One over two

Sacrificing your queen to win a game is always fun. But how about giving your opponent a second queen, and still winning? This was what happened in a 4NCL game played by Chris Skulte earlier this year. In a hard fought game, Skulte managed to get a clear advantage around move 40, but the knockout blow happened on move 51 with Bf4. This allowed his opponent to promote his c pawn a few moves later, but by then, it was all over, as Black had a forced mate.


Kay,Lee - Skulte,Chris [B01]
4NCL, 18.03.2018

Is this +3

White to move

I was doing some chess study with a friend this morning and he showed me a position from one of his games (A Morra Gambit). He was interested in my assessment, as he felt he was better during the game, but couldn't find the right followup and went on to lose.
We applied some rudimentary positional assessment to the position (king safety, material, pawn structure, space, central control, open lines etc) and came to the conclusion that White was better (despite being a pawn down).
But it is one thing to assess the position, but another to then use that assessment to come up with a plan. In the actual game 15.Bb5+ was played, which isn't a bad move. Black played 15 ... Kf8 (15 ... axb5 16.Nxb5 is crushing) and White is still better. There were two other moves we also looked at, which I categorised as the 'Tal/Nezhmetdinov' move, and the 'Fischer/Capablanca' move. The tactical try was 15.Nb5 with the idea of playing Rc7 after 15 ... axb5 16.Bxb5+ Kf8. The positional try was 15.Ne4, exchanging off a defender, and opening the position further.
And according to the chess engines, it is 15.Ne4 which is the strongest move in the position. The assessment is +3 (and a bit) for White, which indicates that a tactical win isn't that far off. Nonetheless I was still surprised by this. I guess it shows that even if you can recognise the strength of a position, you still still need to find the winning moves.

The Pownage continues

The 2018 Sinquefeld Cup has ended is a slightly confusing three way tie. Wins by Aronina and Carlsen enabled them to catch Caruana at the top of the leader board, on 5.5/9. There was then supposed to be a playoff between the two players with the best tie-break, but the high proportion of draws meant that they all had equal tie-breaks. Eliminating one player by the drawing of lots didn't appeal to Aronian and Carlsen, so the playoff was dropped.
It then turned out a playoff was needed, but to see whether So or Caruana qualified for the Grand Chess Tour final in London. So these two will be playing overnight to see he is the 4th player in the final.
While Aronian's win over Grischuk was a bit of a bluff that paid off, Carlsen continued to heap misery on Nakamura. Forcing Nakamura to defend a weak pawn for a lot of the game, Carlsen found a clever king march in a rook and pawn ending to force Nakamura's resignation on move 97. This was enough for Carlsen to grab a share of first, while pushing Nakamura into a tie for last place with Karjakin.

Carlsen,M (2842) - Nakamura,Hi (2777) [D37]
6th Sinquefield Cup 2018 Saint Louis USA (9), 27.08.2018

9 rounds, 5 days

Due to a lack of interested parties, the Australian Chess Federation has awarded the hosting rights to the 2019 Australian Open to the Box Hill Chess Club in Melbourne. Oddly the dates for the 2019 Open will be from the 27th to the 31st of December 2018.
Ordinarily the Box Hill Chess Club would be hosting a 7 round swiss from the 27th to the 30th, but have decided to add on 2 extra rounds to make it a title event (albeit a shortened one).
As a previous organiser of the Australian Open I find this decision sad, but at the same time, hardly surprising given the ACF's track record at attracting tournament hosts. Weirdly, the very tournament that has now become the Australian Open, was originally organised in direct competition to the 2006-07 Australian Open in Canberra, on the grounds that Victorian players weren't interested in playing in Canberra at that time of year. I'm guessing the organisers hope that the rest of the country won't have the same attitude towards Melbourne.

7 rounds, 6 wins

Despite the application of rules designed to discourage draws, the 2018 Sinquefeld Cup has seen plenty of them. After 7 rounds, there have only been 6 decisive games, a win rate of a little over 17%.
The big clash for round 7 was the Carlsen v Caruana match-up, as it was the last time they would meet before their World Championship Match. While the game ended in a draw, both players looked as though they could take something from it. For Carlsen, he gained a clear advantage against an opening that Caruana may use during th World Championship, while for Caruana, he would be happy that he was able to defend a worse position.
Caruana still holds a narrow lead, having won 2 games and drawn 5, while there are 4 players tied for second, all with 1 win each.


Carlsen,Magnus (2842) - Caruana,Fabiano (2822) [C42]
6th Sinquefield Cup 2018 Saint Louis USA (7.1), 25.08.2018

Olympiad - less than a month away

The 2018 Chess Olympiad starts in a little under a month. Official registrations have closed, and at the time of writing this 183 teams are registered for the Open, and 150 for the Women's section. USA is the top seed for the Open, ahead of Russia and China, with Russia, Ukraine and Georgia heading the Women's event. Australia is seeded 42nd in the Open and 33rd in the Women's. PNG is seeded surprisingly high at 149 in the Open, located among traditional rivals such as San Marino, Guernsey, and Bermuda.
The current list of teams is here, noting that the team lists do not have the players in board order.

Bird is the word!

Before Steintz became Steintz, he was one of the many masters looking to follow in the footsteps of Paul Morphy. But he had plenty of competition, with players like Blackburne and Bird also playing in a similar style. As a result, matches between these players were often exciting affairs, with sacrifices and combinations deciding. The 1866 match between Steinitz and Bird showed this, with Steinitz winning +7=5-5 (9.5-7.5).
Before this match, the two played some casual games (possibly as a warm up), at Simpsons Divan. In one game that survived, Bird must have caught Steinitz on an off day, as he crushed him in 19 moves (less if had spotted  15.exd7+)


Bird,Henry Edward - Steinitz,William [C65]
London Simpson's Divan casual London, 09.1866