Speelman's Agony: Big battles

by Jonathan Speelman
12/15/2019 – This week's games are from an expert-rated club player who sent GM JON SPEELMAN a pair of annotated games for a Grandmasterly review. | Send in your own games! Jon welcomes submissions 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!

The Shining Sveshnikov Sicilian The Shining Sveshnikov Sicilian

Always wanted to play like a World Champion? Search no further! With Magnus Carlsen using the Sveshnikov variation as his weapon of choice in the World Championship match against Fabiano Caruana, this DVD could not be better timed.

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Agony & Ecstasy #112

This week's pair of games are by “arhitrav” who sent them to me after watching my stream.

He said that he would prefer to remain anonymous since he hasn't got the permission of his opponents to publish them and writes:

I am 23 years old and I have been playing chess for around 10 years, and I'm rated around 2050. The games were played in 5-round tournaments.

The first game was against my club colleague who is younger than me and quite talented, he will probably be stronger than me in a couple of years, so I really wanted to beat him while I still can. They game was a roller-coaster, I was nearly winning followed by completely lost followed by winning again. In general, I was happy with how the game went (I went to a lost position due to time trouble which is almost an acceptable excuse), but the most important thing is the result 1-0.

The second game I sent, the agony game, was played in the third round, and since it's a 5 round tournament it's a crucial game, I needed at least a draw to achieve a good results in the end. Unfortunately I failed, even thought I had a winning move which I missed as you will see in the game.

Both games are big battles and I've added my own notes as JS to a number which Arhitrav himself sent.

 

Click or tap any game in the list to switch

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Submit your games and win free Premium!

Did you enjoy the column and instructive analysis by GM Jonathan Speelman? Do you wish you could have a world-renowned grandmaster analysing your play? You can!

To submit your games just upload a PGN or ChessBase file (.pgn or .cbv archive), along with your name and e-mail address. Send one success story (Ecstasy) and one loss (Agony).

Tell why you chose them, where or when they were played. Please do include your email address, so Jon can reply, and preferably a photo of yourself for our article.

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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.