Chess News, The Telegraph

Malcolm Pein on…The Surprise from Sweden

Malcolm Pein

January 28, 2021

Malcolm Pein continue his coverage of the Tata Steel Masters in today’s Daily Telegraph chess column – and reports on a surprise from Sweden.

Magnus Carlsen couldn’t repeat his win from the first round and after just two rounds only one player is on a maximum score.

In addition to a very interesting game, Malcolm aslo presents an opportunity for you to test your strength on a tricky puzzle.

Malcolm Pein on…The Surprise from Sweden

Nils Grandelius, Sweden’s highest ranked player, was the surprise leader of the Tata Steel Masters at Wijk aan Zee as World Champion Magnus Carlsen was held to a draw by David Anton. Carlsen tried long and hard to win an endgame with an extra pawn, but the Spanish number one resisted well and made sure he did not run low on time.

With Anish Giri also held by Jorden Van Foreest, Grandelius’s victory over Jan-Krzysztof Duda made him the only player on 2/2.

A. Donchenko – F. Caruana
Slav Defence

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4 7.f3 Bg6 8.Bd2 Be7 9.Nxg6 hxg6 10.Qc2 Nbd7 11.0–0–0 a6 (11…Nb6 12.c5 Nbd7 was Giri-Caruana, Candidates, 2020) 12.g4!? (12.Kb1 cannot be a bad idea) 12…dxc4 13.Bxc4 b5 14.Be2

14…c5 15.d5!? (If 15.g5 cxd4 16.gxf6 dxc3, or here, 16.exd4 b4! 17.gxf6 bxc3 were fine for Black; 15.dxc5 Nxc5 16.Kb1 Rc8 17.a3 Na4 18.Qb3 was the best plan and if 18…Nc5 19.Qc2 0–0 20.h4 with sharp play) 15…Nxd5 16.Nxd5 exd5 17.f4?! (17.Bc3 would win back the pawn) 17…b4! 18.e4 d4 19.e5 Nb6 20.e6 Qd5 21.exf7+ Kf8 22.h4 Qxa2 23.Qxg6 b3 24.Be1 (24.h5 c4 25.h6 gxh6 26.Rxh6 Qa1+ 27.Qb1 Qxb1+ 28.Kxb1 Rxh6) 24…c4 25.Rxd4 Na4 26.Qb1 Ba3!

27.Qxa2 bxa2 28.Kc2 Rb8 29.Rd8+ (29.bxa3 Rb2+ 30.Kc1 a1Q#) 29…Rxd8 30.bxa3 c3 31.Bg3 (31.Bxc3 Rc8) 31…Rd2+ 32.Kb3 Nc5+ 0–1

Test Your Strength

Duda-Grandelius
Black to play and win material

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.

Black won the knight after 25..g5 26.h3 Qd7 27.Qxf3 Re7 If 26.Nd5 Re6 27.Qf1 Rh6 28.Ne7+ Kh8 29.Nf5 Rxf5 30.exf5 Qh5.

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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