[pgn]
[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.18”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Dubov, Daniil”]
[Black “Malakhov, Vladimir”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2714”]
[BlackElo “2666”]
[TimeControl “5400+30”]
[Opening “Slav Defense: Chameleon Variation”]
[Annotator “https://lichess.org/@/foreignspidey”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 { Here we see a transposition into a Queen’s gambit position. Followed by moving into a Slav defense. } 2… c6 3. Nf3 { This move is the modern line of the Slav defense but white also has moves such as } (3. cxd5 { This is known as the exchange variation. }) (3. e3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 { This is a main line in the Slav defense. }) 3… Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 { Now we see the Chameleon variation on the board. This still seems to be in Dubov’s preparation as this position has been reached by him before. An interesting note is that the next move g3 has not had a good track record with him. } 5. g3 dxc4 6. Bg2 { With this move there are very few games in the database with pretty much no well-known players. } 6… g6 7. O-O Bg7 8. e4 O-O 9. Qe2 { At this point this position has never been reached before. } 9… b5 10. a4 { This move was a mistake as it allows black to push forward with the B pawn and moves the slight advantage from white to black. White should have focused more on the kingside with a move like h3 preventing the bishop moving to g4. } 10… b4 11. Nd1 a5 12. Re1 Ba6 13. e5 Nd5 14. e6 f5 15. Ne5 Rf6 16. Nf7 Qc8 17. Ne3 Rxe6 18. Ng5 c3 19. Qc2 Rxe3 { At this point, this is an unnecessary sacrifice for white because the rook could simply move to the d6 square. Black probably thought that after moving the rook that the white rook having the open E file was not safe. } (19… Rd6 20. Nxd5 cxd5 21. Rxe7 { Taking this pawn is a bit too dangerous as it gives black the initiative while also activating the pieces. Thus there is dynamic compensation for the loss of the pawn. } 21… Nc6) 20. Bxe3 cxb2 { This move was a mistake by black what needed to be played was Bc4. The issue with this move is that after white’s queen takes there is tremendous pressure in the center of the board. Especially in the fight for the d5 square. } 21. Qxb2 Nd7 22. Rac1 N7b6 23. Qb3 Bb7 { This is another mistake by black as it removes one of the key players and shields it behind a pawn. The relative value of the bishop tanked pretty hard as it went from seeing the whole board to seeing nothing. } (23… h6 { This move would have removed one of the attackers to a more passive position. } 24. Nf3) 24. Bf4 Bf6 25. Ne6 Kh8 26. Bh6 Qg8 27. h4 Rb8 (27… Qb8 { The idea behind moving the queen to b8 rather than the rook is that it ignites the knight taking on g5 after teh bishops trade or it is to move the queen to d6 if the rook moves to c5. } 28. Bg5 (28. Rc5 Qd6) 28… Bxg5 29. Nxg5) 28. Rc5 Ra8 { Now we see the other reason that the rook cannot easily be moved by black, because after Rc5 the A pawn would be hanging so now a move needs to be wasted to move the piece back to where it was. } 29. Ng5 Ra7 30. Rc2 { This move is aimed at doubling up on the E file although typically a good plan white had many other candidate moves that would have proved a bit more useful. Most of which aim at trading the bishops on the g5 square which seems to be integral at completely undermining black’s kingside structure. } (30. Ne6) (30. Qc2) (30. Bf3) 30… Qe8 31. Re6 (31. Ne6 Bc8 { This position is much more prefarable to the one reached by white in the game. Unfortunately it seems as though white did not see the idea of trading off black’s dark squared bishop on the g5 square. }) 31… Bxd4 { This move was a mistake because it wastes time in taking material meanwhile the main pieces are not coordinated well. } 32. h5 { This move is aimed at undermining the black pawn structure. This is especially strong because there are multiple pieces swarming black’s king in the corner which is completely separated from the other pieces stuck on the queenside. } 32… Bf6 33. Rce2 Bxg5 34. Qb2+ Nc3 { Only move, otherwise white will win the queen. Not that it matters much as white has a completely winning position due to an accumulation of mistakes in black’s positional decision making. } (34… Bf6 35. Rxf6 Nc3 36. Rf8+ Qxf8 37. Bxf8) 35. Bxg5 Nxa4 36. Qa1 { White had a stronger move with Qd2 as it came with a threat on the rook as well as threatening different attacks on the black king. } (36. Qd2 Bc8 { Only move to stop mate which gives away a rook. } 37. Qd4+ Kg8 38. Qxa7) 36… Kg8 37. Re1 Ba6 { As we can see in this position where the white bishop was moved back to where it originally was with more sight of the board. } 38. Bxc6 Qd8 39. Bxa4 (39. Bxe7 Qc8 40. Bxa4 Bc4 41. Rc6 { And white picks up another piece to trade in order to simplify to a winning end game }) 39… Qd5 40. Bc6 { Black resigns because there is nothing left to be done. All of white’s pieces are coordinated with a strong attack on the black king with no real weaknesses in the white position. } *

[/pgn]

In this game, we have Dubov starting with white with d4, a Queens’s pawn game which quickly turns into queen’s gambit, and then a Slav defense with the move 2. … c6. Dubov tends to play the white position with 1. d4 in around 40% of his games which is interesting because he has a higher win rate with his next top two choices 1. c4 and 1. Nf3. Furthermore in nearly all games where black plays 1. … d5 in this position Dubov will transpose into a queen’s gambit position. Malakhov tends to opt for the Slav defense frequently in positions where white tries to play a queen’s gambit.

