The semi finals of the XChess Championships offer some more excellent chess entertainment and two very interesting games.
Once again Justus Williams comes up with some nice stuff under extreme time pressure.
In the second game Elliott Liu produced a fine series of sacrifices to deliver a great win and set up what must be the best final for the championship. It will be very interesting to see Elliott and Justus playing in the final.
Here are the moves the second game, Elliot versus Alex.
| Move | Elliot | Alex | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | e4 | c5 | Sicilian Defence. |
| 2. | Nf3 | e6 | The Scheveningen Variation. |
| 3. | d4 | cxd4 | |
| 4. | Nxd4 | a6 | Alex plays the Kan Variation... |
| 5. | Nc3 | Qc7 | |
| 6. | Be2 | b5 | |
| 7. | O-O | Bb7 | Elliot reverses the standard 7th and 8th moves in the Kan Variation. |
| 8. | Bf3 | Nc6 |  |
| 9. | Re1 | Ne5 | Black's move seems premature and does not pose a serious threat. |
| 10. | Bf4 | Nxf3+ | |
| 11. | Qxf3 | Qb6 | I think d6 would have been better, threatening a pawn fork against the knight and bishop and keeping the Queen on the diagonal that aims at h2... |
| 12. | Rad1 | Ne7 | |
| 13. | Nd5 | Nxd5 | Now White initiates what turns out to be a devastating attack. Black never regains the initiative, even with move 17. |
| 14. | exd5 | Bc5 | |
| 15. | Nf5 | O-O |  Black is about to castle into trouble... |
| 16. | Nxg7 | Bxf2+ | |
| 17. | Kh1 | f5 | |
| 18. | Nh5 | Bxe1 | |
| 19. | Rxe1 | Kf7 | |
| 20. | Qc3 | Ke8 | |
| 21. | dxe6 | dxe6 |  |
| 22. | Rxe6+ | Qxe6 | |
| 23. | Ng7+ | Ke7 | The beauty of this fork is that it never needs to be carried out. |
| 24. | Qc7+ | Kf6 | |
| 25. | Nh5+ | Kg6 | No choice. |
| 26. | Qg7+ | Kxh5 | |
| 27. | Qg5# | 1-0 |
DH