The game in the last post was played in the third round of the ongoing Russian Women’s Championship Superfinal 2019. Former World Women’s champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
had the white pieces versus Margarita Potapova.
The game was chosen because when beginning to play Chess I played the Najdorf because Bobby Fischer played the Najdorf, and although I stopped playing the Najdorf decades ago I still play over many Najdorf games, and because I met Alexandra Kosteniuk at the World Open over a decade ago. She was sitting alone I said, “You are even prettier in person than in pictures. She smiled and sorta blushed. I asked her to sign her book,
telling her it was a surprise gift for a lady. She said, “Please, sit.” I did and greatly enjoyed our conversation. Upon reflection it was the highlight of the time spent at the event.
This is a terrible game. It looks more like a game brought to me for review by two girls playing in one of the lower sections of a tournament at the House of Pain than a game played by a former World Champion of Women. Unfortunately, it is indicative of the state of modern Chess. Pathetic games like this are foisted upon we the fans of the Royal game every day. The sad fact is that when the best players have little, or no time to cogitate the quality of the moves played deteriorate exponentially. When that happens Chess becomes uninteresting.
The game is replete with “Red Moves,” some of which are laughable, at the ChessBomb. The game can be found here:
“Chess – to the non-FIDE world – is and has always been a thoughtful, deliberate and difficult game. Chess represents our best intellectual qualities.
How far FIDE goes in the other direction, with its politics of dumbing down the game (faster time controls) or trying to make chess a child’s game by actively campaigning for its inclusion into schools, will not change the world’s perception of chess.
The only thing that will change is the world’s perception of FIDE.” – GM Kevin Spraggett
Armchair Warrior 