We will pick up two nice finishes from the second round’s games. First, it is Axel Falkevall who found an elegant way to win the game against Semen Mitusov from Ukraine. Axel plays white and this is the position after black’s 19th move.
Here Axel played the forcing move 20.Nxe6!! The game continued 20…fxe6 21.Bxe6† Kf8 22.Ng5 h6 and in this position Axel found a move that pleased the crowd.
22.Qh5! and black resigned. The queen can indeed be taken, but after 22…Nxh5 white checkmates with 23.Nh7.
One of the players with two victories is GM Felix Blohberger from Austria. He played black against the Swedish hope Ludvig Carlsson, Västerås, and managed to trick Ludvig with a cunning trap. In this position, Ludvig has just played 18.Rf1-d1.
It is not possible to take on c3 directly, but black can exploit the fact that the knight is en prise in a way that is not entirely obvious. After 18…Bxg2 19.Kxg2 came the quirky 19…Nd7!! and white is actually completely lost.
20.Nxd7 dxc3 21.Rd6 (21.Nf6† does not work either. After 21…gxf6 22.Rxd8† Rxd8 23.Rxd8† Kg7 24.Rd1 Nxa2 it is not possible to stopping Black’s c-pawn) Nxa2 22.Nb8 Rxd6 23.Rxd6 Rxb8 and besides Black leading with a piece, the pawn on c3 soon becomes a queen. White resigned.
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