How Good is your chess night

Sergey Beryozkin from our Armstrong Cup team gave a most interesting “How Good is your Chess” session in the club on 22 November last. Sergey selected the game Wesley So versus Magnus Carlsen which was played in a blitz tournament some years ago. At various stages in the game he asked us to work out individually what we would play as the next move for Magnus. Points were awarded depending on the selection. The best move got the highest points but there were also points awarded for moves that were reasonable but not quite as good. Thirteen members attended the session which was expertly led and conducted by Sergey. There was a lively debate about the merits of competing moves with some very interesting ideas emerging. Francisco Del Rio had the highest points score on 32 points. Tony Fox had 30 points and Paul Cassidy was next with 28 points. There was general agreement that it was a most worthwhile session and would definitely warrant a repeat. I think everybody learned something from it. One thing that struck me was how masterful Carlsen was in nurturing a minimal opening advantage to a convincing victory within 30 moves. I had never been a particular admirer of Carlsen’s style and approach to chess but this game certainly changed my perspective.