Anish Giri threw away a “99, even 100 times out of 100” victory, according to the analysts at the Esports World Cup, to lose 2-0 to Nihal Sarin in the EWC Chess tournament.
The Dutch grandmaster was playing on the White side in the second game against 21-year-old prodigy, Nihal Sarin, where he trailed 1-0 overall. In was in a hugely advantageous position, Giri gave up a sizeable time advantage against his Indian opponent.
What happened in Anish Giri vs Nihal Sarin at the EWC?
Giri seemed to be in two minds between taking time, calculating moves and going for he kill, or hunting for the flag that would equalise the series. As the time fell away from both players, moving to bullet chess exchanges, Giri made a fatal error in moving his Queen to H5, collapsing his chances.
Sarin has developed a reputation as one of the world’s fastest players, and in the end, Giri could not force the flag and lost himself to time in the end. In the end, Giri’s heart rate actually surpassed his opponents’ despite initially putting Sarin under pressure.
The result left the analysts shocked, with both players sharing a bemused smile as they talked through their series, with the analysts left lamenting how Giri gave away his Queen. Giri was left despondent at the loss, banging his desk in frustration – with desk slamming happening multiple times at EWC, I guess Chess really is an esport after all.
Interviewed after the match, Sarin reflected, “I really don’t want to take any credit. I was just 100 percent or even more lucky… I don’t know, just a complete brain fade. It can happen. [That’s] the only theoretical explanation for this.”
Sarin went on to reach the quarter-finals by defeating Vitality’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 1.5-0.5 in the lower bracket qualifying match that happened mere moments after his victory over Giri.
Sarin joined esports betting site favourite Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, and fellow countryman Arjun Erigaisi as guaranteed quarter-finalists. Shortly after, Ian Nepomniachtchi qualified after Armageddon vs Andrey Esipenko.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
