Chess News

Malcolm Pein on…The Flying Firouzja

Malcolm Pein

April 25, 2021

Malcolm Pein looks up to the sky to see the Flying Firouzja in today’s Daily Telegraph chess column and presents two opportunities to test your strength.

Malcolm Pein on…The Flying Firouzja

Alireza Firouzja won the 2021 Bullet Chess Championship presented by SIG on Chess.com after overcoming the favourite Hikaru Nakamura in the semifinals. Firouzja was then way too good for Andrew Tang in the final. Absent Magnus Carlsen, most of the best bullet players participated. Firouzja earned $10,000 (£7,300).

The semifinal lived up to the pre-match hype. Firouzja stormed back from a seemingly hopeless situation at 3-6 to take a 9-8 lead, with time for just one more battle.

Nakamura looked certain to take what was a must-win game, when he had 22 seconds on the clock to 11 for Firouzja. That is usually a decisive advantage in Bullet and enables the player with more time to ‘flag his opponent’. Nakamura missed the win of a piece and then blundered a rook, so the match was over. Firouzja had more good fortune in the quarter-final when Vladislav Artemiev resigned a lost position instead of waiting for the match clock to run down another nine seconds before doing so. This meant another game was played, which Firouzja won to level the score, before winning the tie-break.

A. Firouzja – V. Artemiev
Closed Sicilian 1+0

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.Bg2 dxe4 6.Nxe4 Be7 7.0–0 Nf6 8.Nxf6+ Bxf6 9.d3 0–0 10.Nd2 Bd7 11.Ne4 Be7 12.Re1 Rc8 13.h4 (13.c3 was all right) 13…h6 14.c3 Nb8 15.Qh5 (A ‘bullet move’, 15.Be3 was fine) 15…f5 16.Nd2 Bc6 17.Rxe6 Bxg2

Test Your Strength

How could White have drawn?

18.Kxg2? Qd5+ 19.Re4 (Not 19…fxe4?? 20.Qxd5+ but the rook is not going anywhere) 19…Rcd8 0–1

Test Your Strength

Tang – Nihal
Black to play and win

A. Firouzja – A. Tang
Centre Game 1+0

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qe3 Bb4 6.Bd2 0–0 7.0–0–0 Re8 8.Bc4 Na5 9.Bd3 d5 10.Nf3 Ng4 11.Qe2 c6 12.h3 Nf6 13.e5 d4 14.Ne4 Nd5 15.Neg5! h6 16.Qe4 Nf6 (After 16…Bxd2+ 17.Rxd2 hxg5 18.Qh7+ or 16…f5! 17.Qh4 Bxd2+ 18.Rxd2 Qe7 19.g4 anything could happen) 17.Qh4 Bxd2+ 18.Rxd2 hxg5 19.Nxg5 Rxe5 20.f4 Re3 0–1

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answers.

Answer 1: 18.Rxh6! (threat Rh8#) 18…gxh6 19.Qg6+ Kh8 20.Qxh6+ draws.

Answer 2: 37…Rc1+ 38.Kf2 f4 0-1 Rf1# follows.

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes