GOTW: Petran - Dougherty, Bled 2018

John Upper's picture
Submitted by John Upper on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 15:43

The 28th World Senior Chess Championship is underway in Bled, Slovenia. It runs November 18-29, 2018 which is a relatively sedate pace for an 11 round event, which means it is a senior-friendly one-round per day with one day off. It has attracted 330 players, with the Open 65+ section the largest at 180!

 

Canadians

11 Canadians are playing, 7 in the 50+ section and 4 in the 65+. After 9 of 11 rounds, top Canadians are:

IM David Cummings is a point behind coleading GMs Karen Movsziszian and Giorgi Bagaturov (6.5), IM Edward Porper, FM Victor Plotkin, FM Dale Haessel with 6 each in the 50+ section. 

Victor also won the first Blitz tournament with 7.5/9, beating second-place IM Leon Mazi and third-place GM Keith Arkell along the way.

Bill Doubleday is top Canadian in the 65+ with 4.5/9.

 

Links

 

Game of the Week 

It is Black to play after 18.Ng3. What happens if 18... Nd3? What should Black play?

FM Michael Dougherty has 5/9, but is outperforming his FIDE rating by over 150 points. That's largely due to the 3.5/4 he has scored against IMs. Our Canadian Game of the Week is his round 7 win over Slovakian IM Peter Petran. 

It's funny to think of a 1...g6 player gambiting his pawns for a kingside mating attack, but one of the main ideas of these defences is to tempt White's pawns forward where they and squares behind them can be attacked. So, although this game gets settled by a sharply calculated mating attack, the weak squares that made that attack possible are the goal of Black's opening strategy.

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