Gold to Russia and India

 (*** I was an arbiter for this event, and while I was not part of the appeals panel, I was aware of a number of facts that were considered by them. I post as an individual, and not in any official capacity connected with the Online Olympiad ***)

After considering an appeal by India, FIDE have awarded joint gold medals to India and Russia for the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad. With the match tied after the first round (6 draws), and 3 further drawn games in the second round, 2 Indian players suffered connection difficulties, and lost on time. In an investigation carried out immediately after the completion of the game, it was discovered that Cloudflare had suffered and outage which prevented internet traffic from being routed to chess.com in a timely manner. Based on this, and other factors, it was decided that Russia and India would share first place. The full details of the decision can be found at https://www.fide.com/news/721 

One question that was asked soon after this decision was published, was "What about Armenia?" They had suffered a similar issue in their quarter final against India, and had refused to continue the match when their appeal was rejected. 

While I sympathise with Armenia, there were 2 distinct differences. The option to declare joint winners could have only been made in regards to the final. For QF's and SF's, any decision would have had to provide an ultimate winner, so as to advance to the next round. Secondly, the cause of the outage that affected India was clearly and quickly identifiable, something that wasn't the case with Armenia. The tournament had seen a number of connection issues similar to Armenia's (eg internet failure, power loss, overthrow of government), and in all cases, they were treated in the same way (a loss for the player concerned). In the final however, the failure of tournament infrastructure was the culprit, which is why I assume a different decision was reached.

If I had been asked (which I wasn't), I had a different suggestion. But as it turns out, my suggestion would not have been practical, due to the same internet issues that affected the match in the first place.

The Olympiad Final?

 (Disclaimer: I am an arbiter for this event, but am not working on the final match)

It looks as though Russia has won the 2020 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad, although India are currently appealing due to 2 players suffering lag/disconnection in the final game. At the time of posting this, the appeal is still being heard, so to pass the time, here is an amazing game played in the first match of the final.

Vidit,Santosh Gujrathi (2636) - Nepomniachtchi,Ian (2778) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad chess.com (1.1), 30.08.2020

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Be3 c5 8. Qd2 Qa5 9. Nf3 O-O 10. Rc1 Bg4 11. d5 b5 12. Bxc5 Rc8 13. Bb4 Qc7 14. Nd4 a5 15. Ba3 b4 16. Bb2 Qb6 17. Bb5 e5 18. dxe6 Bxe6 19. Nxe6 fxe6 20. c4 Bxb2 21. Qxb2 Nc6 22. Qf6 Nd4 23. Bd7 Rf8 24. Qe5 Rxf2 25. Kxf2 Rf8+ 26. Ke3 Nf5+ 27. Kd3 Qe3+ 28. Kc2 Nd4+ 29. Kb1 Qd3+ 30. Ka1 Rf2 31. Bxe6+ Kf8 32. Qd6+ Kg7 33. Qe7+ Kh8 34. Qd8+ Kg7 35. Qe7+ Kh8 36. Qd8+ Kg7 37. Qe7+ 1/2-1/2

Chess Fanatics

 The 2020 Olympiad Semi-Final between Poland and India was a real roller-coaster ride, with Poland winning the first match 4-2, India the second 4.5-1.5, and then India winning the Armageddon playoff to advance to the final.

The topsy-turvy nature of the match was best demonstrated by the Indian fans on chess.com, who had poured into the chat rooms to follow each game. At it's peak there were over 2000 observers for each game, and when it looked like India were going to get knocked out, they didn't hold back in their criticism of the Indian team. However, when India bounced back in the second match, they piled back onto the bandwagon, and suddenly the criticism that occurred in the previous hour simply disappeared! Quite remarkable, but then again, nothing out of the ordinary for most other sports teams and their supporters.

Now I'm not that sure ...

 I've never been a fan of 'Armageddon' as a way of breaking ties in chess, preferring to see sets of 2 games continue indefinitely.  One reason for my dislike is that I've always assume that having draw odds is better than having the extra time (ie having the choice gives you an advantage). But the final game of the China v Ukraine Olympiad match has me thinking.

