Hello and Welcome to my blog.
Today was the second round of the Quarterfinals in FIDE Chess World Cup and I was keenly watching the matches. World No. 1 rated Magnus Carlsen was taking on the young Indian Grandmaster D. Gukesh but Gukesh had a tough ask to beat Magnus with Black pieces and force a tiebreak as Magnus Won round 1.
Gukesh fought well but Magnus was able to draw the position and moved on to Semifinals. He was the favourite in the matchup without a doubt.
Another interesting game was between two young Indian GMs Pragnananda and Arjun. Arjun won the first round so Prag needed to win on demand and he did it. They will play the tiebreaks tomorrow.
Inspired by all the high-level chess I played some games too. Before I talk more about my games let's focus on Today's Highlighted Position.
Position of the Day
Well, I love puzzles and there was a decisive moment that appeared in my game. We were in the middle game and Black was an exchange up + an extra pawn and two of them were passed pawns too. But Black's last move c5 was a big blunder. Can you see why?
Black had to castle and should have given back one extra pawn. But Qe4+ will attack the rook on a8 and the best move for black is to give up its night and save the rook. That's why a safe king is such a priority!
The above position was from my game with @th4488, we have played more games tonight. He is an attacking player with not-so-great openings but does well in sharp positions. Of course, he needs a lot more practice as he is lower-rated than me.
Passed Pawn Must be Pushed!
Let me share an interesting game with you.
I was black and choose the Sicilian Defense as my opening. I came out of the opening with some advantage but hung my bishop on move 20 and it was a clean-piece blunder with no compensation whatsoever. Later I managed to blunder the bishop as well. Well, it was not a blunder but an outplay from @th4488, those knights in the centre of the board were too much for my pinned bishop.
All my hopes were on 'd' pawn and I set up a trap 33. Kf2 d2, my d pawn was about to queen and I left my knight hanging and White took the knight which allowed me to make a queen by sacrificing the rook as well.
It still took some precise play from me to convert that position to completely winning for me and White resigned soon.
Here is the complete PGN of the game in case you want to analyse yourselves.
1. e4 c5 { B20 Sicilian Defense } 2. Bb5 a6 3. Ba4 b5 4. Bb3 c4 5. Qf3 cxb3 6. axb3 Bb7 7. d3 Nf6 8. h3 e6 9. Ne2 d5 10. O-O dxe4 11. dxe4 Bxe4 12. Qg3 g6 13. Bf4 Be7 14. Bxb8 Qxb8 15. Qxb8+ Rxb8 16. Rxa6 Bxc2 17. Nd4 O-O 18. Nd2 Bd3 19. Nc6 Bxf1 20. Nxe7+ Kg7 21. Kxf1 Rfd8 22. Ke2 Rd7 23. Nc6 Rc8 24. Nf3 Rdc7 25. Ncd4 b4 26. Rb6 Nd5 27. Ng5 Nf4+ 28. Kd2 Nxg2 29. Ngxe6+ fxe6 30. Nxe6+ Kf7 31. Nxc7 Rxc7 32. Rxb4 Rd7+ 33. Kc3 Ne1 34. Re4 Re7 35. Re3 Ng2 36. Rg3 Nf4 37. Kc4 h5 38. b4 h4 39. Rf3 g5 40. Kc5 Re5+ 41. Kc6 Re6+ 42. Kc5 Re5+ 43. Kc6 Re2 44. b5 Rxb2 45. b6 Ke7 46. Kc7 Rc2+ 47. Kb8 Kd7 48. Ra3 Nd5 49. Ra7+ Kc6 50. b7 Nc7 51. Ra5 Rxf2 52. Rxg5 Rf3 53. Rg6+ Kd7 54. Rg7+ Kd6 55. Rxc7 Rxh3 56. Rh7 Rh1 57. Kc8 Rc1+ 58. Kd8 Rb1 59. Rd7+ Ke6 60. Kc8 h3 61. Rh7 Rb3 62. Kc7 Rc3+ 63. Kb6 Rb3+ 64. Kc7 Rc3+ 65. Kd8 Rd3+ 66. Ke8 Rb3 67. Kd8 Kf6 68. Kc8 Kg6 69. Rxh3 Rxh3 { White resigns. } 0-1
Destroyed in a Pawn Storm!
Another game where @th4488 outplayed me was with his pawn storm.
Somehow I lost all my queenside pawns and white's pawns just came down the board so quickly that I had very less defensive options. I was too complacent in this one and though my King side pawns can make it to the other side in time white had an active king and the pawns were much quicker in reaching the end of the board.
Let me know if you guys have any chess goals or goals in general that you want to achieve in the near future. It would be nice to hear from you all. I am looking forward to tomorrow's tiebreaks in the World Cup event.
Thanks for reading...
Until next time...
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