 Ivan Cheparinov calls a critical victory in round 8 of the Gibraltar Masters against Noyl Struder. He joins us in our studio. Ivan, good to have you back in our studio after, like you said, what could have been a Grunfield this time but turned out to be a Kings Indian? Yeah, I decided to change because Grunfield is a very draw-ish line also. We see that Vachery, at the time, they're making a draw to him. So, this time today I wanted to play a more aggressive game because I needed to win. Yeah, that's why I decided to play Kings Indian. It's a very critical moment in the tournament to also try to take your chances? Yeah, actually after the Battle of Sexes, I played only one move. We said five, after that I lost one game, I made one draw. So, okay, I wanted to turn the things back to Bobo. You took some time to recover from the battle of the Sexes? Yeah, I did three days. So, okay, here we have this position that, okay, I'm doing quite okay with Black because I attack on d4, but the point is that he repeats and actually I cannot escape because if I played d94, okay, d4 is the best move and simply make a draw. Because in the game, I'm not sure if I'm matured but this position is very dangerous because now d4 is just looking for. So, I have only moved d5. Actually, I calculated all of these. The point is that, okay, d3 probably needs to play it, d4. And now he had some options. For example, he had this very interesting move. But I think I survived with this one. And the knight doesn't really have a very advantage. Yeah, now he can take here and still looks very unpleasant because if gf, then knight has five. But I have a very strong move here. Yeah, a very strong move here. Okay, I was calculating. And I think Black is fine because if he takes, I just take it back and I don't see any... Dangerous jump. I have to ask you, so here you knew that you had this repetition and you probably felt it was... No, I simply calculated through this line. I didn't see that I'm lost. Okay. So maybe I'm slightly worse, but I mean I can definitely play it. But you felt that it could be slightly worse for you but you wanted to take a chance. Yes, but actually, I'm not sure about this position because, okay, I saw this looking for. And, okay, here I thought a little bit because he played very fast rook before and, okay, I thought that Black should be fine. I mean, I didn't see why I'm worse. But the point is, okay, of course he wants Qd5 and the only thing that I should avoid is to take Qd5cd, you know. With this e6 pawn. Yeah, because here also Black can very easily go round because the pawn is weak and I have very simple pawn, rook e8b5 at some point and how it happened actually that he played bad immediately but I think it's not so clear. Maybe here. Okay, here I had very good move also, this one. But I thought it would be a draw. He can go and bishop e3, rook e3, rook e8. I mean, maybe this is the strongest one and Black is fine, but I mean, I still wanted to play a win. So Qd5, Qd5. And I think here he made a crucial mistake. He should have played g4 probably. The point is that I cannot take because of bishop goes back, bishop f2. And okay, I just need to play Qf6 and I still think Black is probably can defend but I mean, White is not worse because bishop f2 now or something. I don't have bishop f5 because for example if you play immediately bishop f2, I can go bishop f5. Then just winning the pawn. The e6 pawn. But he actually collapsed at this moment. Yeah, because g4 is the only move, I believe. And not so easy to play as well. No, so easy. He played Qc6 immediately but okay, I, before playing Qc5, I saw this line which is very forced and I saw that I'm just probably winning. Or not winning but much better. Do you think he missed this idea or what happened here? I'm not sure but okay, it's not easy with White also. I mean, if you don't play here g4, I mean, if you just take, I just take. The e4 is very, very weak. I mean, it's not easy. He should play g4 but it's not easy. So he went for this line, maybe hoping for some draw but okay, he probably missed this one. But I still believe the position is not clear after here. I think Q7. Okay, of course this is very nice tactic that if he takes here, Qf2, I just take Q3. And f4. Yeah, so this is the whole point of the combination actually. Yeah, it's nice. Yes, but here I think this end game after we reach this position, I don't think White is lost. I mean, maybe he's even draw, I don't know, because he took and I played Qc2 because he didn't like to play Qc6 because of Bf2, maybe Qc2, then maybe c5. The extra Q5 is very close to draw. So that's why I played Qc2 and he played, I mean, very, very good. If in this position White is able to trade off all the pawns on the side he should be able to hold. Now he takes this one and maybe if he can somehow go to f3, it should be a draw. Right. So even sometimes without bishop in this position, I mean, if you take one pawn h7 or something, it should be a draw. So here Qc2, yeah, he played through Qe1, a very passive move. I think, okay, he should have played here and through Q3. And I'm not entirely sure if this is winning because he has, I mean, a lot of, maybe it's 50-50 or I win or it's draw. I mean, I don't think White is always... Would you play a4 here or would you bring the king first? I'm not sure. I'm not sure, maybe I bring the king, but it's not clear because he plays Qf3 and it just stays. With a pleasant position for you to play and keep on trying through? Even if I, for example, if I change this one pawn for these two pawns, it's also not so clear if it's winning because he has some kind of blockade, no? But then after a4, just the final blunder here was taking this. Yeah, I don't know why he could have still played probably what I thought. No, maybe just a wall stone. Maybe bishop f2, I thought, something could be two. Yeah, it should be just... And now e3 is coming as well. Yeah, here after a4, maybe he just collapses. It collapses. You know, hearing you analyze this game, one gets the feeling that at many situations you had safer options, knowing that maybe they were better, but you chose riskier moves, maybe slightly worse. Today I decided to play because obviously he's not a bad player, but I'm kind of stronger, so my plan was just to play for win and to see what happened. Yeah, of course I didn't want to risk too much, but simply at that point when I played this move, this critical move of 94, I didn't believe that white is better or something. Maybe slightly, but I mean it's not clear. Right, well, two more games left. Approach going into the next two rounds, aggressive play or... Depends on who I'm playing, how I feel, but okay, of course I need to win some more games. Yes. All right, we wish you all the best for that and it's always a pleasure to have you with us here. Thank you, Ivan.