Hello chess enthusiasts! Come out and join us for a special chess day on Saturday, 2/26/2022, beginning at 2pm at Impact Coffee. Some DCC members will be playing a few games and promoting the club. We’ll even request the fancy chess table they have for tomorrow.
As the club continues to grow, we’re hopeful to have more weekends for chess!
The big chess news lately was how the 16 year old Indian Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated Magnus Carlsen. If you’re interested in the game that they played, I found it on chessgames.com and produced it below using the lichess app.
Magnus Carlsen vs Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa
Their game began with a queen pawn opening, with RP answering with the King’s Indian. The game eventually fell into what is called the Tarrasch Defense: Symmetrical Variation. The first five moves indicate why the symmetry:
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. e3 Nc6
The game continued…
6. cxd6 exd5 7. Bb5 cxd4 8. exd4 Bd6 9. 0-0 0-0 10. h3 h6 11. Re1 Qb6 12. Ne5 Rc8 13. Bf4 Re8 14. Rc1 Qb6 15. Bxc6 bxc6 16. Na4 Qa6 17. Re3 Ne4 18. f3 Ng5 19. Rec3?
This move brough them to the following position. According to a chess engine, this was MC’s first minor mistake. Better was 19. Bxg5.
Only a few moves later, we would see both players make mistakes!
19. … Qb7 20. Bh2 Ne6 21. Nxc6?? Better, was 21. g4.
The only move to maintain the advantage for RP was 21. … Bxh2. Then, 22. Kxh2 Nf4. However, RP decided on Nf4 first to bring the game back to even.
Play continued 21. … Nf4?? 22. Ne5 Bxe5 23. dxe5 Nd3 24. Rxc8 Rxc8 25. Rxc8+ Qxc8 26. Bg3 d4 27. b3 Qc6 28. Qd2 Kh7 29. Kh2 Bg6 30. Qa5 Qc1 31. Qxa7 Qe3 32. Nc3??
The better move to keep things close would have been 32. Qa5. At this point RP took advantage and never faltered.
32. … Nf4 33. Nd1 Qd2 34. Nf2 Ne2 35. h4??
To keep a somewhat better game going, white has some options after 35. Ng4 h5 36. Qe7. Again, RP capitalizes on the mistake, and play continues with
35. … Qe1 36. Qd7 Nxg3 37. Qxd4 Nf1+ 38. Kh3 Ne3
Although white (MC) has a two pawn advantage at this point, the chess engine shows a significant disadvantage for white. To prolong the inevitible, any of h5, Nd3, Ne4, Ng4, or even Qxe3 was better than MC’s next move.
39. Qb2??
The chess engine indicated checkmate in 8 moves. Here is a possible line for that: 39. … Qg1 40. Ne4 Nf1 41. Kg4 Qh2 42. g3 Ne3+ 44. Kg4 Bf5+ 45. Kxf5 Qh3+ 46. g4 Qxf3#. Rameshbabu’s final move was actually 39. … Bc2. Although this maintained the mating opportunity, it wasn’t as efficient as the Qg1 route. Magnus resigned.
Decorah Sjakklubb 