Update for Wednesday 26th July, as of 16:47. First I should apologise that these updates seem to focus only on my games - I seem to be the first person to finish each day so have no other results to report whilst I am writing. At least today Steph finished no longer after me (and also won) so it is looking like a positive day for Kenilworth might be in the offing.
The question arising from my game today is about queen sacrifices. My game featured a relatively pretty finish in the position below:
Now, obviously this (Qxg7, on the off chance anyone hasn't seen it) is a very unimpressive queen sacrifice. It is technically the best move (the only way to give mate in 2) but Bxg7 is mate in three, and many, many other things win (as you would expect, being a rook up with an attack). However, it did get me thinking that I'm not sure I've ever played a "necessary" queen sacrifice (that is, one where it is the only good move) and, given both how many games of chess I've played, and how much of my time I spend looking for fancy tactics, that does make me think they might be quite rare.
I feel I should also put in a special mention for Solomon's performance in the blitz event yesterday evening. After only scoring 2/9 in the first blitz event last week, he scored 5/9 this time, level with Bruce and only a point behind Jude (who, you will all be shocked to learn, was the top performing Kenilworth player). Given that Billy came second for Kenilworth, I think I might have had the no doubt entirely original thought that perhaps young people are quite good at fast chess.
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