After the match as shared with two 3-3 results, a single Armageddon game was to determine the outcome. Ukraine won the toss and chose to be White (and start with 5 minutes). Black started with 4 minutes, but if the game was drawn, Black would win. What seemed to happen next was that Black decided to dig in for a draw, but wasn't able to move fast enough, as there was no increment. Eventually Black ran out of time, and Ukraine qualified for the next round. 

 

Shevchenko,Kirill (2425) - Liu,Yan (2427) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad chess.com (3.1), 27.08.2020

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Bc4 e6 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 Nc6 7. Nf3 d6 8. O-O Be7 9. Qc2 Nb6 10. Be2 O-O 11. Nc3 Bd7 12. Qe4 d5 13. Qg4 f6 14. Bf4 fxe5 15. Nxe5 Nxe5 16. Bxe5 Bf6 17. Qg3 Bxe5 18. Qxe5 Qb8 19. f4 Qxe5 20. fxe5 Rxf1+ 21. Rxf1 Rf8 22. Rxf8+ Kxf8 23. Kf2 Ke7 24. Bd3 h6 25. Ne2 Be8 26. h4 Nd7 27. Nf4 Nf8 28. Ke3 Bf7 29. Kd2 Be8 30. Kc3 Kd8 31. Kb4 Kc7 32. a4 b6 33. a5 Bf7 34. g4 Be8 35. Bb5 Bf7 36. Ba4 Ng6 37. Ng2 Ne7 38. axb6+ axb6 39. Kc3 Bg6 40. Nf4 Bf7 41. Bc2 Kd7 42. Bd3 Kc7 43. g5 hxg5 44. hxg5 g6 45. b3 Kb7 46. Bb5 Kc7 47. Bd3 Kb7 48. Ng2 Be8 49. Ne3 Kc7 50. Ng4 Bf7 51. Nf6 Nc6 52. Nh7 Ne7 53. Bb5 Nf5 54. Bf1 Ng3 55. Bd3 Nh5 56. Be2 Nf4 57. Bg4 Kd7 58. Nf6+ Ke7 59. Kb4 Kd8 60. Kb5 Kc7 61. Nh7 Nd3 62. Ka4 Nf2 63. Bf3 Nh3 64. Bg2 Nf4 65. Bf1 Nh5 66. Kb4 Ng3 67. Bd3 Nh5 68. Kc3 Nf4 69. Bf1 Kd7 70. Kd2 Ke7 71. Nf6 Nh5 72. Ke3 Ng7 73. Bd3 Ne8 74. Kd2 Nc7 75. Kc3 Kd8 76. Kb4 Ke7 77. Nh7 Be8 78. Bc2 Bf7 79. Nf6 Kf8 80. Ng4 Ke7 81. Nf2 Be8 82. Nd1 Bf7 83. Nc3 Be8 84. Bd3 Kd8 85. Ne2 Ke7 86. Nf4 Na6+ 87. Kc3 1-0

2020 FIDE Online Olympiad - Finals Weekend

 The final weekend of the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad begins tomorrow (Thursday). The first day will see the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in their pools play, to decide who meets the pool winners in the quarter finals. Each match consists of 2 rounds over 6 boards, so that each team has an even number of white and blacks. For a team to progress they need to either win both matches, or win one and draw the other. This follows on from the main event, where match points (MP) was the first scoring method. If the match score is tied, then a single game playoff will decide the winner. Before the playoff 1 category will be chosen randomly (Open, Women, Junior Open, or Junior Female), and each team will nominate a player from that category. As the category for the playoff isn't known in advance, teams with strength across all categories are favoured.

Friday night (Canberra time) will see the quarter finals, with semi-finals on Saturday, and the Final on Sunday.

More classics to be aware of

 The Reti v Tartakower 1910 game is a well known classic (where Reti sacrifices his queen on d8 to then play a double check), but it did have some predecessors. One such game (which I've only just discovered) was played 46 years earlier, took slightly longer, but ended in pretty much the same way.

