Just for a change we have two games of the week

The first is between 2 Indian young talents and the second game is from the Thanet All Play All League. In both games we see a fairly level opening followed by one player gradually getting the upper hand.

I find the pair of games instructive to watch how simple moves and gaining activity for the pieces can quickly lead to overwhelming positions.

In Game one we see a young IM take down his higher rated opponent

 White:  Ghosh Aronyak       Black:  Ab Gupta

Vidit Tour KO 2021

In game two we see a very nice win from the Thanet All Play All

 White:  John Hunt       Black:  Robert Starley

Thanet All Play All 2021

Imagine that you are in this difficult position: Black threatens to win your Queen and, if the Queen moves, mate on g2 is unavoidable

However it is White to move, can you find a brilliant way to force victory?

White to Move

 

 

White to Move

In the game White actually resigned in this position, however he had a winning move

1.Rd6

if 1…. Rxd6 then 2. g8=Q+ wins and if 1 …..cxd6 2. f7 and White is promoting to a Queen next move

A confession, I haven’t watched much chess this week as I have been slightly under the weather for a few days.

So, for no good reason, other than not looking at any other games, I have chosen a game played by myself in the Thanet All Play All.

My opponent played the opening stage passively, and I quickly obtained an edge. His pieces were cramped and my attacking plan seemed obvious. However I played a couple of bad moves, including opposite side castling and the game looked to be favouring him. In turn he then missed a good move which allowed me to regain the advantage.

In no way a faultless display but quite exciting and hopefully instructional to see how both players managed to lose the thread having worked hard to achieve a better position

 White:  Mark Towlson       Black:  Trefor Owens

Thanet All Play All