Giri and Navara in Mr Dodgy Invitational final

Anish Giri and David Navara will meet in Sunday’s Mr Dodgy Invitational final after winning their semifinal matches while losing only a single game each. Giri survived a rocky start to overcome Anton Korobov 6.5:2.5, while David Navara was most troubled by a delayed bus that saw him arrive for the match late and even more apologetic than usual. From there it was plain sailing, however, as an out-of-sorts Peter Svidler was blown away 7:2.

You can replay all the games from the My Dodgy Invitational using the selector below:

And here’s the day’s live commentary from Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet, Nils Grandelius and Peter Heine Nielsen:

If you haven't been able to follow the action so far don't miss a quick recap of the first two days!

Giri 6.5:2.5 Korobov

This was an impressive performance by top seed Anish Giri, but especially the early games weren’t as smooth as they looked at a glance! For instance, 43…Nf1+ led to a seemingly logical draw by perpetual check, but 44.Bxf1 would have won on the spot!

The second game was even more dramatic, with Anish nursing a winning position for a dozen moves until 45.e6?? should have thrown away the win, but only accelerated it!

Order was more or less restored in the third game, though there was also a fleeting chance for Korobov there:

16.Ng6! wins an exchange, since 16…fxg6 runs into 17.Bxe6+!, and combined with the rook and queen battery on the e-file White wins material.

After missing wins in the first three games Anton Korobov finally did win in Game 4, though from a position where Anish had been winning:

The match was level, but Giri then went on to win 4 of the next 5 games. Game 5 was a convincing win with Black, while Game 6 was not just a brilliant demolition of the King’s Indian Defence but, it seems, an instructive illustration of a new concept. Giri explains: 

It was a case of from the sublime to the ridiculous in the next game when Anish, who says he's been working on his online blitz technique, managed to flag Anton while down a queen and 3 pawns:

That was perhaps the moment when the outcome of the match was no longer in doubt, though it wasn’t quite as close to over as Anish thought. This was the position after 36 moves of the next game:

The Dutch no. 1 explained he hadn’t really bothered to think here before playing 37.h6? since he’d wrongly counted that a draw was all he needed to win the match. In fact it just put him on 5.5 points, while there had been a win with 37.g6! instead.

No harm was done, however, as Anish took over with the black pieces in the next game to clinch the match and a place in the final. It was an impressive performance, though Giri was concerned that whatever he does he can’t really win!

Navara 7:2 Svidler

“I was lucky because Grandmaster Svidler was not in the best form today”, David Navara started his post-game interview, which was true, but no more true than Peter’s, “David just played better from start to finish.” It was that kind of post-game discussion…

David’s main subject for apologies was that a bus had been late and he’d had to rush, sweating, to the flat where he was playing and start the match late. Perhaps that explains the manic end to the first game. David later said he thought he must have had a win somewhere, but was shocked to be told that it was actually mate-in-1!

If the match had gone on to be close he might have regretted not flagging his opponent, since winning on time would have been the easiest thing in the world with 23 seconds to Svidler’s 1 when a draw was agreed.

It wasn’t a day when such details would matter, however. In the very next game Peter admitted to blundering everything, including the devastating final blow 22…Nxg3!:

Peter missed a chance to hit back in the next game before 36…c4! suddenly ended the game after that in David’s favour:

The bishop has to protect the f1-square or it's a quick checkmate, but 37.Bxc4 would run into 37...Qe4+ and Black wins a piece.

David comfortably took a 3-point lead with a win in the next game, before Peter finally picked up his only win of the day:

34.b4! was a nice finish, leaving Black no way of stopping Kd2 and picking up a piece.

Was that the start of the kind of comeback Peter had pulled off the day before against David Howell? No, was the short answer, with David going on to win the next three games and the match. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you want something:

Peter’s attempt to win on demand with the black pieces in the final game ended as such efforts often do, though David’s win was more beautiful than usual:

It’s mate-in-4 after either 26.Nd5+ or the move Navara played, 26.Bh4!. Peter spent some time confirming that was the case and then decided to fall on his sword swiftly with 26…Rxh8 27.Qxg5#

David had shown that he’s very good at blitz…

…and Peter remained gracious to the end:

All that remains is a final (?) Dodgy trailer…

…and we’re ready for Sunday’s final! “If I play as well as today it might be an interesting match”, said David. Tune into all the action live from 18:00 CEST right here on chess24!

See also:

• The Mr Dodgy Invitational
• The Mr Dodgy Invitational - it's really happening
• No horsing around as favourites reach Mr Dodgy Invitational semifinals