Olympiad Tactics 2018

The biggest event in chess is upon us - and to mark the best moments Chessable member Geert van der Velde has put together this brilliant little tactics book. Here is what he has to say:

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete.

This year's edition featured most of the top players in the world as well as many up and coming super talents and prodigies. The Olympiad is known for special performances by players and teams who rise to the occasion and exceed everyone’s expectations, including their own. The 2018 edition was no exception. In the end China won both the Open and Women’s section due to their better tie-break scores. But, there were many great upsets and many incredible games played along the way. And, it was an exciting race to the end.

I thought it would be a fun service to the Chess(able) community to create a living, breathing, trainable chess tactics document of the tournament while it happened.

During the tournament I worked night and day, playing through thousands of games, reading news articles and reports, and checking players and coaches’ social media, to try to find remarkable, instructive or simple and elegant tactics. Since, I started putting the puzzles on Chessable, the collection has grown to a nice variety of over 110 puzzles; at least 10 puzzles for each of the 11 rounds.

Now, because of the sheer volume of games being played every round (over 700) and the high level of competition - which requires lots of additional analysis and annotation - I'm sure I've not managed to include all of the best moments. And who’s to say what’s best anyway. Sometimes a simple tactic can be mind-blowing in its simplicity.

I have done a lot of additional work with the annotation, over 12,000 words, and analysis of these key tactical moments. I’ll still be adding analysis and annotation after I’ve finished writing this description. I have merely attempted to make a collection that will engage and inspire.

I’m thankful for the overwhelmingly positive response thus far by players, coaches, chess enthusiasts and even some FM, IM and GM’s for their input to make this free book a great resource for training. It truly is a book by the community for the community.