Kostya's Games of the Day: August 10th

IM Kostya Kavutskiy will be presenting an annotated Game of the Day each day over the course of the 120th U.S. Open. Today, in fact, he presents two!

Don't forget to watch the livestream from Orlando for Sunday's final round beginning at 3pm EDT. Kostya will co-host with IM Eric Rosen on our US Chess Twitch channel. Kostya writes:

Today I wanted to highlight two games from the Open. In the first, FM Justin Paul scores a huge upset over GM Nikola Mitkov, thanks to a powerful queen sacrifice. In the second game, a missed brilliancy by GM Dariusz Swiercz, who had GM Timur Gareev on the ropes, but not enough time to deliver the killing blow.

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[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Site "Orlando, Florida"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "7.2"]
[White "Gareyev, Timur"]
[Black "Swiercz, Dariusz"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E14"]
[WhiteElo "2682"]
[BlackElo "2756"]
[Annotator "Kostya"]
[PlyCount "50"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. e3 b6 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bd3 Bb7 7. O-O Bd6 8. b3
Qe7 9. Bb2 Nbd7 10. Nc3 a6 11. a4 O-O 12. a5 b5 13. Ne2 Ne4 14. Ne1 Qh4 15. g3
Qh6 16. Ng2 f5 {Black has developed the classic 'Pillsbury Attack' on the
kingside. From there the plan is usually to try to bring the second knight to
g4.} 17. f3 g5 $3 {A fantastic concept, simply ignoring the attack on the
knight on e4. Black's point is that after fxe4 fxe4, Nd7-f6-g4 will be very
difficult for White to meet.} 18. Bc2 {Backing up in advance, so that White
can consider taking on e4.} ({Accepting the sacrifice seems too dangerous:} 18.
fxe4 fxe4 19. Bc2 Nf6 {threatening Ng4, and White can't defend the kingside.}
20. Nef4 Rae8 $1 $17 {Taking the knight is also good, but Stockfish just
ignores it!}) 18... Ndf6 $1 {Committing to the sacrifice for good! But now
with this knight in range of g4, it will be very hard for White to take on e4.
At this point in the commentary, we started guessing how many moves the knight
would stay en prise!} 19. b4 $6 {A puzzling move, as this pawn could be a
target in the future.} ({My guess is Gareev didn't like} 19. Qe1 b4 $15) 19...
Qh3 {Black has a total grip on the kingside, and can improve his position at
will.} 20. Qe1 {Planning Kh1 and Ng1 to kick out Black's queen.} Rae8 $1 {
Activating further.} 21. Kh1 Bc8 22. Ng1 Qh6 23. Ne2 Qh3 $6 {In heavy
time-trouble, Swiercz decides to repeat moves and accept a draw. Totally
understandable, but a pity, as if he had more time he likely would have found
the winning breakthrough:} (23... Nxg3+ $3 {was the missed brilliancy.} 24.
Nxg3 f4 {with ideas of fxe3, opening up Black's bishop against the h2-pawn.}
25. Nf5 (25. Ne2 fxe3 $19) 25... Bxf5 26. Bxf5 Nh5 $1 {is another key point.}
27. Bg4 Ng3+ 28. Kg1 Nxf1 $19 {with fxe3 looming, White's position is busted.})
(23... Kh8 $5 {was also possible, with idea} 24. Rc1 f4 $1 25. gxf4 gxf4 26.
Nexf4 Ng5 $1 {followed by Nh3, which would break down White's kingside
defenses.}) 24. Ng1 Qh6 25. Ne2 Qh3 {An anti-climactic finish, but quite an
interesting attacking effort nevertheless. And it turned out that knight
stayed hanging on e4 for the rest of the game!} 1/2-1/2

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[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Site "Orlando, Florida"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "7.6"]
[White "Mitkov, Nikola"]
[Black "Paul, Justin"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C28"]
[WhiteElo "2576"]
[BlackElo "2369"]
[Annotator "Kostya"]
[PlyCount "74"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d3 Na5 5. Nge2 c6 6. O-O b5 7. Bb3 b4 8. Na4
d5 9. f4 Nxb3 10. axb3 Bd6 11. fxe5 Bxe5 12. Qe1 dxe4 13. Bf4 Bxf4 14. Rxf4 O-O
15. dxe4 Qe7 16. Qf2 Re8 17. Nb6 Rb8 18. Nxc8 Rbxc8 19. Rxa7 Qe5 20. Qd4 Qb5
21. Ng3 Rcd8 22. Qf2 Rd1+ 23. Nf1 Red8 24. h3 h6 25. Qe3 Rb1 26. Rf2 Rdd1 27.
Qf3 Qc5 28. Ra8+ Kh7 29. Kh2 Qe5+ 30. Qg3 Qd4 31. Qf4 Qxf2 $3 {A very
instructive queen sacrifice, not many players would have the guts to do this
against a grandmaster! Black likely realized that with White's rook misplaced
on a8, White's queen would not be able to defend against two rooks and a
knight on the kingside. And indeed, Black is concretely winning with best play.
} 32. Qxf2 Rxf1 {Black's knight is just one move away from causing problems
for White's king. In the meantime, White has no way to generate any threats.}
33. Qd4 Rbe1 {Simple and strong, threatening Nxe4.} (33... Nh5 $1 {was also
winning, threatening Rh1 mate.} 34. g3 Rbd1 35. Qe3 Rde1 {and the queen can't
keep everything protected.} 36. Qd2 Rh1+ 37. Kg2 Reg1+ 38. Kf2 Rh2+ $19) 34. h4
{Trying to create some escape squares, but White's king won't get far.} (34. e5
Ne4 $19 {would change nothing.}) 34... Nxe4 35. Kh3 h5 $1 {Shutting in the
king.} 36. g4 Re2 37. gxh5 f5 $1 {A powerful finisher, where White has no more
defenses against Rh1 mate.} 0-1

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