Our man, (once) hometown hero, Josh Friedel is currently playing the Open Section at Hoogoveen in The Netherlands. The last few rounds have been rough, but he recovered nicely today with this miniature:
And a few rounds before that, he had this even shorter and far more spectacular game. As you play it out, really slow down at move 16 and on to appreciate the ideas and lines behind the moves. And, did you honestly see that last move coming?! Wow. Good stuff.
Thought you might enjoy the quick finish on this one played today at the International Open in Balaguer, Spain.
9.dxc5 appears to be a new move with which White built an active position. It went downhill fast for Black when he played the queen to b7. White jumped on the pin—or should I say pins!?—ripping things open with the lever 16.c4.
I encourage you to stop around move 20 and work out the mate on each of Black’s responses. The patterns are quite enjoyable.
[Event "Ciutat de Balaguer"]
[Site "Noguera, Spain"]
[Date "2008.07.17"]
[White "IM Corrales"]
[Black "IM Sengupta"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2504"]
[BlackElo "2454"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 b6 5. a3 Bxc3+
6. bxc3 Ba6 7. Qg4 Kf8 8. Bd3 c5 9. dxc5 Qc7 10. Nf3 Qxc5
11. O-O Ne7 12. a4 Qc8 13. Ba3 Nc6 14. h4 h6 15. h5 Qb7
16. c4 dxc4 17. Be4 Qc8 18. Qh4 Ke8 19. Nd4 Kd7 20. Nxc6 Nxc6
21. Rfd1+ Kc7 22. Bd6+ Kd7 23. Bb8+
1-0
