Ali Thameem
Muhammed Shuaau has beaten a Grandmaster at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad, defeating Monaco’s Igor Efimov in Round 4 at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Shuaau now has 2.5 points from the four games he played: the win over the Grandmaster on Saturday, followed by another win over a 1967-rated opponent he played this Sunday, on top of a draw against a 2322-rated International Master.
The 32-year-old FIDE Master and national team captain, rated 2207, is the highest-rated Maldivian chess player in history. In the previous Olympiad, he played a Grandmaster in Budapest two years ago and had forced a draw. But this is the first time in history that a Maldivian chess player has beaten a grandmaster.
Prior to departing for the Olympiad, Shuaau had said the Maldives team’s goal is to win gold in the ‘D’ category. Alongside Shuaau, the national men’s chess team includes CM Mohamed Hassan (Mohan), CM Abdhul Rahman Ali, and Ahmed Aboobakuru, and the prodigy Mohamed Raakin Fayaz.
Game Analysis
He defeated the 2263-rated Efimov with the black pieces in a 36-move game.
Shuaau had a difficult game for long stretches, but he kept creating problems for Efimov and eventually turned the game around.
Early on, Shuaau accepted doubled pawns with 4…exf6 after Efimov exchanged his knight for the bishop. His had compromised doubling his pawns, but he developed his pieces as compensation, and got his king safely castled.
Around move 20, Shuaau started pushing his kingside pawns with 20…g5 and 21…f5, putting pressure on Efimov’s king. When Efimov played 23.f4, Shuaau had the unusual opportunity to take the pawn en passant with 23…exf3.
Shuaau then started attacking on both sides of the board. He pushed his queenside pawn with 24…b5, while his f-pawn kept moving forward. Efimov managed to grab a pawn with 26.Qxa7, but Shuaau ignored that and continued his attack with 26…bxc4 and 27…f4.
The f-pawn became the biggest problem for White. After Efimov finally captured it with 31.gxf4, Shuaau recaptured with 31…gxf4+, keeping the attack going. Then, on move 32, that same pawn captured the knight on e3.
At this point, White was under serious pressure. Efimov tried to fight back by taking Shuaau’s rook on e7 with 36.Rxe7, but Shuaau had the final tactic: 36…Bf3+. The bishop moved with check, leaving White’s king in a very dangerous position.
Shuaau had already drawn a 46-move game against Singapore’s 2322-rated International Master, Fandi A Rachman on Friday. Shuaau played that game at a 92.2 per cent accuracy, holding back the IM in a long queen endgame.
He was back at board 1 on Sunday against Seychelles’ Michel Zialor, where he produced another sharp attacking game and won in 32 moves. Shuaau played with 90.2 percent accuracy on Sunday. His only defeat so far came in the opening round against Portugal’s 2451-rated IM Andre Ventura Sousa. Shuaau did not play in Round 2.
The Efimov game was also the only Maldivian individual win in the 3-1 team defeat to Monaco.
At the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, Shuaau had scored a total of 6.5 points across the 11 rounds. His performance across four rounds in this Olympiad proves that Shuaau has the potential to surpass the previous Olympiad performance, and possibly lead Maldives to another gold medal at the biggest chess team event in the world.
