Offerspill news - week 23

It's time for a new update and this week we are delighted to bring you reports from several over-the-board tournaments - including a club double here in Norway!

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This week's thematic blitz tournament was organized today, Sunday, and the chosen opening was the O'Kelly variation of the Sicilian Defense. The opening is named after Albéric Joseph Rodolphe Marie Robert Ghislain O'Kelly de Galway - what a name!

In case you missed it you can still watch our introductory video of the opening here and view both games and results from the tournament here.

Rosecupen 2021

The annual Rosecupen was held in Molde this weekend and featured several very strong players including our own Johan-Sebastian Christiansen and new member Frode Urkedal.

Luckily, both of our grandmasters were on form and took home a shared 1st prize after only a short draw between themselves - congratulations!

New member Frode Urkedal won his first over-the-board tournament as an Offerspill player!



Let's take a look at Johan-Sebastian's instructive last round game against promising FM Shazil Shehzad in which the latter got his queen trapped behind enemy lines.

Christiansen - Shezad (1-0)


Frode also played a couple of fine games, as usual. Of particular interest was his 5th round win with the black pieces against the dangerous Mathias Unneland.

Unneland - Urkedal (0-1)

You can find full results from the event here and replay all games here.

Molde Sjakklubb organized the event and provided pictures, videos and live updates during the tournament on Facebook.

Superbet Chess Classic

Azeri star Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is the sole leader of the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, Romania, after eight rounds.

World no. 2 Fabiano Caruana resigns his game against Shak Mamedyarov.

The Azerbaijani beat Fabiano Caruana with black in the 7th round and thereby extended his winning streak to three games. However, the streak ended after an uneventful draw against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the following round.

Caruana - Mamedyarov (0-1)


There are no Offerspill players participating in Romania, so we refer you to Chess24 and Chessbase for more extensive updates.

Opening of the Week

This time we turn our attention to the Dutch opening where black starts with the move 1..f5. A fun weapon against a Dutch-loving opponent is the sequence 1.Nf3 f5 2.d3!?.

White's idea is to go 3.e4 no matter what black does.

Let's start with a miniatyre win showing how venomous this variation can be in practice.

What Black shouldn't allow

This variation, called the "Anti-Dutch", is an opening in which a young Magnus Carlsen had great success with some years ago.

Carlsen - Dolmatov (1-0)


We'll finish with a picturesque win by the legendary Mark Taimanov from 1989 where Black played 2..Nc6 - which is considered the most flexible reply to this system.

Taimanov - Zaichik (1-0)