Queen vs. Three Pieces

Continuing with my resolve to work through all of the games in Chess Informant 152, I have settled into a pattern of 4-8 games plus those embedded as annotations in a morning session of 30-60 minutes. This morning, however, a single game fully captured my attention. The game was played in the second event of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix just over a week after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The war affected the game and was the focus of the post-game discussion. Dmitry Andreikin won with Black against Alexander Grischuk. Andreikin said that he opted for the Sicilian Defense because he "would fall asleep" if the game reached a long endgame. The war disrupted his travel to Belgrade. Grischuk made a critical blunder and focused in the press conference on the situation in Ukraine and his disapproval of Vladimir Putin's decision to invade.

I have embedded a video of the press conference at the bottom of this article.

Grischuk's blunder made sense superficially, but provided Andreikin an opportunity to exchange his queen for a rook and two minor pieces. Bringing his remaining pieces to a position where they were all working together brought the game to an end. Milos Perunovic annotated the game for Chess Informant.

Grischuk,Alexander (2764) -- Andreikin,Dmitry (2724) [B48]
Beograd 152/55, 2022

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.a3 d6 8.f4 Qc7 9.Bd3 Be7 10.0-0 0-0 11.Kh1 Re8 12.Qf3 Bd7 13.Rae1 Rac8

White to move

It seems to me that both players have developed logically to reach this position and was surprised that it occurs in only one previous game in my databases: Radoszta,A. -- Giardelli,S, Villa Martelli 2013. In that game, however, it was with Black to move.

14.Qg3 Nh5 15.Qf3 g6 16.f5 Ne5 17.Qh3

Black to move

Grischuk stated in the post-game interview that his blunders in the game included missing Andreikin's move from this position and his move 20 as well.

17...Qd8! 18.fxe6

Perunovic offers some analysis of 18.Be2

18...fxe6 19.Nxe6 Qa5 20.Nd5 Bd8

White to move

21.Bh6??

Grischuk thought after the game that White was better after 21.b4. In Perunovic's Informant annotations, the main line is given as unclear, but White is better in all the other lines. There are sharp tactics.

On the surface 21.Bh6 seems a sensible way to defend the pinned knight with a checkmate threat, but Andreikin found the refutation.

21...Qxe1! 22.Rxe1 Bxe6 23.Qe3 Ng4 24.Qd2 Nxh6

Black has three pieces--rook, knight, and bishop for a queen and pawn. This imbalance provoked me to spend more time on this game.

25.Be2 Ng7-+ 26.Rf1 Nf7 27.Nf6+ Bxf6 28.Rxf6 Rc5 29.h3 Nh5 30.Bxh5 Rxh5 31.Qf2 Re5 32.Qb6 Re7 33.Rf4 g5 34.Rf2 Rxe4 35.b3 Bd5 0-1

It is an instructive game.

Playing it Out

Alexei Shirov resigned as Black in this position. His opponent was Alexander Grischuk, The game was played in the European Cup in 2011.

Black to move

It was not instantly clear to me how White would win, so I played the position against the computer. I took Black.

51...Re6 52.Rh7+ Kg3 53.Kb7 Rf6

Stockfish prefers 53...Re4, but after several top engine choices, the game reaches a position almost identical to one reached in my effort against the box. 54.b5 axb5 55.a6 Re8 (see digram below).

54.b5 axb5 55.a6 Rf8

White to move

56.a7 b4 57.Rh5 Kf4 58.h4

Black to move

I was now confident that I could win if I had the White pieces, but I tried a few different moves for Black in any case.

a) 58...Kg4 leaves White only one winning move, but it is easy to find. 59.Rxg5+ Kxh4 60.Rc5. Black's remaing pawn is stopped and the Black rook must give itself up after a8Q.

b) 58...Rf7+ 59.Ka6 Rf8 60.Rxg5 b3 61.Rb5 as above.

c) 58...g4 59.Rb5 g3 60.Rxb4+ Kf5 61.a8Q Rxa8 62.Kxa8 g2 63.Rb1 Kg4 64.Rg1 Kg3

White to move

65.h5 Kf2 66.Rxg2 Kxg2 67.h6 1-0