Claus Jensen Chess Blog

Round 2 saw 3 decisions; Nakamura, Carlsen and Shirov all winning with the white pieces.

Game of the day has to be Nakamura’s brillant attacking victory against Van Wely’s Sicilain Najdorf.

[Event "Corus"]
[Site "0:32:33-0:06:33"]
[Date "2010.01.17"]
[EventDate "2010.01.16"]
[Round "2"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Nakamura"]
[Black "Van Wely"]
[ECO "B96"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "2"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4
Nbd7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.Bxf6 Nxf6 10.g4 b5 11.g5 Nd7 12.O-O-O Nc5
13.a3 Rb8 14.b4 Nd7 15.Nd5 exd5 16.exd5 Be7 17.Re1 Ne5 18.fxe5
Bxg5+ 19.Kb1 dxe5 20.Nc6 Bf6 21.Bd3 h5 22.Rxe5+ Bxe5 23.Re1 Bg4
24.Qf4 O-O 25.Rxe5 g6 26.Qf6 Rbe8 27.Ne7+ Rxe7 28.Rxe7 Qxh2
29.Bxg6 Qh1+ 30.Kb2 Qxd5 31.Bxf7+ Qxf7 32.Rxf7 Rxf7 33.Qxa6 Kg7
34.Qxb5 Kg6 35.Qc4 Rd7 36.b5 Kg5 37.b6 Bf3 38.Qb5+ Rd5 39.Qb3
1-0

I did some kibitzing on thisgame on chessgames.com - you can watch the game and the comments by clicking this link.

Share/Save

Only 2 wins in a somewhat cautious opening to the tournament.

van Wely  won a nice game against Short from the white side of a QGD. He launched a minority attack on the queenside and then his heavi pieces were dominating Short completely.

[Event "Corus A"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2010.01.16"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Van Wely,L"]
[Black "Short,N"]
[Result "1-0"]
[BlackElo "2696"]
[ChessCat "CHESSCAT 1.0"]
[ECO "D37"]
[EventDate "2010.01.16"]
[PlyCount "91"]
[WhiteElo "2641"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 c6 7.e3 Be7 8.Qc2 O-O 9.Bd3 Re8 10.h3 Nf8 11.Bf4 a5 12.O-O Ng6 13.Bh2 Bd6 14.Bxd6 Qxd6 15.Rfe1 Be6 16.a3 Re7 17.Rab1 Rae8 18.b4 axb4 19.axb4 Bd7 20.b5 Ne4 21.bxc6 bxc6 22.Rb6 Nxc3 23.Qxc3 Qf6 24.Bxg6 Qxg6 25.Kf1 f6 26.Ra1 Qh5 27.Ne1 Qf5 28.Kg1 Qg5 29.Kh2 Qf5 30.Nd3 Qe6 31.Kg1 Rc8 32.Rb7 Rf7 33.Raa7 Be8 34.Qb4 Rd8 35.Nc5 Qc8 36.Qb6 h5 37.Rc7 Rxc7 38.Rxc7 Qa8 39.Ra7 Qc8 40.Rb7 Bf7 41.Qa7 Rf8 42.Nd7 Re8 43.Nxf6+ gxf6 44.Rxf7 Qf5 45.Rg7+ Kh8 46.Qf7
1-0

The other win came from Shirov who played the Møller Attack against Leko’s Ruy Lopez.
Leko played an exchange sacrifice only to end up in an endgame which was not too hard to convert into a win for endgame expert Shirov