Maczuski,L - Kolisch,Ignaz [C45]
Match Kolisch-Maczuski +2-2=0 Paris (1), 03.1864

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qh4 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Qd3 Nf6 7. Nxc6 dxc6 8. Bd2 Bxc3 9. Bxc3 Nxe4 10. Qd4 Qe7 11. O-O-O Qg5+ 12. f4 Qxf4+ 13. Bd2 Qg4 14. Qd8+ Kxd8 15. Bg5+ Ke8 16. Rd8# 1-0

A close finish in store

Pool B of the 2020 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad starts in a couple of hours, and a very exciting finish is in store. In almost all previous pools of the Online Olympiad, there have been 1 or 2 countries which have been clear favourites for promotion, and have lived up to that expectation. In this case there are 5 teams within 2 points of each other, and a lot of them will play their closest rivals today. When supervising the games yesterday, I thought one team or other was looking good for qualification, only to be brought back to the pack in the following round. 

If you want to follow the last round action for this pool (and all the others), you can either follow live commentary at twitch.tv/chess or look at the games on chess.com (under events) or chessbomb.com

Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar (2761) - Ivanchuk,Vasyl (2686) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Chess.com (4.4), 22.08.2020

1. e4 c5 2. c3 e6 3. d4 d5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bb5 Bd6 7. O-O Nge7 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. Nb3 Bd6 11. Bd3 h6 12. h3 Nf5 13. Re1 Qf6 14. Bc2 Rd8 15. Qd3 g6 16. Qd2 g5 17. Qd3 Bc7 18. Be3 Nxe3 19. Rxe3 Bb6 20. Nbd4 Bd7 21. Rae1 Kf8 22. Nxc6 bxc6 23. Ne5 Bxe3 24. Rxe3 Be6 25. Nxc6 Re8 26. Ne5 Re7 27. Qd4 Qg7 28. Qc5 Rae8 29. Ba4 Qf6 30. Bxe8 Kxe8 31. Qd6 Kf8 32. Nd7+ Bxd7 33. Qxf6 Rxe3 34. Qxh6+ Ke8 35. fxe3 1-0

Alekhine reborn?

 The following game was played at Street Chess today. At first I wondered how sound White's piece sacrifice was, but after a few more moves White gained an overwhelming initiative which soon resulted in a forced mate.  Black did make one major mistake (14 ... N8h7) but this did not detract from how White won the game. Making constant threats to drive the Black pieces to worse squares even reminded me of how Alekhine used to win his games.

Press,Harry - Radisich,Matt [C41]
Street Chess 22.08.2020

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nbd7 4. Nf3 e5 C41 Philidor Defense: Lion Variation 5. Bc4 Be7 6. a4 c6 7. a5 Qc7 8. h3 Nf8 9. O-O h6 10. Be3 g5?! Inaccuracy. Ng6 was best. ( 10... Ng6 ) 11. dxe5 dxe5 12. Nxe5 Qxe5 13. Bd4 Qc7 14. e5 N8h7?? Blunder. Nd5 was best. ( 14... Nd5 15. Bxd5 cxd5 16. e6 Rh7 17. Nxd5 Qd6 18. Bc3 Bxe6 19. Nf6+ Kd8 20. Qe1 Kc8 21. Rd1 ) 15. exf6 Bxf6 16. Re1+ Kf8 17. Ne4 Qf4 18. Bc5+ Kg7 19. Bd6 Qf5 20. Ng3 Qd7? Checkmate is now unavoidable. Rd8 was best. ( 20... Rd8 21. Nxf5+ ) 21. Nh5+ Kg8 22. Qd3 Bg7 23. Qg6 1-0

2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Top Division

 The 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad gets super serious tonight, with the Top Division starting. There are 40 teams broken up into pools of 10 teams, playing a round robin over the next 3 days. The top 3 teams from each pool then go into a knock out, with the winner of each pool going straight into the quarter finals, while teams 2 and 3 play a match against the 3rd and second placed teams from the other pools, to determine to other quarter finalists. The it is a straight knockout until a single winner is determined.

