Sunday chess: odds and ends
A good way to relax !
Nothing serious should ever be done on Sunday if you can help it. Sundays are great for recharging the batteries, just letting your hair down and good old fashion relaxation. What ever is your thing…Today I present a few tactics and a interesting selection of games from team championships held yesterday at the German Bundesliga and the Britisch 4NCL. Enjoy!
Winning 5-second tactics
Steil-Antoni, F – Cooper,L
4NCL 2017.4.29
Black to play and crush!
Stead,N – Guichard, P
4NCL 2017.4.29
Black to play and win!
Markgraf,A – Kollars,D
Bundesliga 2017.4.29
White to play and win!
Selection of nice games!
gm Rapport – gm BerelowitzBundesliga 2017.4.29
gm Postny – Neef,MBundesliga 2017.4.29
Zwirs,N –gm Nikolic,PBundesliga 2017.4.29
The game starts with a 3.e5 French Defence and proceeds normally until Rapport sacrifices a piece for a mass of central pawns. Very nice finish! Worth close study…
Postny is an expert in taking apart the KingsIndian! Here he completely outplays his opponent on both sides of the board. Black must have been relieved when he resigned!
Nice game! An unusual line of the Scotch Opening, opposite side castling and lots of forceful play by Nikolic! And let’s not forget about the finish: crushing!
Look at this:
im Heinemann,T – im Koop,TBundesliga 2017.4.29
gm Richter,M – gm Mista,ABundesliga 2017.4.29
gm Nielsen,PH – Mager,DBundesliga 2017.4.29
Really nice positional grind by White. A KingsIndian Attack where White slowly builds his grip on the Kingside while Black’s counterplay on the other side gets nowhere. Black eventually makes a concession (weak e6-pawn) and the rest is technique.
Unusual opening by Black leads to problems immediately. White breaks thru in the center and then the tactics begin. Black’s Queen never gets any play. Really nice ideas by White and then a pleasing mating finish (for the spectators!)
Carlsen’s second plays 1.e4! State of the art opening theory (a3 and g4) and White gets the upper hand straight from the end of the opening. Nice middlegame play on the Kingside and then characteristic break in the centre. One for the books!
gm Movsesian,S – Kraemer,EBundesliga 2017.4.29
Commercon – gm Naiditsch,ABundesliga 2017.4.29
Rogers,JW – wgm Milliet,S4NCL 2017.4.29
An unusual and slow opening by White. Slowly he presses, gaining space. Black then panicks and prematurely plays f5. Black did not seen the Queen check on c4, which ends the game immediately.
Model of how to play with Black in the g3 KingsIndian. Black’s position gets better move by move. White must have been relieved to resign!
Another slow Sicilian opening. Both sides manoeuvre, preparing for attack. The French star strikes first with what looks like a nice sacrifice on g2, but White simply ignores it (!) and crushes Black in the center. Nice game!
