Chess is (happily) weird

With so many GM's these days (over 1000 at least), trying to stand out is harder and harder. In the good old days (ie 1980's) you could earn a reputation by playing openings like the Scandinavian or the Scotch. As these openings have now gone mainstream, players need to do more than that.
The recent trend is to eschew what would be considered more 'classical' positional ideas and instead focus on the initiative. In some circumstances it works, and is very entertaining when it does, but it can be just as entertaining when it doesn't.
In the following game Black is very intent on giving up material for an attack. White's position is solid enough that he could have taken the offered piece on move 18, but waited until move 23 before doing so. Despite Black having open lines and plenty of pawns, his attack went nowhere, and it was White, with good old fashioned central control and better developed pieces that won.


Fridman,Daniel (2638) - Kulaots,Kaido (2560) [B22]
47th GM 2019 Dortmund GER (1.1), 13.07.2019

1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 e6 6. Na3 Nc6 7. Be3 cxd4 8. Nb5 Qd8 9. Nbxd4 Nd5 10. Bg5 f6 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Bd2 e5 13. Qc2 Be6 14. Bd3 g6 15. h4 Qd7 16. O-O-O Bc5 17. c4 Bxf2 18. Kb1 Rb8 19. h5 Ne7 20. Bc3 Bf5 21. g4 Bxd3 22. Rxd3 Qxg4 23. Qxf2 Qxc4 24. Rhd1 O-O 25. Qxa7 e4 26. Qxe7 exd3 27. Rc1 Rbe8 28. Qc7 Qe4 29. Nd2 Qd5 30. hxg6 hxg6 31. Rg1 g5 32. Qh2 Kg7 33. Qh5 Qg2 34. Nf3 d2 35. Bxd2 Qe2 36. Bc3 Qd3+ 37. Ka1 Kg8 38. Rxg5+ fxg5 39. Qxg5+ 1-0