3 Best Games of the Week – 7

Our first game is the recent victory of Carlsen over the former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. A quiet Ruy Lopez (Berlin variation) in which Carlsen shows how he can set problems for his opponents even in quiet positions that are close to equal.

Kramnik did not react in the best way to Carlsen’s a4-a5 idea and couldn’t find the right defense.

Game 1:

Second game from the same tournament Anand plays 1.c4 to surprise Michael Adams and executes a very interesting exchange sacrifice in the middle game for a long term compensation. You can find more about this subject in our recent article on the exchange sacrifice.

Game 2:

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial was not a good tournament for Michael Adams. However his only win in this event was very instructive. Adams destroys Anish Giri’s scheveningen sicilian with a direct attack against the black king. Worth seeing.

Game 3:

Tip of the day:

Annotating and deeply analyzing your own games is a very important part of chess training. All players who want to improve their chess understanding should use this approach on regular basis. In our training course we show you exactly how it should be done, what do you need to look for in the games, and most importantly how to use this information to actually improve your chess.

Image Credits: Official Gashimov Memorial Site