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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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Polish GM Grzegorz Gajewski spent 4 consecutive tempi (moves 6 through 9) on his 'a' pawn in his game today at the German Bundesliga against the world's top junior, Richard Rapport, and while Stockfish gave its blessing, it's seldom a sound idea to create a mess on the board against perhaps the King of Mess, Richard Rapport. (:
Wei Yi Plays Another King Hunt Game But Drops Below 2700
Last week India won the Asian Nations Cup, ahead of China. The young Chinese GM Wei Yi played another king hunt game, but dropped below 2700 in the live ratings. The Asian Nations Cup, held for the 19th time this year, saw a record number of 22 participating chess federations.
It was held 28 March-5 April at the Al Bustan Novotel in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). The men’s section was a 9-round Swiss with teams consisting of four boards and one reserve player. The women's section was a round-robin with ten teams. In both sections China was the defending champion, having won twice in a row (in 2012 and 2014). The tournament saw 28 grandmasters, 10 International Masters, 19 FIDE Masters and 3 Women FMs. The highest rated participants were Bu Xiangzhi (China, 2724), Wang Yue (China, 2718), Wei Yi (China, 2714), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam, 2709) and Baskaran Adhiban (India, 2663).
In general, Wei Yi's tournament was rather disappointing. He scored a 2543 performance rating over eight games (5.0/8) with three wins, one loss and four draws (all against lower rated players). His live rating has now dropped just below 2700.
His game that made the headlines was this one where he dragged the enemy king towards him in his game with Dao Thien Hai of Viet Nam.
Asian Nations Chess Cup, Abu Dhabi
Round 3, March 30, 2016
Wei Yi - Dao Thien Hal
B96 Sicilian, Najdorf
Richard Rapport remains the hottest elite April player in terms of rating points gained. Last weekend he went a perfect 2/2 at the Hungarian Team Championship and this weekend he finished the German Bundesliga in style with another perfect 2/2. Richard went +7 with a scintillating 2880 TPR at the latter event. Here's today's latest demolition. (:
Nigel Short seems to always be in the news. He usually has a good weekly quote on some contest or other.
He recently played in the Bangkok Open and lost two games, which have some interest. The tournament winners were Ganguly and Vallejo Pons with 7.5 out of 9. Nigel tied for 16 through 35 with 6 points.
The story from chess24.com
Nigel Short turned 50 last year, but is still in the world’s top 100 (2671 and world no. 72 on the latest FIDE rating list). In a recent interview with Katyanna Quách he explained how age affects his play:
Quite often there isn’t necessarily any difference in moves between a 20-year-old and a 40-year-old in the first three hours. But after that mental fatigue starts to creep in for older players. Games of chess can be easily blundered by one move, and if the lapse of concentration is more likely to come from older players then they’re more likely to make mistakes.
That issue came to the fore in Round 3 of the Bangkok Chess Club Open in Thailand, when Nigel faced 21-year-old Vietnamese player Hoang Son Dang. The former World Championship challenger built up a huge kingside attack and looked on course to ease to 3/3, when things suddenly got immensely sharp. After 41…Qb4+ Nigel, playing White, has already lost control, but that doesn’t quite explain what happened next:
The time control has passed, so there was no hurry to find the only move 42.Kf2!, when Black is better but the game goes on. Instead after 42.Kf1??, played in 10 seconds, 42…Qd2! forced immediate resignation – the d1-knight is a goner.
The necessary backstory to add is that this was the second game of the tournament’s only double round, with two games played on the same day. Nigel Short had already been the most vehement critic of that practice, and his loss did nothing to change his mind!
Bangkok CC Open, 2016
Round 3, April 11, 2016
Short, Nigel (2671) – Dang, Hoang Son (2325)
B06 Robatsch Defence
And this introduction to another loss, from bangkokchess.com:
Former world title challenger Nigel Short will not retain his Bangkok CC Open title after a shock sixth round loss to Myanmar’s Wynn Zaw Htun. This was Short’s second match of the day, after losing a Thai chess-boxing contest against France’s Sophie Milliet earlier in the day. Certainly Short’s play against Htun showed clear signs of possible concussion from the earlier bout.
Bangkok CC Open, 2016
Round 6, April 14, 2016
Wynn Zaw Htun (2396) – Short, Nigel (2671)
King’s Indian Attack
I had heard that Nigel Short lost a miniature in the British chess league called 4NCL. The Four Nations Chess League features dozens of teams and over 800 players.
