„Boy, but these are not blitz games!“ could have said the experienced and likeable Polish super-grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek to his opponent, a young Belarusian blitz fanatic who has certainly crossed the threshold of at least several tens of thousands of online blitz games. The combination witnessed by the spectators may well become the greatest creative highlight of the currently ongoing and strongly contested tournament in the town of Douglas on the Isle of Man. The fight is mainly for two free spots in the Candidates Tournament, and although it is almost certain that neither of the players in this game will ultimately compete for the top places, I am convinced that the brilliant final course of the game will survive even the final results!
Let's test our skills
Dear readers, would you be able to find and calculate the consequences of this beautiful combination? We shall see!
Lazavik,Denis (2560) - Wojtaszek,Radoslaw (2668) Isle of Man 2023
After Black's 23rd move, a position of approximate dynamic balance arose on the board. The pair of bishops and the free ‚b‘ pawn compensate for Black's strong pawn centre and control of the open ‚a‘ file. The talented Belarusian youngster here, after 25 seconds (sic!), played exactly what he would certainly choose in his favourite blitz or bullet. "A standard combination looks good, probably the opponent overlooked the tactic," he might have thought. This was followed by 24.Bxh6 and after 24...gxh6 after just another 5 seconds 🙂 (The tournament is played at a reasonable classical time control of 100 minutes for 40 moves with a 30-second increment...) the planned 25.Qd4.
TEST TASK: how would you continue as Black and which variations would you rely on?
How did the game proceed? Solution to the combination
In the viewer below, the esteemed reader will find both the repeated task assignment (here you can also play through your ideas) and, in the second demonstration, the complete solution.
Addiction
One has a strong tendency to addictions! Just as easily as you succumb, for example, to the charm of one-armed bandits, online blitz games, and even more so bullets or hyperbullets (for the less knowledgeable, I will explain that here the opponents have 30 or even 15 seconds for the entire game), have a tendency to lure young chess players into their traps. Of course, I know that for the best – or rather the fastest – players this brings financial gains. But as grandmaster Sergei Shipov very rightly explained, an excess of this kind sport leads to the fact that in serious chess you are basically no longer able to calculate variations normally during the game after some time! Three moves and that's it, just like in blitz. But it doesn't work like that in serious chess…
Radoslav Wojtaszek – current Polish number two by rating.
