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Tuesday, August 29, 2017

A Modern Chigorin Defense

     This game features a more modern version of the QGD Chigorin Defense. It was played in the 5th Dziedzica Memorial (held in Trzcianka, Poland) which took place on April 19, 2015.  The time limit was Game 10 plus 5 seconds per move. 
     Among the 301 players from 11 countries were 27 GMs and 10 IMs.  The event was also valid for the Polish Rapid Chess Championship.  Etienne Bacrot edged out Pawel Jaracz on tie-break after both scored 8/9.  Jaracz was declared Polish Rapid Champion. 
     White is GM Radosław Wojtaszek, currently the highest rated player in Poland. He has been one of the seconds to Viswanathan Anand since 2008 and assisted Anand in matches against Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, Boris Gelfand and Magnus Carlsen. Masternak is a Polish IM. 
     All of the databases I consulted give the result as a win for black, but at the end white has a clearly won position, so I am unsure if the database results are wrong or if white exceeded the time limit in a won position. One thing the game does show is that even if you succeed in playing the opening in a half-way decent manner you still have to follow it up well, which black failed to do on move 9. It also shows just how difficult it is to beat a 2700 rated GM even if you get a position that offers reasonably good play.
 

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