And thereby hangs a story. In line with Kobalia he arrived one or two minutes earlier than the sport and didn’t discover his opponent on the desk. The arbiter advised him his opponent was already there and strolling round someplace close by. Shevchenko got here to the board solely after his opponent had made the primary transfer. When Kobalia supplied a handshake Shevchenko declined the identical. The offended GM referred to as the arbiter and made an indignant protest. The arbiter tried to mollify Kobalia, to no avail. The sport continued and Kobalia was outplayed, resulting in a placing end. Right here is the ultimate part of the sport:

Kobalia-Shevchenko, European Championship 2023 (obtain)

Kobalia couldn’t settle for defeat and made an official grievance to the Appeals Committee. Shevchenko was referred to as for an evidence for his conduct earlier than the sport. On the finish of the day the results of the sport stood. Kobalia gave vent to his ire on Fb however obtained little assist.

The 2 grandmasters had not recognized one another and so it was hardly on account of non-public animus. The actual motive needed to do  with the general public positions each had taken. In equity to Kobalia he had signed the enchantment  by 44 Russian GMs to cease the Ukraine warfare. He was additionally appalled by the warfare. When it started, he wrote feelingly, “Warfare is demise, destruction, struggling… and there aren’t any winners and losers in it, the losers are all… no phrases to explain my emotions… it is a nightmare… which occurs right here and now…”

Nonetheless, thereafter he has been a spokesman for the Russian Chess Federation to demand lifting the ban on the group and he has additionally been instrumental in acquiring membership of the Asian Chess Federation for the Russian chess physique. As for Shevchenko, he was lively supporting his motherland, Ukraine  until he was pressured to to migrate to Romania after a collection of bombings on his native metropolis.

By the use of postscript, I could add that Alexey Sarana, the winner of this Championship occurs to be an outspoken critic of the Ukraine warfare and he has left Russia  and settled in Serbia.

A Vishy Anand Particular

This difficulty additionally carries a particular characteristic on Anand with twenty-six annotated video games. The opponents embrace world champions, Kasparov, Kramnik and Carlsen, to not point out GMs like Aronian, Timman and Ivanchuk, amongst others. I did miss a number of memorable encounters like his win over Kasparov within the ninth spherical of the World Championship 1995:

Anand-Kasparov, PCA World Championship (9) 1995 (obtain)

There are greater than 4200 video games of Anand within the Huge Base alone. They’re price a glance.

 Opening movies and surveys

There are 3 opening movies on this difficulty:

The primary affords  an introduction to a uncommon line within the King’s Indian by younger Leon Mendonca:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 Bg4!? (E91)

The second presents  evaluation  of  a line within the Open Catalan  by Mihail Marin.

1.d4 Nf6 2. C4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c5 6. 0-0 Nc6 7.Ne5 (E04)

The third is a presentation on a  line in vogue within the London System by Christian Bauer

1.d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3.Bf4 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. Nbd2 Nh5 (D02)

Take your choose.

What’s extra, there are as many as 12  opening surveys starting from  the  Caro-Kann to the King’s Indian. Amongst them I might single out the analyses on the Rubinstein Variation of the 4 Knights Protection and a line for Black within the Carlsbad System.

An previous line within the 4 Knights

The Rubinstein Variation within the 4 Knights  typically results in large slugfest within the middlegame.  On that rating gamers with White used to keep away from this variation previously. Now a brand new line  is being revived together with the older line 5.Ba4. This line, 5.Bc4 is examined by Martin Lorenzini on this difficulty. Newcomers unfamiliar with present concept and praxis could marvel why White can not play the easy 5. Nxe5 and 6.f4 and get away with it. So right here is that previous line present in books, however seldom seen over the board:

A queen sacrifice within the 4 Knights (obtain)

The Carlsbad System countered

The opposite opening survey  that I discovered fascinating was the writing by Lars Schandorff on  a brand new line for Black within the Carlsbad System. As is thought, this technique has at all times been a formidable weapon for gamers with White ever since Botvinnik used it with success. The problem earlier than Black is how one can neutralize White’s initiative. Lars Schandorff comes up with 9…Ne8!? a paradoxical retreat seen method again in Spielmann-Reti, Berlin 1928. Lately Carlsen has additionally performed it on account of a want to experiment. Here’s a mannequin sport by two Chinese language grandmasters  and I’ve saved the evaluation easy in order that novices may observe:

Lu, Shanglei –Li Di, Xinghua 2022 (obtain)

In addition to opening surveys, this difficulty has customary options on techniques, technique, and the endgame. Right here I might single out Karsten Müller’s demo. lecture on king and pawn endings. He’s lucid and it’s a deal with to be taught the ultimate part of the sport from him.

Final, however not least, now we have Jan Markos’ demo lecture on the subject,  “Methods to play misplaced positions ”.  Sensible recommendation for the event participant.

Summing up

The principle database of the difficulty has 2651 video games of which forty-seven are deeply annotated. There’s a lot else on this DVD that deserves to be explored. Aside from the gamers I’ve already talked about, the commentators embrace Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Duda, Andrey Espipenko and Vincent Keymer amongst others.

It might be famous that there are extra annotated video games within the opening and coaching sections of this difficulty.

Nicely, follow makes excellent.

Notes:

1. Here’s a hyperlink to the official website of the European Particular person Championship: https://eicc2023.com/
2. There are a number of different fascinating video games from the European Championship on this difficulty.  
   Right here I might point out simply two of them, Guliyev-Kollars and Nesterov-Gurel. The primary sport is lengthy, and the mayhem begins after 35 strikes. The second sport additionally takes an astonishing course, and  I used to be shocked to be taught that the primary 20 strikes have a precedent in an earlier sport, Kramnik-Van wely, Tilburg 1998.
3. GM Kobalia’s model of his encounter with Kirill Shevchenko is right here: https://www.fb.com/mikhail.kobali
4. The Russian chess website, “Chess  Information with out Censorship” took a distinct view: https://twitter.com/Chess__News/standing/1636301147701903361