 World number 7 Maxime Vachier-LaGrav won in convincing style against Irene Soekander. He joins us to tell us what happened in his game. Maxime, a good round 1 result, a victory against Irene Soekander, but the game itself was also quite exciting. Yeah, I didn't go the way I planned it in the opening because I had from the very beginning to calculate quite long and difficult lines where things could go easily wrong for me. So this was not the plan today, but I'm glad that in this way I warmed up really well for the tournament. And here we've got the system where at the opening ceremony the top seeds pull out their opponents pretty much randomly. What was your feeling when you got to know that you're playing Irene? You know, it's business. As usual? As usual, but I was expecting an exciting game and by no means are the players from 1-1 pushovers. Clearly some of us are suffering quite a lot and I was included in that lot. And now we see you come back to Gibraltar year and year again. What keeps you coming back here? It's all good fun, I think. Of course it's also a bonus that I get to meet with a lot of French guys because in my usual tournaments I don't get to see them as often. And also a lot of people that I don't have the luxury of seeing. And the tournament is anyway incredibly strong. So I think it's good for me to be able to meet some people that otherwise I don't get to meet. And the atmosphere here is quite special. Now Maxime, especially in 2019 with the absolute insane calendar that the top players had, you guys were facing each other a lot all the time throughout the year. So is it a good change to play people you don't often meet over the chess board? That as well. But 2019 was very exciting in a way. It was a really big experience for me to get to play almost every day for the last six months. I got some rest. I'm ready to come back after a disappointing end of the year. And I hope that Gibraltar will be our first milestone to redemption. We're very excited to have you here and you had a good start. Where do you think it went wrong for Black here? Let me try and do it for you. So I went F4 and I'm not sure about it because it got the game very, very complicated. At the same time, if I didn't go for F4, F5, I wasn't sure what I was planning to do. According to our base, in fact, it's a new move here. Yeah, I missed this idea with Queen B6 and that after F5 she had Nd7. Yes. And how were you planning to defend the E5 pawn? I was not planning to. So Nd5, Qc5, c4. Can Black just take on E5? Yeah, she can. Then I take and after Nd5, I go something like Bb3. I thought there's a lot of counter-plies for Nb5, Qd6 doesn't help because Nb5. And this pin is extremely relevant. So you've got Nc7 coming in. Because after c4 at first I rejected it on account of E6. And then it turns out that this is very good for me because of B4, Qxc4, Nx3, Qc7. And just when it seems to come to an end, I have Nb5. Again utilizing the pin on the E5? Yeah, and it doesn't stop here but after Qc8, she cannot go Nb6 because I take on d6 and if dxc5, Qc1 and I'm getting this B-shop. So yeah, this is what I had to calculate. This was 20 minutes. Yeah, you took a while here. Yeah, and I was very surprised that she went Nh5. Yeah, also of course I have another move but sadly it's not enough. So Qd1, E5, take, Nf2, Qd4, Nd5. But here sadly there's a move Qe6. It's very important to bring the Qe6 because it protects f7. So you don't, you're not afraid. What am I missing? Because it was what takes d4, Qd6, what takes d4 and I'm getting this knight. And what's happening after Nc7 now? Yeah, Qe4 or something. Okay, and you just play this position? Yeah, yeah. You have to take it out. You have to take it out. I mean I might be worse simply. So, but Nd5 was a very pleasant surprise because after this move she defended very well but my play is suddenly much easier. I went g4 because I knew why she's going to go Bg7 and it's the only move otherwise she loses. Like the point is after Qx, Qx, now my bishop controls the queen. I mean if she goes Qe8, I think my plan was something like... I have many moves here. Can you play something like that? Because Qx, Qxc5 is not that clear. I think I actually wanted f5, yeah. And I think that should be winning. So if you take Bb5 you've got... No, Bb5, yeah 96. And you've got the bishop coming back? No, that was not so clear. So that was not my plan. Can you go Nf5? Oh, Nf5, yeah actually Nf5 is a move but Qx, Nx, it's not so clear. But then you get f5, no? Just let's have it on the board. So something like this? Yeah, this is of course probably very good. But I think there was something more forcing. So I don't