Croatia Bulldogs – Blitz
After defeating the Berlin Bears, in the third week of Pro Chess League Croatia Bulldogs faced another difficult challenge – a match against the french-based team Blitz, featuring two 2700+ players and managed by the popular streamer Kevin Bordi a.k.a. Blitzstream.
With both teams having an even score (1-1), both teams were hoping to make a significant leap toward the play-off stage (for which three victories are required) and brought their A-game to the table. This resulted in one of the closest, tightest, and most entertaining/nerve-wracking (Pro Chess League) matches yours truly has ever witnessed.
Full report and highlights follow!
Team Lineups
After signing the Serbian nr.1 player GM Aleksandar Inđić and including him in our lineup for the season, we immediately included him in the lineup and fielded a very respectable team with a very similar rating average compared to the previous week:
Our opponents fielded the very same lineup as in the previous weeks, consisting of two 2700+ grandmasters and two lower-rated, but young and ambitious players:
- Alexander Grischuk
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
- Mahel Boyer
- Deimante Daultye-Cornette
Even though the (adjusted) rating averages were almost identical (2545 vs 2544), perhaps our opponents could have been considered as slight pre-match favourites, since having two players of MVL and Grischuk’s caliber definitely looks quite threatening on paper. However, if everything ended up as it looked like on paper, we wouldn’t even have to play events of any sort – especially not ones played with rapid control when expected results don’t mean anything once you sit at the board and start playing.
Let’s review the action that unfolded on the evening of 2nd March 2023.
Round 1
Shuvalova – Grischuk
Already the first round demonstrated that it is not so easy to score points in this competition, even if you are a 2700+ player and a former World Blitz Champion. In the first game of the day, our board 4 Polina Shuvalova played very solidly with the White pieces and gave Grischuk very little chance to play for anything.
Daneshvar – Vachier-Lagrave
Bardiya Daneshvar, who has been enjoying a tremendous season so far, continued with a very good performance in the first round and demonstrated further that life won’t be easy for the opponent’s elite players. In a very sharp and double-edged battle, he managed to completely outplay another former World Blitz Champion and obtain a winning position with the help of the pseudo-bishop-sacrifice. However, at the critical moment, he failed to capitalize on the opportunity and let the opponent off the hook:
Even after this mistake, the game remained equal, but alas, Bardiya decided to push the issue a bit too far and was punished, in the end:
Boyer – Inđić
On our board 2 (their board 3), Aleksandar Inđić followed in Mustafa Yilmaz’s footsteps and scored a very nice victory in his opening match for the Croatia Bulldogs, showcasing some very good form and announcing that this is going to be his day:
Daulyte-Cornette – Bogdan-Daniel
Last but not least, our board 1 Deac Bogdan-Daniel also managed to win his game against their board 4 Deimante Daultye-Cornette after yet again employing a somewhat second-rate opening – this time the Owen Defense with 1…b6. It was by no means a smooth game, but ultimately, he managed to prevail in the mutual time trouble and score a very important win:
Thus, even though the game between Daneshvar and MVL left a sour aftertaste due to a missed enormous opportunity, we still managed to win the round with 2.5-1.5 and start the match in a very good fashion.
Round 2
Grischuk – Daneshvar
After losing to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a dramatic fashion, Bardiya Daneshvar had another tough pairing in front of him – Alexander Grischuk with the Black pieces. Despite employing the Caro-Kann instead of his favorite Accelerated Dragon, Bardiya never really got into the game and the former World Blitz Champion scored a very convincing victory:
Vachier-Lagrave – Shuvalova
After scoring a miracle win against Bardiya Daneshvar, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave continued racking points for the Blitz with yet another crazy and sacrificial encounter against Polina Shuvalova. Even though Polina played very well, she fell significantly behind on the clock and then blundered in a very difficult position:
Bogdan-Daniel – Boyer
The game between Deac Bogdan-Daniel and Mahel Boyer was definitely the most shocking game of the round. After outplaying his opponent in a very nice fashion, Deac obtained a completely winning endgame in which seemingly there was no way to spoil things whatsoever. However, whenever there are knights on the board in blitz, there can be tricks – and in severe time trouble Deac overlooked the following tricky tactic:
It was a pure miracle that Deac was not totally lost after being forced to give up the piece and the game ended up in a draw in the end, saving a very important half-a-point for the French team:
Inđić – Daulyte-Cornette
The only win of the round was scored by Aleksandar Inđić, who managed to beat their board 4 Daultye-Cornette, although not without some trouble. At first glance, the opponent’s position looked defensible, but then she blundered the following simple tactic:
and her position collapsed quickly afterward:
Thus, after 2 rounds, we were back to square one. With the match score tied at 4-4, the true drama was just beginning.
