Very nice, and great deflection at the end. I don't think I would call it a brilliancy, although it is a very sharp and entertaining game. The reason I say that it's not a brilliancy is that it's no suprise that black can sacrafice material to get those beautiful bishops into the game...his position from early on almost looks like it will win itself (excuse the hyperbole, but you get what I mean). The pair of long fianchetto'd bishops are a dream for any attacking player, and given white's bad and backwards development I don't think it requires brilliancy to win a position like that.

I'm really interested to hear more about this sideline in the Ruy series though as I've never seen it before...but judging from the position arising out of the opening, and the general character of the game, I'm suprised white would go in for this at all, especially at top level play. The Ruy should be about maintaining and working with a small edge. Why white would give that up is beyond me...

As I say though, a very nice game by black and I enjoyed it very much. Cheers!

Dennis,
Thank you for the amazing video.Just looking at you mentioning the variations has my head spinning.

Flint I think you've just shown why you're a B player and not a master.
Black was worse throughout almost the whole game as white built up a tiny edge. As Svidler said, "I was lucky just to be worse and not completely lost after missing 18. Bb1!" As to the game's conclusion, Re2 is !! and a brillancy. Even other GMs said so. I was talking to Shulman who was shocked by the move. Its a move even Kamsky missed. Its a move that Svidler said will fill books for generations to come.

Good Svideo.

Brilliancy is in the eye of the beholder. My personal opinion (that no one asked for) is that Re2 is a nice one-move shot, but i am a lot more impressed by some of Svidler's other games from the same event.

What is most amazing to me is Svidler's record as BLACK against extremely tough players in this event! Svidler is a very universal player and we could not possibly have a more deserving winner of the World Cup IMO.

http://whychess.org/node/1961

"It seems to me that the match against Kamsky is particularly worth singling out in that regard. After that it was as if you had wings – you raced to the final…

The match against Gata was difficult. With White I won a game which there was no way I should have won. The good way of putting it would be: I outlasted him. The game with Black, on the other hand, gave me a very big boost…

I followed that game live and when the computer showed your move 26…Re2!! on the screen I initially thought: no doubt there’s some transmission error… And then it hit me: what a beauty! For a moment it even seemed to me that the ghost of Paul Morphy was sitting behind you and inspiring you to make that move… To my taste that was the most beautiful move not only at the World Cup but, perhaps, the most beautiful move of the year in general.

Here Svidler unleashed 26...Re2!!

We’ve all seen such things in old books… There are combinations with that motif in the games of Frank Marshall… But when you’re involved you think: well, my word, why did such a thing happen?! That can’t help but give you an extra motivation to play well in future. As they say, if the wind’s in your sails you can’t allow that to be in vain.

And it wasn’t in vain. The whole chess community agrees that you demonstrated the most powerful play at the tournament and deserved to win."

No strong player agrees with you.