FIDE Circuit: Praggnanandhaa in Testa alla Classifica, Fedoseev e Ivanchuk nella Top 5

A trying continuation out of the Advanced Variation in the French Defence. White invites Black to grab the pawn on b4 with the bishop – this move has been employed in the past by the likes of Alexander Motylev and Sanan Sjugirov. The most common continuation is 10.Ne2 Ne7 11.0-0 and e.g. Nd7 12.Ng3 10…Nd7 After 10…Bxb4 11.axb4 Qxa1 White has 12.Nb5 gaining the initiative, and both after Na6 Or 12…Kd7 13.0-0 Ne7 14.Nd6 13.Nd6+ Kf8 14.0-0 White has good results in previous games. 11.b5 Qa5 12.Bd2 Qd8 13.Na4 White has weakened his queenside, but has a major lead in development. Things have gone great for the ever-creative Ivanchuk in the opening phase of the game. Ne7 14.Rc1 Ng6 15.h4 h5 16.Qb3 Ne7

A questionable decision by Espinosa, who spends a couple of tempi to reroute his knight to f5. 16…Be7 17.g3 0-0 18.0-0 seems more appropriate. 17.0-0 Nf5 18.g3 Be7 19.Bb4 0-0 20.Bxe7 Nxe7 The knight returns to e7 – the correct move here, though Black`s previous waste of tempi become even more noticeable. Worse is 20…Qxe7 21.Rc7 Rfc8 22.Rfc1 21.Nc5 Rb8 22.Ng5 Nxc5 23.Rxc5 Nf5 A major inaccuracy – again with the same knight. Black attacks the pawn on d4, but as Ivanchuk will demonstrate with his next couple of moves, White can make do without that pawn. 24.Rfc1 Nxd4 25.Qd3 Creating a threat of checkmate on h7, which will be crucial in the remainder of the game. Nf5 26.Rc7 d4 27.f3 Since Black cannot move the knight, White prepares to play g3-g4. This is not the most accurate manoeuvre according to the engines, but surely a human way to handle the position – furthermore, both players were in deep time trouble now. Qd5

The deciding mistake. It was absolutely necessary to deal with the x-ray threat of Qd3-h7 with 27…g6 though Black surely feared allowing White to cement a knight on f6 after 28.Ne4 Kg7 29.g4 hxg4 30.fxg4 Ne7 31.Nf6 28.R1c5 Qa2 Black goes for counterplay, but it is too late now. 29.g4 f6

The trade of knights favours White. With the rook on c7, Black would need to concede material to prevent mate. 30.exf6 gxf6 31.gxf5 fxg5 32.f6 Game over. 1–0