Saturday, January 24, 2015

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2015 in Wijk Aan Zee

I want to make good on my new year's resolution to update this blog more regularly again. I'm going to ease into it with an observation from the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2015 in Wijk aan Zee.

With only one round to go, it seems pretty certain at this point that Carlsen is going to win the tournament after all despite his rocky start, with only 1 point from his first 3 games.

Giri - So after 31. Qxb4 from the 12th round 
 
Giri is a pawn up. It's a distant passed pawn, and considering that Giri as a 2700+ grandmaster certainly has the technique to bring this position home, White is clearly winning. 

However, I was really surprised to see that the game went on for another 80 (!) moves. It's true that White's kingside has some pretty serious weaknesses around the light squares, and in queen endings the defender usually has a million checks available to prolong the game. But still, it's quite an achievement to have the technique to convert the a-pawn. 

So finally resigned after 111. a8Q

Pushing the pawn to convert it eventually is harder than it looks as I have experienced in many games myself. 


Thursday, January 1, 2015

Welcome to 2015!

I know I haven't been actively writing here lately, but I have been working on my chess, and one of my new year's resolutions is to be write more regularly here.

Best Wishes,
RevTiberius