[Event "Corus A"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2010.01.16"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Leko,P"]
[Black "Shirov,A"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "2723"]
[ChessCat "CHESSCAT 1.0"]
[ECO "C78"]
[EventDate "2010.01.16"]
[PlyCount "128"]
[WhiteElo "2739"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.d4 Bxd4 10.Qxd4 d6 11.f4 Nc6 12.Qc3 Ne7 13.Qd3 O-O 14.Nc3 b4 15.e5 Bf5 16.Qxa6 Nd7 17.exd6 bxc3 18.dxe7 Qxe7 19.bxc3 Nc5 20.Qc4 Rfd8 21.Ba2 Bxc2 22.f5 Bd3 23.f6 gxf6 24.Qg4+ Kh8 25.Bh6 Rg8 26.Qd4 Bxf1 27.Rxf1 Rg6 28.Be3 Nxa4 29.Bf2 Nb6 30.Bb1 Rg7 31.Re1 Qd6 32.Bf5 Nd5 33.g4 Rgg8 34.c4 Nf4 35.Qxd6 cxd6 36.Bg3 Nh3+ 37.Kg2 Ng5 38.Bxd6 Rb2+ 39.Kg3 Ra8 40.Re3 Kg7 41.h4 Ne6 42.g5 Raa2 43.gxf6+ Kxf6 44.Bxh7 Re2 45.Rf3+ Kg7 46.Bd3 Re1 47.Be7 Rd2 48.Bf6+ Kg8 49.Kg4 Nc5 50.Bf5 Ne4 51.Bxe4 Rxe4+ 52.Kh5 Rxc4 53.Rg3+ Kf8 54.Bg7+ Ke7 55.Re3+ Kd7 56.Bf6 Rf2 57.Be5 Rf5+ 58.Kh6 Rxh4+ 59.Kg7 Rg4+ 60.Kf8 Rf1 61.Rd3+ Ke6 62.Bc7 Rc4 63.Rd6+ Kf5 64.Rd7 Kg4
0-1

Share/Save

Happy New Year to all of you!

I thought the best way to get 2010 started was to record a new analysis of a Bent Larsen game.
So that’s what I did…!

Go to the chess videos page to watch this or any of my 47 chess videos made so far!

Please come back to the blog often in 2010 :)

Share/Save

My video game analysises series on Bent Larsens games haven’t gone unnoticed on chessvideos.tv!
On the front page, they have a new weekly column called “Best of the Week”.
In their 4th edition of this column, some of my Bent Larsen videos got a mention for high quality of both recording and game analysis.
Please check out www.chessvideos.tv!!

Share/Save

This youtube video is a small tour on this blog. Feel free to watch

For better quality, play or download by clicking here.

Share/Save

Now there are two Rating Tests available on my blog:

Rating Test 1
This test was created almost a year ago and I think the avarage estimation is too high.
The average of more than 1000 users taking the test is: 1635 ELO
Try it

Rating Test 2
This test is brand new and I’ve tried to create a test that is more accurately estimating your current rating level.  Feel free to comment the test! 
Try it out now!

Share/Save

This game is from the A-final of the 1956 olympiad where Larsen managed to outscore all other players on board 1, including the reigning world champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Larsens total score was 77,8% in the A-final.  He drew all his grand master opponents except for his win over Gligoric, the game that is analyzed in this video.
At the FIDE congress held after the olympiad, Larsen was give the GM title as the first ever danish chess player.

VIEW OR DOWNLOAD VIDEO ~ 19 MB

Share/Save

This is the important game from round 22 of the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal Tournament.
Larsen was playing to win the tournament and Spassky was playing to stay ahead of his russian rivals Smyslov, Tal, Stein, Bronstein to qualify for the candidate tournament since only 3 russians were allowed to qualify at that time.

WATCH OR DOWNLOAD VIDEO ~ 20 MB

Share/Save

Another video game analysis of one of Bent Larsen’s important games.
This time from the 1964 Interzonal in Amsterdam, where Larsen managed to tie for 1st place
with russian legends Smyslov, Tal and Spassky

WATCH OR DOWNLOAD VIDEO ~ 21 MB

Share/Save

This time I have recorded a real master game classic!
Bent Larsen - Tigran Petrosian from the 1966 super tournament, 2nd Piatigorsky Cup.

WATCH OR DOWNLOAD VIDEO ~ 17.2 MB

Share/Save