It’s that time of year again, when everyone at work is either on vacation, coming back from vacation or (like a certain columnist) heading off for vacation next week and pretty much useless in the interim.
For the DMV chess community, the mid-August lull puts us in that nice pocket between the very successful, just-completed U.S. Open hosted by Norfolk and the end-of-summer milestone that is the District’s 56th Atlantic Open, which starts Aug. 23 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
All of which means it’s time for our semi-regular August tradition of a column of recent miniatures, games that end so quickly that there’s little need for deep middlegame analysis and no need to parse the intricacies of some tedious knight-and-pawn endgame.
Typically, we’ve had to forage far and wide to find enough games that end before the 25th move, but this year some of the world’s very top players are making an appearance — wanted or unwanted — on the roster, starting with a rare quick knockout of perhaps the greatest player of all time.
Yes, that is Norwegian world No. 1 and former world champ Magnus Carlsen, losing in just 23 moves to Hungarian GM Richard Rapport at the recent FIDE World Rapid Team Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan earlier this month. Carlsen, who set a record of 125 classical games without a loss in 2021, appears to have left his sense of danger back home in Oslo in this Caro-Kann Botvinnik-Panov Attack and pays a high price.
It’s not clear what the champ missed, but after 13. Bxd7 Qxd7 14. Rd1?! (a fight for an early edge in classic rapid style, but now seemed a good time for 14. 0-0) Rfe8 15. Nxe4 Rxe4 16. Ng5? Nf4! 17. Qf3 Qb5!, White finds himself back-pedaling for the (short) rest of the game.
The Black knight is annoying enough, but trying to evict it leads to even bigger problems: 18. g3 f6! 19. gxf4 fxg5 20. fxg5? (opening the central files with the White king still uncastled leads to disaster; 20. a4!? Qxa4 21. Rxd5 Bxf4 22. 0-0 is at least competitive) Rf8, when 21. Qe2 runs into 21…Rxe3! fxe3 (Qxe3 Re8) Bg3+ 23. Kd2 Rf2 and wins.
But White’s 21. Qg2 proves no better — 21. Rfe8 22. Qf1 Qxb2 (the walls are fast closing in for White) 23. Rd2, and Carlsen resigned not needing to see lines like 23…Rxe3+! 24. fxe3 Rxe3+ 25. Re2 (Kd1 Qb1 mate) Bg3+ 26. Kd1 Qb1+ 27. Kd2 Rd3 mate
Even today’s booked-to-the-gills superstars can miss an opening trick, as French GM Alireza Firouzja showed in managing to lose in just nine(!) moves in a rapid online game against American GM Fabiano Caruana last month.
Black here forgets an elementary truism of the game: When the world’s No. 3-ranked player hangs his rook against you on Move 8, there must be a good reason not to take it.
Firouzja fools around and finds out: 7. axb3 Be4? (a move known to be sketchy precisely because of the neat tactic to come) 8. dxc6! Bxh1?? (there was still time for 8..Nxc6 9. f3 Nxe5 10. fxe4 Nc6, but Black takes a fateful bite of the apple) 9. Rxa7!! — an unexpected thunderbolt that produces instant resignation. Clearly 9….Rxa7 10. c7 Nc6 c8=Q+ Nd8 12. Qd7 mate is out, but White also easily wins in longer lines such as 9…Nxc6 10. Rxa8+ Nd8 11. e4! e6 12. Bb5+ Ke7 13. d3 f6 14. Nd7 Nh6 15. Bd2 Nhf7 16. Bb4+ Nd6 17. Bxd6+ Kxd6 18. Rxd8 Ke7 19. Rxf8 Rxf8 20. Nxf8 Kxf8 21. Nc3 and wins.
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Former world champ Viswanathan Anand of India makes a cameo appearance in our list, demonstrating that the “Tiger of Madras” still has real tactical chops, even in a blitz game.
French GM Max Lagarde is the victim here, and his short, steep downfall begins with 9. 0-0-0 Nd7 10. Qh5?! (the White bishops may look scary, but this game presents a master class in why the prophylactic 10. Kb1, shoring up the queenside before commencing offensive operations, is vital in these positions) g6 11. Qh6?? (there was still time for 11. Qe2 Nc5 12. Kb1, with a reasonable game) —White’s determination to push forward is brutally refuted.
Thus: 11…Nxe5! (the ever-alert Anand notices that after 12. Bxe5?, White’s mate-in-one threat is met by 12…Bg5+!, winning) 12. Be2 (Black’s threat was 11…Ng4) Re8 13. Bd2 Bf5, and Black has already taken over the play.
