Martial Gambit: Actual-life warriors do battle on the chessboard

Chess, by and huge, is a warfare recreation performed by nonmartial individuals who would have hassle figuring out the enterprise finish of an M16 or explaining the distinction between an embrasure and a sally port.

Happily, there are some notable exceptions. Today’s column seems to be at two very completely different intersections of the navy and the chess life.

NATO, as you could have heard, is a strong navy alliance dominated by a single superpower — Germany. Since NATO started organizing a group championship within the Nineteen Nineties, Germany has captured much more titles than some other nation, and medaled in 24 straight competitions. It was a little bit of a shock final yr when Team Germany completed off the rostrum as Greece scored an upset win.

The Germans returned to their profitable methods on the latest thirty third NATO Chess Championship in Portoroz, Slovenia, earlier this month, taking dwelling the gold medal. A recreation U.S. squad grabbed bronze after simply being edged out by Greece for the silver medal. German FM Robert Stein took dwelling the person gold medal for prime rating on the highest board.

U.S. Airman First Class and FM Patrick Aizpurua had a high-quality match because the American squad’s anchor and was atop the leaderboard at 4-0 earlier than an epic conflict with Stein in Round 5.

In an Open Catalan, Stein as White grabs the prospect for a central break with 14. e4 g6 15. d5!?, and the strain grows on the Black protection after 18. Nb3 Qb8?! (a considerably synthetic option to deal with Black’s shortcomings; one thing like 18 … b6 seems to be higher) 19. Nc5 Rd8 20. Qf4 Bg7 21. Rfe1, already establishing the specter of 22. Re7 Be8 23. Nb5.

Aizpurua spends a number of strikes liberating his queen from her dungeon, giving White extra time to arrange one other highly effective central break: 24. Red2 Qb6 25. d6! cxd6 26. Nf6+!? (Black is reeling, and the easy 26. Nxd6 Rd7 27. Ncb5 Re7 28. Qh4! might need put him over the sting) Bxf6 27. Qxf6 Bc6 27. Rxd6 Rxd6. White is near profitable, with 30. Rd7 Rf8 31. Bd5 Nxd5 32. Nxd5 Qc5 33. Ne7+ one looming risk, however Black refuses to go down quietly.

Thus: 29 … Qc5! 30. Bxc6 bxc6 31. Ne4 (Qe7!, threatening 32. Rxg6+!, seems to be stronger right here) Qc1+ 32. Kg2 Nc2 33. h4 Ne1+ (Black should sustain the strain earlier than White’s kingside assault crescendos) 34. Kh2 Qc4! 35. Rd8+?! — maybe pissed off by his opponent’s dogged refusal to fold, White releases the strain too quickly; on 35. Ng5 Rf8 36. Kg1! h6 37. Ne6! Nf3+ 38. Qxf3 fxe6 39. Qe3, Black will wrestle to guard all his weaknesses.

Sadly for Black, he lets down his guard simply when his laborious work ought to have saved the half-point in a tough knight-and-pawn ending: 44. Nd6 Kg7?! (already 44 … Nd3! 45. Nxf7+ Kg7 46. Nd8 Nxb2 47. Kg2 Nxa4 48. Nc6 can be an honorable draw) 45. Nb7 Nd3 46. b3 Nc1? — the final mistake as Black can nonetheless maintain after 46 … Kf6 47. Nxa5 Nb4 48. Kg2 Ke6 49. Kf3 Kd6, and if 50. Nb7+? Kc7 51. Nc5 (Na5 Kb6), the White knight is trapped after 51 … Kc6.

Black’s handed d-pawn seems to be harmful, however after 50. a5 Nd4 (d2 51. Ne3 Nd4 52. a6 Nb5 53. Kg2 Nc3 54. a7 and wins) 51. a6 Nb5 52. Kg2, Black’s passer is stopped and his knight immobilized on the queenside. Stein quickly collects the superior d-pawn and within the last place, Black should concede going through strains equivalent to 61 … g5 62. b5 gxh4 63. gxh4 Nf6 64. Kd4 Kc7 65. Ke5 Ne4 66 h5 Nxf2 67. Kxf5 and wins.

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Ukrainian GM Igor Kovalenko is preventing a much bigger battle nowadays.

The 34-year-old grandmaster and two-time Latvian nationwide champion has put his profession on maintain, becoming a member of the nationwide military two months after Russia invaded his nation final yr, He has served as a sapper and “freelance chaplain” in Ukraine’s Donetsk area, web site of a few of the fiercest battles of the warfare.

Chess.com experiences that Kovalenko was briefly again in Kyiv final week, receiving a medal from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself for “personal bravery demonstrated in defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for selfless fulfillment of military duty.”

A stable professional ranked sixty fifth within the newest FIDE world rankings, Kovalenko’s expertise and resilience on the chessboard had been on show in a pleasant win over younger Austrian GM Valentin Dragnev from a 2020 German group Bundesliga match. Play is balanced for a lot of the early center recreation on this Tarrasch QGD earlier than Black finds his items instantly offside on the fallacious wing as Kovalenko whips up a kingside assault: 29. Bd3 Na3!? (a bit of too cute, particularly when the Black king might use a bit of firm) 30. Qd2 Kg7 31. Qb2 Nc4 32. Bxc4 Rxc4 33. d5+ Kg8? (see diagram; f6! is sort of all the time a foul — or least disagreeable — transfer in these positions, however right here after 33 … f6! 34. e5 exd5 35. exf6+ Qxf6 36. Nd4 Kh7, Black remains to be very a lot within the recreation) 34. Nxg6+!, White will get a passel of pawns and the Black king is left fully uncovered.