Pool A begins at 6pm this evening (Canberra time), with the next pools starting at 3 hour intervals. You can watch the action at chessbomb, or if you have a chess.com account, then this link should work as well https://go.chess.com/Olympiad-2020-Scores

I did find this funny

 There was a story in a UK Sunday paper about the sudden increase in the popularity of online chess has made the E-Sport community unhappy. (The story is here, but behind a paywall). The two main points are about the amount of money being paid in prize money, and whether chess is an 'E-Sport' as it is the same sport whether it is played on a board or via a computer.

I suspect I find this funny, mainly because people all getting 'butt-hurt' over things outside of their control is almost always funny. I also saw a retort to the second point, which argued the same standard could be applied to e-sport versions  of games like FIFA or NBA, although the e-versions of these sports usually require less skill to play, which is why they are 'E-Sports'. 

But having read the article, it also shows that FIDE really did miss the boat when it came to capturing the online chess market. The fact that has taken less than 6 months to catch up to other 'E-Sports' shows that with the right amount of planning (and foresight) chess could have been well ahead of the field 5 years ago,

Canberra chess restarting

 Covid-19 restrictions in Canberra have been eased once again, and as a result the various clubs are restarting face to face play. The Tuggeranong Chess Club had their first meeting this evening, and the Canberra Chess Club is starting a 3 week rapid on Thursday. The Gungahlin Chess Club is still sorting out details with its venue, but hopefully there will be some good news on that front shortly.

One thing that will change is the amount of online chess being organised by the ACTCA. As the events were scheduled to match the times of the local clubs, these events will begin to disappear. The Monday night blitz is already gone, while the current Thursday standard event will run till completion (3 weeks to go), before stopping as well. The one event that is likely to keep running is the Wednesday Rapid, as it doesn't clash with any of the other clubs, and has generally been a popular event. 

Australia just miss out on promotion

 Australia has just missed out in qualifying for Division A of the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad, after a rough day 3 of the competition. Holding a 2 point lead over closest rival Indonesia, the campaign began to go off the rails after Indonesia beat them 5-1 in round 7. Australia were better in a number of games in that match, but fell apart under time pressure. The win by Indonesia allowed them to join Australia on 10 match points, and move ahead on game points (which was the first tie-break).

Australia then scored a bit of an upset in the following round, drawing 3-3 with Germany, while Indonesia lost to pool leaders Bulgaria. However in the final round, Australia were up against Belarus, who had under performed over the first 2 days. They clearly found their form at just the wrong time for Australia, winning 3.5-2.5. Indonesia then walloped Bangladesh 5.5-0.5 to overtake the Australians in the final standings, and joined Bulgaria and Germany as the three teams going through.

Full crosstable, results and games can be found here. 

And then Shirov did this

 While I don't get to watch many games during the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad, I did have the pleasure of seeing this while waiting for results from other games.

Dvirnyy,Danyyil (2550) - Shirov,Alexei (2629) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Chess.com (4.1), 15.08.2020

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nh4 Be4 7. f3 Bg6 8. Qb3 Qc7 9. Bd2 Be7 10. Nxg6 hxg6 11. O-O-O Nbd7 12. cxd5 cxd5 13. Kb1 a6 14. Rc1 Qb8 15. h4 b5 16. a4 O-O 17. a5 Rc8 18. Bd3 Qg3 19. Rcg1 Rc4 20. f4 Rac8 21. Qd1 b4 22. Ne2 Qg4 23. Nc1 Ne4 24. Be2 Qf5 25. Bd3 Ndf6 26. g4 Nxg4 27. Rxg4 Qxg4 28. Qxg4 Nxd2+ 29. Ka1 Rxc1+ 0-1

Looking for clues

 Once a game is finished (in the past at least), there was often a post-mortem. However in this fast paced world of ours, the time for doing this is often quite limited. Instead post game analysis is done at home, usually without both players present.

In the following game, which was played at Street Chess today, White took advantage of a seemingly obvious move by Black to launch a quick, and eventually overwhelming attack. The move in question was 13. ... Bd7, which was a lot worse than say 13 ... Bxd3. When I fed this into chessbase, the first clue was that the evaluation jumped in White's favour. But the other, and more interesting clue, was in the output from the Chessbase Cloud engine, which stores previous analysis from Chessbase users. In the case of this game, the position after White's 13th move had been searched over 1000 times. After I entered 13. ... Bd7, this number dropped to 1 (which I assume was me!). This, more than anything else, points to it being the cause of Black's defeat.

