Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Hidden Tactic
The Chess Olympiad, held every two years, is the chess event with the highest participation.
In the 45th Chess Olympiad held in Budapest (Hungary) 380 national teams from almost 200 countries competed in an 11-round Swiss tournament played over four boards.
It’s worth mentioning that in such a big chess event, there is a wide range of participants both by rating and age. For instance, the oldest player in Budapest was the 80-year-old WIM Rani Hamid (ELO 1900) from Bangladesh playing her 20th Olympiad. At the other end of the scale, the youngest participants were two nine-years-olds lady players. WFM Bodhana Sivanandan (ELO 2196) from England who played her first Olympiad. And Skye Attieh (ELO 1675) from Lebanon.
Players’ rating in the open section went from the highest Magnus Carlsen’s 2832 to unrated players. When experimented players face weaker opponents is highly probable to see some examples of traps and severe mistakes.
But another uncommon aspect is when experienced players overlook traps. And that is what indeed happened in today’s game. GM Leiner Dominguez (USA), played White against GM Sinan Sjugirov (Hungary).
It was the only decisive game in the match USA-Hungary. Dominguez won after 50 moves. But astonishingly, he could have won early just after the opening. After 18 moves of theory in the Sicilian Najdorf, Sjugirov failed to find the right 19th move. And Dominguez missed his first, early chance to win material, thanks to a beautiful tactic.
Chess is a difficult game. Besides playing according to a plan, is also convenient to have the tactics radar switched on!
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