Still hallucinating about an attack, Lagarde first compounds his misery with 14. h4?? (again, 14. Kb1 is screaming to be played) Qa5! 15. Kb1 Qa4!, and then walks into a crushing shot on 16. b3? (see diagram; Black is dominating but still must convert after 16. Rc1 Ng4 17. Bxg4 Bxg4 18. Nf3 Bf8) Bxc2+! — masterful play from the great Indian master with only a few minutes for the entire game.
White resigns as all roads lead to mate after 17. Kxc2 (Ka1 Bxb3; or 17. Kb2 Qa3+!) Qxa2+ 18. Kc1 Ba3 mate.
Most miniatures you see these days tend to feature a 2500-level grandmaster dusting a lowly club player early in an open tournament, so it’s nice to see when the lower-rated player turns the table on his higher-rated opponent.
That was the case for Class A player Petr Boleslav at last month’s 35th Czech Open, when he was spotted master Alex Nguyen more than 400 rating points but needed just 19 moves to score the point.
It’s a Caro-Kann, the same opening that tripped up Carlsen, but this time White plays actively from the start and puts his opponent on his heels. With 9. Nc3 Nc6 10. d5, Boleslav shows no signs of being intimidated as he fights for his rights in the center: 10… exd5 11. Qxd5 Be7 12. Ng5 (getting in an early mate-in-one threat; best now was something like 12…Bxg5 13. Bxg4 Bxc1 14. Raxc1 Ndxe5 15. Qxc5 Qe7 16. Qxe7+ Nxe7 17. Be2 0-0, with a comfortable equality), and Black gets into trouble trying to match aggression with aggression.
White spots a clever pin to secure a decisive advantage: 12…Ndxe5?! 13. Bxg4 Bxg5 (or 13…Nxg4 14. Qxf7+ Kd7 15. Ne6! Qg8 16. Nxc5+ Kc7 17. Nd5+ Kb8 18. Bf4+ Nge5 19. Qxe7 Nxe7 20. Be5+ Kc8 21. Nxe7+ and wins) 14. Bxg5 Qxg5?? (getting greedy at just the wrong moment; Black could still stay in the fight with 14…Qxd5 15. Nxd5 Nxg4 16. Nc7+ Kd7 17. Nxa8 Rxa8 18. Rad1+, though White is clearly better) 15. Bd7+!!, exploiting the fact that the Black knight on e5 is now caught in a sideways pin.
White cleans up after 15…Kf8 (Ke7 16. Bxc6 bxc6 17. Qxc5+ Ke8 18. Rae1 f6 19. Qxc6+) 16. f4! (a second punch in the nose exploiting the queen’s unlucky posting) Qe7 17. fxe5 Nxe5 18. Rae1 Qxd7 19. Qxc5+, and Black has seen enough. The endgame is beyond bleak after 19…Qe7 20. Rxe5 Qxe5+ 21. Rxc5 h6 22. Rc7 f6 23. Rd1 Rh7 24. Rdd7.
(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)
Carlsen-Rapport, FIDE World Rapid Team Championship, Astana, Kazakhstan, August 2024
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nf6 5. h3 Nc6 6. c3 e5 7. dxe5 Nxe5 8. Qe2 Ne4 9. Bb5+ Bd7 10. Nf3 Ng6 11. Be3 Bd6 12. Nbd2 O-O 13. Bxd7 Qxd7 14. Rd1 Rfe8 15. Nxe4 Rxe4 16. Ng5 Nf4 17. Qf3 Qb5 18. g3 f6 19. gxf4 fxg5 20. fxg5 Rf8 21. Qg2 Rfe8 22. Qf1 Qxb2 23. Rd2 and White resigns.
Caruana-Firouzja, CrunchLab Rapid Masters, Chess.com, July 2019
1. c4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Bg4 4. Ne5 Bf5 5. Qb3 Qb6 6. cxd5 Qxb3 7. axb3 Be4 8.dxc6 Bxh1 9. Rxa7 Black resigns.
Lagarde-Anand, 13th Quenza Blitz Open, Quenza, France, July 2024
1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. Qf3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7 7. Bf4 c6 8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O-O Nd7 10. Qh5 g6 11. Qh6 Nxe5 12. Be2 Re8 13. Bd2 Bf5 14. h4 Qa5 15. Kb1 Qa4 16. b3 Bxc2+ White resigns.
Boleslaw-Nguyen, 35th Czech Open, Pardubice, Czech Republic, July 2024
1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. d3 Bg4 4. Be2 Nf6 5. e5 Nfd7 6. d4 e6 7. O-O c5 8. c4 dxc4 9. Nc3 Nc6 10. d5 exd5 11. Qxd5 Be7 12. Ng5 Ndxe5 13. Bxg4 Bxg5 14. Bxg5 Qxg5 15. Bd7+ Kf8 16. f4 Qe7 17. fxe5 Nxe5 18. Rae1 Qxd7 19. Qxc5+ Black resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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