Birthday game of the day #chess

Since it is my birthday, I have the right to choose a Game of the Day.

At present, the only top level GM tournament is the Tal Memorial. I have only had the briefest of time to look through the games: and there is one stand out game, Boris Gelfand's victory as black against Fabiano Caruana.

Two clear reasons it wins: firstly, Boris's attack was really powerful, his pieces flowed forward so that white was overrun. And secondly, with Boris only six years younger than me, and Fabiono only one year older than my son, it is a victory for the older generation.

When I looked at the game at great rapidity, this position caught my eye. After 39…Ne2 I thought that 40 Qf7 isn't the natural move, 40 Be7 is, so at first I thought it was a classic move-forty blunder, but I doubted this could be the case, and instead spent a few moments working out what happens after 40 Be7.

At first I thought 40…Qe1+ Nc1+ or Nc3+, but couldn't get either to work, but eventually I found the answer, the slightly less natural, to me, at least, 40…Qg1+!. Black then does a few checks his knight, taking on b3- Nc1+ Nb3+ Nc1+ Ne2+, and then comes the point of Qg1, Qa7+! and the LPDO bishop on e7 drops off: 0-1.

These top players are truly incredible: to see such details, to see unnatural checks rather than be blinded by natural ones, is skill indeed.

Thank you, Boris, for providing this enjoyment and instruction on my birthday.

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