Balancing Act

Most of the games in Round 2 have now been played and we are starting to get a sense of who the players to beat in each section are going to be. I should give a shout out to @Darktigr(Dominic) who though seeded 7th of 8 in Section A has managed 1½ points from his first two games. All the details are of course available at any time on the pairings and standings sheet

There are a couple of recent games from Section A worth looking at. The first was the draw E3Engineer-Wadim_Sergeevich Chess played at a high level is a balancing act, almost as if the players are two high wire artists walking towards each other trying to shake or push the opponent off balance and off of the wire. Occasionally you see a spectacular game in which one player is able to destabilize the other in such a way as to force them to fall, waving their hands wildly as they try to regain their balance. In other games it can appear that nothing happens as the players stroll along the wire, meet in the middle and shake hands on a draw. Dig a bit deeper though and you often find that such games are full of subtle feints and never executed threats and counter-threats. The level of stress and tension in such games is often much higher than those that end with a dramatic attack (or in the case of my games where I take a step or two along the wire towards my opponent and promptly fall off all by myself). In this game each player tries to upset the equilibrium just enough to push the opponent over the edge but without taking risks that would make him fall too. A very tricky balance to maintain which you can see visually in the computer's assessment.

By the way, am I the only one wondering what the point of that blue 'Learn from your mistakes' button is here? :)

Getting to the point at which you no longer (or at least only occasionally) hang pieces is a real accomplishment in chess. Once I reached that point as a player I liked to think that up a piece I would be capable of winning against even a grandmaster. The second game from this round that I want to share with you is an instructive opportunity to test this theory. In a game between two of our top seeds: @Samdanow33(Aldar)-@Wadim_Sergeevich(Vadim) we reached this position after White's 27.cxd5

Material is even and if you evaluate only the static aspects of the position, Black is better, based on his queen-side pawn majority, the vulnerable pawn at d5 and the doubled g pawns. In fact though, Aldar has an advantage built on his extra space and the activity of his pieces. The engine considers this advantage to be worth more than a piece (+3.3). Your homework for this week: Play out this position as White against the computer and see if you can convert the advantage into a win. Those that can we will sign up for a match with odds of a piece against Ding Liren :)

Other classical chess opportunities

Instead of spamming you all with an avalanche of messages about other events I have decided to add a short section to each of our round reports in which I will link to events that might interest you. If you are a team leader please let me know if you have particular links or text that you would like me to include in this section.

• Champions League Year long individual and team championships held once a month. Please participate in the team events on behalf of the Hemmingford Chess Club. We could use the help!
• 90+30 This team runs one game a week swiss events. Games are arranged at a mutually acceptable time with your opponent.
• C3 Classical Club Weekly lichess swiss events, usually, but not always, on weekends.

Have a good week everyone !

David