Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Nepo's King's Gambit

by Robert Ris
9/17/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris shows how Ian Nepomniachtchi used the goold old King's Gambit to score a quick win in his Armageddon match against Alireza Firouzja at the Norway Chess Tournament. | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
Pattern recognition is an important tool in modern chess, as it helps you to understand better the characteristics of a position. Particularly when you have been confronted with a surprise opening system played by your opponent, it helps when you can just

Thanks to the Armageddon format used in the Norway Chess Tournament we finally got to see the good old King's Gambit again at the highest level when Ian Nepomniachtchi tried it against Alireza Firouzja.

It's well-known that Black has various reasonable options to deal with this romantic opening. Firouzja's choice of 3...Nf6 is considered to be one of those continuations, but soon the position became very sharp and Firouzja, who in Norway climbed to the top-ten in live-ratings, blundered.

Exercise: Here, Firouzja played 10...Be6 which is already a decisive mistake. Do you see what's wrong with this move and what Black should play instead?

 
I. Nepomniachtchi - A. Firouzja, Norway Chess Tournament 2021

You can move the pieces on the live diagram!

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Robert is an International Master who mostly spends his time training and coaching talented youngsters. On the PlayChess server The Fast and the Furious is a popular show where he explains sharp opening lines for a wider audience. He is also a well-known ChessBase author who produced numerous DVDs and regularly contributes to ChessBase Magazine as well. Since 2015 he is the organizer of the Dutch Rapid Championships in his home town Amstelveen. He has started a YouTube channel with chess analysis as well.

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