Table 11: Burri (France) versus van der Lingen (South Africa) |
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Sunday 21 September 2014
World Youth - first day impressions
Labels:
games,
world youth
Monday 25 August 2014
Historic win by Steel vs Kamsky
It's not very often that a South African beats a super Grandmaster! I remember the game Watu Kobese won against Peter Leko in the 2001 FIDE knockout championship. Before that, there was the win by Wolfgang Heidenfeld versus former world champion Max Euwe at the 1955 Johannesburg international. Now Henry Steel has joined this elite club at the Tromso Olympiad earlier this month. In all fairness, Kamsky was completely winning after his 23rd move, but made things difficult for himself with his poor 28th and 33rd moves. The ending reached after Black's 40th move looks about equal to me, but Steel outplayed his super-strong opponent for an historic win. Here is the game, with light notes:
Monday 21 July 2014
Mandela day puzzle solutions
Black to move resigned. On Saturday I asked you what did the players miss? The answer was that the spectator saw that 1... Qf1+ forces 2.Kxf1 with a most unusual stalemate position.
Sunday's puzzle, with Black to move, was more difficult. From the diagram, if 1... Rxe6 2.c4 Re8 3.a6 c6 I asked what White could do to escape his troubles. The answer was that White has a quite astonishing win by 4.c5!! cxd5 (4... dxc5 5.d6 and the Bishop is blocked) 5.c6 d4 6.c7 Bxb7 7.axb7 d3 8.b8=Q d2 9.Qxe8+ Kxe8 10.c8=Q+ and 11.Ke2. White's c-pawn turned out to be a fearsome warrior!!
Labels:
games,
mandela 67
Sunday 20 July 2014
Mandela 67 minutes chess day 2
Congratulations to Joseph Mwale on taking the first place trophy on tiebreak, ahead of IM Rodwell Makoto. Here are the Mandela 67 mins chess final results.
The following diagram is from a round 6 game that I found fascinating. It was between Craig Atkinson and Nadean Gopaulsingh, with Black to move. What would you play here?
Nadean correctly played 1... Rxe6! based on the pin 2.dxe6 Bxb7 winning for Black. Craig had seemingly overlooked this, as he took a couple of minutes to come up with 2. c4! cutting off the Bishop from the a8 square. The game then ended 2... Re8 3. a6 Ra8? 4. a7 Ke7 5. Rxc7+ Kd8 6. Rxh7 Kc8 7. Ke3 and White won. Watching the game I thought that 3... c6 worked, because of 4.a7 cxd5 5.Rb8 dxc4 etc, but I had also overlooked something. The all-seeing computer tells me that 3... Bd3 is best and results in an equal position. The position looks so simple, but is full of tricks - so what does White play after 3... c6 to escape? Answers on Monday.
The following diagram is from a round 6 game that I found fascinating. It was between Craig Atkinson and Nadean Gopaulsingh, with Black to move. What would you play here?
Nadean correctly played 1... Rxe6! based on the pin 2.dxe6 Bxb7 winning for Black. Craig had seemingly overlooked this, as he took a couple of minutes to come up with 2. c4! cutting off the Bishop from the a8 square. The game then ended 2... Re8 3. a6 Ra8? 4. a7 Ke7 5. Rxc7+ Kd8 6. Rxh7 Kc8 7. Ke3 and White won. Watching the game I thought that 3... c6 worked, because of 4.a7 cxd5 5.Rb8 dxc4 etc, but I had also overlooked something. The all-seeing computer tells me that 3... Bd3 is best and results in an equal position. The position looks so simple, but is full of tricks - so what does White play after 3... c6 to escape? Answers on Monday.
Labels:
games,
mandela 67,
results
Saturday 19 July 2014
Mandela 67 minutes chess day 1
Day 1 has gone smoothly, with 88 keen chess players competing, including visitors from Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. Here are the pairings for round 5, with the top seeds about to fight for the honours.
Here is an amusing episode from round 2. With both players down to their last few seconds, Black decided to resign here, seeing that Qh8 mate was inevitable. White shook his hand and then a spectator pointed out something unusual in this position.
What did both the players miss here? Another puzzle tomorrow, with answers on Monday.
Here are some photos taken during round 3:
Here is an amusing episode from round 2. With both players down to their last few seconds, Black decided to resign here, seeing that Qh8 mate was inevitable. White shook his hand and then a spectator pointed out something unusual in this position.
What did both the players miss here? Another puzzle tomorrow, with answers on Monday.
Here are some photos taken during round 3:
board 2 Brighton Mthunzi vs Henry Oliver |
board 8 Sayen Naidu deep in thought |
board 10 Khetha Mngadi vs Erick Takawira |
from left, Saiyuri Naidoo, Charlotte Millard, Riasha Singh, Kshanik Dayaram, Joshua Pillay |
Labels:
games,
mandela 67
Saturday 12 July 2014
A brilliant game by young Cailin
Cailin Chetty was in good form at the eThekwini junior trials. Here is a game by him from round 3, where he sacrificed first a Rook, then his Queen, for a brilliant victory:
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