Thursday, August 23, 2007

If you only play through one game...

... from the Staunton Memorial Chess Tournament that finished on Saturday in London, play through this one.


The nineteen-year-old new British Grandmaster Gawain Jones duffing over Loek Van Wely, one of the most dangerous players in the world on his day, with a great sacrificial attack.

5 comments:

ejh said...

Rock 'n' roll.

Presumably van Wely thought he was doing just fine until move ten and then had a long and increasingly troubled think?

Tom Chivers said...

Alas by the time I got to Simpson's that afternoon, that particular game was already over...

This Bb5 stuff versus the Sicilian is more troubling than it looks I think.

Anonymous said...

As I mentioned in the comments to another post, I don't get 10. ...Ra7 at all. What's the point of it?

ejh said...

I'd assume the idea was to avoid having to capture on e4, which would now only develop White's knight to a good square but free up the c-pawn to harrass the bishop. It's the sort of move though that, when it's played, you know somebody's in trouble.

Tom Chivers said...

Kavalek explains the move 10...Ra7 here:

"A strange-looking rook move, but black wants to meet 11.Ne2 with 11...Qa8!"