It’s a rest day at the FIDE World Chess Championship Match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai, so we’ll just report meantime on some of the recent chess newsw. Incidentally, Carlsen leads the championship match, 5-3 with just six games to go.
Meanwhile, a six-game charity rapid/blitz match between elite grandmasters Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2756) and Radowlaw Wojtaszek (2700), dubbed the Polish Supercup, took place November 27th in Bydgoszcz City in Northern Poland.
The match is between the top two players of the country, and was won by Duda, 4-2. While we got the complete scores of the match, very little details of this event were available. The time controls for the match were 2 games at 10 minutes + 5 seconds increment, 2 games at 5 minutes + 3 seconds increment, and 2 games at 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment, played alternately.
Duda won one 10m+5s game and drew one; won one 5m+3s game and drew one; and won one 3m+2s game and drew one. Wojtaszek manage to win only one 5m+3s game for the final 4-2 count. Here are the decisive games of the match.
Duda,J (2756)-Wojtaszek,R (2700) [A07]
Bydgoszcz (2) 2021
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 b6 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.0-0 Nf6 5.b3 g6 6.Bb2 Bg7 7.c4 dxc4 8.bxc4 c5 9.d3 0-0 10.Nbd2 Nc6 11.Ne5 Qc7 12.a4 Nxe5 13.Bxe5 Qxe5 14.Bxb7 Rab8 15.Bf3 Ne8 16.Ra3 a5 17.Rb3 Nc7 18.Qb1 Qe6 19.Ne4 Na6 20.Rb5 Nb4 21.h4 h6 22.Kg2 Rbd8 23.Qc1 Kh8 24.Qf4 f5 25.Nd2 Qd6 26.Qxd6 Rxd6 27.g4 e6 28.Kh3 Bf6 29.Rg1 Bd8 30.gxf5 exf5 31.Nf1 g5 32.hxg5 hxg5 33.Kg2 g4 34.Bd5 f4 35.Rh1+ Kg7 36.Nd2 Rh6 37.Rxh6 Kxh6 38.Be6 f3+ 39.exf3 gxf3+ 40.Nxf3 Nxd3 41.Bd5 Nf4+ 42.Kg3 Bc7 43.Be4 Rg8+ 44.Kh2 Nd3+ 0-1
Wojtaszek,R (2700)-Duda,J (2756) [E06]
Bydgoszcz (3) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 c6 7.Qc2 b6 8.b3 Bb7 9.Bb2 Nbd7 10.Rd1 Rc8 11.Nc3 c5 12.cxd5 exd5 13.Rac1 Re8 14.Qf5 c4 15.Ne5 g6 16.Qh3 cxb3 17.axb3 Nf8 18.e3 h5 19.f4 Rc7 20.Bf3 a6 21.Qg2 b5 22.g4 hxg4 23.Nxg4 Nxg4 24.Bxg4 Bb4 25.Rd3 Rce7 26.Nd1 a5 27.h4 a4 28.bxa4 bxa4 29.Ba3 Ba6 30.Bxb4 Bxd3 31.Bxe7 Qxe7 32.h5 a3 33.Qxd5 Qh4 34.Qg2 a2 35.Nf2 Bb1 0-1
Duda,J (2756)-Wojtaszek,R (2700) [A29]
Bydgoszcz (4) 2021
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Bc5 7.0-0 0-0 8.d3 h6 9.Na4 Bb6 10.a3 Re8 11.b4 Bg4 12.h3 Bh5 13.e3 a6 14.Qb3 Qd7 15.g4 Bg6 16.Nh4 Nde7 17.Nxg6 Nxg6 18.Bb2 Nh4 19.Be4 h5 20.Nxb6 cxb6 21.f3 Rad8 22.Bc3 Qe7 23.Kf2 hxg4 24.fxg4 Qg5 25.Ke2 Re7 26.a4 Na7 27.b5 Nc8 28.Bb4 Nd6 29.Bxd6 Rxd6 30.Rac1 Ng6 31.Rc8+ Nf8 32.Rf5 Qh4 33.Rh5 1-0
Wojtaszek,R (2700)-Duda,J (2756) [E06]
Bydgoszcz (5) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 c6 7.Qc2 b6 8.b3 Bb7 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Nc3 Rc8 11.e4 dxe4 12.Nxe4 c5 13.Nxf6+ Bxf6 14.Ng5 Bxg5 15.Bxb7 Rc7 16.Be4 Bxc1 17.Raxc1 g6 18.d5 exd5 19.Bxd5 Qf6 20.Re1 Ne5 21.Qc3 Ng4 22.Bf3 Qxc3 23.Rxc3 Nh6 24.Rd3 Nf5 25.Bd5 Kg7 26.Kg2 Rd8 27.Rf3 b5 28.Rf4 b4 29.g4 Nd4 30.Rfe4 Kf8 31.h4 h6 32.h5 gxh5 33.gxh5 a5 34.Rf4 Rd6 35.Re3 f5 36.Rg3 Rg7 37.Rh4 a4 38.bxa4 Ra6 39.Rh1 Rxa4 40.Re1 Rxg3+ 41.Kxg3 Rxa2 42.Kf4 0-1
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PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Ne7!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…d5 2.Nxc6#; 1…Bf3/g6 2.N(x)g6#; 1…Rb4/d3 2.Rf5#.
