The Elevator Blessing || Fabiano Caruana vs Anish Giri || FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 R9

This video covers a game from round nine of this year's Feday candidates tournament between Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri, who are currently tied for second place. They are trying to catch up to Javok Sindarov, who leads by a two-point margin. If both Fabiano and Anish beat Javok, it could result in a three-way tie. In other games, Javok Sindarov drew his game against Matias Bluebound, despite having a winning position. He expressed sadness in a post-game interview, noting he didn't realize he had a win. Pragnananda also had a winning position but missed a crucial move. Hikaru Nakamura's game was still ongoing at the time of recording. The game between Fabiano and Anish begins with Fabiano, playing white, opening with pawn to E4. The game quickly follows standard Giuoco Piano theory, with moves like pawn to E5, knight F3, knight to C6, bishop to C4, and bishop to C5. Both players castle kingside. The game proceeds with pawn to D3, D6, C3, and pawn to A5. Fabiano plays pawn to H3, and Anish responds with bishop to E6. Further moves include bishop to B5, bishop back to A7, and rook to E1. Anish plays knight to E7, and Fabiano pushes pawn to D4. Anish moves knight to G6, and Fabiano plays bishop to D3. Anish repositions his knight with knight to H5, followed by knight to F1 from Fabiano. Anish then plays knight to F4. Fabiano moves knight to G3. A new game state is reached on move 14 when Anish plays knight captures on D3, deviating from a previous game where E captures on D4 was played. Fabiano recaptures with queen captures on D3. Anish plays pawn to A4, and Fabiano responds with pawn to D5, limiting the black bishop's mobility but freeing up the bishop on A7. Anish plays bishop back to D7, and Fabiano attacks the queen with bishop to G5. Anish defends with pawn to F6, and Fabiano plays bishop to E3, countering the strong bishop. Anish captures with F captures on E3, choosing this over queen capture to prevent knight to F4 or pawn to F5. Anish then plays pawn to B5, and Fabiano responds with pawn to B4, which is noted as the best move. Anish plays A captures on B3, and queen to B8, defending the B pawn. Fabiano plays pawn to C4, and Anish aligns his queen with the white king by moving queen to B6. Fabiano plays knight to F5, hoping for a capture to undouble his pawns, but Anish plays rook FD8. Fabiano moves knight three to H4. Anish strikes with pawn to B4, creating an outpost on A3 for his rook. Fabiano moves king to H2 to get off the diagonal, and Anish plays rook to A3. Fabiano adds a defender with rook A to B1. Anish surprises by playing rook to A2 instead of doubling rooks on the A file, and Fabiano responds with queen to D1. Anish plays knight captures on H4, and Fabiano recaptures. Anish then plays rook E to A8, doubling up on the A file. Anish offers a trade of rooks with rook to A2, and then triples up on the A file. Fabiano plays rook to C1, possibly with ideas of C5. Anish moves queen to B6. Fabiano plays knight to F3. At this point, Fabiano could have opted for a trade leading to a draw, but he either missed it or sought more than a draw. He plays pawn to H6, followed by knight to E1, king to H7, and rook captures on A2. Anish recaptures with rook captures, and Fabiano plays knight to C2, a brilliant knight maneuver. Anish plays bishop to E8, aiming to shift the bishop to G6. Fabiano plays queen to D3, defending pawns on E4 and E3. Anish moves bishop to G6, and Fabiano plays rook to A1. Anish trades with rook captures on A1. A critical moment occurs when Anish could have played rook to B2 for a winning position, but he missed it. After the rook trade, Fabiano plays knight captures, and Anish responds with pawn to C5. Fabiano then blunders by playing king to G3 instead of D captures on C6, which would have led to a draw. After king to G3, Anish is in a winning position. Anish puts pressure on the knight with queen to A7 or queen to A5. Fabiano plays queen to B1, and Anish plays pawn to H5. Fabiano's queen has to guard the knight, and the knight is restricted to C2, which would blunder the E4 pawn. Fabiano defends the pawn with his king by moving king to F3. Anish plays pawn to H4, and Fabiano moves king to G4. Anish plays queen to E7, shifting attention to the kingside. Anish plays pawn to F5. If Fabiano plays king F3, it loses the queen. Fabiano plays E captures on F5. Anish then delivers the winning move: king to H6. Fabiano resigns on move 43. This marks two losses in a row for Fabiano and two wins for Anish. The game concludes with Anish's brilliant king to H6, which leads to forced checkmate. If white captures the bishop, E4 forces the queen to move, leading to queen G5 checkmate. If white tries to run with king F3, E4 check forces queen capture, followed by bishop to H5 check, and then queen to G5 checkmate. The standings show Javok leading with seven points, and Anish now in second place with five and a half points, reducing Javok's lead to one and a half points. Javok still has to face Anish and Fabiano, promising an exciting finish to the tournament.