Maurits van der Meer

Qxe1 looks good 😄

Thanks, coach :-)

My recent successful tournament in Wijk aan Zee propelled me above 1900 for the first time 😁

#chesspunks

That wasn't until much later, although I agree that when he played bxa3 it wasn't good. Perhaps he was already in trouble there.

Maybe you're right - in the end, the queens were traded pretty quickly, but maybe I should have kept them on. This was my first time facing the QI,D and I wasn't familiar with all the plans. I'll have to study it a bit more.

Well he tried but it wasn't possible - I got my king to d3 and his king couldn't advance.

But after QxQ we get e4, no?

No, this is normal:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Nbd2 Bb7 6.Bg2 d5

black uses a move to play Ba6 to force our knight to d2 instead of c3 and then moves the bishop to b7. It can be played in this move order or in other ways.

My opponent needed a win to get into a tie for first in the group, while I needed a draw for clear first. I didn't want to insult him by offering a draw at any point in the game 😅

I agree, it's probably about equal, although maybe black can somehow put white in zugzwang. It's complicated 😅

Haha, that's what I played 😄

Yes that also makes sense. I also thought this would be slightly better for white. I played Qb4 to keep the king in the middle.

We can! We just win two pieces for the rook. But for some reason I didn't see this during the game 😅

That makes a lot of sense. I immediately played cxd5 but after Bxd5 I didn't know how to proceed. Playing Ne5 first pins the pawn, so we can take it when it makes more sense to do so.

Thanks! I was quite happy with it 😁

In case you weren't able to see it, the final position is winning for white. I played h5, as this fixes the backward h-pawn on a square that I can attack with my knight, and the bishop can't defend. My plan is Ng2-e3-f5-xh6. Black resigned a few moves later.

And finally, how would you evaluate this position? What is your move?

Black got to push on the queenside - how should we respond?

After some more trades, we arrived at this endgame. How would you evaluate this? And what would you play?

Suddenly, black was able to activate his rook, and I was in a bit of trouble. However, I found a way to get out of trouble again. What would you do?

Here, I didn't know how to proceed. What would you do?

After trading queens, I was finally able to push e4 and claim the center. But how to proceed from here?

After some trades, we arrived here. How would you evaluate this position and how would you continue?

A little bit later black played this aggressive move with the knight. For some reason, we both missed the obvious move that refutes this - what is it?

Let's dive into my third and final game from Wijk. This one is more complicated so I'll post more positions from it.

After this d5-push in the Queen's Indian, I was out of book. I'm still not sure how I should have responded. What would you do?

#chesspunks

Rxe3 Kxe3 Bc5

Embarrassing to miss, yes. Not to play 😅

That was already the final position of the game. After 15.a5 I played ...d3 16.Qa4 Bxa5 17.Bxd3 Bxc3 18.bxc3 cxd3 and white resigned.

A couple of moves later, we arrive at this position. White is attacking our queen - how should we respond?

My second game at Wijk was very short. Here my opponent played e3-e4 in a Botvinnik-gone-wrong. What's the best way to deal with this move?

#chesspunks

From the position above, I won the game in 10 moves. Even though the position is completely equal, after 40...bxc6 41.Rxc6 Kd7, black has the simple plan of pushing the passed pawn, and white has to find the best way to defend. My opponent misplayed this and lost.