THE 2021 Mitropa Online Cup Open Chess Tournament ended May 12 at the tornelo.com playing platform with a victory for Italy.
The 10-team, four-board, single round robin hybrid classical chess event has the chess federations of Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland participating. This was fairly strong tournament, and Italy was bannered by GMs Luca Moroni Jr. (2546) and Pier Luigi Basso (2538). No federation sent their elite players probably due to budgetary constraints.
Coming closely behind Italy in 2nd place was Slovakia, led by IM Viktor Gazik (2542) and GM Jergus Pechac (2519). Actually, Italy and Slovakia finished the event with identical six-win, two-draw, one-loss match records, but Italy took the crown after it emerged with the higher number of game points.
The final standings: 1. Italy; 2. Slovakia; 3. Czech Republic; 4. France; 5. Austria; 6. Germany; 7. Hungary; 8. Switzerland; 9. Slovenia; 10. Croatia.
Despite the absence of their country’s superstars, the games played in this edition of the Mitropa Cup showed a high quality level, and we’re gigging five of them here from the top board encounters.
Bogner, S (2577)-Dragnev, V (2565) [B90]
tornelo.com(6.1) 2021
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nge2 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.h3 e5 7.Nde2 h5 8.Bg5 Be6 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.Nd5 Qd8 11.Qd3 Nd7 12.0-0-0 g6 13.Kb1 Nc5 14.Qa3 Bh6 15.Nec3 0-0 16.Be2 b5 17.h4 Rb8 18.f3 Bd7 19.b4 f5 20.bxc5 b4 21.Nxb4 dxc5 22.Qxa6 Rxb4+ 23.Ka1 Rf6 24.Bc4+ Rxc4 25.Qxc4+ Rf7 26.Rd6 1-0
Zelcic, R (2539)-Travadon, L (2404) [C56]
tornelo.com(6.3) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 d5 6.Bb5 Ne4 7.Nxd4 Bd7 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.0-0 Bc5 10.f3 Ng5 11.Be3 0-0 12.f4 f6 13.exf6 Nh3+ 14.gxh3 Bxh3 15.fxg7 Re8 16.Qf3 Qf6 17.Rd1 Qg6+ 18.Kf2 Bg4 19.Qg3 Rxe3 20.Qxe3 Re8 21.Qc3 Re2+ 22.Kf1 Qe4 23.Qg3 Bxd4 24.Rxd4 Qh1+ 25.Qg1 Rf2+ 0-1
Studer, N (2584)-Gazik, V (2542) [E11]
tornelo.com(8.1) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.e3 b6 6.Bd3 Bb7 7.Qc2 c5 8.Bxb4 cxb4 9.e4 d6 10.0-0 a5 11.e5 dxe5 12.dxe5 Nfd7 13.Nbd2 Nc6 14.Rfe1 h6 15.Re3 0-0 16.Rae1 Rfd8 17.b3 a4 18.bxa4 Nc5 19.Bh7+ Kh8 20.Ne4 g6 21.Nf6 Nxe5 22.Nxe5 Qxf6 23.Bxg6 fxg6 24.Nxg6+ Kg7 25.Rg3 Be4 26.Ne5+ Kh8 27.Qb2 Kh7 28.f3 Nxa4 29.Qxb4 Qxe5 30.Qe7+ Kh8 31.Qh4 Qd4+ 32.Kh1 Bh7 33.Rg4 Qc3 34.h3 Nc5 35.Re3 Rd3 36.Rxd3 Nxd3 37.Rd4 Qe1+ 0-1
Lagarde, M (2638)-Prusikin, M (2547) [C28]
tornelo.com (9.1) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Nge2 d5 6.exd5 Nxd5 7.0-0 Be6 8.a3 Bxc3 9.bxc3 0-0 10.Bb3 Qh4 11.Qd2 Rad8 12.c4 Nde7 13.f4 e4 14.Bb2 Nf5 15.Rae1 Qg4 16.Ng3 Nxg3 17.hxg3 exd3 18.cxd3 Qxg3 19.Re3 Qg6 20.Qf2 Bg4 21.Rg3 h5 22.f5 Qg5 23.f6 g6 24.Bc1 Qh4 25.Be3 Rfe8 26.Qf4 g5 27.Qf2 Nd4 28.Bd1 Nf5 29.Rxg4 Qxf2+ 30.Rxf2 hxg4 31.Rxf5 Rxe3 32.Rxg5+ Kh7 33.Bxg4 Kh6 34.Rg7 Rg3 35.Kh2 Rdxd3 36.a4 b6 37.Rg8 a5 38.Rg7 c5 39.Rg8 Rge3 40.Rg7 Rd6 41.Rxf7 Kg6 42.Re7 Rxe7 43.fxe7 Kf7 44.Bc8 Kxe7 45.Ba6 Kf6 46.Kh3 Kg5 47.g3 Rd2 48.Bb5 Rc2 49.Ba6 Rb2 50.Bb5 Rxb5 0-1
Basso, PL (2538)-Froewis, G (2460) [D44]
tornelo.com (9.2) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 c6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.g3 Bb7 12.Bg2 Qb6 13.exf6 0-0-0 14.0-0 c5 15.dxc5 Nxc5 16.Qe2 Bh6 17.Bxb7+ Qxb7 18.Bxh6 Rxh6 19.Qe3 Rh5 20.Rfd1 Nd3 21.Ne4 Rhd5 22.b3 c3 23.Nxc3 Re5 24.Qh6 Qf3 25.Rf1 b4 26.Nd1 Ne1 27.Ne3 Rh5 28.Qg7 Qg2+ 0-1
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Rg2!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Kc6 2.Ne8/b5#; 1…Kc4 2.N3b5/e2#; 1…Kd4, Rd6+ 2.Ne6#; 1…Kd6, Nd4 2.Ne4#./PN
