Bobby Ang annotates Jobava -Carlsen game

BY: BOBBY ANG

(An abridged version of Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 02 October 2010)

2010 Olympiad
Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Sept 21-Oct 3, 2010

Georgian men’s chess took off in the late ’90s with its first clear chess leader, GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili. Zurab was top board for his country up till the 2004 Calvia Olympiad. After that, starting Turin 2006, their new leader was the young Baadur Jobava, born 1983. The two of them was a study in contrast -- whereas Azmaiparshvili had a solid positional style with a limited opening repertoire, Jobava was a tactician who liked to throw in new moves and theoretical novelties to unbalance his opponent.

In round 4, when Jobava faced the world’s highest rated player, everybody expected him to play for a draw. After all, the team from Norway had two strong players (GMs Magnus Carlsen 2826 and Jon Ludvig Hammer 2633) and the rest were just IMs. A draw on board 1 and 2 would enable their lower boards to go for wins. Nothing of that sort. Jobava remained true to form by unleashing an unexpected novelty and won a tremendous victory. [PHOTO SOURCE: chessbase.com]

Jobava, Baadur (2710) -- Carlsen, Magnus (2826) [E24]
39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk/Russia (4), 24.09.2010
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