[Event "FIDE Candidates Tournament"] [White "Grischuk, Alexander"] [Black "Alekseenko, Kirill"] [Site ""] [Round "1.4"] [Annotator "Malcolm"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [Date "2020.03.17"] [WhiteElo "2777"] [BlackElo "2698"] [PlyCount "82"] 1. c4 {Notes by IM Malcolm Pein} e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 Bc5 4. d3 (4. Nc3 c6 5. Nf3 e4 6. Nh4 d5 7. cxd5 cxd5 8. d3 Ng4 9. 0-0 g5 10. d4 $1 {1-0 (24) Anton Guijarro,D (2674)-Grischuk,A (2759) Douglas ENG 2019 [Malcolm]} )d5 (4... 0-0 {Ding Liren - Wang Hao Rd1} )5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nc3 Nxc3 7. bxc3 0-0 8. Qc2 {Very quietly played but long-term White has a central pawn majority} Nc6 9. Nf3 h6 {Designed against Nf3-g5-e4 but possibly not best} (9... Re8 10. Ng5 h6 11. d4 $1 )(9... Re8 10. Ng5 Bf5 11. g4 $5 )10. 0-0 Rb8 11. Bb2 b6 12. Rad1 Qe8 {On Chess 24 Svidler and Carlsen agreed that} 13. e4 ({ On Chess 24 Svidler and Carlsen agreed that} 13. d4 Bd6 14. Nh4 {Might also have been problematic for Black} )Bd6 14. Nh4 Bg4 {Time trouble was already approaching and as was pointed out this is a great move to make Grischuk think and he did, for 18 minutes which Carlsen was most critical of. Rd2 Re1 and f3 are all decent} (14... b5 15. Nf5 b4 $5 )15. f3 {If this was my position the pawn would already be on f3- Svidler} Bd7 16. f4 exf4 17. gxf4 Na5 ({The ChessBase cloud fraternity recommended} 17... f6 18. d4 (18. Qf2 g5 $1 )Qh5 $1 )18. Rde1 Qd8 19. Qf2 (19. Nf3 $4 Bxf4 )Nc4 20. Bc1 (20. dxc4 Bc5 {But now Black is out of tricks and the pawns roll} )Bc5 21. d4 Be7 22. Nf3 f5 23. Qe2 Nd6 24. e5 Ne4 25. Nd2 Nxd2 26. Bxd2 Be6 27. Qd3 Qd7 28. Be3 (28. d5 $2 Rfd8 )c6 29. a4 {Against b5 which Black needs to prevent c3-c4 and d4-d5} a6 {Best practical move} (29... Bd5 30. c4 Bxg2 31. Kxg2 b5 32. axb5 cxb5 33. d5 )30. Qxa6 Ra8 31. Qxb6 Bd5 32. Qb2 (32. Bxd5+ Qxd5 33. c4 Qxc4 34. Rc1 Qd3 35. Bf2 {c6 falls and White must be better} )(32. Rb1 )Rxa4 33. Ra1 Rfa8 34. Rxa4 Rxa4 {Black has counterplay and both sides were running out of time. A chance missed for Grischuk} 35. Ra1 Rxa1+ 36. Qxa1 Bxg2 37. Kxg2 Qd5+ 38. Kf2 Bh4+ 39. Ke2 Qg2+ 40. Kd3 Qe4+ 41. Kd2 Qg2+ (41... Qg2+ 42. Kc1 $4 Qf1+ 43. Kb2 Qe2+ )1/2-1/2