remember exactly but... She actually won Bg7, which is a... Yeah, Bg7 is the right move anyway. So take f5, Bg7, Nd5, Qc5, c4. And here she surprised me again with this move. Bc6, which is probably a very good try. And yeah, first I thought I was cornering the queen after b4, Qxc4. So I don't know if she should have played this because I don't see a defence here but in the game Qx7 felt too passive anyway. So she probably has to take. My point is I always can't take this bishop but I don't take it immediately because then she gets 96. And no, she doesn't. So like I calculated all sorts of lines so if she goes Qb2, then Nf4. If rook e8, my point was Qc3, Qx, Qx, Nx, 96, Nx... Yeah, it's just... let me get it for you. Yeah, Nx, Qx... And then you take on a6. Yeah. And same goes after Qx6. If she goes 98, now it's very important that she couldn't get 96. And I still have this try. Because of the back rank? Yeah. And after Qx7, I mean I think this should be winning but e6 felt much simpler. So pawn takes, queen takes. Ed8 is a very good try. And... Do you have Nb5? Then Qb8 perhaps. It should be 5. Oh, yes. No, no, I wanted... I think c5 here. I think this should be winning. But then I also got scared of f6 because if Qc5, I suddenly probably lose after Qb8. And my knight is pinned because of Qg7. Qg3 check. Yeah. So f6, then I thought probably Qe3 but I don't know maybe Qd8 again. It didn't feel that clear to me. But it's probably something that should be calculated until the end and it should be winning at the end. But I couldn't solve it after 10 minutes and I felt time trouble coming. So I thought I'll go e6. I thought she should take Qf8. I mean she cannot do Qf7. And here my plan was Qg2. And my point is she can never go Qb6. I mean she can but no, Qf7 is probably very strong. So she cannot do all Kf1 to be far too dangerous. Take, take, Qf7, f1. Those are two options. And Qg8 you can just take on e7 anywhere. Exactly. Yeah, so let's put that line. I mean she cannot take on d4 because of mate but if she doesn't there's 96. That's going to win. Yeah, this is beautiful. And just mate. Yeah. And Qg8. I mean I assume there's a forcing win. Maybe Qe1 is good. But there's also this option that should be technically winning because she has to go Nd8. Then I get something like Qc7. Yeah and the knight in the rook are very badly placed. Yeah, yeah. So she can do exactly the same with Qc8. But again I assumed there's going to be a win somewhere. So I mean after Qf7 the same line except Qxa7, Nd8. So it's a bit of a better version. Also the knight on Gs. Imagine this position with Qa7 and Qc8 because I'm lazy. But yeah, something like H4H5 along the line. Like you get two weaknesses. One on the king side. The other one is if the opponent be so enforced and white is winning. So I assume that's winning. But still it should have been tried because after f6g5 it's... I thought this was the only reasonable attempt. But I mean this also looks very bad. It all looks very bad. And here I don't know, Qh1 was not very precise. But yeah, maybe I should go immediately for the endgame knight at f5. This maybe is by far the easiest. But for some reason I... You're probably going to win the f6 pawn? Yeah, for some reason I was like I have to mate in this position. So it's what I did. So Qh1, Qh8, Qc1. I think it's always useful. I think we're going to have to have you move a little bit so that the... Yeah, yeah. And yeah, so Nh5 was not very good. But things are already looking very bad for black here. Yeah, yeah, because every endgame is bad. With this pawn on e6. Yeah, so... But this after Qc7 it's over because Qd1, Qh2, and if you go on g8 it's... It looks like you have contemplated now, but white is first. Qg7, Qf6, and... Qf7? Yeah. Oh, g5 is also nice. Yeah. So, and here, yeah, she resigned because after Qxd8, Qc7 it's an important move. If Qd7 you actually play Qb8 because Qd7 could be a draw. It's always better to mate when you can. Yeah, and then Qd5. Alright, nice. Yeah, so this is a nice way to start the tournament. Yeah, a nice way to warm up. Definitely a difficult game. I have to ask you now, last night after the opening ceremony we saw you at the bar for a long time. Did you actually prepare for today's game? Did you manage to get any prep in? Was it about resting? Well, I mean, it was a fun night, fun evening at the bar, I mean, but I didn't overstep my sleeping schedule at all. So, despite having some fun, you make sure that that part doesn't get compromised. Clearly not. Well, it's still a long tournament to go, so we hope you stay on track and we look forward to having you back in our studio. Thank you, Tanya. Thank you, Maxine.