Round 3
Bogdan-Daniel – Vachier-Lagrave
Round 3 saw the very first of the two 2700 clashes, the one between Deac Bogdan-Daniel and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Against Deac’s 1.d4, Maxime refrained from playing his favorite Grünfeld and decided to go for the very solid Queen’s Gambit Accepted instead. The equilibrium in this game was never disrupted, so the draw was a very fair (and likely) result:
Inđić – Grischuk
The game between Inđić and Grischuk was almost similarly uneventful. A well-played opening led to a completely equal position, and a draw was very soon agreed:
Boyer – Shuvalova
The encounter between Mahel Boyer and Polina Shuvalova was definitely the most dramatic and topsy-turvy in the entire match. To be fair, Polina did play an excellent game and managed to obtain a completely winning position. However, rook endgames can be very tricky, and in a severe time trouble, she missed several wins and managed to end up in a lost queen endgame:
Fortunately for us, after obtaining such an unexpected chance, Boyer quickly returned the favour and gave up the only pawn on the board, and the game ended in a draw.
Even though we could have been happy with a draw given the final position, given the entire game there was this feeling that Boyer managed to achieve another miracle and save another very important half-a-point that almost ended up costing us dearly!
Daultye-Cornette – Daneshvar
Last but not least, Bardiya Daneshvar managed to bounce back from his back-to-back defeats in the first round and score a very important victory against the opponent’s board 4:
Thus, after 3 rounds, we managed to get back a 1-point lead again (6.5-5.5), although, with such a narrow margin, it was clear that everything would be decided in the very final round of the day!
Round 4
Shuvalova – Daultye-Cornette
Before the match, the general idea was to try and survive against their first two boards and to try and score as many points as possible against their lower two boards. This was especially true in the final round, which would witness the clashes of boards 3 and boards 4 – since we were the ones with the higher rating in both cases.
Alas, all these theoretical plans turned out to be wishful thinking. Because first, Polina Shuvalova quickly found herself a piece down after her opponent employed a very risky and daring opening variation of the Nimzo-Indian. Even though there were quite a few adventures along the way, Polina didn’t manage to sustain her compensation and ended up losing the game:
Daneshvar – Boyer
Next, in the clashes of boards 3, Bardiya Daneshvar ended up playing probably his worst game of the entire season and losing quite brutally to their board 3 Bohel Mayer:
Vachier-Lagrave – Inđić
Since both of the previous two games looked very bad from the early opening stage, things didn’t look too rosy for the Bulldogs given that our boards 1 and 2 faced their two strongest players with the Black pieces. However, our debutant Aleksandar Inđić came to the rescue by beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave using the latter’s weapon – the Sicilian Najdorf – against him. To be fair, his position was also quite suspect out of the opening, but once MVL missed a direct punishment, Inđić managed to grab the initiative and score a remarkable, and hugely important victory:
Grischuk – Bogdan-Daniel
Thus, it transpired that everything would depend on the clash of boards 1 (as they were the last game that remained after the other three finished). Initially, it seemed as if this encounter would also end in a very solid grandmaster draw. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, Grischuk managed to obtain a winning attack, forcing Deac to give up the piece. It seemed as if defeat in the match is imminent. But this time, luck smiled on us, as Grischuk somehow managed to botch it under the time pressure and let Deac escape into a drawn knight+rook vs rook endgame:
Therefore, the match ended up with a tied result of 8-8. This meant that more chess was about to follow as, for the first time this season, the Bulldogs were forced to go into the tiebreak stage.
Tiebreak
The tiebreak stage of the Pro Chess League features an additional round of play with the same pairings as in round 4, but with colours reversed. The time control is reduced from 10+2 to 3+2. If the match is still tied after two additional rounds of play, then play switches to 1+1 until a team wins a round.
Inđić – Vachier-Lagrave
Given that they just won the last round quite convincingly – and the fact that they have two former World Blitz Champions in their lineup – Blitz could have definitely been regarded as a favourite. However, very quickly it transpired that past titles and theories don’t mean nothing, as Inđić scored yet another victory by dispatching MVL’s Grünfeld in a beautiful miniature:
A tremendous performance in his debut by Alexander, who not only scored 4.5/5 (!!) but also scored two back-to-back victories against MVL (!!!). How many players can say that they have accomplished such a feat?
Bogdan-Daniel – Grischuk
On the first board, Deac Bogdan-Daniel allowed no surprises this time. By employing a very solid Catalan and taking minimum risks, he ensured a safe draw without giving the opponent too many chances:
Daultye-Cornette – Shuvalova
The match fate came down to the clash of the boards 4. Even though Polina was better in the early middlegame, the game wasn’t without its affairs as she allowed a lot of counterplay which ensured White at least a perpetual. However, Daultye-Cornette decided to avoid the perpetual check in a very unfortunate manner, blundering the game in a single move:
Boyer – Daneshvar
After Polina’s victory, the fate of the tiebreak – and the entire match – was decided, even though Bardiya Daneshvar was still playing his game – which, btw, ended in a draw!
Thus, after a long, stressful, and grueling battle, we managed to win the overall match 11-9. This was a hugely important victory that moves us onto 2-1 score for the season and brought us one step closer to the desired place in the playoff stage!
Lichess study with all the games
Lichess study with highlights
My Video recap with the highlights
Coming soon