Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Last-Minute Mistake
In classical games, the end of the time control has a special significance.
On one side, players seem to relax when approaching that moment and because of that, mistakes are prone to appear.
On the other side, out of nervousness, players make incomprehensible blunders.
Alireza Firouzja suffered one of these moments in his game against Carlsen when in a terrible state of shaking, he forgot a basic principle in pawn endings.
But he also benefited in his game against Anish Giri in the Tata Steel Masters 2020. Both GM played an uncompromised game. For most of it, Giri had an unusual setup with his king staying castled on the kingside without the protection of pawns. He defended well and the game was more o less balanced for a long time. But just at the time control, in move 40th, he horribly blundered giving his opponent all the advantage.
It’s worth following the whole game in the below diagram, where you will see the difficulties, Giri had to face.
The young Iranian chess player Alireza Firouzja, did his debut in this tournament with excellent performance and finished with 6.5/13.
In Jun-2020, Firouzja (17 years old) occupied the 21st place in the chess world ranking with ELO 2728.
Nairobi Chess Club site closed again until further notice due to the COVID pandemic.
Nevertheless, our virtual Chess.com club organizes regularly online tournaments and matches. More than 380 members enjoy that chance. New tournaments will start soon and there is Blitz every Wednesday and Saturday. Join now! Limited slots!.
Get updated about COVID-19 checking the website World Health Organization which includes links to country-specific information. Stay safe!
