 And welcome to this very special event, Jib Chess Battle of the Sexes 2022. It's round two, and we are live from the Garrison Library in the heart of Gibraltar, one of the oldest and most important heritage sites in Gibraltar for this wonderful event where we have, if this is the first time you're joining us, two teams, 10 men, 10 women, some of the best players in the world fighting it out for a prize fund for £100,000. The winning team gets £75,000, the losing team gets £25,000. So it's all to play for here. We had an amazing day yesterday, lots of drama, lots of very interesting games. And today I'm joined by Irina again. Thanks for coming, Irina. I'm looking forward to today as well so much. You came a bit later in the day, but the games were fantastic. Yeah, they were very exciting. And the women's team was pressing a lot. And I expect that today the men's team should be trying to do the same because otherwise they're in big trouble. I agree. Yesterday the women's team, they all had the white pieces and the same applies today. So the women's team have black across all boards. So the men have all got white. They need to bounce back immediately after getting a drilling yesterday, losing six and a half, three and a half. So they're down by three points already in the tournament and they don't want to get too far behind. But as I said at the start, I believe this women's team, they're motivated, they're confident, they're young, they are sharp. And I think the men's team have got a real hard job. Let's see if they can come back today. I think what we should do is have a look at the pairings and see exactly what we've got going on. So let's discuss a board one. We've got Bobby Cheng, the Australian Grandmaster, playing Olga Giria. Now Olga had a fantastic game yesterday. She beat Joe Gallagher, it wasn't even close. What do you expect about this game today? Well, I know Olga to be a very solid player who has very good opening preparation. So I think that she has a good chance to equalize from the opening. So Bobby will have to work really hard or had to work really hard in his preparation. And I'm very curious if he will be able to surprise her because if not, then okay, Olga will be solid. She will, yeah. She's a very, very tough player to beat. So let's see if Bobby comes up with something interesting to cause Olga problems. Sabino Brunello playing Marcel Efroimski. Now again, Sabino yesterday suffering a really disappointing loss in many ways, but he had a rough position and really it was the correct result. And he's playing Marcel who had probably the wildest game yesterday beating Eric Rosen. How do you expect Sabino to do today? Will he bounce back? Well, I think he definitely will try his best to do so. And well, Marcel is a very aggressive player unlike Olga, that is my feeling. And well, I expect that to be a really wild game. Okay, let's see. Leandro Cresa, the Argentinian grandmaster playing Pierre Kramling. Pierre, another victor yesterday. Fantastic victory against Bilal. Playing Leandro Cresa who's a solid, decent grandmaster. What do you think about this one? I think this is a very solid matchup basically. Yeah, I agree. I have played against Leandro myself a few times. And when I was playing the black pieces, I was in a bit of trouble out of the opening and he was pressing me the whole game. But let's see if he can do the same against Pierre who is amazingly experienced. And I really admire her for what she's doing. She's so strong. She really is. Eric Rosen against Ivanka Huska. Now, both of these guys lost yesterday. So Eric lost and Ivanka was the only casualty of the women's team. Eric with white today. I have to say my opinion about this one. I think Eric has got a good chance today. He needs to bounce back. It's a good opponent for Eric. He's a tricky player. He gets very complicated positions and he's quite a good tactician. So I think Ivanka has to keep it solid today if she's going to not... And she's at the board already. Look at that. She's there getting herself mentally prepared. A real professional. Do you know, does Eric start with the epon? Because then I can make bets on what will be Ivanka's first move. I actually don't know. I think he probably does. She's a Karakhan player, right? Yes, I think it's the favorite opening of hers and she wrote a book about it. I think she is one of the experts in it. At least in the women's chess, definitely. Look at her there getting composed, getting ready. Quite fantastic to see her taking chess so seriously. Of course, many people know Ivanka from commentating on the Meltwater chess tour but she is a great player in her own right. So let's see how she does today. Now, the next matchup, there's a new name in the mix. Now, it's written Gillian, but I believe it's pronounced Gillian, like the English, yeah, like Gillian Anderson, for example. So it's Gillian Bualia against Irene Sukanda. Now, Irene, fantastic victory against Brunello. Gillian, I have to say, I know very little about him. Yes, the same goes for me. I don't know him well, but we'll see what he's got today because, well, Irene is definitely on fire after yesterday's win. And I think it's very important when you get the first win in the first round, then you get some sort of confidence and optimism. Let's see how Gillian will do against it. Yep, agreed. Next game and another new name. We've got Balash Chonka. That's, I was corrected by Balash yesterday, so excuse me for my pronunciation, but the C-S in Hungarian is like a C, so it's Balash Chonka against Nino Batziasvili. Nino, who is the reserve player coming in today, Grandmaster from Georgia, very experienced, very, very solid player. Don't forget, don't forget that some years ago she made a draw against Magnus Carlsen himself in a classical game. That was at Isle of Man, was it? Yeah, in the Isle of Man. Or was it Qatar? Or maybe it was Qatar, actually, maybe it was Qatar. Yeah, in any case, Nino, great player, playing Black today. Chonka played pretty well yesterday though, so he looks like a pretty decent player, young guy. So that's gonna be interesting, very difficult to predict that one. Definitely. Hussain Aziz, now Hussain had a really nice game yesterday, playing the Black side of a Berlin against Gunai Mamazzada, and he had really no problems. And in fact, in some moment, it felt like he might even be able to press. And now he's playing Gunai's best friend at least at this tournament, Jean-Claire Abdomalek, they hang out all the time. And Hussain with the white pieces today, so do we expect a similar story, a solid opening and a solid game? I don't think so, actually. Do you know what is Jean-Claire's nickname among us chess players? No idea. The Little Beast. The Little Beast, there you go. And that says everything. She's dangerous, energetic, and I think she's gonna go and try to get the win today, even with the Black pieces. All right, let's see. Joe Gallagher playing Maria Muzichuk, that's the next pairing up. Joe Gallagher had a really tough loss just against Olga Gira. I spoke to Joe, he's not feeling so great, didn't sleep so well, feeling a bit meh. So it's a tough pairing again for Joe, playing white, even with white, it against the super well-prepared Maria. Joe is not a classically solid player, I would say. He enjoys playing chess and he enjoys getting interesting positions. I think this is a tough game for Joe. It wouldn't surprise me if Maria won today. Yeah, it is never easy to play against an ex-world champion, right? Yeah, exactly. Indeed. Okay, next game. Bilal Belassina against Gunai Mamadzada. Bilal with a tough loss yesterday against Pia. He'll be looking to bounce back. He plays a lot of interesting stuff. I think this is actually quite a difficult game for Gunai. Right. Actually, yeah. And they are both very young and tactical players and I've noticed about Gunai that she's doing very well under pressure and somehow it motivates her to give it all. I played against her a few times and every time I thought she was in trouble getting under one minute on the clock, she just found fantastic moves. Well, she's extremely, there she is on the camera there, young, talented, full of enthusiasm, very professional. The sky is the limit for her, in my opinion. I think she's got the ability to be a very strong 2500 plus grandmaster and start challenging for the top spots in the women's game. And here we see the first move, the honorary first move for today. Jennifer, the director of the Garrison Library, actually making the first move. And believe it or not, I got to meet her in the opening ceremony and here's a fun fact. She was a teacher at Lancaster University where I studied in the years I was there in the history department. She's originally from Gibraltar, she came back. I'm sure we'll talk about that on stream, but she just, it was just pure coincidence that, I mean, in the history department, I was doing languages and politics. They were very close to each other. I mean, she was, so we would have met each other 20 years ago, randomly or seen each other, and now we're here again in Gibraltar. It's a small world. Yeah, and Chesa brings us all together once again. It does, indeed, yes. And the last game that we haven't talked about, Ravi Haria, England's newest grandmaster against Marie Sebag, oof, two of the most solid people in this tournament, I would say, I mean, Ravi's super solid, Marie, also a solid player nowadays, I would say, looks like that's gonna be a solid affair. Of course, we wanna hear from you guys. We've got the YouTube chat open, so we'll be having a look. If you wanna use Twitter as well, we'll try and have a look at that as well. Please be kind and nice in the chat as always and keep it chess-related. No politics, nothing like that. We wanna talk about the games today. We've got just a couple of minutes before kickoff. Now, the big question, of course, we're gonna have to do this every day, Irina. What do you predict today in the total score of the match today? Well, my belief in the women's team is very, very high. So I think it will be an even match. Okay, you think it's gonna be 5-5? 5-5 today? Yeah. Okay, interesting. I'm gonna go for the boys today. They've got the white pieces. There are a few specific matches that I think are tricky, like, for example, Bilal playing white. I think Gunai is gonna be in for a tough match today and Bobby playing white, I think, could cause some problems. So I'm gonna go for a very modest plus two for the guys. I'm going 6-4 for the guys today. All right, let's see who gets it right. I've gotta support my brothers. We are brothers in arms. Even though I think the women are gonna win the event overall, today I think it's a small bounce back. And as I say, the game's kicking off in just a moment, actually, which here we've got a shot of the tournament hall. And Irene adjusting her pieces. We have Jillian there and the bottom left, the new face. John Saunders in the middle taking photos and they are off and we will be receiving the moves any second now. It is such a beautiful venue they are playing in. It really is. It's just amazing. I've never played in such a playing hall, did you? I have played, the nearest thing I've played to is this, is when I had the, and this was probably my biggest honor for a tournament was playing in Simpsons in the Strand in London. Simpsons is a restaurant, but it used to be in the 19th century like a social club for the aristocrats and the elites. And it's where the immortal game took place. Oh really? I believe so. Anderson's immortal game, I believe, was played in Simpsons in the Strand. I'm probably gonna get killed if I got that wrong and I've had a brain freeze, but I think it was there. And you've got all the chess memorabilia, so you've got the pieces. You've got, I think, some stuff from Morphe visited and various other geniuses of the time. And upstairs, we played in a tournament in a kind of similar, it had a similar vibe, old aristocrat sort of antique English vibe with chandeliers and all of that. How did your tournament go there? Did you feel extra energy from the playing hall? It was interesting because I got to play a few legends. I played Timon. I played Kourtchnoy and some other top grandmasters. I did okay. I think I could have done a lot better. I was winning against Timon and I had a draw against Kourtchnoy and I lost both. Oh, and did Kourtchnoy tell you that you are a bad player, you know, or you played a bad game because of his style? You know what, the game was so long and he was really old at that point anyways. I mean, this was sort of over 10 years ago. But he did not say that. Afterwards, he discussed the game with you and if Kourtchnoy discussed the game with you, it means he's got respect for you. It's a huge compliment. So he discussed the game, we looked at variations and that was enough for me. Wow. So that's the similar vibe I've got from this tournament. But I think a lot of these guys won't have played in an event or in a playing hall like this. So let's see if it inspires them today. Where should we go first? I'm gonna let you choose, Irina, which game do you want to see first? Let's start with the game of Bilal against Gunai because I see it started really sharp with the Nidorf. I know that Gunai's favorite opening for Black is the Nidorf because as I said, she's a very aggressive player and it suits her very well. I actually played the Nidorf against her myself with Black pieces and I got in trouble. I got in trouble in that game and let's see if Bilal will be able to do better. Okay, so Bilal goes for a system that is seen, I would say far less nowadays compared to maybe 10 or 20 years ago. The move should be too. Very solid system, the classical setup. Of course, against the Nidorf, any move is basically possible and that's not really an exaggeration. Pretty much every single move has been played. Right, even H4. Maybe this move, exactly. Even H4 became a3, became a3, Queen d3. Any move you want to play is playable in the Nidorf but Bilal decides to go for the classical, Bishop e2, pawn to e5 by Black hitting the knight. And now you've got a choice. Where do you put the knight? Do you want to put it on f3 or on b3? Well, the idea is quite the same, I think, for White after both moves that, well, Black has played e5 so White's strategy is to get the d5 square. So the knight wants at some point to go knight e2, knight c4, knight e3 and try to get the control over d5. Right. Well, in this game, he did go knight b3. Bishop, Zada played Bishop e7, castles, Zada castled. And now we see another common idea in these systems Bilal plays the move. Queen to d3, a very flexible move. The idea is, of course, to first vacate, perhaps the rook from f1 can go to d1 or this one, putting pressure down the d-file. And sometimes the queen can also have some flexibility across the third rank. Moves like Queen g3, Bishop h6, suddenly come into mind. And also the queen from d3 is now controlling the d5 square in event of White's playing knight d2 and then knight c4. So it makes sense that Black would probably play Bishop to e6 because knight d2 is a strategical threat here. And now after knight d2, Black already has d5. So, yeah, White will have probably to prepare it first. So after Bishop e6, the standard move here, for example, also would be Bishop g5, right? Trying to exchange and then Black has got a choice, can put the knight on d7 to be able to recapture on f6 with the knight. Exactly. I don't know the theory on this. This is not, I'm not a specialist in this line at all. So, I guess. I'm playing it with Black. You're playing it a lot with Black. So is this a theoretical position here? Yes, it is. Well, queen d3 is not the most usual move. Okay. White has instead some ideas with King h1 and then a 4 or with Bishop e3, queen d2, rook d1, rook c1. Yeah, I've been on the part of playing Black for many times here. And the problem is that you never want to trade the light pieces so that you remain with the dark-squared Bishop against one of White's knight. Because then it is a forever-worse position. White will have a fantastic knight on d5. So many times when White will play Bishop g5, Black can go away with the knight. Let's say if Black has already played knight d7, knight b6, the other knight can go to d7 or even to e8 because you really want to trade that dark-squared Bishop from the seven. Okay, interesting strategic battle they're going on then. Let us go to, well, I've seen a game. A lot of people in the chat are asking for Eric Rosen. So let's have a look at what Eric has done against Ivanka who's good. Wow, what is this? Well, this is a line I know just a little bit about. So let's have a look. So Ivanka did play the Karakhan as expected and Eric has played the two-knights defense against the Karakhan, d6, e4, knight, e4 and now the move knight of six. This variation got very popular. The main line against the two-knights for years was the move Bishop g4. That is still kind of the main line but why does come up with some interesting ideas in that variation? So a lot of top players are resorting to the, what I would call the oldish way of playing with knight to f6 and the claim is that after knight takes f6, either g takes f6 or more commonly e takes f6, why does got a worse version of a main line? I think it's not what's it called? Not the Karpov, forget the name now of this variation of the Karakhan. Somebody will point it out in chat for me. The reason why this is a worse version is because the knight has already been deployed to f3 and just to illustrate, I'll try to avoid doing this too much today but in these variations in the Karakhan with knight f6 after takes and takes, a lot of the time what white tries to do is leave the knight on g1, oops. And then play knight e2, knight e3, no? Exactly, or just use the knight on e2 where it's a bit more flexible. It can go knight e2, knight e3, sometimes you can play bishop f4 after you've castled and so on. So the claim here is that if you play knight f6 you've got a slightly less flexible version which is why in this position here white played the main move which is the move queen e2. Now for all of you slightly newer players out there you don't want to play a la Karpov, knight bd7 here because of the move, knight d6 checkmate, a bit embarrassing. We are not going to see it in this tournament. We are not. Now interestingly here in this position Yvanga played one of the other main moves which is to, sorry, to take on e4 first, queen takes e4 and now a newish move I will say in this variation which is to go queen a5. I've never seen it before. I have seen it. In fact, I think somebody played. I think queen d5 instead, no? Exactly, the main move for a long time was queen d5 after which white now sidesteps with queen f4 and after queen f5 to actually come back to e3. I remember there was a very nice game. I believe it was Katerina Lachno, won in this against Valentina Gunina if I'm not wrong in the Russian women's championship and she just sacrificed two points. It was a really, really nice game for white. I've had a few games like this. In fact, somebody in chat can probably Google it. I can't remember if I played against this exact move against, who was it? It's some top Dutch player. But what is the idea of it? Well, the idea is you want to go bishop f5 quickly against this queen and again I can't remember if I had this exact position. I think I did have this position. I'm just going slightly insane and I think in that game I went bishop c4 and now if you go bishop f5, I think you can just go queen e2 and you don't worry about a move like bishop takes c2 because after 95, threatening here, if black goes e6, you have to be worried about this move already which can win. As I say, I'm suffering from a long-term brain fog so I can't remember if I had this position. I vaguely remember that I did. In any case, Eric played a move after two minutes which is very interesting indeed, which is just to go b4. Now, this is actually very logical after what happened in the game because it went queen f5 trying to exchange queens, Eric played queen e3 and indeed, Ivanka played queen e6 and we get a very similar position to what we just saw here. The difference is that white has got an extra temper with b4 and is able to play the move bishop b2 which is exactly what Eric played. And now the point is after queen takes e3, f takes e3, we get this position here. What a unusual position for the current hand. Very unusual. Yeah, very unusual, but I had something similar against international master Simon Ansel years ago and I got a very nice position here with white because the pressure along this diagonal is good. You've now got a semi-open f file but I really like Ivanka's last move. It is a very nice, strategical move. Yes. She wants to play e5 and build up this pawn chain exactly to stop white's bishop from b2, putting any pressure on g7 and then it will be unclear what is that bishop doing on that diagonal. Black wants to play e5, the pawn on b4 will be hanging. White will probably have to play a3. Yeah. And then black can even think about some a5 moves, no? Absolutely, yeah, you can. So I really do like this move. Now, I guess a big question is in this position, does Eric ever want to play the move pawns at e4? I know it looks ugly. No, no, I don't like it. I know it looks ugly, but it does achieve one thing insofar as it prevents e5. Well, maybe it doesn't, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I mean, maybe black can think about e5 anyway, but we get a very muddy position after takes, takes. King has to go to f2 probably. This probably is good for black after f takes e5 and castles. I mean, my structure has been destroyed, so I don't like d4, it was just a flash in the pan move, but we can't prevent e5 then. So how do you proceed here with white? Maybe you should go a4 here with white, anticipating e5 and then play b5. Yes, I like the idea of playing b5, trying to attack on the queen side, but still, I believe black should be completely fine. Let's say moves like bishop to d6 because with white you don't really want to take on c6 because after knight takes, then you just develop one of black's pieces and what have you achieved? Well, you can go bishop c4 here, stopping castling, right? So for the moment, at least. And then let's say king e7, preparing bishop to e6. I really like black's position. It's very solid and very good. I really do like the move f6, so I'm very curious. Maybe, I don't know how ambitious Eric is gonna be here. I think he's gonna have a good think though because this is a kind of critical moment where he needs to decide if he wants to do something crazy and knowing Eric, he probably does, or if he wants to do something calm. Right. Let's move on to another game and I can see, let's go to something that looks mildly exciting. Well, ah, we've got a variation that I know a lot about. How about that? Let's go there. Ravi Haria playing Mari Sabag. Now Ravi has decided to play. Bishop b5 check. Bishop b5 check, Sicilian. Mari block with the bishop takes, takes. Now yesterday we saw the move c4 by Marcel but today Ravi's gone for the line that I played dozens of times. It was kind of for the old theory. It used to be very popular, so White's idea was to play c3, d4 and I think he did play that after... Yeah, it went knight c6, pawn to c3, knight to f6 and now for years I was playing the move rook to e1 followed by d4 with some really good results. It's been analyzed a bit deeper now so Black is doing fine but Ravi goes for the alternative which is queen's e2 and after pawn to e6 to get this big center with d4, c takes, d4, c takes, d4 and we have this position here. Now, White has got the center. If White is allowed to just bring pieces out normally you're gonna be doing well. So Black tends to play the move pawn to d5 here after which White now... Must play e5 now. Plays e5. The knight tends to come into e4 and then White tries to challenge this knight with a move like knight to c3 or more commonly actually the move knight to d2. The reason why White plays knight to d2 more than knight to c3 is actually because this is a bit of an illusion that this is a strong structure for White because this pawn is a backwards pawn on a c-file. The rook often comes to c8. The knight also has a beautiful spot here and Black is very solid. So White tends to put the knight on d2 and after knight takes d2, bishop takes d2 to play this position here the rook can come over to c1 very quickly. It reminds me of the game played between Magnus Carlsen and Jan Kyshtov-Duda in the World Cup where Magnus actually lost it with White in a very similar structure. I think he went for a king-side attack but got in trouble on the queen side. That's right. And that's actually Black's idea of the counter play in these types of position to play, let's say, bishop e7, short castle, then rook f2, c8 and then try to double on the c-file and White will have to either agree to trade pieces on the c-file or to try to come up with an attack on the king-side. Indeed, indeed. And things can get very interesting. Now I can see from the video that something has happened to it. Bishop takes d2, I think we've got this position, bishop e7 and now Ravi very quickly played the move g3 showing some home preparation. This is a very interesting move. The idea is that, well, sometimes the king actually sits nicely on g2, but it's not just that. It's to be able to play the move h4. Is it the alpha-zero move? I think so. It could very well be. Ravi uses the engines a lot. And after h4, this move is very useful in this particular structure because sometimes you are gonna run the pawn up the board in alpha-zero style. And if Black ever tries to react in the center with a move like f6, I wonder if in this position, if White can just take, and after bishop takes f6, even potentially put the bishop on c3, trying to control e5, and it's a battle over this e5 square. Right. Also, after f6, White could maybe play bishop f4. Also. Is it possible? Yes. Although after takes, I was wondering if I can just take. I probably can't. Now, what did you take with the bishop on e5? Ah. I wanna take with the bishop. I'm not sure if it is right, but I would love to have a knight against a bishop in this position with the weak e5 square. But maybe Black is fine after some bishop f6 or bishop d6. Yeah. Feels a little bit strange to do this, but yeah, maybe, maybe all right. But in any case, Ravi will be fully prepared against this f6 break because the problem Black has is if you don't play f6, if you just play a move like, as you said, with rook fc8, it's actually very difficult to get something going. For example, here, let's say I play a3. You can't play knight a5 because I've got the bishop here. You can't play knight b4. So, you then have to try moves like queen to d8 to try and play knight a5. But now, White might start some operations on the king side. For example, let's say I go rook a to d1. Knight to a5. And now I'm going to try knight g5. You want me to play h6. Yeah, and if you go h6, pretty sure the computer will just say that this is okay for White. Really? Yeah. No, I can't believe this kind of sacrifice can work. What if I take? Okay. And g6. Okay, let's say queen, are you going to put, yeah, your knight is still on pre, so I have a tempo. Let's go here. Bishop to f8. Yeah, but you're getting mated. Bishop g7. Yeah, I've got bishop b4, though. That is the trick. You should play it immediately. Yeah, and then I put it on d6. Wait, wait, wait. Then I play, instead of bishop g7, knight to c6. Trying to be smart. That might work. Even these weird positions, I mean, I've cracked a few of these myself, like with the computer. Even these are not, like even this, let me just explain this position here. If I go, I don't know, like rook h4. Let's just say I go bishop e3. Is this losing? It's a bit difficult to untangle because the bishop on g7 is hanging, but I guess, oh, I wanted to say 97, but then I saw that you can play g4, right? Yeah, I play g4. And then I can go rook here and rook here and bring this rook, and this is a very unrefined version of all of this. This is just one idea, but I just know having worked these positions before, even here after knight g5, if you go h6, I might more, another common move is just to go knight h3 here with the idea of queen g4 on the next. Sorry, queen g4, and then threatening this. So if you come in. Rook c2, let's say. So rook c2, queen g4, let's say. King to h. Yeah, and then you get in trouble with some bishop c3 sometimes. And my rook will be trapped. But you've got bishop takes a3, so it's definitely not clear, but even here, just to illustrate, now I could, for example, go queen h5, and I'm threatening stuff and... Yeah, it's interesting. I didn't know about this plan. Yeah, it looks like Ravi is very well prepared. Wouldn't surprise me. I don't know exactly what happened in the game, because I'm not getting a refresh, but it will come. So we'll check back in with that game in a short while. All right, very interesting. Where to next? Let's see. Where should we go? Let's check maybe the Little Beasts game. The Little Beasts. Jean-Claire Abdoumalik. That's a great name. Yeah, I really love it. I can't see her game anywhere. Is this one? No. Let's see. Hold on, I'm going to do it the correct way. Right. I'm going to do it the right way. Here we go. Okay, the Little Beasts. And you see a Grunfeld. Yeah, so we got a Grunfeld. Oh, with this trendy move, knight d2, which a lot of players are playing. A lot of top players are playing this move. Do you know about this move? I have played it once myself. Oh, okay. The idea is to go for e4 and try to somehow get into a pirk. And that's why I guess black played d5 in order not to allow it. But then somehow we get more closed pawn structures. And probably this is what Hussain wanted to achieve. Yeah, exactly. Like knight bd2. And indeed, Abdomalic did play d5, not allowing e4. And now he went with c4, which is interesting. And after bishop to g7, you can take on d5 and go e4. So you get a Grunfeld, but with this knight on d2. Is it good? Yeah, it's a good question. I thought that white was supposed not to go cxd5. I'm not sure, but I'm... Could be. Not a big expert on the Grunfeld, but it feels so that after cxd5, you somehow indeed, like you said, you go to the same Grunfeld structures, but with the knight on d2, and it really wanted to be on c3 instead. Exactly. So cxd5, knight, cxd5, e4, and knight b6. And just to compare this, so it's visually okay for the people at home, you can get a Grunfeld main, something like this, where, of course, black always takes here, but if black goes here, this is a much better looking version compared to the position we've got on the board, because this knight is so misplaced. And Hussein, understanding this, tries to resolve that problem immediately by playing the move knight b3. And I guess this is the interesting point of the variation because the knight on b3 protects d4, and it also prevents black's standard Grunfeld push with the move pawn to c5. So I actually very much like this idea. And Abdumalik now tries, which looks like a critical or very interesting move, a5, trying to push this knight away. Challenge the knight, right. Yeah, and Hussein just says, I'm not worried about anything. Bishop e3, she castled, and bishop e2. And my question to you is, why can't I play a4 here? What's the idea? I guess that white wants to go back. Knight d2, because knight c5 would probably be met by knight a2 d7. So that knight just made a lot of moves and will still have to go away or be traded. Right. So probably knight to d2. I'm not sure. How is this position? I think I like black here because now at points I can play even knight c6 and then try to provoke white to play d5, then go knight a5, and try to attack the central pawn on d5 by playing either e6 or c6. Not sure how that is. I really like the dark squared bishop on the long diagonal and combined with the pawn on a4, I can hope for some a3s at some points. I agree. I like black here. I mean, this looks like a great initiative spot for black. You can go a3. You can probably still go c5 under the right circumstances. I mean, I don't know if you can do it here exactly, but you might be able to prepare it. You can even try moves like f5 here as black. Wow. Yes. And the bishop on e3 is in trouble. So you can't go e5 because of f4 losing the bishop. And white lost a lot of tempests on this knight maneuvers. So the knight went to d2 to b3, then back to d2. I'm not a fan of it. Black is already ahead in development. Yeah. I'm a bit worried about Hussain's position. I think f5 is a serious idea here, actually. Even though white has a healthy structure in the center and all the pieces are centrally placed, somehow it feels that they are overcrowding their little bit, right? Exactly. So we'll see. We'll see what Chancellor comes up with now. Let's move on to another game. And where should we go next? You can choose, Irina, which of these games that we haven't seen. Let's check Irina's game as she was one of the stars of yesterday's match winning a very nice game against Sabino Brunello. Let's see how she's doing today. Okay, she's playing Gillian Wallier. So... We see Animzo. Animzo with e3. The classical one. d5, 9g2 e2, c5, short castle, 9c6. Yeah, this has been played many times. Is this your repertoire? Yes, it is. Yeah, this is. Okay, good. I'll let you talk about this position. This is more your cup of tea, so... All right, so I generally like a lot these positions for black because many times we get those kind of pan-off structure or, let's say, isolated pawn structures after some trades of pawns in the center. And the problem is for white that the knight on e2 is not ideally placed if you want to play an isolated pawn structure. It would be much better on f3 controlling the e5 square. On e2, it's not that great. And I guess that's why white shouldn't go for those isolated pawn structures and try some a3 instead, trying to get the pair of bishops. Exactly, a3 and now black has got a lot of options. If I remember, you can take, you can go here. Maybe you can even go here. Although, no, maybe this one... I don't know, this one must also be possible where something like this... Yeah, this is the structure white wants to get. Because then, all right, black will try to make e5 happen and white will aim for some king-side attack by moves like knight g3, e4, queen c2, e4. The idea is to prepare basically e4 by playing also bishop to b2, then rook d1 and somehow try to open up the position for the pair of bishops. So I'm very curious. Ah, and we see already a3 on the board. This is, I believe, the first critical moment of the game where black has to decide which structure to go to. Is bishop a5 possible? Can black sacrifice the pawn on c5? I'm not sure. I don't seem to remember this theory. Probably not. Yeah, it shouldn't be possible. I expect the moves are either dxc4 or bishop takes c3 immediately after which white will take with the pawn most likely. Yes, and then we will see exactly the structure we discussed before. Yeah, this one here. Classical structure. Very interesting how the game will develop. Indeed. Which game to move to now? Let's go to... Sabino Brulano playing Marcel. Fromsky Sabino, the captain of the men's team. So we see the London system. Bishop to f4. So fashionable in the last few years, right? Very, yeah, very, very fashionable and very, very good. I mean, very, very sound. It's a good opening. It can be played by improving players all the way to elite players, because you get so many similar structures and so many of the ideas are applicable regardless of what black plays, and that's why it's arguably the most popular system at amateur level. But as some of the top guys, including Magnus Carlsen, have shown, it's a serious weapon for strategic battle at top level, and Magnus has had fantastic success with it over the past few years, so... And Marcel went for one of the most solid systems, d5, e6, knight f6, and now she's trying to trade the bishops. Well, the challenge will be for black to open up the bishop from c8 or to find a good place for it. Many times it can be achieved by playing b6 and then bishop to a6, because it seems like black will probably not be able to play e5 in the near future to open the other diagonal. Exactly. So, well, I mean, she completed development first of her king, bishop d3, and now actually she went for c5 immediately, which is actually slightly more rare, because now white is able to take on c5, and after bishop takes c5, white claims that black has spent two moves in order to recapture back on c5. But will white be able to stop black from preparing e5? Because I guess it's black's idea that now that the pawn is not anymore on d4, white doesn't have that good of a control over the e5 square. So, in the game it was played short castle, now knight b2 d7, exactly preparing rook e8 or queen e7 and then e5. Yeah, and the question is, can white play e4 here? Well, white seems like the move to play. Right. Because now, well, you've claimed your stake in the center, you might be threatening e5 yourself as white. For example, if b6, you can go e5, and the problem is you've got to be very careful about playing knight h5, because you start to run into ideas like bishop takes h7 and knight g5. Now, I don't know if this actually works, if black has got some miracle king g6 here. Queen g4. But queen g4 might already be good. And on knight 6 f4, knight 6 e6 check is going to win the... it's actually mate. And it's a very similar position to the one which we saw in the game of Ravi versus Marie, but here white has also the light-squared bishop which will help attacking on the queens... on the kingside, sorry, if we are able to play e5. Exactly. So I guess black has to take on e4, no? So you take on e4, I play knight takes e4. Now I take again. And now I take... And knight to f6. That's your idea, yeah. I just want to trade as many pieces as possible and try to liquidate to an equalish end game, no? Yeah. For example, after queen takes d8, rook takes d8. I would love to be able to keep this bishop on this long diagonal and keep the two bishops, but I can't. Oops, I'm really managing to a mouse slip everywhere. In fact, bishop g5 is the move I was thinking of here for white. That's unexpected. And after if you block, I was just contemplating whether... but it's really not very much. Rook b8. The bishop comes out. You might even get in trouble here because black can start some plans with b5 and b4 and that dark-squared bishop will be looking great on the long diagonal. I agree. And that's the reason why Sabino has yet to play e4 because he's looking at this exact variation. So what else can you play? You could play with c4 here in this position where the e5 push is more difficult. This is at least something to bear in mind. I like c4 better than the e4 push because now, if I will play e5 at any point I have always to consider cxd5 and actually cxd5 might already be a threat. Black might play some knight b6 but not sure if it's the right spot for the knight. It looks a bit offside this knight here. I have to say. Not a huge fan of that move. I was saying that you can even go for a knight e5 after knight to b6 and it's not the greatest move this knight b6. I think there's a good chance to be in a place c4 here actually because you can also follow up with a3 b4 if you're lucky and get a more classical queen's gambit structure. Yeah, queen's gambit, exactly. Yeah. Let's see how the game will develop. Should we go to Bobby Ching against Olga Gira? I don't think we've been there yet. Yeah, let's check it. Okay, so we have a Catalan mainline and Bobby Ching now plays knight c3 which is a lot of these sidelines. Yesterday we saw b3 and now we're seeing knight c3. It's a very aggressive move, no? Yes. I mean, white wants black to take on c4 and then have all kind of ideas with knight e5, e4 and trying to get the control in the center and claim that the pawn that black has isn't enough compensation for the control that white gets in the center. Exactly. Knight to c6 now? Knight to c6 was played and in this position here this is an interesting move a lot of people will be looking at this saying this is a crazy move but it's actually one of the most popular ideas for black in these systems with knight e5. The reason being that if you take like this if you take c6 black can go rook b8 And now basically black solved the problem of the bad bishop on c8 and he can play bishop to b7 and if we managed to trade those bishops then black will be doing fine will follow up with c5 and white won't have enough time to claim an advantage because of our doubled pawn on the c-file. Correct. Exactly. So instead white in this position played bishop to c6 which is the main way of playing the point is that after b takes and knight takes you now fork here and now when the queen comes to e8 you take take and we reach a very famous looking position But there is a big difference with the knight being on c3 because I used to see these types of position with the knight on b1 and then white can start to attack the c4 pawn. But here I am not sure isn't it a better version for black? I'm not entirely sure because the way Bobby has played he's playing these moves really fast. Very fast. So he's in book I guess the idea is that white Aren't you afraid of the control I will get over the light long diagonal after bishop b7 let's say castles that white always has the move pawn to f3 and that's one of the key ideas in this line 2. Try and restrict both of these pieces sometimes you can put the bishop on e3 and if you collect the pawn on c4 you will be a pawn up and then you try and make something work there and we've had some moves because so queen a4 trying to win this pawn immediately Olga now played knight to d5 we couldn't find a way to save it and after queen takes c4 played very interesting move the move pawn to a5 here very very interesting stuff And I noticed that black also plays the moves quite quickly probably Olga is still in book and well as I was saying she's a very well prepared player she might know a bit more than Bobby here because I think he took 24 minutes to play is it possible? Yeah queen takes c4 he spent 24 minutes I guess that's yeah I can see here he's got 57 minutes on his clock so he maybe was surprised by knight d5 maybe here the main move is either c5 or to play e5 trying to break open the position and get this bishop but Olga apparently surprised him with the move knight d5 and after queen takes c4 to play d5 which is clearly looking to go bishop a6 very quickly queen will be in trouble there on c4 Right exactly and the question then is what actually happened after a5 because I can see a few moves but wait it is a sort of a sacrifice I can take it looks very dangerous to take the pawn on d5 maybe here some bishop a6 is the idea and if bishop a3 you have queen b4 Yeah I have some queen b4 I was thinking maybe even to bring the rook but yeah maybe then a5 is hanging I've got to be a little bit careful but there's got to be some idea here by black bishop g4 is in a similar vein What about c6? c6 Well it is a very primitive way to trap but I mean now for example queen c5 Maybe it's a bit slow Yeah it's a little bit it doesn't feel great it feels like you should be moving the bishop here In any case after a5 it seems as though a very strange move was played by by bobby he played the move queen c5 from what I can see offering the exchange of queens and Olga didn't hesitate she took took here now causing double pawns and bishop a6 I don't see how this is anything but a huge success for Olga Giriya who has got no problems now I also think that bobby has got no problems here realistically speaking but I think it's not so easy for black still because I can play a move like bishop to f4 now the idea is to provoke black to play c6 and then I have very good control over the b8 square and I can try to somehow use it for my rooks like rook b1, rook b6 and you know I generally think that this I think this runs into attack here Unfortunately yes that's the problem and after bishop e5 e8 and the e2 pawn will be hanging Yeah and you cannot allow this because you can't go here because of this check and if you come here well it's just very ugly with the rooks disconnected there's normally a way to punish here probably these is ways just to double the rooks and then start to search for ways in you've got ideas like this I fail to believe that that white can survive a position like this seems almost impossible so that's why I was kind of optimistic about Olga's position and if bishop f4 doesn't work then white isn't really full of ideas here Yeah because if black will just take control over the open files by rook b8 and rook d8 white should be white better for reasons to claim that Exactly you can't fill the extra pawn it's doubled Yeah the bishop can sit on e4 you can play e5 f6 restricting this bishop I see absolutely no problems here for Olga I think she's going to do just fine in this position and she has a huge advantage on the clock Yeah huge Alright now let us play this game yet this is the game Balachonka against Nino So we'll go straight there It seems that it was a jokopiano Yup jokopiano with a6 so Nino playing in the way that I always played this position which was with the pawn on a6 and not on a5 so it's a bit more old school c3 pawn to a4 here by white again playing typical idea restricting black on the queen side bishop a7 rook e1 castle is h3 bishop e6 all been seen many times before Yeah my feeling is that black is doing fine in all these positions even though they are still trying to prove that white has some sort of a small edge I believe it is it is difficult to prove because well of course white will want to play on the queen side trying to play b4 and b5 getting some space there but black will have the counter play over the f file the queen may come to g6 queen a8 queen g6 it's a double edged position I believe now I think so yeah it is and after fx e3 well I'm not interested in you having this bishop so I'm going to try and challenge it immediately more ideas here for black for example to play knight h5 knight a4 you've just got to be a little bit careful but now that the queen is protecting this h5 square you can play this move and it's really interesting because it looks like it might be quite dangerous but if you look at games of vishi or Sergei Kyakin they manage to do quite well here with white for example they take they put the king on h2 they put the knight on f1 and just say so what they remember a really nice move which I saw many times in these types of positions for white so white can play at some point d4 and then go for rook a3 do you know this move that it's trying to somehow defend f3 getting ready for black to take on d4 and at times we can play some rook b3 ok maybe not exactly in this position but in similar ones yeah I think we will see a very interesting battle here and I've noticed that somebody in the chat was saying that gentlemen never take the enemy queen and gentlemen never fight women do you agree? no fight them and take all their queens trust me because it's gonna end up very bad I've got a terrible record against women really? I get killed by all the women here just all destroyed me does it mean that you are a true gentleman? no I am but it's not because of that reason alright no actually I think have I played that's a good question I haven't even asked in fact interestingly I've played in the battlefield except Abdul Malik who crushes me at Blitz and I've played Yovanka I've got a good score against Yovanka and I've beaten Irene actually I've got 100% but the point stands that in general against the top women players I don't have a good time I have a terrible score against some of the ladies playing here as well and the one against who I struggle the most is actually I think I lost like four games against her and one of them was played during last year's women's feeder grand prix here in Gibraltar alright okay yeah and I was having such a winning position I was having minus nine like it was unbelievable and she was you know she could take a repetition the position was completely wild I was attacking her king side my king was somewhere on seven then c6 and so on running for its life and she didn't go for the repetition I had five minutes on the clock she went under thirty seconds she didn't take the repetition and she beat me can you believe that nothing worse she's got an amazing fighting spirit yes the young players do indeed and have we missed any games I don't think so oh no Chris we haven't let's quickly check here and then I think we'll go for a small break after we check this last game I think we've checked every other one yes we have so let's have a look at Chris against Pierre Kramling the game started out as a oh this is my favorite move okay okay I will do some advertising now I'll do some advertising go for it so I've recorded a course for chessable exactly about the Bogo Indian right and I really love it I've played it many times myself and I think it's a fantastic opening and I really love that I see it played by Pierre well you can talk all about it then so the move bishop d2 I know why it can play this move or why it can play knight c3 but let's talk about the main way to block that check with bishop d2 and now a5 actually in the course I go for the older variation after bishop d2 with queen to e7 and then the idea is that after g3 which is the main line I take on d2 queen takes d2 and go for the very fashionable knight c6 move now the idea is to play knight e4 and then threaten to play queen before check and white has some problems to solve for example if he plays bishop g2 I go already for d5 oh wait not here here we can go for knight e4 right so maybe knight c3 here knight c3 exactly it's the main line and now d5 that's the sort of the idea and if white takes then I will have enough time to move away my knight from c6 not immediately after castle bishop f5 I can talk all day about these positions but Pia went for a different approach she played a5 I know that this is also one of the main moves and now after a3 she played bishop to e7 a very interesting move now knight to c3 and d5 how is this position and after bishop f4 what we actually have is we have a queens gambit declined with bishop f4 with the moves a5 and a3 included exactly how is it I'm not sure black usually goes for a5 in that queens gambit no? certainly doesn't well in those lines it just to put again to put this on the board in these queens gambit declines with bishop e7 black's main move in this position after e3 is to either play knight bd7 c6 or go c5 in one go and a5 doesn't really fit into the to the pattern so that means that given this has been played that Pia has to try something else and she does that by playing a very natural move b6 trying to f3 and kato the bishop but now after c65 e65 rook c1 you know Leandro is showing that he's got a good hold of this because now all of a sudden there's some small issues down this c4 with the bishop on a4 but from another point of view this a5 move stops white from playing b4 which is one of the main ideas in the queens gambit so it will be interesting to see who assessed correctly the position and who will prove that however a5 was good or if it was bad I'm a bit struggling to assess this position because you know here the a5 move actually can help us to play some c6 and then b5 which is quite a fashionable way to play in the queens gambit recently you know certainly is exactly what we expected here by the way it's a very strategic battle both of these players are not super aggressive they're very classical players so it will be interesting to see what we what we get in this particular game okay so we have covered all the games they're all still in progress getting nicely warmed up wait a bit did we see the game of Joe Gallagher against Maria didn't we sure oh maybe you're right actually maybe we didn't let's quickly go over this and then we'll go for our first quick breather Joe playing white plays an open Sicilian of course and the move bishop d3 okay so this is one of the main lines I know that Maria really likes to play the Sveshniko for black and it was a try to get it after knight c3 knight c6 knight b5d6 you know white could transpose to that but instead Joe chose this bishop d3 move which I'm not exactly familiar with yes so bishop d3 well of course you can just go knight c3 after which black can play knight c6 but now white has got more options because you can take and go e5 so bishop d3 is kind of common and now black again has got a number of moves you can play d6 bishop c5 Maria decides to go for knight c6 which is also a classical reply and after knight takes c6 b takes c6 Joe just castles and now the point is that e5 is a threat you can't go e5 here because queen a5 check picks up the pawn so you have to castle so now e5 is actually a serious threat which is why Maria now invests another tempo playing e5 herself bishop to e3 bishop d6 and now we see Joe playing in a very classical style with this Marocci I have very bad memories about this type of position because I played it myself with white a very similar one against Nanna Zagnitsa also in the same women's grand prix from last year I tried to get the grip in the center here and then I hoped to play f4 but actually the point is that f4 would never be good I didn't realize it because after e takes f4 bishop takes f4 there will be queen b6 coming all the dark squares will be weak and actually I got in very big trouble in that game I think it is not the way to play against the system with white yeah and in fact after bishop b7 knight c3 castles it will be interesting to see I think one idea for white is to expand very quickly on the queen so actually it was the suggestion of the engine in that game I played b4 b5 is the best plan for white here what can I say arena you impressed me you got to be a little bit careful because sometimes there is a knight g4 which is a little bit annoying so I don't know if you want to prepare it with h3 or something like that how did you get it so quickly you know what arena just can I be honest with you pure talent nothing more so modest I've seen a few of these positions before so it's pattern recognition nothing to do with talent at all because it didn't even cross my mind during that game and I was so surprised when checking afterwards analyzing the game that computer suggested this b4 b5 idea because I considered only playing on the king side with f4 right b4 b4 let's see if Joe plays it Joe as you can see on the camera there deep in thought he would really like to bounce back today and it's the sort of position I think he can enjoy so I think he's not going to be too unhappy about how things are going at the moment let's see if he finds the b4 idea yeah let's see if he plays it or what he ends up doing in fact there have been a few more moves there so I don't know the exact order he played h3 I believe yeah he probably played h3 looks like I don't know if it was h6 here immediately queen to d2 bishop is ah queen c2 yeah queen c2 bishop to e6 rook fd1 queen c7 and rook ac1 something along these lines rook f to d8 I think this is the position on the board pretty much and again I think going b4 and b5 is an idea but now white has to consider d5 yeah I think maybe he delayed a bit too much the b4 push I agree yeah indeed let's see shall we we're going to go for a very quick break that's all the games today none that look the same which is really good and plenty of fight left so we'll be right back in just a few minutes time don't go anywhere see you soon Olga you're the first winner of the women's team today how did that make you feel oh it's the great beginning of the tournament so have you played joe before no, never, another plate against all men teams players right you don't think joe is an old player then he's a very experienced player joe how did it feel playing in the historic library for me it is a great pleasure because it is always nice to play in such great places but ok it is quite cold there yes that's only one minus I think but we have to apologise for the weather in Gibraltar this is very unusual cold and quite wet but maybe it is only for one day I think Thursday and Friday you'll be ok so ok let's have a look at your game ok Olga let's have a look at the opening of your game against joe ok surprise my opening with this move there are not so many games I think the main player who played this line maybe only in Blitz it is David Parave ah yes it's the last winner of the Gibraltar festival 2020 I decided to play that and ok I think the main mistake was here ah ok just in the opening and he played normally he could he should play for example 97 rugby 1 and rugby 8 so that's normal position maybe equal maybe white a little bit better but he played queen 7 and after 95 I think he should play a queen d8 back because after this admit the mistake that's so comfortable to play with white so pressure on the c4 ok and very soon he blundered with bishop e8 I think should play that very briefly it doesn't work it doesn't work it was here wasn't in this position he could have played maybe I thought about queen d3 oh no ah yes queen d3 I thought about queen e8 because I can't took this pawn it is a draw wait sorry I see yes it's a repetition so I thought about a4 just to protect from this idea or maybe even d6 if he plays so I can take and it is winning but after d6 he should play bishop c7 but I think it's already very nice very nice for white ok thank you very much this battle of the sex is round 2 the games are in full swing but before we go back there we've got an esteemed guest and in fact the lady in charge of this wonderful building and this important piece of heritage of Gibraltar Jennifer Balentine thank you for coming Jennifer and you're the director of the garrison library and I guess we should start with that and the work you're doing with the library so perhaps you could summarize in general why this place is just so important in Gibraltar it's Gibraltar's oldest library I guess that gives it some sort of a place in history but it's very important because this is a library that grew on the back of the needs of the British military so we're established in 1793 on the back of the Great Siege and the aim was to provide a public library for those serving at Gibraltar for their accretion, education and reading basically but I think lessons were learned from the siege during those quiet moments a lot of the soldiers were in bed and the need was felt to provide a place like a library where they could congregate, read and relax rather than despair and quiet and that's a very important aim really so it was either the pub or the library was it that was well no or desertions and suicides so there was a darker side to this as well and therefore the library was established with very noble aims as it happens it was then decided to establish a private subscription library for offices only but still it provided the same sense of hospitality learning and reading and gaming of course because board games would be played over here and actually downstairs in the opening ceremony you spoke about how there's a section of books dedicated to old chess books basically now I would love to have a look at those because I would be fascinated but tell us like of course this tournament when it was the open tournament took place at the Coletta and we have very fond memories I'm sure you know the Coletta very well but it's it's actually very special playing in this in this arena because it feels apt, it feels like a decent perhaps that's something that you thought about I mean how did it come to take place here did they contact you or did you know Brian and the organization and you offered a hand how did it all work out? Yes it was quite interesting because we were approached over the summer by Brian and he was looking at other venues historical venues at Gibraltar and we really enjoyed our first conversation but only when he described the context for this particular tournament it was just great, wonderful but also because we believed that there was some synergy between chess and this institution with the library we have very large reading rooms and therefore we could accommodate clearly we are a very old building and we've had to make some adjustments but this hasn't been onerous really tough but it's been worthwhile worthwhile the effort but we did feel that there was synergy and we were looking forward to enjoying the process and the journey that has brought us to this tournament and Sunday I think I mentioned the dialogue we've entered into with chess and this is part of the dialogue we've embraced the initiative and Brian's proposal to have the tournament here and we've had this dialogue and ongoing dialogues I'm just so happy that a location has been found in such a wonderful location I know the players are enjoying it it's a new environment for them to play in such a they've got the picture of General Drinkwater he's the founder Colonel Drinkwater is inspiration there's a bit of military element to it so of course this is a military game so the synergy is very much there now you just played the first move and there's a bit of a back story to that now I'm very impressed because what you told me in the break I think the people at home should know you played the move Pawn to C4 which is it's the English opening the English opening and you did that on purpose I did that on purpose partly because I did ask Laurence and I said I really want to understand which move to make and why I'm making it and this goes back to being an academic you need to understand why and the context is important and so a number of openings were suggested and when the English opening came into play I thought that's the one I want and of course there's a reason as I've just told you the library is very British institution and therefore I wanted to signify this in this way partly because of the dialogue and the synergy as I mentioned but also because the library when established it wasn't in this location for the first 10, 20 years it occupied a space top floor of a private home and there must so many books that the time came to for the need for a larger building to house this collection and they didn't have enough money they wanted something purpose built so Peel went out to Pit the Younger if in any way the Crown could support so Pit then approached George III and George saw the value in this institution he saw the value not only as an important library for the Armed Forces at Gibraltar but also so soon after the Great Siege once this library is erected I'm sure that those of you won't be able to see the dimensions and this is a beautiful Georgian building of wonderful dimensions and therefore what we have over here is a very potent symbol of Britishness that rises from the ashes of the Great Siege and therefore I thought that first opening was important for us institutionally It's fantastic and we've got a few English players playing so I know you're going to be rooting for them although I know it's a very nuanced argument the Britishness of Gibraltar versus English and the connection then well that's an interesting question everything relating to Britishness could be nuanced because Gibraltarians are of course British culturally we're also very Mediterranean and there's that yes so the question perhaps should be what is it to be British in the 21st century clearly because of migrations and influx of different cultures so yes we are very British of course and we yes very proud of it so the question is what is Britishness I'd say that's a great question but I tell you what that is not a question for this stream that's for sure we've got all the games still in progress thank you so much for making this all happen thank you for your support thank you for your interest and your clear efforts to make this a success I know everybody is delighted to be here so it's been a pleasure and hopefully this will inspire I know you're not a chess player per se but maybe this will inspire you also to get you're an academic so just to learn a little bit about the game maybe get involved a bit because it's enjoying a huge boom the game as a result of well Corona has actually helped to lock down and of course the Queen's Gambit series has meant that there's been a big number of people just suddenly got interested in chess so hopefully you do too unless there's something else you would like to add before we let you go and enjoy the day thank you very much thank you Jennifer Dr. Jennifer Ballantyne the director of the Garrison Library here with us we're going to go and take an overview now at the tournament hall see the games in progress and let's go straight there there you go all games still in action and we'll be coming back in a short while with the analysis board and with Irina for the moment let's enjoy this beautiful library as Jennifer said the books are vast over here some old old books from the 18th century some important literature here and you can't see the painting of Colonel Drinkwater that's on the other side but if you shifted around as the camera is panning to the left you will on the left hand side on that wall up there so if Eric Rosen just looks up he will see Colonel Drinkwater good name as well and to get some inspiration there he is over there there is the Colonel Colonel Drinkwater sitting high and mighty in can I call it his library I guess it was at some point did he did he have ownership over it perhaps but possibly not in any case there is the Colonel and what a lovely lovely view did Irina hi again hi we've still got all the games going on and I don't know if you've had a chance to look in the break if there's any that looks super fun and there