CHESS

Some chess tournaments have a very long history. One of the best known is Tata Steel chess festival in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. In its 81st edition, which started yesterday, the top players, such as Carlsen, Mamedyarov and Ding Liren, will be competing with the young stars such as Nepomniachtchi, Duda and Fedoseev.

Closer to home, several tournaments finished in Dublin last weekend. Russian GM Glek Igor won a closed GMnorm tournament, scoring 6 points in 9 rounds. In the IM-norm tournament FM Michael De Verdier (Sweden) and IM Andrew Greet (Scotland) shared a victory with 6.5 points each. In that group Irish junior players Tom O’Gorman and Henry Li scored 5.5 and 5 points respectively, gaining valuable experience as well as rating points. Luke Scott won the C-tournament with 7.5 points out of 9, and IM Alex Lopez won a blitz tournament with 9/11. Paul Wallace and Gerard MacElligott tied for first in the Irish Senior Championship, scoring 5.5 points in 7 rounds.

The following curious blunder is from that tournament: White is winning and had he played 23.Rxc5, the game would not have lasted long. But when victory is in sight, many players lose the sense of danger and make sloppy decisions. This is certainly the case in point here: 23.Bxb7?? Bxb7 24.Rxb7?? After 24.Nxf5 White would be still OK, but FM Robin Moss fell victim to a rare tactical motiff: 24...0–0–0+! 0–1 Moss – Cafolla