zenpawn's chessblog » miniature

Anand-Topalov Game 4

zenpawn — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:14:34 +0000

Wow, wow, wow! What more can you say? I guess my prediction of a continued exciting match after yesterday’s draw was spot on.

Anand has pulled ahead with a beautiful sacrificial attack. A short game that would have been shorter had Topalov opted to give proper respect by resigning around move 27.

BTW, GM Miguel Illescas’ live commentary of this game was superb!

Hoogoveen Open 2009

zenpawn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:07:20 +0000

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.

Kosteniuk’s Moscow Blitz Miniature

zenpawn — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:48:27 +0000

This position comes from a recent game, one played during the latest Moscow Blitz Championship, an open-air event, between GM Alexey Korotylev (2597) and the Women’s World Chess Champion Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk (2516).

In this miniature, Kosteniuk was presented with the following position at move 19.

It’s Black to move and win. Do you see the combination? To the end?

To check your answer and listen to first-hand commentary from the winner, check out her video about the game here…