 This game is won for the books and definitely up for the beauty prize here at the Gibraltar Masters. David Navaraj joins our Senaar studio after his spectacular win. David, a very, very nice win with the black pieces at a very critical moment in the tournament and a very fascinating game as well. Thank you very much. May I show you the lens? Yes, take us through the critical moments. Not to you, but to the spectators. So, at this position, white is upon up, but his king could potentially become weak and I expected knight 1a3 when white wants to castle queen side. And my problem is that my pieces are somehow pinned and if I don't want to exchange queens, I have problems to organize counter play. For example, if I play bishop a8 and white castles and I go here, f4 might become a threat as my d7 knight is hanging. Yes, and you don't want to trade queens because you've got your pawn down in this position, so you want to keep the pieces on. Okay, I might have some compensation, but I would prefer to keep the queens on the board. So, I was really surprised by knight a7, but it's actually not easy to react correctly to this move. So, I was afraid I could be worse, but I took. So, you were surprised because you were spending a lot of your time calculating knight a3. You weren't expecting knight a7 on the board? I spent some time calculating knight a3, but I just considered it a logical move. If anything can be logical in such a crazy position. And I have not seen knight a7 at all because to me it looked that that's what should complete his development. And I believed I should have some counter play here after bishop c5, probably some draw, which was true. Okay, originally I believed that knight c5 could be good, but unfortunately it's not the case for what can give up his queen and to get rook or end two minor pieces for it, which is quite a lot. So, I played bishop c5, okay, what can decline the offer, but then maybe I take on b2 and get at least counter play. You mean with rook b8 next? Yes, knight d2, rook b8, rook takes b2 and it's unclear. So, this was your threat if black doesn't trade? Yes, so we took the piece and it was not actually so easy to find a good move here because I had so many options like queen d6, queen d5, but the problem is that after queen d6, the queen will not be on d5 and in some lines it's not that good. For example, here, if I give check on g3, I just move this king on c2 and consolidate somehow and I might be losing, probably, and instead if black plays rook d8 at this position, now queen d6 is actually not such a good move. Now, I would have preferred to have my queen on d5 for now with queen on d5. Should I? Let me try. Yes, thank you. Black has a good position whereas here, white can probably play both the queen a6 and even queen d4. And with queen on d5 there would have been a check on b3, but now white has bishop d3. Oh, nice. This is a very nice detail and then your queen's attacked as well. I missed this move? No, I think there is a pawn, sorry, I couldn't see it. I wanted to conclude that there was a rook g1, but I just had my hand in front of the board, so okay. But before you go any further, I have to ask you, because this is quite an important moment here. You decided to sacrifice the piece. How much of it was on calculation or how much was on feel that his king is in the center and you will have play? Okay, if I saw a decent option, I would have had to calculate more or maybe would not have played that, but I mean it's not so easy to come up with a decent alternative to this because otherwise I'm... After taking here, for example, you wouldn't consider just going back knight to c6, it's not... Okay, I can, but if white plays something like knight d2 or maybe even knight a3 and rook d1 or bishop g2 or bishop b5, I mean my pieces are tangled. Okay, what I said now was not that great, most of the moves don't really work, but say knight d2. And I'm a pawn down and okay, if I start a counterplay, it might be good, but I was not that sure that I would... Bishop c5 is fantastic because you're just playing against his king after this. Yes, I tried to calculate quite something, but originally I had believed that this queen d5 to be the move, but unfortunately there are other drawbacks with this move. I think knight d2, which I underestimated because now the problem is that now the line with the rook d8 would have worked if white had to castle, but he does not have to castle. He has maybe even knight f3 or knight c4 and I will be very lucky to... You mean this runs into knight b3? Now it works nicely, but I'm afraid he can just move his knight somewhere or maybe even play a rook d1 when I don't have check on g3 immediately. Okay, I then decided to move my rook first and move my queen depending on what white plays. For example, bishop e2 looks completely wrong to me, where I spent about 20 minutes choosing between the two moves, whereas I was sure that there would be something against bishop e2, but actually it's not really easy to find. It's refutation for example, if I play this, which was one of the options which I saw. Knight f4? Yes, I saw king f3 or c4, which is very dangerous for white. I don't know if it's really winning, maybe king g3, maybe queen c8, but the white's king is really weak and there are some lines where king goes here, black sacrifices the other rook and the reverse mate with the king somewhere. I mean it looks very dangerous, but I have to ask you David to explain to us why not just take on h3 and keep all the play or do you think rook c4 is much better? I'm afraid the knight would be misplaced here. The problem with queen d3 is... Queen d3? Yes, exactly. I mean maybe black can draw somehow here, but it was not exactly what I would have expected. I mean Alan Pichot told me that king e1 could be a move here and that white seems to hold and some queen e3. I don't know if it's true, but anyway I saw also another move. He disliked queen d5 and he was probably right, but I saw yet another option namely rook e7 and it's a nice geometric motif. It's just not easy. Queen a5, sorry. Queen e8, white cannot play queen b5 any longer and if he plays rook e3 he is unlikely to survive. I mean his king is extremely weak and he is not in time to castle this time so he is unlikely to survive and after king f1 I just recapture some material and after knight a3 I have maybe even queen e4 with continuing attack when white's king is extremely weak. So it should be. Also these positions, all these positions are so scary to play for white. Yes. But