Jul-14-12
 | | perfidious: White's 36.Ba6 allows a petit combinaison which regains the sacrifice with interest, but there was no good move against all the threats. Sasikiran's pieces are a sorry sight, as even the knight on f5 causes Black no bother. |
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| Jul-16-12 | | random1: Definitely game of the day material and maybe a Saturday-Sunday puzzle |
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Jul-16-12
 | | HeMateMe: In M60MG Fischer said "Timing is everything". This game had plenty of good timing by Muzychuk. |
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| Jul-16-12 | | Jamboree: Just a few years ago, if a girl had beaten a 2700+ world-class player, it would have been front-page news. Now Anna can crush one of the chess elite and no one seems to notice. Is this a good or bad development? She should be as famous as Hou Yifan or Judith Polgar! |
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Jul-16-12
| | HeMateMe: I noticed, clearly an upset. But, it's just one game. Yifan has taken a few scalps but also lost quite a few games to men. |
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| Jul-16-12 | | twinlark: <Jamboree>
I'm a bit puzzled myself that Muzychuk has received so little attention, especially since she overtook Yifan in the live ratings. Allowing for fluctuations in form, and Yifan seems to be experiencing a big one, there can't be too much difference between the two, or even between the top three women these days since Yifan beat Polgar and a bunch of other 2700s, and now Muzychuk beats up on Sasikiran. |
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| Jul-17-12 | | waustad: Interesting. I knew that she'd passed Humpy Koneru, but she is now #2. One should note that 2-4 are all very close.
http://chesspro.ru/guestnew/looknul... |
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| Jul-18-12 | | wordfunph: nice 32...Bxe4! putting pressure on white's kingside and Sasi erred 34.Rf1? |
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| Jul-22-12 | | Jim Bartle: 36. Ba6 looks like a banishment to Siberia. |
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Apr-06-15
 | | FSR: Can't Stop the Muzychuk. |
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Jan-19-17
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Spent most of the game wondering when/if/how Black would free the Bb7, and two moves after she finally does, Muzychuk promptly sacrifices it! Apologies in advance once again for my tactical blindness, but why didn't White play 25.Bxc7,Qxc7; 26.Nxb5? |
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| Jan-19-17 | | ChessHigherCat: <An Englishman: Apologies in advance once again for my tactical blindness, but why didn't White play 25.Bxc7,Qxc7; 26.Nxb5?>
Good question, maybe 26...Qf4 with the threat of Rd2 because black has to lose a tempo to save the N on b5 now. |
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| Jan-19-17 | | ColeTrane: The blues brothers loved this pun |
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Jan-19-17
| | An Englishman: Good Morning: <ChessHigherCat>, had seen that but failed to notice the threat of ...Rd2. Good find. |
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| Jan-19-17 | | kevin86: Black's pawn advantage takes over. |
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| Jan-19-17 | | ajile: Can someone explain 15.Bg5 to me? Why play this move unless you are planning either 16.Bxf6 or 16.Bh4 after Black plays 15...h6. Seems to me 15..h6 is a useful move for Black so White is giving Black a free extra tempo. 15..h6 weakens the Black light k-side squares maybe? But as it turns out this was never a factor in the game. |
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Jan-19-17
 | | Domdaniel: Both Muzychuk sisters are very interesting players. I particularly like the Christmas Tree (or Muzychuk) Variation of the Dutch, where Black plays both ...e6 and ...g6 -- a hybrid of the Classical and Leningrad lines. |
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Jan-19-17
| | Domdaniel: <ajile> - <15..h6 weakens the Black light k-side squares maybe? But as it turns out this was never a factor in the game.> I think you're right. Apart from intending Bxf6 or Bh4, White has a third reason: provoking ...h6 and a potential kingside weakness, which a move like Bg5-e3 is well placed to exploit. But the idea never came to anything here. |
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| Jan-19-17 | | ajile: <Domdaniel: <ajile> - <15..h6 weakens the Black light k-side squares maybe? But as it turns out this was never a factor in the game.> I think you're right. Apart from intending Bxf6 or Bh4, White has a third reason: provoking ...h6 and a potential kingside weakness, which a move like Bg5-e3 is well placed to exploit. But the idea never came to anything here.> The only idea I can think of is the pawn being on h6 makes a white knight on f5 more effective potentially. <Domdaniel: I particularly like the Christmas Tree (or Muzychuk) Variation of the Dutch, where Black plays both ...e6 and ...g6 -- a hybrid of the Classical and Leningrad lines.> Yes an interesting sideline. I think I've seen similar ideas in what's called the Classical Dutch? Black plays ..e6 instead of waiting and playing ..e5. Point being the pawn on e6 blocks checks from the long a2-g8 diagonal. It's slower but safer and allows Black to mobilize behind closed lines without worrying as much about moves like Qb3 or Ng5 from White. Note that in these lines Black is NOT playing the committal ..d5 (Stonewall) and can still play for ..e5 with ..d6 and developing the DSB via ..g6 and ..Bg7 or simply ..Be7. These hybrid versions are also likely to confuse White players since they are more rare. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 32...Bxe4