Chess - The Scotsman 26/06/2012

CONSIDERED almost dead at different times, the Grünfeld Defence – first played by Austrian GM Ernst Grünfeld in 1922, and one of the original ideas from the hypermodern school developed during that era – is a zombie that doesn’t stay buried for very long, with grandmasters digging it up for important matches for over 50 years. Just witness its surprise deployment by Boris Gelfand against Vishy Anand in the recent World Championship.

Bobby Fischer had an up-and-down relationship with it. Just 13 years old, he used it to win his famous “Game of the Century” that first brought him to the attentions of the Soviets as a potential threat. He later tried it against his future title foe Boris Spassky, losing twice.

Those Fischer losses created doubts about the Grünfeld’s soundness – but this had nothing to do with the opening itself, as Fischer had equalised but erred in difficult positions. Garry Kasparov resurrected it with mixed results during two epic championship matches against Anatoly Karpov in the 1990s.

In today’s game, easily the leading Grünfeld guru is the six-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler. And St Petersburg’s finest again showed just how dynamic it can be, as he used it to good effect last week against the Czech Republic’s top player, David Navarra. Svidler went on to easily beat Navarra, 3-1, to win the annual series of the Cez Trophy in Prague.

D Navara - P Svidler

Cez Trophy, (3)

Grünfeld Defence

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 Qb3 Nb6 6 d4 Bg7 7 e4 Bg4 8 Bb5+ c6 9 Ng5 0–0 10 Be2 Bxe2 11 Nxe2 e5 12 Qh3 h6 13 Nf3 exd4 14 Bxh6 Re8 15 0–0–0 c5 16 Ng5 Qd7 17 Qh4 f6 18 Bxg7 Qxg7 19 Nh3 Nc6 20 Rd3 g5 21 Qh5 Rxe4 22 f4 Qf7 23 Ng3 Qc4+ 24 Rc3 dxc3 25 Qg6+ Kf8 26 Qxf6+ Ke8 27 Qg6+ Kd7 28 Qxe4 cxb2+ 29 Kb1 Re8 30 Rd1+ Nd4 31 Qxb7+ Kd8 32 Qb8+ Kd7 33 Qb7+ Kd8 34 Qb8+ Nc8 35 Qxb2 Re6! 36 Rc1 Qa4 37 Ka1 Rb6 38 Qd2 Nd6 39 Rc3 Nc4 40 Qd3 Qb4 41 Rb3 Qe1+ 0–1