One of my favorite hobbies is treasure hunting for beautifully instructive chess games during the annual Chess Olympiads. With more than 180 countries each sending their best male and female teams to compete in one event, the Chess Olympiads is a veritable mother load of chess gems. For hunting these chess treasures, I follow along at:
The official site for the 2016 FIDE Chess Olympiads
http://www1.bakuchessolympiad.com//
Chess Daily News
ChessGames.com
http://www.chessgames.com/index.html
And to illustrate just the kind of hidden gems I am talking about, I present Sindira Joshi (Nepal) vs. Qiyu Zhou (Canada) from round 1 of the 2016 FIDE Chess Olympiads. Enjoy…
[Event “Chess Olympiad”]
[Site “Baku, Azerbaijan”]
[Date “2016.9.2”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Joshi, Sindira”]
[Black “Zhou, Qiyu”]
[Result “0-1”]
[Eco “C54”]
[Annotator “Chris Torres”]
{[ ITALIAN GAME & HUNGARIAN def.,C54]}
1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.d4 {The start to the Scotch.}
3… exd4
4.Bc4 Bc5
5.c3 {Transposing to a Giuoco Piano.}
5… Nf6
6.cxd4 Bb4+
7.Bd2 {White could have also chosen the equally popular Moeller Attack by playing Nc3 and gambitting the e-pawn.}
( 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.O-O Bxc3 9.d5 Bf6 10.Re1 O-O 11.Rxe4 Ne7 12.d6
cxd6 13.Qxd6 Nf5 14.Qd5 d6 15.Bg5 Bxg5 16.Nxg5 Qxg5 17.Qxf7+
{1-0, Euwe Max (NED) – Van Mindeno A, Netherlands 1927 It “AVRO”} )
7… Nxe4
8.Bxb4 Nxb4
9.Bxf7+ Kxf7
10.Qb3+ d5 {Discovered by Gioachino Greco, this line is a mere 400 years old.}
11.Qxb4 {Greco preffered Ne5+ here.}
11… Rf8
12.Nc3 {So far so good for the much lower rated Sindira Joshi. Her chances are about equal here.}
( 12.O-O Ng5 13.Ne5+ Kg8 14.Nc3 c6 15.f4 Nf7 16.Ne2 Nd6 17.Ng3
a5 18.Qa3 a4 19.Qb4 a3 20.bxa3 Nb5 21.a4 Qd6 22.Rab1 Qxb4 23.Rxb4
Nc3 24.Rb3 Nxa4 25.Ne2 Ra6 26.g3 Nb6 27.Nc3 Na4 28.Ne2 Nb6 29.Nc3
Nc4 30.Nxc4 dxc4 31.Rb4 b5 {…1/2-1/2, Schaefer Markus (GER) 2390 – Postny Evgeny (ISR) 2595 , Plovdiv 10/19/2010 Cup European Club})
12… Nxc3 13.bxc3 {?} {A slight innacuracy. Better was Qxc3 as seen in this game:}
( 13.Qxc3 Kg8 14.O-O Qd6 15.Ne5 Bf5 16.Rae1 Rae8 17.Re3 Re6 18.Rfe1
Ref6 19.b4 {1/2-1/2, Danilenko Dmitriy (UKR) 1992 – Pavlov Maxim (UKR) 2327 , Alushta 5/18/2006 Ch Ukraine (1/2 final)})
13… Kg8
14.Ne5 {?} {Another harmless looking mistake. Much better was h4 to prevent Qg5.}
14… Qg5 {Here comes trouble.}
15.g3 {?} {As dangerous as it looks, castling is to be preferred here.}
15… Rxf2 {!} {Qiyu Zhou starts her combination with a beautiful rook sacrifice.}
16.Kxf2 Qd2+
17.Kf3 Bh3 {Qiyu Zhou is putting on a tactical clinic.}
18.Rad1 {Sindira Joshi seems to be playing the most accurate responses but Qiyu Zhou continues to press her advantage.}
18… Bg2+
19.Kg4 Qe2+
20.Kh4 Bxh1 {Not just to win the exchange but also to set up a vicious fork.}
21.Rxh1 Qe4+ {and now Sindira Joshi’s only chance is to hope for a rare blunder from Qiyu Zhou.}
22.Kh3 Qxh1 {Qiyu Zhou concludes the prefectly executed 8 move combination.}
23.Qe7 {Sindira Joshi finally has a choice but it is to pick her own poison.}
( 23.Qxb7 Rf8 24.Qxc7 Qf1+ 25.Kh4 Qf6+ 26.Kh3 Qf5+ 27.g4 Qf1+
28.Kg3 Qf4+ 29.Kg2 g5 {seems very unpleasant for white.} ) {%09DB}
23… Qf1+ {Qiyu Zhou grabs the initiative again.}
24.Kh4 Qf6+ {Qiyu Zhou wisely choses to force an exchange of queens and head into a rook vs. knight endgame.}
25.Qxf6 gxf6
26.Nd7 Kf7
27.Nc5 b6
28.Nd3 Re8
29.Nf4 {Hats off to Sindira Joshi for continueing to play on and give us a chance to study good endgame technique.}
29… c6
30.Kg4 Re3
31.Kf5 {Nothing can be done to save white’s queenside pawns from a Qiyu Zhou’s rampaging rook.}
31… Rxc3
32.Nh5 Rc2
33.h4 Rxa2
34.Kf4 a5
35.Ke3 b5
36.Nf4 a4
37.Nd3 a3
38.Nb4 Rb2 {Sindira Joshi resigns as there is no hope left for white.} 0-1
