Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: 9-Move Trap
The 2024 CrunchLabs Masters was one of the Champions Chess Tour’s four events. That competition determined one of the players who played in the in-person CCT Finals.
CrunchLabs Masters ran from July 17 to July 24 with players competing for a $300,000 prize fund. 56 players took part in this event distributed in three divisions. Eight players played in Division I, 16 in Division II, and 32 in Division III.
The competition featured a KO system with four-game matches with time control 10+2. In the case of players tying after their regular match, one Armageddon game decided the winner of the match.
In the first round of Division I, GM Alireza Firouzja played his match against GM Fabiano Caruana. Although Firouzja won the first game, he suffered an embarrassing defeat in game two resigning in only 9 moves!!!
It is very unusual that games between world top 10 end in under 10 moves, even in speed chess. But Firouzja was caught into a beautiful opening trap that is worth to remember.
GM Anish Giri made ironic comments about the game: “I spent my entire childhood hoping to get to play this trap in a real game once. Never happened”
Despite his defeat, Firouza said, “I was very upset, but then I saw Fabiano was laughing on the camera a lot, so I thought I have to pay this back somehow. I got a lot of motivation from his laughs.”
After the game Firouzja mentioned: “Of course I knew this tactic, but suddenly in the game I thought, what happens if I just take the rook and completely forgot about this tactic.”
Firouzja won the third game, but then Caruana won on demand the last one forcing the armageddon. The French player won the tiebreak and went to the next round.
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