At various moments during the analysis of the Conquest-Royal game with the engines, it was noticeable that the move …cxd4 was often suggested as one of the top 3 moves. For example here: 1. b3 Nf6 2. Bb2 c5 3. e3 d5 4. Nf3 e6 5. d4 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. …

Through previous blog entries, we navigated our way towards the interesting possibility of 12.Ng4   Line 12.Ng4 In this blog entry we look at 12.Ng4 in more detail. We start by putting the f6-knight on the spot that was most annoying to White in the Conquest-Royal game: 12…Ne4 Line 12…Ne4 As Black, this feels very …

IIn previous blog entries, we discovered that Stuart’s 16.Nd4 Game: 16.Nd4 – while obviously a perfect practical choice in his crucial 8th round game at the British Championships – gave Black a number of opportunities to flatten out the play and drain the attacking life from White’s position by capturing on d4 at various moments. …

We saw in previous blog entries that Black’s best line on move 20 was to capture the knight on d4 with 20…Bxd4. Line: 20…Bxd4 In fact, an exchange on d4 could have been played at multiple occasions between move 16 (when White played 16.Nd4) and move 20: at what moments would this have been a …

Since 2018, most of the games of chess I’ve analysed seriously have been engine games. I’ve therefore developed a somewhat atypical frame of reference for recognising themes and patterns. I’m more likely to say “Oh I saw that in Alliestein-Komodo” than “Carlsen played like this against Aronian” And that turned out to be the case …