Taking advantage of open files to give the rooks their greatest vertical power is one of the first basic strategy concepts a chess player learns. But achieving similar virtuosity in horizontal maneuvers is much more complex, especially when the board is full of pieces and there is little room for such tricks, as occurs in the game in this video.
The author of this masterpiece is Gujrathi Vidit, 29 years old now and 23 when he produced it, one of the first Indian stars – after Harikrishna – to emerge in the wake of the five-time world champion Anand, who, at 52, is still very much at the top (11th in the world). Vidit is now 24th, still with a place in the national team after the young prodigies Gukesh, Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa. Returning to the game at hand, his mastery in converting this elegant rook dance into absolute control of the dark squares on the kingside is hard to forget.
