SPOT ON CHESS PUZZLES Time waits for no man and Father time is undefeated.

Great Works of Art - Make it while you can for this too shall pass!

Time flows on… long after we are gone. But as long as people persist then great works of chess art can, and will, be appreciated. And those that created those gems will be long remembered. To be on top is partly, in the end, a factor of how worn out from the stress one gets. And a complete man or woman doesn’t have to be defined by only one thing in their life but to be truly great at something is what most people desire and can only ever even dream about.

Former World Champion Magnus Carlsen has worked hard to live the dream that most other players can only imagine. And he has produced many works of chess art that will live beyond his own personal story line. One of my favorites was his win as a young man versus Alexander Bielavsky with the White pieces in a Ruy Lopez opening in the B tournament Corus 2006. An epic attacking masterpiece in my humble opinion.

Today we look at one of Magnus’s losses. Certainly something that most players can only ever dream about is scoring a win against the legendary highest rated chess player in history. For Alisher Suleymenov that dream came true during round two of the Qatar Masters Open. Today we look at the game in detail so my apologies about going long in this edition of Spot on Chess Puzzles. We will discuss many tactical ideas in this game… but there won’t be a puzzle set this time around. Enjoy the art instead and live vicariously through the efforts of both Carlsen and Suleymenov! Game included down below and just a reminder that the previous video did cover two tactical positions that did or could have arisen in this game. So with that… Enjoy!

THE GAME:

[Event "Qatar Masters Open 2023"][Site "Doha QAT"]
[Date "2023.10.12"][Round "2"]
[White "Suleymenov, Alisher"][Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2512"][BlackElo "2839"][ECO "E12"]
[Opening "Queen's Indian"][Variation "Petrosian system"]
[EventDate "2023.10.11"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Nc3 c5 7. e4 cxd4 8. Nxd4
Bc5 9. Nf3 Nc6 10. b4 Be7 11. Bb2 Qb8 12. Rd1 O-O 13. Be2 d6 14. O-O Rc8 15.
Rfe1 Bf8 16. Bf1 Ne7 17. Nb5 Ne8 18. Ng5 Ng6 19. e5 d5 20. Qb3 Be7 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 22. cxd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 exd5 24. Qxd5+ Kf8 25. Nd4 Nf4 26. Qf3 Kg8 27. Qxf4 Qb7 28. Nf5 b5 29. Bxb5 Bf8 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Nh6 1-0

Stay safe and see you all later on down the timeline. Hopefully ~ S.