Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi defeats Maxim Chigayev of Spain at the Chess Olympiad with a decisive tactical win. The commentary breaks down Arjun's control of light squares, the critical f4-f5 breakthrough, and the forcing combination that leads to resignation.
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We have Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi making his way to the game. He is going to play against the team of Spain. His opponent, Maxim Chigayev, formerly playing for the Russian country of Russia but now has— is representing Spain. And Arjun, well, there he enters in. Generally, he's the last one to arrive and There were some gifts that were placed on his chair. Arjun is right now completely focused on the game. A handshake there and off we go. Arjun hasn't had a great event until now. He's lost one game to I.M. Prin and then a draw against Spain, and now— sorry, draw against the previous round that he played. Knight f3, knight f6, and that was against Italy. Yes, pawn to c4, and so Arjun would be looking for a win here. Also, the entire team would be waiting for him to come back in shape. b6 played to get the bishop out to b7, and pawn to g3, fianchettoing the bishop. Bb7 and Bg2. The bishops are placed on opposite diagonals here. And e6 played to open up this bishop. White goes knight to c3 and bishop comes out to e7 with the idea of castling. We have pawn to d4 grabbing hold of the center and knight jumps in to e4. Now usually the trade of these 2 knights is a very good idea, and Arjun goes Bd2. Now let's understand this move because you can actually win this bishop. In fact, it even goes to this extent that after Bf6, Arjun goes and forces the knight to capture on d2. And when you give up the bishop pair in this way, What eventually happens is that you lose the bishop pair, but your remaining pieces are very well positioned, like the knight on c3, knight on f3, bishop on g2. You have the center control, and white is happy with this. Also, the rooks will be connected once you castle. So d6 played, and now rook d1. Very quickly, Arjun brings his rook to the center. This has all been seen before, so this is Arjun's prep. You can see him at 1:32. 1 hour 32 minutes. Now the knight develops to d7. Black has their trumps. The bishop pair is one of them, the flexibility in the center. White has space. And queen to c2 with the idea at some point to play e4 and putting the rook opposite the queen. He goes g6. To bring the bishop back to g7, and this also has been played before, which is why Arjun would be well prepared and goes h4 without even thinking. He plays h4, and now in the past, games have continued with h5 here, but h6 is the first new move of the game. We are on move 12. Arjun still continues to play quickly, although he took 4 minutes for this last move. h5 does soften up the kingside. g5 played, and this is what black wanted. Black gets some space on the kingside, but Arjun now pushes forward even further with d5. Very powerful play, trying to open up these diagonals. But the main point is you don't want to play e5. That would make your bishop really bad. So Chigayev correctly takes on c3 first, getting rid of that bishop, and only after queen takes c3 taken by Arjun, he's going to push e5. And there you see it, he plays it. Now the f5 square has been weakened. Look at this square, can no longer be protected by any of the pawns, but it's also possible that black will try to defend it. Let's say knight to f6, bishop c8, a5 played here by Chigayev, and Arjun goes for this very interesting maneuver knight h2. He may want to go knight f1, knight e3, knight f5, or knight g4, knight e3, knight f5. This could be on his mind, and bishop c8 is also a nice move. And bishop h3. He tries to trade off the bishops, and Chigayev's best move here could be knight to c5. He goes knight f6, which is also nice. This is around even position. No, it's Not at all better for white. Black also has to be careful. So takes. Now queen takes c8, very logical, I believe, to control the f5 square. And h5 pawn is a bit loose, so knight f1 to e3 makes complete sense. This is what Arjun does. Now black's best move is castling here, castling and push e4. But he goes knight g8, and it's very logical if you think about it. The plan is knight e7 to control f5. But now Arjun gets an advantage, a very big advantage. And notice how Arjun understands it instantly and pushes e4. Very good move, controlling the f5 square. And now we'll bring the knight to e3 next. Knight e7 and knight to e3. White has complete control. In fact, Maxime Chigayev's plan here is castles, and then he would go f5 when he would have 3 pieces on f5. Arjun can stop it with g4 if he wants to, but I think Arjun has an even stronger move than g4 up his sleeve. And you can see Arjun zoning in And he boom pushes f4. What a move this is! The point is, if you take, take, and take, rook g1, and the king is extremely vulnerable on h8, which is the point of the move f4. And so Chigayev goes even further in with f5, thinking that the king on e1 is weaker than the king on g8. But now notice how this diagonal is going to play a crucial role. Arjun comes in, writes down his move, and takes fe5. fe d, and that's a mistake by the way. f4 would have been better, but this is still clearly better for white after this rook takes f4 and e6. But d taken back by Maxime, and the main point now is e takes f5. And Chikhaev has missed a very important resource. After knight takes f5, it's not that Arjun wants to take this. Arjun simply short castles, an insanely good move. Knight takes e3, queen g6 check is winning. Can work it out, it's completely crushing. So he has to go back. Look at this variation. If you take, I give you a check. I take this, I take this, and I take this. I'm just 2 pawns up. So that's the reason why he goes back, Knight g7. Arjun comes up, King g2, calmly. Queen comes up to d7, and you will see that the position is utterly lost. Queen e4, because the light squares are tremendously weak. You even can't take here, check, and trouble time. Chigayev takes on f1. Arjun comes back and takes back. He writes down his move first. Now takes, rook takes f1. And now rook to f8. The rooks are facing off against each other. Rook takes f8. King takes. It seems like everything looks around even, you know, like e5 pawn may fall, h5 may fall. I mean, what's happening? The main point is that Arjun has such immense control on light squares that it's already game over. Check. And now the threat is check, pick up the h pawn. And just the h pawn runs down the board. That's how strong it is. Queen d6, and you can see Arjun in his typical style is looking here and there and calculating. And finally he goes check. King f7. And the move that is just absolutely crushing, knight g4 attacking h6. He plays it, and if the knight moves, then knight takes e5 is a bone crusher. He takes on h5, and Arjun chops off knight takes e5 check. King e7, queen check. If you come up to f6, knight g4 is a beautiful checkmate. So king has to go back. If you go king d8, there's knight f7 check and lose the queen. So king e8, and now simply check, and here's the mate. King d8, Check king here. Check king here. Check king here. Checkmate. And Maxime Chigayev resigns. Arjun Erigaisi scores a win. And we bring you some moments after the game. Arjun's first win at the Chess Olympiad. And this was a very powerful victory for the Indian youngster. And I'm sure it is great news for Team India.
Thank you.
Arjun, two minutes for Chessbase India, maybe?
No, probably not.
Okay, thank you.
Do you know the way back to?
You can take a buggy. I think, I think there should be some buggy for you. He was waiting for you.
You're opening there.
Yeah, yeah, probably.
I think he was waiting, so he saw you going, so he was also waiting. Sorry, I didn't know you were waiting. Yeah, sorry, I didn't know you were waiting.
Everything? Yeah.
You are in menu?
Uh, no, no, no, in the south. Oh, okay, okay.
Yeah. Yeah, like this.
Look on two three.
Look on b one b four. I think it's a big trend.
Oh, probably. Objectivity should be draw, of course. But okay, it's still playable. But I don't believe.
You have the knight on g seven, right?
No, no. I mean instead of instead of castle. Okay.
A knight on e seven.
Yeah, yeah. Because okay, in the game.
So of course I should I should try four instead of d five.
But okay, okay. When you blunder at the castle, so the game is over anyway. So yes, but okay, okay, good luck.
