Not every great game of chess includes a sharp tactical finale — sometimes, the strongest players in the world simply outplay their also excellent rivals by slowly squeezing small advantages. That is precisely what Magnus Carlsen achieved in one of his encounters against Peter Leko at the ‘chess24 Legends of Chess’ tournament.
From the same event, we also look at a game between Ding Liren and Viswanathan Anand. In this case, Ding makes a couple of strange decisions in the middlegame and sees his legendary opponent creating a powerful attack on the kingside out of thin air. Plenty to learn from in these two top games.
But first let’s try to solve this problem by the prolific Czech composer Ladislav Prokes. It is White to play and win:
Once you have cracked that, put yourself in the shoes of Indian legend Vishy Anand. Black to play, what next?
You'll find older broadcasts in the Power Play category. To watch these you'll need a ChessBase Premium Account.
Daniel King is the prolific author of the PowerPlay series which numbers 27 volumes to date. The King's Gambit is the subject of his most recent DVD.
Here’s a teaser:
