Delhi and 48 hours of fun with Jacob!
Jacob Aagaard was in India for his book tour. After Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the attention now shifted to the capital city of Delhi. Apart from having the two mandatory trainings in the morning, Delhi was the only city to have two open sessions in the evening. Many strong players attended it, including GM Abhijeet Gupta, as Jacob entertained and taught the audience with his knowledge wit and humour. Not to forget we also made him sing a song! A huge illustrated report!
The only time Jacob Aagaard had been in Asia was just a few months ago in Tehran when he was the second of Sabina Foisor at the Women's World Championship 2017. Little had he imagined that he would be spending nearly ten days in one of the largest Asian countries, visiting five cities! Jacob's trip in India began from Mumbai and continued to Ahmedabad. It was now time to move towards the capital city of Delhi.
Read the report on Mumbai leg of the trip
The 20 minute Delhi test
Before we tell you what transpired in Delhi. Here are three positions for you along with time that is to be dedicated for each position.
Welcome to Delhi!
Jacob's general way of functioning at such lectures is to explain a concept in detail, show illustrative examples and then give sheets of six positions to the students to solve. In this way a concept that was taught with theory becomes a part of the student by means of practical exercises.
The other interesting part is that whenever the sheets are distributed to the students they have to write the answer compulsorily next to the position. Jacob, then moves around the classroom and checks the answers giving feedback to the students. In this way he is able to give personal attention and clarify the themes which might not be clear to some students.
Jacob showed his favourite game against Pallesen from Taastrup 2002. It is a game that is annotated in great depth in the upcoming book "Thinking Inside the Box." It is surely an amazing game and you can see the great depth of annotations in Jacob's book.
Solutions:
Position 1
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2016.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Catalan analysis"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "4q1k1/5ppp/5n2/1p2p3/3B4/3Q2P1/rP2PP1P/2R3K1 w - - 0 25"]
[PlyCount "3"]
[EventDate "2016.03.01"]
26. Qd5 $3 1-0
Position 2
[Site "Tromso NOR"]
[Date "2013.08.16"]
[Round "2.3"]
[White "Lysyj, Igor"]
[Black "Aronian, Levon"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D38"]
[WhiteElo "2648"]
[BlackElo "2813"]
[Annotator "Elimination"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2b5/5p2/p4P1p/3k4/1r6/3N4/6P1/2R3K1 b - - 0 43"]
[PlyCount "15"]
[EventDate "2013.08.11"]
[WhiteTeam "Montenegro"]
[BlackTeam "Montenegro"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "MNE"]
[BlackTeamCountry "MNE"]
{This looks passive, but is the correct move. The rook goes behind the a-pawn
and powers it forward.} 44. Rc7 Ke6 45. Rc6+ Kf5 $19) 44. Rxc4 Kxc4 45. Ne5+
Kd5 46. Nxf7 a5 47. Ne5 $2 (47. Nxh6 $1 {A key move! The knight will wriggle
out from f5.} Be6 48. Nf5 $1 a4 49. Ne3+ $11 {The knight joins in to stop the
rook pawn.} Kd4 50. Nc2+ Kc3 51. Na3 Kb3 52. Nb5 Kb4 53. Nd4 Bf7 54. Nc2+ Kb3
55. Nd4+ $11) 47... Be6 48. Nd3 a4 49. Kf2 a3 50. Nc1 Ke5 0-1
Position 3
[Site "Tromso NOR"]
[Date "2013.08.20"]
[Round "4.4"]
[White "Le, Quang Liem"]
[Black "Svidler, Peter"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A31"]
[Annotator "Comparison"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2rr4/pp3kb1/2n5/3bPpp1/4P3/2B3P1/PP4B1/1K1R3R w - - 0 23"]
[PlyCount "32"]
[EventDate "2013.08.11"]
[WhiteTeam "Montenegro"]
[BlackTeam "Montenegro"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "MNE"]
[BlackTeamCountry "MNE"]
fxe4 27. Bh3 $18) 24. e6+ $1 $18) 23... Nxe5 $1 24. Rh7 Rxc3 25. bxc3 Kg6 $16
26. Rhh1 Bf8 27. Rde1 Bd6 28. Kc2 g4 29. Re3 Rc8 30. Bf1 Rc5 31. Rh8 Rxd5 32.
Rd8 Kf6 33. Kb3 Bc5 34. Rxd5 Bxe3 35. Rd6+ Ke7 36. Rd5 Kf6 37. Rd6+ Ke7 38. Rd5
Kf6 1/2-1/2