Here White is playing for Barbican 4NCL 1 and Black for Guildford 1.
Other players in the contest – David Howell, Jon Speelman, Simon Williams, Daniel Gormally, Jacob Aagaard and Laurent Fressinet.
4NCL Division 1c, Birmingham, 2015-16 Season
Round 9, April 30, 2016
Collins, Sam (2439) – Short, Nigel (2671)
B17 Caro-Kann, Petrosian-Smyslov Variation
Jon Speelman of Wood Green HK takes down Laurent Fressinet of Guildford 1. One of those endgames where both players are constantly in danger of being mated.
4NCL Division 1c, Birmingham, 2015-16 Season
Round 10, May 1, 2016
Speelman, Jon (2518) – Fressinet, Laurent (2692)
A48 King’s Indian, London System
Chess.com has a report on Solingen ending Baden-Baden’s dominance in the Bundesliga. In the report this game was featured.
Robin Van Kampen is semi-retired for the moment (he started studying business) but he played an important role for Solingen nonetheless. In a Classical King’s Indian he won an excellent game, finishing in style and providing a beautiful mate to finish Solingen’s winning season.
The club blog:
And now a draw on second board would be sufficient, but equipped with enormous confidence, Robin van Kampen was after far more after he recovered his two sacrificed pawns and drove the white king to the queenside. But even there, the monarch could not defend against the much better coordinated black pieces due to the two out-of-place white knights. Krassowizkij, the sportsman, allowed Robin a wonderful finale for securing the league title, which ended after a rook sacrifice with a beautiful knight mate, after which the 5: 3 was perfect amid spontaneous applause.
Bundesliga 2015-16, Solingen, Germany
Round 15, April 24, 2016
Krassowizkij, Jaroslaw - Van Kampen, Robin
E99 King’s Indian, Orthodox, Aronin-Taimanov
The Russian Team Championships are being played in Sochi. Some of our old friends are there – Peter Svidler, who commented on Norway Chess 2016, Gata Kamsky, who was in the U.S. Championship, Alexander Grischuk, who wasn’t playing anywhere and Sergei Karjakin, who should have been playing at Norway but withdrew.
But we have not come to give their games. Instead today’s game is from the Russian Women’s Teams between Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina.
Aleksandra is 17 years old and Russian Women’s Champion.
Like Aleksandra, Kateryna was also a chess prodigy, born in Lviv and just a few weeks older than Sergei Karjakin.
Kateryna pays more attention to winning a pawn than developing. In the end she conceives that a4 is the best square for her queen, when it is not, puts her knight on the rim and then suffers the consequences. An instructive game.
Russian Women’s Team Championship
Sochi, 2016
Round 1, May 1, 2016
Lagno, Kateryna – Goryachkina, Aleksandra
B10 Caro-Kann Defence, neo-QGD, Semi-Tarrasch
The Stockholm Chess Society was founded in 1866 and is celebrating its 150th anniversary with the Hasselbacken Open. 305 players have been participating, including 34 grandmasters.
The article in chessbase by Albert Silver gives this caption to a photo of Alexei Shirov:
The second seed is the ever-popular Alexei Shirov, who has been a part of many of those most exciting battles in the tournament. See his incredible win over Ralf Akesson in which he sacrificed all but the proverbial kitchen sink.
Round Six of the Russian Men’s Team has Sergei Karjakin pitted against Peter Svidler.
Peter has had the upper hand throughout the game but Sergei is defending superbly even though he had practically no time left before the first time control.
Peter was making heavy weather of the endgame and one chessbomb kibitzer asked, “I wonder if Anish could convert it?”
Late News: 55. Qxa6 ends the game for White.
Russian Men’s Teams, Sochi
Round 6, May 6, 2016
Karjakin, Sergei – Svidler, Peter
C88 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Anti-Marshall
Sergei is very very difficult to beat and resilient coming back after a loss. Remember this summation of the World Cup 2015 in Baku:
Sergey Karjakin has won the most extraordinary final you’ll ever witness to snatch the 2015 World Cup from Peter Svidler’s grasp. All ten games of the match were decisive, with swings, blunders and occasional outbreaks of fine chess combining to provide some wonderful entertainment, even if it’s unlikely to have won over many fans to the idea of deciding the World Championship this way. It was both a “circus” and “heartbreaking” for Svidler, while Karjakin called it “probably my best result in my life” and dedicated his victory to Vugar Gashimov.
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