Unfortunately I lack the time to comment on all top level games that appear on this site, but this week it's a bit quiet in the chess world and therefore I could have a closer look at some games. In fact two gems were played this week, one by Nigel Short and one by Ivan Sokolov.Nigel Short, England's new number one with a rating of 2706 (on which he comments in an interview
here), is currently playing the
4th Kolkata Open in the city that was formerly known as Calcutta. The tournament runs from September 1st to 10th and the players get two hours for the entire game. Besides Short, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is also playing, by the way.After three rounds Short is leading with a 100% score, together with GMs Eltaj Safarli, Magesh Chandran Panchanathan, Chanda Sandipan and Enamul Hossain. Especially his third-round game against Gagunashvili was pretty impressive and similar to the way Short defeated l'Ami last month, in the same, quiet Caro-Kann ending.The other game I am giving below is one from the
Serbian Team Championship, which is currently taking place in Kragujevac, the fourth largest city in Serbia after Belgrade, Novi Sad and and Niš. The strongest
players participating are Sergei Rublevsky, Evgeny Miroshnichenko, Viktor Bologan amd Emil Sutovsky. Ivan Sokolov still lives in The Netherlands but recently changed back federations from 'NED' to 'BIH' (Bosnia and Herzegovina). He plays in the VSK Sveti Nikolaj Srpski team and in the second round match against Politika PEP he met Viktor Bologan with the white pieces. In recent years his results have been changeable, but in this game the former world's number 13 shows what he's still capable of.
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