Tactics, Eh? Canadians Crush the First Olympiad Round

The first high-level international chess tournament I ever followed was a previous Chess Olympiad. After that, I've made sure to closely follow each subsequent one, paying special attention to the team sent from my country, Canada. Today's post will be different from my usual content, as I'd like to show off the tactics that allowed both of our teams to 4-0 sweep their opponents. Sounds fun, right? Let's do some puzzles.

Open

The first game to finish in the Open section was that of multiple-time Olympiad member IM Nikolay Noritsyn. It was only 11 moves into a King's-Indian-London-System hybrid that his opponent got a little careless, developing a piece from one side of the board while forgetting about his troops elsewhere.

Next to finish was the other Black game, piloted by first-time team member (but no less experienced player) IM Shiyam Thavandiran. Another London system was employed, though this one was much more strategically focused than the other. Thavindiran's play was very controlled throughout, and his offer of a Queen trade at move 19 was very smartly done. While this game wasn't necessarily won by the following moves, I think you'll agree the resulting position is aesthetically pleasing (unless you're the other guy).

The White games took a little longer to finish, but no less convincing was the win from this round's only GM, Razvan Preotu. The author of The Chess Attacker's Handbook had no trouble against the Sicilian Dragon today, snatching a pawn early and carrying it deep into the endgame. While his final sequence wasn't the only way to the point, it did an excellent job of exploiting Black's poorly placed pony.

Last to finish was our top board, championed by IM Raja Panjwani. The first 25 moves saw him develop a firm advantage against the Triangle Slav, but on move 26 he captured a semi-poisoned pawn that saw the objective advantage slip away. Over the next 50 moves, the evaluation never strayed far from equal, despite Panjwani having an extra pawn and fire in his gut. His perseverance was rewarded on move 78(!) with a faulty check from Black. Can you see why?

As expected, a relatively clean first round where we were never really in danger of losing more than a half point. The ladies were even more dominant, however.

Women

For this section, I'll start with the longest game of the round, won convincingly by WIM Yunshan Li. Her Catalan did what it was supposed to do, giving her pleasant pressure that never really dissipated. Around move 30, with her opponent seeking some activity as compensation for a lost a-pawn, Li found a move that ensured she would have no problems in the resulting endgame.

The shortest game of the round was due to the efforts of Canada's top woman, WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet. In a sideline of the Vienna QGD, Ouellet's opponent went astray as early as move 9, dropping a pawn and having to scrounge for counterplay. While she was partially successful, she was down to about five minutes at only move 20, and so things were never going to be easy. Ouellet's sequence starting at move 24 was very effective at taking advantage of White's awkward monarchs.

Equally brutal was the finish of WIM Svitlana Demchenko's game. I wish I could say she slayed her own Dragon, but really, things just got hectic in time pressure. With both players under a minute by move 30, she was the one doing the attacking, having sacrificed her h-pawn to shatter the Black Kingside structure. As is known to happen in time pressure, her opponent played a self-destructive 31st move, and the attack was carried out without remorse. You can replicate it down below.

Finally, let's take a look at the win of WIM Bich Ngoc Pham. She didn't run into many problems equalizing in a Kan Sicilian, and was even able to force a repetition starting on move 22. She played on, however, and was very quickly rewarded. When her opponent tried to "accept" the repetition five moves later, Pham showed quite nicely why the terms of the deal had been altered.

I hope you enjoyed this little collection of tactics the Canadian teams played today. If you want to see more of them, I'll be streaming their games every (maybe) round over at https://www.twitch.tv/steakanatorac, so come on and join the party, ya hoser.

Winner's POV will be back whenever I get the energy