. Bxd4 Nxe4 17. Nxe4 Nxd4 18. Qxd4 dxe4 19. Qxe4 {1/2 (40) Nepomniachtchi,I (2719)-Yu Yangyi (2737) Moscow RUS 2016 Where White had a very small pull but Black held in...}) 9. Re1 Ba7 {Deviating from Mamedyarov. This is still a very theoretical position though.} (9... Re8 10. Nbd2 Be6 11. Bxe6 Rxe6 12. b4 Ba7 13. Qc2 d5 14. Nb3 $14 {1-0 (54) Nepomniachtchi,I (2740)-Mamedyarov,S (2761) Moscow RUS 2016 is already a bit unpleasant for Black and White later on won a very nice game.}) 10. Nbd2 Ne7 11. d4 (11. Nf1 $5 {Has been tried a few times by Anish Giri.}) 11... Ng6 12. Bf1 Re8 13. Qc2 (13. a5 $5 {has been tried by Kramnik against Radjabov in the Olympiad, with a lot of success, but I'm sure Radjabov did a lot of work on this position. In general, when top players lose in a certain line they usually know it really deeply next time, so very often the next opponents don't go into that line, assuming they will be better prepared.} Bd7 14. b4 Bc6 (14... d5 {Possibly this was Radjabov's improvement.}) 15. d5 Bd7 16. c4 Nf4 17. c5 g5 $6 (17... dxc5) 18. Nc4 $16 {1-0 (34) Kramnik, V (2808)-Radjabov,T (2722) Baku AZE 2016 From here White won a very nice game.} ) 13... Nh7 14. dxe5 {This is a novelty according to my database.} (14. Nb3 Nh4 15. Nxh4 Qxh4 16. dxe5 dxe5 17. Be3 Ng5 18. Bxa7 Rxa7 {0-1 (69) Dragnev,V (2515)-Zilka,S (2523) Lesnica SVK 2017 And here Black was comfortable and even later on won in ...}) 14... dxe5 15. Nc4 Qf6 16. Ne3 Ne7 (16... Nf4 {Seems like a reasonable alternative.} 17. Nf5 {Would lead to a complex game though, and probably the idea of Ne7 was to prevent Nf5.}) 17. Ng4 {Not sure about the objective value of this move.} (17. Be2 {Maybe at this point objectively it was better to play a humble move like Be2 to try to maintain equality, but of course Nepo needed the win, being a half a point behind, so he was willing to take some risks to unbalance the game.}) 17... Bxg4 18. hxg4 Ng6 19. Bc4 Rad8 20. a5 $6 (20. Be3 {Again, perhaps it was better objectively to steer the game to equalish grounds.}) 20... Nf4 21. Nh2 $6 {This move makes matters worse for White.} (21. Rf1 {Was objectively a better defence but here Black is the only one who can be better.} Ng5 22. Nxg5 Qxg5 23. Bxf4 exf4 24. Qe2 c6 {And only Black can be better. White can't really dream of winning such a position at an elite level, if Black is ok with a draw.}) 21... Rd7 22. Be3 Bxe3 23. fxe3 Ne6 $17 {Now Black is much better. White's pawn structure is really spoiled with a pair of doubled isolated pawns.} 24. Rf1 Qe7 25. b4 Nhg5 $6 {Here, however, Black lets go of a big portion of his advantage. This move wasn't so logical since now the knight on e6 isn't as happy, and the knights become redundant.} ( 25... Nf6 $1 26. Rf5 Qd6 (26... Ng5 {Should also be sufficient.}) 27. Raf1 Ng5 $19 {And Black is basically already winning material here.}) 26. Nf3 Nxf3+ 27. gxf3 {Now thanks to the threat of the e5 pawn, at least White was able to fix his pawn structure. He's still worse with a weak king though and really never risked winning the game.} Qg5 28. Rae1 Red8 29. Qh2 Rd2 30. Re2 Rd1 31. Bd5 Rxf1+ 32. Kxf1 c6 33. Bxe6 Rd1+ $1 {Important in-between move AKA a 'zwischenzug'.} (33... fxe6 34. Rd2 $11 {is just equal.}) 34. Kf2 fxe6 35. Qh5 $1 {White finds the best defensive resource here, transposing into a rook endgame with excellent drawing chances.} Qxh5 36. gxh5 Kf7 37. Rb2 Rc1 38. Rd2 Ke7 39. Rd3 Rh1 40. Kg2 Rxh5 41. c4 {White is in time to create counterplay.} Rg5+ 42. Kh2 Rh5+ 43. Kg2 Rg5+ 44. Kh2 h5 {Black could've forced a draw here, but at this moment Grischuk hasn't officially drawn yet, and had Grischuk won, Radjabov would've not won clear first. So he still tried to press. Besides Radjabov really has no risk here. However, maybe a slightly better way to press was with Rg6!?} ( 44... Rg6 $5 45. b5 axb5 $1 46. cxb5 Rf6 $1 {And here after this unusual move, Rf6, Black still has some winning chances. However, finding a variation like that isn't natural for the human eye, giving White a passed pawn, especially when all you really need is a draw, the last thing you want to do is to take an unnecessary risk.} (46... cxb5 47. Rb3 $11)) 45. b5 h4 46. Kh3 (46. bxa6 bxa6 47. c5 Rg3 48. Rd6 Rxf3 49. Rxc6 Rxe3 50. Rxa6 Rxe4 51. Ra7+ $1 Kd8 $1 52. c6 {Would've also secured a draw, and in fact Black had to play Kd8, or else he could even risk losing here, since White's 2 passed pawns are more dangerous than Black's 4.}) 46... Rg3+ (46... Rg1 {Might've offered slightly better winning chances but I'm pretty sure this should be a draw as well.} 47. bxa6 bxa6 48. Kxh4 Ra1 49. Rb3 Rxa5 50. Kg5 Ra1 51. c5 {And White has enough counterplay.}) 47. Kxh4 Rxf3 48. bxa6 bxa6 49. c5 {Now the game peters out to a draw by force.} Rf1 50. Rd6 Ra1 51. Rxc6 Rxa5 52. Kg5 Kd7 53. Rd6+ Ke7 54. Rc6 Kd7 55. Rd6+ Ke7 56. Rc6 {A very nice last round battle. Nepo really tried hard to create chances but Radjabov was really prepared well in the opening, and also was in excellent form in the event and could've only won this game. Congratulations to Radjabov with a huge result, and possibly even giving him some outside chances to qualify for the Candidates.} 1/2-1/2