Play the Author - Theme tournament with Spyridos Kapnisis

by Arne Kaehler
6/18/2021 – Our ChessBase Magazine subscribers recently received a particularly interesting offer: a theme tournament with Spyridos Kapnisis! "Play the Author" lets readers play against their favourite author in a round-robin tournament. Another attraction is the set opening that is played in each round. In this "Play the Author" episode, the Richter-Rauzer Variation in the Sicilian was the chosen setup.

The Classical Sicilian The Classical Sicilian

This DVD offers Black a complete repertoire against all weapons White may employ on move six. The recommended repertoire is not as risky as other Sicilians but still offers Black plenty of counter-play.

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Play the Author - Spyridos Kapnisis

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Bb5

Just like in the last two events, seven players signed up for the tournament, and more than 50% of the players were German.

But compared to the other events with Robert Ris and Christian Braun, in the majority of the games, White succeeded. Apparently, "Turborossi" was the happiest to play against the Richter-Rauzer opening, since he won all three games as White, and lost his other four games as Black. Only seven games ended with a win for Black, two games were drawn, and in seventeen games White made the full point.

 

In one of the games, White had the chance to checkmate the Black king! Can you find the combination?

The Greek GM won the tournament smoothly, with 6½ out of 7. Most players had a real Elo rating of just beneath 2000, so Kapnisis had to deal with a couple of tough situations.

All the games played can be viewed and replayed here.

 

With the Playchess video & audio function, you don't need to wear a mask. But still, one player from Cyprus had to wear one, since he wasn't home.

After the tournament, Spyridos Kapnisis gave a small lesson on ChessBase, where all the players could ask questions.

If you want to learn more about the opening, check out the ChessBase Magazine #201

ChessBase Magazine 201

Expert videos: Jan Werle, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Mihail Marin explain new opening ideas in 30 minutes. Special: "Vassily Ivanchuk - just a genius!". Analyses by Anish Giri, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wesley So and others. 11 exciting opening articles and much m

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Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.

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