🔸Tournament of Peace 2018
🔸Round 8
⚪️Malakhov,V (2654)
⚫️Palac,M (2548)
🔸1-0

44...Qe6? [Palac missed a winning intermediate check.]

[He should have first played: 44...Ra2+! 45.Kh1 (45.R1d2 Rxd2+ 46.Rxd2 c3 47.Re2 Kg8 48.e6 Rc8! 49.f5 c2–+) 45...Qe6! 46.Qf3 Ra3 47.Qg2 Rh3+!–+ △R×h6]

45.Qg5! [By taking advantage of his opponent's mistake, Malakhov tries to activate the queen.]

45...Ra2+ 46.Kg1 c3?? [A fatal blunder. Palac should have covered his own back-rank weakness:]

[46...Raa8! 47.R1d6 Ra1+ 48.Kf2 Ra2+ 49.Kg3 Ra3+=]

47.Rd8! Ra8 48.Rxa8 [△Rd8]

48...Qb6+ 49.Kf1 Rxa8 50.Qe7!+–

⚪️#204 (Strategy-White to Move)
🔸Sjugirov,S (2663)
🔸Maltsevskaya,Aleksandra (2243)
🔸ch-RUS Rapid GP Final 201

14.c4! [White launches a central pawn storm to open up lines against the opponent's king and remove the obstructions in his path to attack.]

[14.Nxg6 fxg6 15.Nf7 Rg8 16.d5 Nxd5 (16...exd5 17.Bf4 Qb6 18.e6+ Kxe6 19.Qf3 Qb3 (19...Kxf7?? 20.Bc7+ Ke8 21.Bxb6+–) 20.Ng5+ Kd7 21.Qe2 Nd8 22.Rfe1+–) 17.c4 Ke8 18.cxd5 Kxf7 19.dxc6 bxc6 20.Qf3+ Ke8 21.Bf4±; 14.b4 Nd8 15.c4 Nc8 16.c5±]

14...Nxd4? [14...Nf5 15.Nhxf5 Bxf5 (15...exf5 16.Bf4 Bxd6 17.exd6 Qb6 18.d5+–) 16.Nxf7 Rg8 17.Bf4+–]

15.Be3 Nec6 16.Bxd4 Bxd6 17.exd6 Qxd6 18.Bxg7 Rhg8 19.Qf3 Ke8 20.Rad1+–

1–0

⚪️#204 (Endgame-White to Move)
🔸Chigaev,M (2606)
🔸Kokarev,Dm (2598)
🔸ch-RUS Rapid GP Final 201

43.Kxg6 [43.b5! Rxe4 44.b6 Kd7 45.b7 Kc7 46.Rb5 Kb8 47.Rxd6 Rd4 48.Re6 Rde4 49.Reb6 Ra4 50.g3 Ra7 51.Rf6 Rxb7 52.Rxb7+ Kxb7 53.Rxg6 Rc4 54.Kxh5; 43.g3!? Rxg5 44.hxg5 Rg4 45.Kxg6 Rxg3 46.Kxh5 Rh3+ 47.Kg6 Rb3 48.Rd4 Ke5 49.Rc4 Rg3 50.Kh6 Ra3 51.Rc6 Rd3 52.b5 Kxe4 53.g6 Kf5 54.Kg7 Ke6 55.b6 Rb3 56.Kf8 Kd5 57.g7 Rf3+ 58.Ke8 Re3+ 59.Kd7 Rg3 60.Rxd6++–]

43...Rxh4 44.g3 Rf6+ 45.Kg7 Rf7+ 46.Kh6 Rf6+ 47.Kg7 Rxe4 48.Rxd6+ Kxd6 49.Kxf6 h4 50.gxh4

½–½

⚪️#205 (Strategy-White to Move)
🔸Salem,AR (2660)
🔸Nassr,A (2263)
🔸Emirates ch-Arab 2018

Unity Chess Strategy Multiple Choice 205
public poll

A) Rd5 – 6
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 86%
@PouyaMO1360, Nikhil, @A_Wild_Richard, Sahil, @Omid_all, Kasyap

B) Be2 – 1
👍 14%
@Sophia_Giraffe

C) Qe2
▫️ 0%

👥 7 people voted so far.

⚫️#205 (Endgame-Black to Move)
🔸Maletina,Tatiana (2270)
🔸Yudin,S (2507)
🔸ch-RUS Rapid GP Final 201

Unity Chess Endgame Multiple Choice 205
public poll

C) e4 – 6
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 75%
@PouyaMO1360, Nikhil, @A_Wild_Richard, Sahil, Srikar, Kasyap

A) R×a4 – 1
👍 13%
@Samin138511

B) Bb6 – 1
👍 13%
@Sophia_Giraffe

👥 8 people voted so far.

Schiphol, 26th April 1962. The Soviet delegation en route for the 1962 Candidates' tournament at Curaçao.
Front (L to R): Keres, Geller, Tal, Petrosian, Korchnoi.
At the foot of the stairway: Averbakh & Boleslavsky.

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"I consider myself to be a genius who happens to play chess."

🔸 Bobby Fischer

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Schiphol, 1st July 1962. On his return from the Curaçao Candidates, the newly-crowned challenger for the World Championship, Tigran Petrosian with his wife, Rona Yakovlevna. Behind, Yuri Averbakh.

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A photo (uncredited) of Petrosian, taken during this event.

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15-year-old Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouzja stormed from 2618 in January to 2682 in May and is now #2 rated junior after Wei Yi, 2736.

Firouzja is also #56 in the world, although he joined top-100 just two months ago.

Best juniors:
https://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=juniors

World champion is at 2861; 45 points ahead of #2 Fabiano Caruana! This is Magnus Carlsen highest since September 2016, and he will get 14 more rating points in the next list when #GRENKEchess is calculated.

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