Press,Harry - Chibnall,Alana [B90]
Street Chess , 15.08.2020

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. f3 Be6 9. Qd2 h5 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. exd5 Bf5 12. Bd3 Bd7 13. f4 Qc7 14. Qf2 Ba4 15. fxe5 dxe5 16. O-O O-O 17. Qf3 Bxb3 18. Qxh5 f5 19. Bxf5 Rxf5 20. Rxf5 Bxd5 21. Qe8+ 1-0

Fire on the virtual chess board

 The 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad is starting to become real serious, with a number of high profile players joining the fray. Pool C (of which I am an arbiter for) saw both Anish Giri and Alexei Shirov turn our for the federations, although Shirov had a much better time of it than Giri. Shirov finished the day with 3/3, while Giri only managed 0.5/3. 

The Australian team also started with a bang, scoring successive 6-0 wins, before being brought down to earth, losing 2-4 to Bulgaria. However, the size of their opening wins, and some other results in their pool, leave them with high hopes of qualifying for Pool A.

Shirov,Alexei (2629) - Martins,David Pires Tavares (2223) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Chess.com (1.1), 14.08.2020

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 Be7 8. Be2 O-O 9. O-O b6 10. Qe1 f6 11. exf6 Nxf6 12. Bb5 Qc7 13. Bxc6 Qxc6 14. Ne5 Qc7 15. Qg3 Ba6 16. Rf2 Nd7 17. Qg4 Qd6 18. Rd1 Nxe5 19. fxe5 Qd7 20. Bh6 Bd8 21. Rxf8+ Kxf8 22. Rd2 Bc7 23. Rf2+ Kg8 24. Nxd5 Kh8 25. Bxg7+ 1-0

When is the round over?

 A recent story from Iceland raises the question about how far does an arbiters (or chess associations) jurisdiction extend. In this specific case a player was removed from an event due to a very loud dispute over where the  board should be placed. At some point after the round had finished, the two players paths then crossed (away from the event) and further words were exchanged. The organisers argued that while they could rule on the initial case, the subsequent meeting was away from their control and they could take no further action.

I've heard of a number of situations similar, if not identical, to this. A round of the ACT Chess Championship was held up a number of years ago because two players would not agree on which set to use. The argument went on for at least an hour before a decision was made. Another incident (involving at least one player from the previous one), centered around how close a table should be to the wall, and ended with all the pieces on the floor of the chess club. And at an Australian Open a number of years back, hotel security was called because two players were having a heated argument in the car park over a parking space. In all three cases the organisers took the path of least resistance and no further punishment was visited upon the players.

Chessercise

 Thursday morning is my usual exercise morning for me, which involves a very painful 5:30am wake up. While I don't necessarily see it as part of chess routine, keeping fit normally won't hurt your chess playing ability (unless you then fall asleep at the board).

However, I did see online a combination of chess and exercise that might be worth trying. The board and clock is placed on a flat piece of grass and the two players then have to assume the 'plank' position. When it is your move you can move to the pushup hold (ie arms fully extended), so you can see the board, move your piece, and press the clock (which is quite a challenge!). Then while your opponent is thinking you drop to the plank hold, until it is your move. If you break the hold (by collapsing) you lose the game. 

So there is an extra piece of strategy involved in doing this. You can take more time over each move than normal, hoping that your opponent will collapse, but if they don't, then you will find yourself short of time. The ultimate extension of this strategy is to not move at all, hoping that your opponent cannot hold a 5 minute plank, but if they can, then you are doomed.

(Sorry, no link to the video as I cannot re-find it)

Resign or not?

 One of the issues with using online games as a source for research and study, is that sometimes come to an abrupt end. This is often due to connection issues, but unless you drill down into the source data (ie the extra tags that come with online games), you can never be quite sure it just wasn't an early resignation.

