TWIC is 29. First issue 17th September 1994.
10th European Rapid 2010 (13)
Almasi wins the European Rapid
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 23rd December 2010
Zoltan Almasi won the European Rapid Championship in Warsaw. Malcolm Pein reports.
Zoltan Almasi of Hungary won the European Rapid Championship held in Warsaw at the weekend. Almasi has been in the world's top 100 for more than ten years but is now, at 2721, near his peak rating. This was the finest result of a career largely overshadowed by his countryman Peter Leko and Judit Polgar.
Almasi finished in a six-way tie on 10.5/13, with Vugar Gashimov, Alexei Shirov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Arkady Naiditsch and Anton Korobov.
There was an 'Armageddon' Blitz playoff with five minutes for white against four minutes for black, plus draw odds and an increment for both players of only one second per move. Almasi overcame Shirov and then defeated Gashimov in a crazy 88 move game.
Gawain Jones finished 45th on 9/13 and David Moskovic, ranked 2293 scored 8.5
Here is Almasi's win in the penultimate round. 6.a3 avoids the sharp Bb4 lines. After 11...Bb7 An unusual Scheveningen type position arises with the bishop on c5 instead of e7. Black's king is less well defended but he is more actively placed.
M Socko - Z Almasi
European Rapid Warsaw (12)
Sicilian Taimanov
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.a3 Nf6 7.Be2 Bc5 8.Be3 0-0 9.0-0 d6 10.Kh1 b5 11.f4 Bb7 12.Bf3 Nbd7 13.Qe2 Rac8 14.Rad1 Qb8!
(Cunning, avoiding Ncxb5 with tempo and setting up what follows)
15.Nb3 Bxa3!
(Using the active bishop to grab a pawn)
16.bxa3
(16.Nxb5 axb5 17.bxa3 Bxe4)
16...Rxc3 17.Bd4 Rcc8 18.e5
(18.Bb2 e5!)
18...Bxf3 19.Rxf3 Nd5 20.exd6 Qxd6 21.f5 e5 22.Ba1 Qc6 23.Rg3 f6 24.Qd2 N7b6 25.Rd3 Nc4 26.Qf2 Nf4 27.Rd7 Ne3!
Zoltan Almasi
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Bartosz Socko
Position after 27...Ne3! and if 28.Qxe3 Qxg2 mate.
28.R1d6 Qxc2 0-1
A beautiful puzzle composed by Pybus that appeared in theChess Players Chroniclein 1849, during which time it was under the editorship of Howard Staunton. My thanks to BCPS luminary Brian Stephenson.
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White to play and mate in seven moves.
Answer to puzzle:
1.Ng5 Kg8 2.Nh7 Kh8 3.Bd2 Kg8 4.Bc1 Kh8 5.Ba3 Kg8 6.Nf6+ Kf8 7.Bxb4#
Of course a capture of the bishop allows Nh7-f6 and Rh7 mate.