But the battle isn’t over after 34 … fxg6 35. Qxg6+? (not fallacious, however 37. Rg3! is crushing; e.g. 33 … Rg7 38. Rxg6 Rxg6 39. Qxg6+ Kf8 40. Rd3 with a dominating assault) Rg7 38. Qe8+ Kh7 39. Qxh5+ Kg8 40. Qe8+ Kh7 41. Rf3 Qd8, and the queen involves the help of the protection and White should win the sport once more.

Kovalenko grabs a second probability on 49. Rd3 Rg7?! (Bc8! 50. Rg3 Rg7 51. d6 Bd7 holds the stability) 50. dxe6 Bc6 51. g4, and White’s 4 pawns for the piece arrange a captivating race within the recreation’s last sequence.

Dragnev prompts his queenside pawns and even wins the race to queen, however his uncovered king proves deadly: 62. g6 b2 63. e7! (Qf7+?? Rxf7 64. exf7+ Kf8 65. fxe8=Q+ Qxe8 66. g7+ Kxg7 67. Rxe8 b1=Q and it’s White who’s preventing for a draw) Qxf6 64. exf6 Rxe7 65. fxe7 b1=Q 66. Rxe8+ Kg7 67. Rg8+!, ending with an exclamation level each figuratively and actually. It’s hopeless after 67 … Kxg8 68. e8=Q+ Kg7 69. Qf7+ Kh6 70. Qh7+ and White’s three further pawns will carry the day; Black resigned.

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And a bit of clean-up within the historic accuracy aisle from final week’s column. I mistakenly had German nice Emmanuel Lasker because the “reigning” world champ when his third cousin Edward Lasker was taking up Frank Marshall of their 1923 U.S. title match. Lasker was, in fact, the ex-world champ, having misplaced the crown to Jose Capablanca two years earlier.

Hat tip to reader David Novak for recognizing the error.

(Click on the picture above for a bigger view of the chessboard.)

Stein-Aizpurua, thirty third NATO Chess Championship, Portoroz, Slovenia, September 2023

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8. a4 Bd7 9. Qxc4 Bc6 10. Bg5 a5 11. Nc3 Na6 12. Rad1 Nb4 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. e4 g6 15. d5 exd5 16. exd5 Bd7 17. Nd4 Re8 18. Nb3 Qb8 19. Nc5 Rd8 20. Qf4 Bg7 21. Rfe1 Be8 22. Re2 Qa7 23. N5e4 Qa6 24. Red2 Qb6 25. d6 cxd6 26. Nf6+ Bxf6 27. Qxf6 Bc6 28. Rxd6 Rxd6 29. Rxd6 Qc5 30. Bxc6 bxc6 31. Ne4 Qc1+ 32. Kg2 Nc2 33. h4 Ne1+ 34. Kh2 Qc4 35. Rd8+ Rxd8 36. Qxd8+ Kg7 37. Qf6+ Kg8 38. Qd8+ Kg7 39. Qf6+ Kg8 40. Nd6 Qd5 41. Qd8+ Kg7 42. Ne8+ Kh6 43. Qxd5 cxd5 44. Nd6 Kg7 45. Nb7 Nd3 46. b3 Nc1 47. Nxa5 d4 48. b4 d3 49. Nc4 Nb3 50. a5 Nd4 51. a6 Nb5 52. Kg2 Kf6 53. Kf3 Ke6 54. Ke3 Kd5 55. Kxd3 f6 56. Ne3+ Kc6 57. Ng4 f5 58. Nf6 Kb6 59. Nxh7 Nd6 60. Nf8 Ne4 61. Ke3 Black resigns.

Kovalenko-Dragnev, Bundesliga, Munich, February 2020

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 cxd4 8. cxd4 Bb4+ 9. Bd2 Bxd2+ 10. Qxd2 O-O 11. Bc4 Nd7 12. O-O b6 13. Rfe1 Bb7 14. Rad1 Rc8 15. Bb3 Re8 16. h3 Nf6 17. Bc2 h6 18. Bb1 Qc7 19. Re3 Nd7 20. Nh2 Red8 21. Ng4 h5 22. Nh2 Ne5 23. Qe1 Nc4 24. Rc3 b5 25. Qe2 Qb6 26. Nf3 g6 27. Rb3 b4 28. Qe1 a5 29. Bd3 Na3 30. Qd2 Kg7 31. Qb2 Nc4 32. Bxc4 Rxc4 33. d5+ Kg8 34. Qf6 Rd6 35. Ne5 Rc7 36. Nxg6 fxg6 37. Qxg6+ Rg7 38. Qe8+ Kh7 39. Qxh5+ Kg8 40. Qe8+ Kh7 41. Rf3 Qd8 42. Qh5+ Kg8 43. Rf4 Qg5 44. Qe8+ Kh7 45. Rg4 Qh6 46. Rxg7+ Qxg7 47. Qh5+ Qh6 48. Qe5 Rd7 49. Rd3 Rg7 50. dxe6 Bc6 51. g4 Qc1+ 52. Kh2 Be8 53. Rd8 Qc2 54. Qg3 Qc6 55. Qh4+ Kg8 56. Qf6 a4 57. e5 Rb7 58. Qg6+ Kf8 59. Qf6+ Kg8 60. g5 b3 61. axb3 axb3 62. g6 b2 63. e7 Qxf6 64. exf6 Rxe7 65. fxe7 b1=Q 66. Rxe8+ Kg7 67. Rg8+ Kxg8 68. e8=Q+ Kg7 69. Qf7+ Kh6 70. Qh7+ Black resigns.