Congratulations to Harvey Duckers for winning the second Crowthorne online blitz tournament, held yesterday on chess.com
This was another 5-minute “Arena” tournament, although this time not themed by opening. More doubtless to follow, as playing over-the-board chess still looks to be some way off in the future.
Yearly Archives: 2020
From the Crowthorne Vaults – Part 10
This is a Border League game by Derek Johnson from 2018. It’s a powerful attacking game against a promising junior, Alex Golding, whose ECF grade was 213 at the time.
Thanks to Mark Taylor for providing the annotations.
Meeting online Wednesday night – mini-tournament
This Wednesday (May 13th at 8pm) we plan to have a mini tournament, just a plain tournament this time with no fixed opening, and we will try using chess.com this time. It will be possible to play in the tournament simply by being logged on in chess.com – and being a member of the Crowthorne Chess Club group – but it helps with the organisation if you are on the zoom call. Plus you’ll get to hear all the exasperated cries as people blunder away queens.
Hope to see you on Wednesday.
Please see Jonathan’s email for the zoom meeting details.
From the Crowthorne Vaults – Part 9
This position is from a game of Mark’s played in the Berkshire League against a (young) James Adair of Reading Chess Club.
White to play and win:
And the winner is …
Congratulations to Peter Tart for winning Crowthorne Chess Club’s first online tournament.
It was a 5-minute event in the “Arena” format hosted on lichess, with the first few opening moves being predetermined (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3).
As the lockdown continues, we expect to have similar events from time to time.
Themed mini-tournament
A reminder we have a Crowthorne Chess online Club night tonight (April 29), and we will be having a fixed opening mini rapid tournament on chess.com. If you don’t have a chess.com account you’ll need to have one in order to join in. If you have to sign up, please consider doing so nicely in advance, as these things can take longer than anticipated.
The fixed opening is a Nimzo-Indian: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3
Please refer to Jonathan’s email for the meeting details.
From the Crowthorne Vaults – Part 8
Another snappy finish, this one is of 2005 vintage. White is better here – black is somewhat cramped and his king is short of defenders – but can you spot the quickest and prettiest finish?
Click the “?” below the diagram to check your answer, or just to play through the variations.
White to play and win.
Online meeting tomorrow
Don’t forget that Crowthorne Chess Club will be meeting online again tomorrow (15th April), as usual in these unusual times.
Please see Jonathan’s email, sent today, for the meeting details (which change from week to week).
This one is really nice
A quick break from the Crowthorne vaults to show a nice finish by world champion Magnus Carlsen which was played on Tuesday. In the following position, Black has a nice combination which either wins a ton of material, or forces mate. Can you spot the continuation? Have a go, and click the “?” or one of the buttons below the board to check your answer.
Black to play and win:
This game was played in the Banter Blitz Cup, an online blitz tournament run by the chess24 website. Each player had 3 minutes per game, and this game was game 8 of a match where Magnus beat his 2675 rated opponent 9-0!
On seeing that his opponent had allowed 23 …Rxe5 (by playing 23 d4) Carlsen commented “This one is really nice”.
From the Crowthorne Vaults – Part 7
This time it was the turn of a Crowthorne player to be on the receiving end of a smart tactic. In the following position, from a match against Sandhurst, white has a pleasant advantage with his passed d-pawn and active pieces. He also has a move which wins outright – can you see it?
White to play an win