Tuesday 18 February 2014

February Combinations - Solutions

It is time to show the solutions for the combinations.
I thought that the first one was hard, but some of the readers solved it without any problems.

1...Rxd4

White is winning now with

2. Qxd4, Ne2
3. Bf4!!

The third move was very hard for me.
White has alternative in 2. Bxf4 but after 2...Rxf4 Black has enough compensation for knight on h2 (three pawns and some positional pluses).

Saturday 15 February 2014

February combinations

For this month I prepared some combinations which have unexpected solutions, but are not so hard to solve.
Some of them are from my games, and others are from my database on combinations.
The first one is the combination that I failed to solve.
Black is on move, and the question is:
How do you evaluate a chances after 1...Rxd4 ?
Is White better?
Is Black better, or maybe the position is equal after some Ne2-Ng3 perpetual?
Calculate, and you will see.
This combination has very clear solution that does not leave a place for speculations.

Friday 14 February 2014

Static against Dynamic

The game that I want to present for my readers today, was played in Rilton Cup in Stockholm, in the very last round.
The game was not particularly good, because of my bad play, but there was one very instructive point in the game.
My opponent went for the position in which he had clear strategical plus.
His knight was dominant to my bishop, and the pawn structure in the centre secured this.
However, the things in chess are rarely one-sided.
Black is somehow better developed, his knight on f4 is strong and there is some pressure along f-file.
What actually happened is very interesting.
I did not understand that the position on the diagram is critical, and I played natural move, very quick.
There were some candidates in this position, and you can think on your own and try to figure out what should be played.

Wednesday 12 February 2014

XXVIII Festival of Games - Cannes

My next tournament will be very strong open tournament in Cannes, on French Riviera.
I played in the same tournament last year, and my impressions were very positive. It was not so hard to take a decision to take part in this tournament again.
For this year organisers decided to extend the tournament for two days, so this time we will play with only one double round (instead for last year´s three double rounds).
The starting list for this year is much stronger in comparison with the last year, even if tournament was very strong in 2013.
The tournament is part of the Cannes festival of the games, and besides the A group (Only the players with Elo higher then 2100) it will be competition in group B and C.
Even if you are not a chess player, you can surly find some game in which you can enjoy.
If you are good at darts, board games, strategy games, card games, video games....anything, you can come to Cannes and enjoy.

Monday 3 February 2014

Elitserien - Report

Before I write extended report on everything what happened this weekend in Swedish Elitserien, you can read this report, with one position from one of my games.
Our expectations in Scania were to win at least something, but we didn´t manage that, and we lost both matches.
Saturday´s match against current champions, Limhamn from Malmö, was the strangest match that I ever played
Hospitality and general good impression were never in doubt when it is about Limhamn S.K. and our hosts did everything in order that we can feel comfortable.
Thumb up for them.
On the chess boards things was a bit different as expected.