Repulsing a 'Greek gift'

by Jonathan Speelman
8/4/2019 – "Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can" is a phrase by Ralph Waldo Emerson that GM Speelman's correspondent attached to his Agony game submission this week. Jon offers three instructive annotated games for your review. | Send in your own games! Jon can always use more material from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

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Speelman's Agony #103

This week's games are by Jason Kay who is currently working on a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and writes: “Next semester I'll be teaching a course about human nature. Besides philosophy and chess, I am passionate about photography, charity work, and environmental issues.”

He also sent me this inspiring quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Jason kindly sent me three games after I asked for them while streaming at twitch.tv/jonspeelman. They are rapidplay internet games and all three bring up interesting questions.

We start with two fairly clean wins while the most interesting is a Queen's Pawn game with Bf4 in which he allowed a Greek gift sacrifice which he was to repulse. All notes are mine.

 

Click or tap the second game in the list to switch


The Baffling 2.b3 Sicilian

Make life difficult for the Sicilian! 2.b3 is a thoroughly venomous but still solid kind of "Anti-Sicilian". No matter what setup black chooses, the bishop on b2 will always be unpleasant for him.


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Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

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