Game of the Week

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

Puzzle no. 7

This position shows that, with the White King stuck on d1, if Black had the move then Rc1 would win on the spot.

However it is White to move, can you find the move to turn the tables?

White to Move

Puzzle no. 6 solution

White to Play

Carlsen played Bd4+ and duly won, however much stronger was Rc8, with the idea that after Rxc8 then Bd4 is mate

 

Game of the Week

I had a tricky decision to make this week, again.

There were some tremendous games played in the Opera Euro Rapid event, not least in the final where Magnus Carlsen missed chance after chance against Wesley So. A shame for Magnus of course but good to know that even a World Champion still makes mistakes.

Anyway I have decided to show a game from the Thanet All Play All.

Two games stood out this week, firstly we had pm5 v Ferrarifan. A very exciting game where both players certainly had chances to win. Here is the position with White to move, there is a forced mate in 3. The mate was missed and incredibly this game ended in a draw just a few moves short of 100

Our Game of The Week is also exciting, once again both players had a nice advantage at different times in the game and the result could have gone any of three ways.

The main reason I have picked this game is the excellent endgame play and an unusual situation of King and Queen v King and 3 connected pawns. I have only included a few notes as the actions of both players tell the tale and the swings of the game far better than a few words

 White:  RichardDavies       Black:  CliveLeBaigue

Thanet All Play All

Wesley wins in style

So, the Opera Euro Rapid champion is Wesley So who defeated Magnus Carlsen in the final of the event. In truth Magnus had enough chances to do much better, having winning positions in the final 2 games, but only taking a half point from the two on offer.

BIG Congratulations to Wesley So, who played superbly throughout the event, and once again beat Carlsen on a special day. Last time it was on Carlsen’s birthday and this victory came on Valentine’s Day. Magnus must be pleased that Wesley did not qualify for the Candidates, and thus can not be his opponent in the next World Championship match!

Talking about the Candidates, the major talking point was the ‘withdrawal’ of Teimour Radjabov because of his concerns over Covid. For which he has been proven to be right. FIDE removed him and immediately gave the vacant spot to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

MVL is currently co-leader of the Candidates so there was some irony that the play-off for 3rd spot at the Opera was played between Teimour and Maxime.

As it happened Teimour won the match very easily and has certainly made a statement regarding the fact that he should be playing in the Candidates!