Here is one such game from the 2020 Online Olympiad. White is certainly better/winning after 13.Bg5, but did this move force a resignation, or was it just the last move before the internet dropped out?

Lohani,Sujana (1476) - Madelta,Glenda (1427) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Chess.com (4.5), 01.08.2020

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 c6 4. e3 e6 5. Nc3 Bd6 6. Bd3 Nbd7 7. O-O O-O 8. e4 dxe4 9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. Bxe4 Nf6 11. Bc2 c5 12. Qd3 b6 13. Bg5 1-0

Flashback!

 More and more people seem to be signing onto the idea of using 'Sets' to decide important matches. Here is a flashback to 2018 

A more permanent home

 As part of organising online events for the ACTCA, I've been doing short video summaries of each tournament or round. I do these on twitch.tv, in part because I find it easier to it 'straight to camera' rather than record and then upload. The only issue (up until now) is that they only stay online for 2 weeks.

Realising that some people want to re-watch them later than that, I am now uploading them to youtube as well. So far it is only the most recent 6 videos, but I plan to do this for all the recordings I make from now on. If you wish to have a look, you can now find them at https://www.youtube.com/c/ShaunPress/videos

2020 FIDE Online Olympiad - Div 2

 The 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad is now up to Division 2, and is now looking a lot tougher for all teams. The 5 pools have been published, and Australia is in with a number of tough teams in Pool A. While the differing pools normally group teams together based on time zones (while balancing the strength), Australia has drawn Germany and Bulgaria, along with Indonesia and The Philippines. As only the top 3 teams in each pool advance to the next division, it will be a very tough ask. Based on previous divisions, 12+ match points is usually needed to finish in the top 3, which requires a minimum of 5 match wins.

Pool A of Divison 2 can be found here, and there are links to all the other pools (including past results)

 

Officially good

 FM Geoffrey Borg was one of Malta's leading players, until a move into chess administration took him away from the board. However he returned to lead Malta in the current FIDE Online Olympiad, and despite a slow start, showed he can still play very good chess. In the following game he defeated IM Rafat Issa from Jordan, in a game where he looked in control throughout.

Borg,Geoffrey (2367) - Issa,Rafat (2392) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Chess.com (7.2), 09.08.2020

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f4 O-O 6. Nf3 c5 7. d5 e6 8. Be2 exd5 9. cxd5 b5 10. e5 dxe5 11. fxe5 Ng4 12. Bg5 Qb6 13. O-O c4+ 14. Kh1 Nxe5 15. d6 Be6 16. Nxe5 Bxe5 17. Bf3 Nd7 18. Bxa8 Rxa8 19. Qf3 Re8 20. Rad1 a6 21. Nd5 Qc5 22. Be3 Qc8 23. Ne7+ Rxe7 24. dxe7 Qe8 25. Bg5 h6 26. Rxd7 Bxd7 27. Bf6 Bc6 28. Qe3 Bxf6 29. Rxf6 Bd5 30. Rd6 Be6 31. Rd8 1-0

Never give up hope

 Helping with the 2020 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad is taking up most of my time (hence the lack of regular posting), but as a benefit, I do get to see a lot of interesting games. Watching this one live, I was impressed with how Black decided to end it.

Gong,Qianyun (2322) - Kanyamarala,Trisha (1811) [A00]
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Chess.com (2.5), 07.08.2020

