Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Missed Win
The 2023 European Team Chess Championship took place in Budva, Montenegro, from 11th to 20th November. 38 teams were participating in the Open section and 32 in the Women’s section.
The European Team Championship takes place every two years. Winners in the 2021 edition were Ukraine in the Open section and Russia in the Women’s section. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian teams are banned from official FIDE competitions. Moreover, Russia Chess Federation switched from Europe to Asian Chess Federation. It means that Russia, the traditional favorite in team competitions, didn’t participate in Montenegro.
Team Azerbaijan, three-time champion, was the favorite in the Open section. However, from the beginning, Germany showed its ambition to win and took the lead after round 5. Team Germany also saw its young prodigy Vincent Keymer (19) climbing in the world ranking with excellent victories.
In round 6, Germany faced team Romania and Keymer met Richard Rapport on board 1.
The game lasted 85 moves but it could have been shorter if Keymer had found a stunning blow.
The following diagram shows the position after Rapport’s 21…Rd8.
Can you find the decisive continuation missed by Keymer?
Because the time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes to the end of the game, and a 30-second increment from move one, is not difficult to estimate that the game lasted for more than 5 hours. The critical moment after Black’s move 21st move happened after approximately 2 hours of play. It means that both players made an extra mental and physical effort of more than 3 hours. Because chess games at the elite level involve a high level of stress, is easy to understand how important is to be very accurate in choosing the moves. It means saving significant energy in a long competition.
As Bobby Fischer used to say: “Chess demands total concentration!”
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