Flashy Moves and Tactics



The Queen is always inspirational! Today’s selection of equally inspiring tactics and games are from recently played international tournaments and matches. As usual, the summer months witness an explosion of chess activity that eclipses, perhaps, the combined global total of tournaments and matches for the remaining months of the year. (You can download the PGN)

Winning 5-second tactics!



Moore,G – Jayawarna,N
British_Ch 30.7.2017White to play and crush!
Abrahams, D – gm Arakhamia
British_Ch 31.7.2017Black to play and crush!
Moreby,J – Hewson,B
British_Ch 31.7.2017White to play and crush!


LINK

gm Arakhamia – Ashworth,M
British_Ch 30.7.2017White to play and win!
Sun,Fang –gm Ju Wenjun
China_Tch 28.7.2017Black to play and win!
gm Ju Wenjun – gm Stefanova
China_Tch 27.7.2017White to play and win!

Inspiring Games!



Willson,O -Jackson,J
British_ch 29.7.2017 (1 – 0)
im Trent,L -Storey,C
British_ch 30.7.2017 (0 – 1)
im Palliser,R – gm Jones,G British_ch 31.7.2017 (0 – 1)

Black’s smooth and aggressive style of play gives a very good impression. White neglects his development and finds his King trapped in the centre. Gorey end!
My friend Trent seems to have been very inspired on this particular day, doing a very bad impression of the Riga Magician, Misha Tal.
Gwain has shown himself to be at the top of his game in recent times, and this game is clearly evidence of this. Energetic and inspired play!


gm Williams,S – Merriman,J British_ch 31.7.2017 (0 – 1)
Anilkumar,A – im Grant,J
British_ch 29.7.2017 (1 – 0)
gm Volkov,S – gm Cori,J
Sitges 26.7.2017 (0 – 1)

The colourful Simon Williams is always entertaining, win or lose, and especially as commentator. Here he sacrifices one piece after the other, pawns not counting, in search of the Holy Grail. Not to be found on this particular day…
A rather well played game by both sides up to the point where Grant overlooks a clever tactic over on the Kingside and then it goes downhill from then on.
Cori won the Sitges tournament with a stunning 8.5 pts from 9 games! Ofcourse, such a score requires an element of luck, and in this game we see that luck as Volkov gets a big edge and makes no progress against Cori’s defence.

gm Wang,Hao – Zeng,Ch China_Tch 27.7.2017
gm Wei,Yi – Li,Yankai
China_Tch 28.7.2017
gm Ni,H – Lan,Zilun
China_Tch 26.7.2017

Powerful performance by Wang Hao, dismantling the Sicilian with finesse and just the right amount of gore. Well worth the reader to study White’s handling of this popular variation.
Wei Li is the player of the moment, and this game certainly does not disappoint. In just 20 moves Wei gets the advantage on all sides of the board. Black resigned because material loss is unavoidable.
Ni Hua is one of the world’s most powerful 1.e4 player, and in this game it does indeed seem that Black never had a chance! White got the advantage on the Queenside and then pushed his c-pawn to victory.


LINK to photos
To be continued…