Knights at the Opera

If you thought that the great Marx Brothers’ film contained strange and wonderful moves, just wait until you see the chess!

It has only been a week since the Tata Steel chess tournament concluded and the next event is already upon us.

Saturday 6th February will see the start of the Opera Euro Rapid. Sixteen of the world’s top players, including World Champion Magnus Carlsen will battle through a series of matches for their share of the $100,000 prize fund.

I will keep you updated during the tournament but please remember, chess fans are luckier than followers of other sports as most big events are covered live, and for free with expert commentary, online.

Game of the Week

Once again we have plenty of great games that have been played during the past week, including many from the, just concluded, 2021 Tata Steel Chess Tournament

However my choice was played last night, online, in the Thanet All Play All Event, superbly organised by Andy Flood.

The featured match shows how one brilliant combination can win a game and should give us all hope that, if players at our level work on their tactics during the lockdown, we should all be very formidable opponents once over the board chess resumes.

Please play through and enjoy the game of the week, I am sure you will like it

 White:  RichardDavies       Black:  Agent_Pavement

Thanet All Play All 2021 Round 5 (Lichess)

 

Puzzle no. 4

The puzzle today comes from a game played last week, in the Thanet All Play All event. Both Kings are under attack. The game finished in perpetual check after White played Ng5+

Can you do better?

White to play

The Flying Dutchmen

 

Wijk aan Zee not only has a beautiful and sandy beach, it also offers very high level chess. If that reminds you of Broadstairs, you are not wrong.

The 2021 Tata Steel Chess Tournament has just concluded and proved to be an extremely successful event for the home players. After 13 rounds there was a tie for first place between the two participants from The Netherlands, World number 11 Anish Giri and World number 66 Jorden Van Foreest.

If anyone needs proof as to how well both of them performed just look at the players left in their wake, World Champion Magnus Carlsen, World number 2 Fabiano Carauna, current joint leader of the Candidates MVL and new superstar Alireza Firouzja all fell short.

The play off for first place was also very exciting, both blitz games were drawn (after Giri missed a win in game 1) so all was to play for in the Armageddon, Anish Giri playing with the White pieces. Even though Giri played well and achieved a powerful position, he was unable to beat the clock and Van Foreest claimed the game and more importantly the title

Both the new champion Jorden Van Foreest and runner up Anish Giri played so well it would be unfair not to feature a game from both players as well as the Armageddon that settled the tournament

White:  Anish Giri       Black:  Aryan Tari

83rd Tata Steel Masters – Rd 1

White:  Jorden Van Foreest       Black:  Pentala Harikrishna

83rd Tata Steel Masters – Rd 11

Here is the very last game of the entire event, Giri played very strongly but Van Foreest always had the draw in hand, until that is he played the unexpected, and in a pure chess sense, losing move 56…. Rxf4+ allowing Giri to capture his Bishop. However the move would not have been on Giri’s pre-move radar and the surprise did the trick as Giri had only seconds to convert his advantage and Van Foreest duly won on time!

White:  Anish Giri       Black:  Jorden Van Foreest

83rd Tata Steel Masters – Armageddon

Puzzle no. 3 solution

Black to move

If Black can distract the White Queen the simple Nxc2+ will win, therefore

1 … f5   2. exf6(ep)  Bf5 and the Queen can not protect the c2 square