Play The Author - Thematic tournament with Lars Schandorff

by ChessBase
9/20/2021 – Last week, Grandmaster Lars Schandorff from Denmark faced nine brave CBM readers for the fourth "Play The Author" round-robin tournament this year. The chosen opening was 4.Bg5 Bg7!? in the Grünfeld. The Danish GM won the tournament and all games, except one draw. While a Canadian player reached the second place, the youngest participant (13 years old) from Germany, managed to get the third place. | Photo: Facebook - Lars Schandorff

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Play the Author - Lars Schandorff

 

Although five of the participants were German, and the majority once again, we also had two players from Canada, and either one player from England, Spain, and even Madagascar.

The so called "Gruenfeld - Stockholm Variation" stood strong, and most of the games were won with Black. The number of draws was quite high, which is unusual in Blitz-Tournaments.

The youngest participant was just 13 years old, and the oldest 74 years old.

The cross table. Chessbard1972 got the only draw against "Sjandy", alias Lars Schandorff.

The Playchess video&audio section was busy. From America, Africa, and Europe, people were able to play in the same room, see each other, and talk to each other.

The endgame in the board below is complicated, but Black should actually be able to win it.

 

All the games played can be viewed and replayed here.

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Rules for reader comments

 
 

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Zurubang Zurubang 9/21/2021 05:19
Hello again David. Karsten responded and sent me plenty of examples. The conclusion: It is very deep and difficult, and depends. Kasparov didn't manage to win against Jussupow in 1993, but Kramnik did a better job against Ponomariov 11.11.2009 at the Tal Memorial. Furthermore, Gallagher managed to convert a win as well, not with a mate threat, but instead by promoting the pawn, at the Mitropa Cup Baden, in 1999. After all, you are probably right, and one of the mistakes made by White was the move 78. Kc1, instead of going to e2. Thank you very much for pointing this out, it might be an upcoming theme for the new Endgame Magic. Similar endgame themes can be looked up from "Rook vs Minor Piece Endings" by Müller and Konoval, Russell 2019. Best regards, Arne
Zurubang Zurubang 9/21/2021 12:58
Dear David, apologies for not being clear about the correct game. I actually meant the game in the picture above, between Gimiller and Bookers80! But after all, that doesn't change the fact, that it might have been a wrong assumption, as you have pointed out correctly? But now I am unclear. Is it really a technical draw? I will ask the one and only Karsten Mueller about it soon. We keep in touch. Cheers, Arne
Former Prodigy Former Prodigy 9/21/2021 05:37
You write: "The endgame in the board below is complicated, but Black should actually be able to win it."
Congratulations to GM Schandorff on winning the event! I am a bit puzzled, as the final position from the Chessbard1972 - Ludovicus game looks drawish to me. True, there was 29...Kf8, to name at least one moment when black was winning, but could you please specify how could black win the final position if white keeps the rook behind the pawn, being ready to meet moves like Kc3 or Kc2 with a check on the "f" file? The only chance seems to be connected with the e4e3 advance and a rook swap on e2 after that (or even on d2 or c2 if black pushes his pawn to g4), but white can prevent this through checks from behind. I might be wrong, but to me the position looks plainly drawn. Given that the position above the text from the game Gimiller vs. Bookers80 is theoretically drawn, the sentence indeed seems to have referred to the game which I mentioned. Or were you referring to some other game? Thank you in advance for your reply! David Navara, Czech Republic
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