Category Archives: English Opening
Bundesliga 2012-13 Rd10,GM Rapport(HUN)
TWIC 955
4.e3 Bb4 5.Qc2 [A28]
Bundesliga 2012–13 Bremen GER (10), 24.02.2013
Some complex middlegame play has led to the following tense and unbalanced position. White has won a pawn but then ending is not straight forward.
White to Play
A systematic assessment of the position is required to understand the needs of each side.
For white:
A simple pawn count is not enough to asses the position. Although white is a pawn ahead the problem is that there are two sets of doubled pawns.
- The doubled f-pawns are not weak and do a good job of protecting the king. However, the broken structure makes them immobile and the kingside will have trouble producing a passed pawn
- The doubled c-pawns are also not weak. They are part of a group of three and can easily protect each other.
- The bishop is a strong piece compared to the knight as play is spread out over the whole board.
For black:
- Ra2 and Ne2 are very active and spread chaos behind the ranks. The knight attacks c3 and holds up the f-pawns.
- Ra8 is not active
- The pawn structure is sound and white’s rooks have trouble penetrating black’s position.
- The a-pawn is potentially very useful as a source of counterplay but for now …a5 is not possible.
Position 2
- The play is spread out over the whole board which favors the long-range bishop.
- The knight is unstable on e5(the f4 advance is easy to prepare)
- White’s pawns are easy for the king to defend and the doubled f-pawns are not weak.
- Black’s passed a,c pawns are easy to defend against as black is poorly placed to support their advance.
Bundesliga 2012–13 Rd9-GM Medvegy Z(HUN)
TWIC 955
Medvegy fought back from a poor position but ultimately lost a tough endgame battle with many interesting points.
Black is a pawn up and has just advanced on the kingside with 34…g5. What do you recommend for white?
4NCL 2013, IM Panjwani(CAN)-TWIC 949
Here another Panjwani game from recent 4NCL action from TWIC 949.
The position has a strong hedgehog flavor with white’s e4/c4 pawns cramping black’s position. How should black play?
- 20…b5
- 20…d5
- Something else
Position 2
Black has sacrifice the exchange for dark square counterplay. White’s kingside has been broken up but now what should black do?
Black to Play
Perenyi Memorial 2013-01 Rd6
I was crushed in model fashion by my unrated Kuwaiti opponent after missing the wrong plan earlier in the middlegame. After that, there was no turning back as white found some nice maneuvers to achieve a dominating position.
Hashem is one of the many cool players I met from Kuwait. He advised my to make a FB Fan Page for the blog. So it’s on my big To Do List (How to Make a FB Fan Page) now.
He also has a cool site Kuwaitchess! and a Youtube Channel Youtube-Kuwait Chess. Here’s an example.
Important info for chess tourists-Budapest-entry-fee-summary-2012
Here’s my round 6 game.
Hashem,K – Yip,M (2062)
White is ideally placed. How should the game continue?
White to Play
Art Pub Cup 2013-01(Budapest)
Here is a nice positional game from the recent Art Pub Cup Open. Kiss, Peter is one of the rising young talents in Budapest having just one the Kobanya Open with 5.5/6.
Gubics was relentless with a powerful queenside attack with pressure on the isolated b-pawn.
Position 1
White is up a pawn but black is mounting some counterplay with 22…Ra3. How should white respond?
White to Play
BudapestChessNews 