The Mitropa Cup team tournament concluded today, and the following position from Italian WGM Olga Zimina’s game really caught my attention. Talk about a beautiful way to cap off a tournament! Wouldn’t we all like to have such a last round game? 
And this wasn’t some blitz event either. The time controls, according to the FIDE website, were “90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment after each move starting from move 1.”
See if you can find her concluding combination.
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Tags: chess combination, Mitropa Cup, Olga Zimina
A friend of mine asked to see the moves leading up to this position. I think he doubted it could’ve come from a real game.
WGM Zimina, Olga (ITA) 2363 – Schoene, Maria (GER) 2197
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4 a6 6.Bxd7+ Bxd7 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Bg5 Qa5 9.0-0-0 Be6 10.Rhe1 h6 11.Bh4 g5 12.e5 Bg7 13.Bg3 Nh5 14.Nd5 Nxg3 15.hxg3 dxe5 16.Nxe5 Rd8 …