Sunday, August 13, 2006

Benjamin - Kaidanov, U.S. Open Chicago 2006


diagram

Benjamin-Kaidanov
What is White's winning plan?
How might Black defend?

Before he lost last night to 15-year-old IM Emilio Cordova (featured here last week), GM Joel Benjamin played a stellar game against GM Gregory Kaidanov (see my notes to Benjamin - Kaidanov, US Open 2006) which appeared to put him into contention for the U.S. Open title. I watched most of this game live on the Internet Chess Club, where they not only broadcast the moves but also showed a portion of the game on a live video feed. Whereas Benjamin was always seated and working hard at the board, Kaidanov paced the floor almost continuously. Of course, the real action was on the board, and it was a fascinating game in all three of its stages: the opening (a Spanish with d3, in a line originated by Bronstein), the middlegame (with White attacking the kingside and Black defending), and the endgame (which was a textbook illustration of the Bishop's superiority over a Knight with pawns on both sides of the board).

You can find links to more U.S. Open Chess Championship news at my previous post about the tournament: U.S. Open Chess Bloggers.

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