Written by: Emadeldin Teama

Anish Giri is one of the top grandmasters in the world. He is number chess player in Netherlands having a rating of 2776. He is currently number eight player in the world as well. In this article we will discuss how did Giri become super grandmaster starting from his personal life as a baby all the way till now!

Giri was born in St. Petersburg on 28 June 1994 to a Russian mother, Olga Giri, and Nepali father, Sanjay Giri. His grandmother is from Varanasi, India. In 2002, he moved to Sapporo, Japan, with his parents and lived there until 2008. Since February 2008, Giri and his family have lived in Rijswijk, Netherlands, where his father works at a research and consulting foundation. He has two sisters, Natasha and Ayusha. In June 2013, Giri graduated from Grotius College high school in Delft. He married IM Sopiko Guramishvili on 18 July 2015. They have two sons: Daniel Giri (born 2016) and Michael Giri (born 2021).

Anish Giri value stability over anything in the world. His hard life of constant movement from one place to another made him understand the importance of stability in any situation and any position. This wisdom affected his playing style very well as we would see in this article and in his games. Now let’s talk about his achievements.

Achievements

Giri is a four-time Dutch champion (2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015) .He also won the Corus Chess B Group in 2010. He has represented the Netherlands at five Chess Olympiads (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018). He also won major international tournaments, including the 2012 Reggio Emilia tournament, 2017 Reykjavik Open and shared 1st place in the 2015 London Chess Classic and 2018 Wijk Aan Zee. In 2019 he won clear first at the Third Edition of the Shenzhen Masters, deemed by some to be his first super tournament victory and supported by Dutch Chess Federation (KNSB). As of August 2021, Anish Giri is the No. 1 ranked player in the Netherlands, having switched from Russia in 2009. In 2021 Wijk aan Zee, Giri tied for first place with fellow Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest .

Playing Style

Anish Giri is famous for his playing style of keeping the game under control. Many grandmaster announced that it is almost impossible to win against Giri. Magnus Carlsen the world champion in an interview said that it is extremely hard to win against Giri as he defends extremely well. His playing style secured for him many wins out of completely equal or even slightly worse positions. Most grandmasters hate to play against Giri as they know that they would need a miracle to win against this rock solid defender and if they mess up a little bit he can launch an unstoppable attacks!. They even sometimes settle for a draw even with the white pieces. Giri ability to equalize and draw in any position is legendary. He broke a record of drawing all 14 games of the candidates’ tournament which never happened before.it was a very famous news in 2016 that many memes in the chess world were made about him being the drawing king!!

However, we would like to mention that Giri is not a passive player. He goes for the win and adapt to situations quickly. Today we are going to see some of his games where he attacked extremely well at a very young age.

Our first game was played in 2014 when Giri was only 10 years old!! At this age he already achieved an outstanding fide rating of a super grandmaster and he was also known to be a chess prodigy Here is our game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, a strong super grandmaster against a 10 years old prodigy

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2757) - Anish Giri (2776) [A22]

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.g3 Bb4 the game starts with an English opening .black choose the simplest yet one of the most sound responses to the English which looks in a way like a reversed Sicilian!. Black here wants to develop his pieces to the most aggressive squares, castle and then attack white center

4.Bg2 0–0 5.e4 Bxc3 6.bxc3 Re8 7.d3 c6 8.Ne2 d5 9.cxd5 cxd5 10.exd5 Nxd5 the target is achieved here, white has three pawn islands while black has two. Black king is safe and his development is harmonic. White will struggle to stabilize his position!

11.Rb1 Nc6 12.0–0 Bg4! Again black shows a great understanding of the chess game at a very very young age. He choose development to the most aggressive squares over material leaving the b7 pawn free for white to grab if he dares!

13.f3 Bf5 14.Rxb7 challenge accepted!

14..Nb6 15.f4 e4 16.Qb3? white here should accept slightly worse position by simply playing dxe4 Bxe4 and then Qb3. Getting rid of the black e pawn is essential .we will see how Giri punished white for not taking this chance in few moves!

16..Be6 17.Qb5 exd3! Black is clearly better , this passed pawn is unstoppable!

18.Rxb6 interesting try to complicate the position met by the simple capture and having the passed pawn advanced to the 2nd rank. It is almost a new queen!!

18..dxe2

19.Re1 Bc4 20.Qxc6 Qd1 21.Kf2 Rad8 game is over ,black will get a new queen and checkmate white. white would have to give up his queen at least for a rook to survive, however it wont be enough! 0–1

Here is a link to the game on lichess:

The next game was played in the same year against a strong grandmaster with fide rating 2620. It was a complete disaster for him losing too early!

Anish Giri (2776) - Mikhailo Oleksienko (2620)

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 c5 5.dxc5 Nc6 6.Bb5 Qc7 7.Ne2 Qxe5 8.Bf4 the game started as a normal caro kann defense everything seems normal,however giri plays this rare move that is absolutely sound in spite of the fact that computer engines initially are thinking that it is not so good. White values development over material here.He developed his bishop with a tempo leaving the b pawn behind

8..Qxb2 9.Nbc3 Nf6
in case you wonder why doesn’t black just play Qxc2?! forcing the endgame. It is because of this sequence of moves(9-..Qxc2? Qxc2 Bxc2 Nxd4!

Black either lose the bishop or face Nxc6 bxc6 Bxc6+ losing the whole rook!)

10.0–0 Qb4 11.Rb1 Qxc5 12.Ba4 black is three pawns up,yet he is losing so hard!!! He cant develop easily he tries to give back a pawn for quick development with the next move e5
13.Bxe5 Ng4 14.Bg3 0–0–0 susidal ,but how else he can keep his material and save his king from the open e file?,however Giri end the game with the next sequence
15.Bxc6 Qxc6 16.Nb5 threating fork on the king and queen on a7

16..Bc5 trying to develop while protecting the a7 pawn

17.Ned4 Qf6 18.Qf3 Black resigned here actually the reason for this is that he can’t take the d4 pawn and he is losing the bishop on f5 by force.if he tries 18..Bxd4

19.Nxd4 Qxd4 20.Qxf5+ Rd7 21.Rxb7 with a mating attack against black king like this position in the following screen.

21..Kxb7 22.Qxd7+ Ka6 [22…Ka8 23.Qc6#]

23.Qc6+ Qb6 24.Qa4+ Qa5 25.Qxg4 1–0

Here is a link to the game :

The thing that we must not forget is that Giri was 10 years old only here! His brilliant understanding to different positions as a kid was an outstanding skill that made him known all over the chess community at a very young age .

We would like to end the article with a video of giri on defending when he was playing the 2019 world champion blitz tournament vs a very strong indian grandmaster Mr.Vidit

Here is a link to the video:

In an interview with giri,he said that he love chess.but he values eduaction and family the most.that is why he is not playing as much as the the other super grandmasters as he was focused on his family and kids .he said that people are taking the world champion title too seriously and that he is happy with his life. He doesnt rush about it and he knows when the time comes, He can be. He already has a positive score against magnus carlsen with 10 wins, 28 draws and only 5 losses .it would be an interesting match if these two play against each other and we know we would enjoy absolutely amazing chess from the two amazing talents !