Wijk aan Zee B tournament also strong

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73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011 (B)

Wijk aan Zee B tournament also strong

IM Malcolm Pein - Saturday 15th January 2011

Malcolm Pein looks forward to the B tournament in Wijk aan Zee which promises to be almost as interesting as the top group.

The Wijk aan Zee Festival, now underway, traditionally boasts not one but three strong tournaments and this year the B Group is the strongest it has ever been. The winner qualifies for the A group in 2012 and four of the fourteen players are rated over 2700. Luke McShane plays and his main rivals are likely to be:

Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Poland, 2726;

David Navara Czech Republic, 2708;

Laurent Fressinet, France, 2707;

Zahar Efimenko, Ukraine, 2701;

I received my review copy of John Nunn's forthcoming book 1001 Deadly Checkmates. Although we are no longer treated to any more fine attacking games now that John has retired from active play, the upside is that he has far more time to produce excellent books. Here are two puzzles from the book, one quite easy but the other quite difficult.

White to play and win.

White to play and win.

Answer to puzzle 1

1.Rxg7+! Kxg7 2.Qg5+ Kh8 3.Qf6+ Kg8 4.Rg3+ mates

White to play and win.

White to play and win. Be careful, the obvious move does not work

Answer to puzzle 2

1.Kh2! 1-0 Portisch-Korchnoi Amsterdam 1990

Note that 1.Qh6 Qb1+ and Qxh7 wins for Black.

An unsual record was set in Florida in December when 7-year-old triplets won a team competition at the United States Chess Federation K-12 championships. This was the first time triplets had won a junior team championship in the USA and I would imagine it is the first result of its kind anywhere. Andreas, Nicholas and Constantine Oskiper reside in East Windsor, New Jersey and took up the game only a little over a year ago but were smitten. The parents both have doctorates in electrical engineering. Their mother Katerina Varsou said the boys' enthusiasm for the game seemed to have no bounds. "If it was up to them," she said, "they would be playing all the time."

They were introduced to the game after their school introduced it to the curriculum. "I wanted them to acquire all these good qualities that chess players have," said Ms Varsou,. "I wanted them to think ahead and set a goal and figure out to think strategically to get there."

The line 5.Ng5 has long been a threat to Black in the Caro Kann but defences have been found. White moves his only developed piece a second time which looks odd but the crude idea is to sacrifice on e6 or f7. Surprisingly, Black allows it.

ML Huerga - DN Larino

XX GM Elgoibar

Caro Kann

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5 e6 6.Bd3 Be7 7.N1f3 Ngf6 8.Qe2 Qa5+ 9.Bd2 Qb6 10.0-0-0 c5

Nieto

DN Larino