3 Best Games of The Week – 30

Our first game from this week’s selection was played in the recently finished Aeroflot Open, one of the strongest open tournaments in the world. GM Vladimir Potkin defeated the young Chinese promise We Yi in a critical anti Grunfeld variation. White plays with his king in the center and at first sight it looks risky, but on a closer look it seems that it’s black who has to worry about his own king.

 

Game 1:

Our second game was also played in the Aeroflot Open. One of the top players on our watch list, Gata Kamsky, defeated the GM A.R Salem (UAE) in style with an idea of his own against the Najdorf. From this game we can learn the value of development versus material – white sacrificed a pawn early in the game and obtained a lasting initiative that led Kamsky to victory.

 

Game 2:

Finally, we wanted to include a game from the Women World Championship match between GM Maria Muzychuk and GM Hou Yifan. We selected game 9 which Muzychuk was forced to win in order to stay in the match. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t. Hou Yifan played a positional line against black’s Sicilian and went on to win a position in which she had a majority on the queenside. Great lesson on strategy and pawn structures.

 

Game 3:

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Updated 04.07.2023

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