you intuitively felt during the game that bishop e2 there should be something very strong for you. Yes, exactly. I would have played through e3 almost immediately. Right. He took about 20 minutes to make this move and how were you evaluating the position after this trade? I saw that I was probably not losing that I probably had to draw and I was happy with it because this isn't the point. Queen a8 when king d2 first to check on b3 king e2 first to queen b5 check, queen takes b2. Right. So king f2 is forced and now I first give check because if I played queen e5 which was my first idea what can take on a5 and then move his king on f3 for example. So queen h2 king f3. Yes, and he's probably even winning or certainly not losing. And now it looks good for white. Queen c6 doesn't really work. I think bishop g2 is a good move then when black does not really have a strong discovered check. And if bishop g2 did not work there would be something else I assume but I had seen this nice idea of f5. After king f3? Yes. So instead white could have played either king e1 when queen e5 queen d4 probably does not work so black probably has to repeat moves or king g1 when I saw that I could give perpetual but possibly not more. I have to ask you a question here in such complex positions where you don't see a direct win but you feel there's initiative when you see a line which leads to a draw do you stop the calculation there and think that at least it's safe? Is that a good strategy in such positions? It depends on what the alternatives promise because if the position is worse for me in the other lines and I see at least a draw you go for it. Yes, I go for it. So when I have a move which brings me advantage without complication I think I'll go for longer usually or rely on my intuition. Okay intuition is a nice thing but it should be complemented with calculation and the other way around also and sometimes joking that intuition is an ability to make correct conclusions based on the wrong or incomplete grounds. Right. So king f3 is a mistake in my opinion so as I have f5 and now I'm threatening queen h5 check. f5 is a very nice move because it just opens up and you said this is an idea you had seen earlier. Yes, I had seen it several moves earlier. Gf6 is probably forced and I assume why treason a bit too early or not treason but gave up a bit too early here because after queen g4 the main point is that white cannot play king c2 in view of queen d1 mate but in fact after queen d4 I think there might be reasonable drawing chances. Maybe king c4 now when I take first before taking or maybe king e4 and now white recaptures always one of his pawns I don't know which is the right way to recapture it but the idea is to take now possibly to play h5 then possibly to sacrifice the knight and try to create some fortress ideally not losing the rook on the way but I don't know if it works. Another idea is to bring the king on c5 recapture with the other pawn and trying to march the pawns. Right. But he decided to go for king e5 here and it collapsed quite quickly now. Yes, frankly speaking originally I had not seen one important defensive idea namely king d6 here which seems to work somehow because now there's king e7 and white gets too much material for the queen. After queen g7 it just takes. Yes, yes. And after queen d1 I think if nothing else even d4 and queen d4 could be interesting but when white saves the rook his bishop but probably he can just play something like king e7 It still looks very scary after queen d8 but maybe there's no mate. You're right, it looks scary but I saw something which looked better to me regardless whether it worked as this or... So in all lines the queen is sacrificed to just get some sort of a fortress in the end. In fact there is an important nuance that black should not give this check because of queen e7 and white gets plenty of material for his queen. So I played rook e8 now and now king d6 or king d5 does not work after king d5 there's queen e4 check and it's basically the same because after king c5 white can win the queen. After king c7 there is mate. In fact more than one. Very beautiful. This is a beautiful game David. So queen e7, gf6 now this is not an option in view of queen g6 or queen h4 so king d6 and now I have an important check and frankly speaking I was lucky even queen b3 is better for black but far from winning and taking on e7 I missed this option but luckily for me black is still winning because now mate is threatening and if black played queen a2 white would have drawn. This is like a study position because black has to play h5 and now white just gives perpetual check on g6, g7 and g8 but black plays h5 instead and after queen g6 there is probably even a check or king h7 and it seems to me that it should be an easy win now. But here black just went b4 and it just collapses after this? Yes because his rook is hanging and his knight is hanging and there are so many checks I mean not a nationality I am the only check player in the main tournament but just white's king is so weak that there are always some checks my original intention was queen c1 when I am threatening some sophisticated no I am threatening just this but if white plays king a8 you have queen b2 as well Yes many things there was some idea connected with queen c7 in some line but I disliked check no no no check then I disliked king d6 queen b2 I could not find anything better so he has to give a check now after king g7 after knight e3 black is still winning a rook oh very nice queen d5 depending on where white's king goes but there is rook a7 and of course it is lost we all know that it is lost but I would still need to make some moves and ok I still need to be a little bit careful but after queen d3 there will be a double attack on e4 if it goes on a7 there will be a double attack on e3 and if the rook moves elsewhere then at least the knight is hanging the queen is just very powerful in all positions the rook again to g7 check that's a beautiful game David to win with the black pieces in this manner definitely puts you in the mood for the last round yes I hope I will play well in the last round and I'm happy to have played such a nice game because it's probably my best not maybe not best but my nicest game I have played in Gibraltar so far wow that's saying something that f5 move was absolutely class and also such a nice game that we had grandmaster Liam here in the commentary room watching throughout this one's up for a beauty prize for sure well done today and best of luck for tomorrow