Deep Thinkers - Wollongong Chess Club News
3 November 2024 · Illawarra
Find out all about what the Wollongong Chess Club is up to.
Open Classic
Round 3 is sure to be an exciting one as one of our newest players Louis battles it out against WCC’s longest serving veteran Steve!
The battle for first place is still in hot contention with 3 players maintaining a perfect score as we cross the half way point.
Below is the preliminary draw for round 3.
Division I Classic
Lots of grandmaster draws in our Division I with no player on a perfect score after only 2 rounds!
Hai and Joerg managed to play 12 moves of theory in the Spanish, reaching the position of over 1000 master games.
Chigorin Spanish Theory
Pictured below is a common tabiya as played out by Hai and Joerg. Hai deviated from theory here with 13. b3.
There is a lot to learn about pawn breaks and plans in these very rich positions. White often has 2 main ideas from here:
A closed game with 13. d5. White can gain control over both sides of the board and will often manoeuvre the pieces to the kingside and simultaneously look to gain control of the a-file. From here white has several plans depending on how black plays.
White can aim for the f4 push to break open the centre.
Alternatively white can keep the closed position and take firm control of the light squares with g4.
Maintaining the tension in the centre (as Hai chose), and potentially trying to make d6 a target in the long run. Black can be the one to choose whether to play cxd4 or c4 clamping on the queenside.
Black’s plans are often to play with the queenside, while fighting off white’s kingside pieces from any kind of mating attack.
- Black can open the c-file with cxd4 if allowed. This can allow for black’s pieces to infiltrated down the c and b files as the position opens up.
- Black can aim to close the centre with c4, and later aim to open the b-file with a5 and b4.
- If white closes the centre with d5, black will aim to manoeuvre the pieces to the queenside for a timely c4! or b4! to open the position.
All these plans allow for good play with the black pieces to target white’s backward queenside pawns.
Click the image below to see Hai and Joerg’s full game!
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