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 4. Nf3 a6 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. O-O g6 7. e5 Bg7 8. Re1 Nh6 9. Be4 O-O 10. d3 d6 11. Bxc6 bxc6 12. exd6 exd6 13. Bg5 f6 14. Bf4 d5 15. d4 c4 16. Na4 Nf5 17. h3 Nd6 18. Nc5 Ra7 19. Qd2 Bf5 20. Nh4 Bc8 21. Nf3 Bf5 22. Ne6 Bxe6 23. Rxe6 Ne4 24. Qb4 Qd7 25. Rxe4 dxe4 26. Qxc4+ Qd5 27. Nd2 Qxc4 28. Nxc4 Rd8 29. c3 g5 30. Bh2 Bf8 31. Na5 Rc8 32. b4 Re7 33. Re1 f5 34. Nc4 Re6 35. f3 Rce8 36. Be5 exf3 37. gxf3 Bg7 38. Kf2 Bxe5 39. Nxe5 h6 40. f4 Kh7 41. Kf3 Ra8 42. Rg1 a5 43. a3 axb4 44. axb4 Ra3 45. fxg5 Rxc3+ 46. Kf4 Rxh3 47. Kxf5 Rd6 48. g6+ Kg7 49. Rg4 h5 50. Re4 Rg3 51. Rh4 Rf6+ 52. Ke4 Rg5 53. Rh2 Re6 54. Kf4 Rgxg6 55. Rxh5 Rg1 56. Ke4 Re1+ 57. Kd3 Rd6 58. Nf3 Rd1+ 59. Kc3 Rc1+ 60. Kb2 Rf1 61. Rh3 Rf6 62. Rg3+ Kf8 63. Ne5 R1f2+ 64. Kb3 Ke7 65. Rg7+ Ke6 66. Nxc6 R6f3+ 67. Ka4 Kd5 68. Ne5 Rc3 69. Rd7+ Ke6 70. Rd8 Ra2+ 71. Kb5 Ra7 72. Kb6 Ra4 73. b5 Rb3 74. Nc6 Ra1 75. d5+ Kf6 76. d6 Rab1 77. Na7 Rd1 78. Kc6 Rc3+ 79. Kb7 Ke6 80. Nc8 Rd5 81. b6 Rb3 82. Re8+ Kd7 83. Re7+ Kd8 84. Rc7 Rxd6 85. Nxd6 Rxb6+ 86. Kxb6 1/2-1/2

Ng4 is a nice find

It is always good to end a game with a nice tactical idea.

suprchess (1669) - mattrad (1635) [D08]
Live Chess Chess.com, 06.08.2020

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. e3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 dxe3 7. fxe3 Bxd2+ 8. Nbxd2 Qe7 9. Qb3 Nxe5 10. Be2 Nf6 11. O-O O-O 12. Nxe5 Qxe5 13. Nf3 Qe7 14. Nd4 c5 15. Nc2 b6 16. Bf3 Bb7 17. Rad1 Be4 18. Bxe4 Qxe4 19. Rf4 Qe5 20. Qa3 Rad8 21. Rdf1 Rd2 22. R4f2 Ng4 23. g3 Rxf2 24. Rxf2 Nxf2 25. Kxf2 Qf5+ 0-1

Sixpence none the richer

I purchased a fairly old chess book recently titled 'Chess & Draughts How to Play Scientifically'. While I'm not sure how much it will add to my chess ability, it did contain a number of other interesting sections. 

One of these sections was titled 'How to form a Chess and Draughts Club' and even contains a model set of rules for the club. It recommends a committee of 7 members, with 2 secretaries, and elections held every 6 months! First prize for each competition is a Silver Medal, and if a player wins three such competitions, they get to keep it permanently. 

The other condition (which dates the book somewhat) is the a membership fee is to be paid quarterly, and is set at sixpence a quarter. Taking the value of a sixpence to be 5c at the time (1935), this would equate to  a fee of $2.44 a quarter.

A quick Olympiad win (Division 4 edition)

While I was collecting results from the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad, I saw the following very quick win. I quickly realised that I probably saw this line 30 years ago when I was using the Grand Prix Attack as my main anti Sicilian weapon. Checking in my database it seems at least 9 players have fallen into this line, although the other games (all won by white) did go for at least a few more moves than this one.

 

Ndegwa,Jackson Kamau (1987) - Deng,Yu Dong Michael (1749)
2020 FIDE Online Olympiad Chess.com (8.4), 02.08.2020

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 d6 6. O-O e6 7. d3 Nge7 8. Qe1 O-O 9. f5 exf5 10. Qh4 Nd4 11. Bg5 Re8 12. Nd5 1-0

A not so simple question

How is it possible for Black to have a checkmate in 2 moves, without moving any of their pieces from the start position? 

(Credit to IA Shohreh Bayat for this question)