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[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]
The recent firefight in Wijk aan Zee was a magnificent tournament — constantly intriguing and with much enjoyable Caissic violence. While I did watch some of it in real time (and did stream one round) much of the time I played through the games in the evening, normally with an engine on in the background.
The most important thing about this is to take notice of the engine — after all, if the evaluation jumps madly, then there’s going to be a good reason — but to follow your nose as to what was going on in the players’ minds during the battle and provide your own suggestions, however much this may make the glorious silicon sniff disapprovingly.
That at least was its most common reaction, but sometimes I did find ideas which were interesting, and while beyond my ken — certainly during a game — turned out to be correct. Today I'm looking at a couple of these, plus an ending which the tablebase clarifies, and also a superbly violent game from the Challengers group. Bits of this will have appeared here in other columns, but I hope you’ll enjoy my take.
Just over half a year ago, in column 173, I did similar work mainly on tablebases in ‘Conversations with the Gods’. And so we continue today with the ‘Gods by the North Sea’.
Select an entry from the list to switch between games
The Beasty Botvinnik Variation in the Semi-Slav!
On this DVD you will be taken on a journey through what is arguably the sharpest opening line known to men.