Dubov is an extremely strong player that does well in positional board configurations such that maneuvering is required. On top of this, the non-traditional play from Dubov makes his games extremely interesting to watch.

This game was pretty even despite the complications of the position. Slowly black unfortunately made positional mistakes such as hiding the bishop behind the B pawn in an attempt of more sight. The B pawn never got pushed and so the bishop was essentially in jail for the rest of the game. As the game progressed white also missed different ways of pushing a win by not seeing the plan of trading the dark-squared bishop which was holding together most of the black’s defense. The move toward the weak E pawn was eventually one by doubling the rooks and black’s position completely fell apart. It helped that black willingly traded the dark-squared bishop for a knight which was a positional mistake.

At this point, after a win, there is no real reason to play any sort of risk for Dubov. In order to move on all that is necessary is to draw. this is good for Dubov who is playing with the back pieces. Malakhov on the other hand has to play for a win or else he gets kicked out of the tournament. The problem was that Dubov quickly took Malakhov out of standard theory early on in the match. When the novelty was played on move 6 Malakhov was forced to stabilize the position rather than try to force an attack. In stabilizing the position Dubov was given enough time to coordinate his pieces in a way that Malakhov could not truly undermine the structure in the center. Furthermore, Dubov did well at restricting the movement of Malakhov’s knight on the queenside. The only tricky part of the match seemed to be the move order on move 14. After the stabilization in the center and the simplification by three of the minor pieces and the queens, there is an opposite-colored end game position where both sides have identical pawn structures on the kingside. After trading down the rooks this is a draw. It seems like Dubov wanted an easy draw rather than trying to draw out the game for a win. On move 30 both players agreed to a draw despite having more than 40 minutes left on the clock, it is easy to imagine that after the trade. ofa single set of rooks a draw was inevitable.

[pgn]

[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.19”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Malakhov, Vladimir”]
[Black “Dubov, Daniil”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[WhiteElo “2666”]
[BlackElo “2714”]
[TimeControl “5400+30”]
[ECO “A05”]
[Opening “King’s Indian Attack: Symmetrical Defense”]
[Annotator “https://lichess.org/@/foreignspidey”]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 { King’s Indian Attack: Symmetrical Defense. } 4. d4 { When neither side is taking space in the center d4 is intended to take the advantage of having complete control. Another good move is c4. } 4… O-O 5. O-O d5 6. c3 Re8 { Already at this point, there are no games in the database so Dubov starts the game on a novel path. } 7. a4 { At this point Malakhov took about 5 minutes to play the move a4 which shows that Dubov successfully moved out of any kind of preparation that Malakhov may have had. } 7… a5 8. Bf4 Nbd7 { The idea behind Nbd7 rather than the standard Nc6. Is the fact that at some point black will want to push the pawn on c7 to protect d5 as well as if white tries to reroute to b5 black can easily kick it out. } 9. Na3 c6 { As already discussed this has the dual function of both reinforcing the center as well as disallowing the white knight to infiltrate the queenside. At some point we might expect Qb6 to attack the weaknesses on white’s queenside. } 10. c4 Nb6 { In this position Malakhov took about 15 minutes to decide the next move to be fair there is no clear plan of attack. } 11. cxd5 (11. c5 { If white pushes here then black can simply reroute the knight and potentially undermine the pawn structure with b6 or } 11… Nbd7 (11… Nc4 12. Nxc4 dxc4 { This position is winning for white. The pawn structure is too broken apart while the white position is extremely solid in the center. })) 11… Nfxd5 12. Bd2 Nb4 13. Nc2 { In this position, Dubov equalizes the time on the clock taking about 12 minutes. } 13… Bg4 14. Nxb4 { This is another capture where Malakhov took a huge chunk of his time to analyze. The problem is that after axb4 there is a huge move order dilemma that must be adressed. } 14… axb4 (14… Bxf3 15. Bxf3 axb4 { This move order is slightly advantageous for white. While the reversed order is slightly better for black which is what is played in the game. }) 15. a5 Bxf3 16. Bxf3 Qxd4 17. e3 (17. axb6 Rxa1 18. Qxa1 Qxd2) 17… Qxb2 { Note that at this point white is down 2 pawns but the position is still even if and only if white plays Rb1. } { [%csl Gb4,Gb7,Gc6,Ge7,Gf7,Gg6,Gh7,Ga5,Ge3,Gf2,Gg3,Gh2] } 18. Rb1 (18. axb6 Rxa1) 18… Qa2 { Only move to keep the slight advantage. } (18… Qf6 19. axb6) 19. Bxb4 (19. axb6 Red8 20. Qb3 Qxb3 21. Rxb3 Rxd2 22. Rxb4 Be5) 19… Nc4 20. Qb3 Qxb3 21. Rxb3 Nxa5 22. Bxa5 Rxa5 23. Rxb7 { White cashes in on the pawn from earlier because there is no real way to hang on to the b7 pawn. } 23… Ra1 { At this point the game is a dead draw. By trading down the less pieces there are the easier it is to get to an end game where there are no winning chances. This is because it is a 4 on 4 on the kingside with opposite colored bishops. } 24. Rxa1 Bxa1 25. Bxc6 Rc8 26. Bf3 Bf6 27. Ra7 Rb8 28. Ra8 Rxa8 29. Bxa8 e6 30. Kg2 Be7 *
[/pgn]