are some interesting developments and let's have a look at exactly this game this one here between Bilal and Mamadzada yeah I think Bilal has got some sort of vintage this isn't the position on the board though is it it feels like we're way too behind here yeah we are a bit behind of it so let's see if we can get a I believe Bishop takes d5 was already played and then he takes d5 and so something like that not sure how black continued here but well we should get an update soon no yeah we certainly should so let me just double check what's going on here with these games right you bear with me for just one minute here I'll try and get them up because it's certainly it's certainly we've definitely gone past this moment and we are not actually receiving the moves which is not ideal let's go back to the playing hall while we sort that one out let's have a look at the playing hall and get an overhead view oh there's somebody that we should talk about excuse me for interrupting Mr. Brian Callahan himself the man behind the tournament of course for years has been really the biggest supporter of chess in Gibraltar I mean he's he's the he's the man that makes this happen he's the one who the brain and the hands behind this festival which is taking place for so many years and we are so lucky to have him loving and supporting chess so much during the few past decades actually and look at him he is following the games I'm curious who is he rooting for do you think he's rooting for men or for women I mean that one's anybody that knows Brian knows that he wants the women to win Brian has put women's chess in Gibraltar on I mean he's not just put I would say that his efforts towards actually promoting women's chess is probably greater than any other single person in the world I agree with you definitely because for years and years in the open tournament as we know the women's that he managed to put together a prize fund that attracted basically all the best women in the world exactly and the prize fund was almost the same as the main one so women were competing for amazing prizes like 15k pounds that was just unbelievable or more actually I think it was at some point I think at some point it even maybe even got to 20,000 pounds something like that so Brian has been the the engine behind this operation and promoting women's chess and hopefully that will continue for many years to come and we'll see all of these wonderful talents indeed blossoming in with years to come and we do have the moves back it seems nearly we'll stay on this board here this is Bilal against Gunay did you notice that the men are wearing white and it is funny because they all have the white pieces today and they are coordinating the outfits with the color they're playing with I didn't actually notice that yeah I think Hussein and Bilal are wearing white I thought that only I'm thinking about it when preparing for the game it is a very important thing to have the outfit of the color I'm playing with did you ever do that it's nothing that I've ever actually thought about you see that's that's the difference oh Joe didn't go along this strategy he's wearing black well I see the game has developed from the camera view I hope we'll be able to see it on the board soon yeah we'll get the boards up shortly once we've figured that out but I can say here oh wow we've got an extremely interesting position as we would expect in Rosen against Jovanka Huska do you see that Rukon A5 how did it get there I can see it I can see the world the Ruk just swung up to A5 trying to control the fifth rank and this is the sort of position which could end up bad for Jovanka but it might be okay it's one of those ones where I'll need to see it face on in order to to get a clear idea but Eric with 10 minutes extra I don't like that the bishop is on E6 it looks very strong for white there I'm also a bit worried for Jovanka today that pawns on E5 F6 and G7 looked very nice but now they moved so the pawn is actually on E4 and I'm worried that white might get some C4 and D5 coming soon and then the Rook from A5 will be completely out of the game I think Eric is doing great here could be the case that he's doing very very well actually yes we'll see how that goes he's obviously deep in thought let's pan to another board let's see if we can get another side on view of a board any board you like let's see here okay Maria Muzichuk playing black against Jo Gallagher if we could zoom in a little bit here that would be superb just a tiny bit to play Jo often the one to play often his move he's a slightly more methodical player if I can say that and it looks as though Maria did actually get that deep here we go got that D5 moving Rook takes C8, Queen takes C8 on the board and looks perfectly fine for Maria doesn't it at this position yeah but from another point of view also maybe wanted to have a more solid game today you know because often after you lose one you just want to make the first draw you know to get a positive result on the board because nowadays a positive result isn't always good news but yeah it looks like both players are doing fine in this position well actually Jo has the pawn majority on the Queen side and do you remember the recent game played between Magnus and Rapport where Magnus won very nicely with that advanced pawn majority on the Queen side maybe Jo wants to do something similar here and try to create past pawn on the B file I guess that will be his plan trying to move something like B4, A4 B5 on the other hand Black cannot really do the same because the pawn majority on the King side cannot really advance because then the King might get a bit weak so I think you prefer white here do you yeah I think so well maybe the long light diagonal can be something might be happy about let's say after some moves like Queen A8 or Queen B7 but then white can just play Bf1 protect G2 and it seems like the King side attack will not happen anytime soon so Jo should be safe there on the other hand he has 17 minutes less but the position has quite simplified so I guess he should not be worried about being behind with the time do we have do we have indeed yeah we're going to have the games in just a moment we're going to bring them up so no worries at all but yeah I I don't really know who I would prefer to be in this position it's one of those ones I don't like the Queen flip and as I say I'm not I think it's just one of those equalish positions so I think that's what we've got we've got another game here Leandra Chris against Pierre Kramling as well also this one is going at a much slower pace I mean this is only move 12 they've really taken their time move 13 they've really taken their time move by black look at that b5 square it is so weak now yeah and actually if we can bring the board up now knight to c7 and bishop to d3 played by Leandro but why bishop to d3 you know I'm worried that after bishop to d3 black might play c4 with a 10 but wait maybe there's some tactics well I don't know about c4 I mean I can always drop the bishop back if I really need to and now b5 you know no but then you're run well Queen h5 as well you're really risking it your knights are all offside here for the moment and on g6 of course I don't hesitate to take and just to illustrate this is a bombastic breakthrough sacrifice because if you take I can now take this pawn threatening mate and if you take I can take and on king h8 at the very least I have a draw but of course I'm never going to take a draw here there's probably mate in various ways involving rook h3 rook g3 or the bishop coming here maybe first queen h5 check and now when the king goes to g8 we can play rook h3 and the queen from h5 is covering the f7 square and now the king is in deep trouble this is immediately I would say it's immediately resigned rook f7 might exist there's a few things you have to calculate here it's not completely over but intuitively it doesn't feel like you can play like this just having all your pieces on the wrong side of the board when my bishops are lining up against your king and with the advanced age pawn doesn't feel right but that means that black will not have any counter play anytime soon if one is not able to push c4 because it looks like black should be playing on the queen side but the problem is that there is no defense against the king side attack that knight from b8 would love to be on f6 but does black have enough time to get it there? Well probably not and that's why we see Piers move which is the move knight to e6 trying to put some pressure here which I mean this looks like a very sensible move to my eyes that being said we still queen h5 have to start calculating do we not because we don't have time to take on f4 because a mate is threatened on h7 so we have to do something about that first and if you go h6 this is just a classic breakthrough sacrifice pawn takes h6 and now again you can probably just take and threatening the mate here is going to be too much but maybe here we can go for that g6 move because now the knight from e6 can cover the g7 square true but if I take on g6 first and foremost important to point out that g7 doesn't work to be tricky because I have this check mate on the next move so I think you have to take let's say you take this way and I play bishop takes g6 you take I take and you go here this is your defense right and now the question is does white have a follow up and the answer is probably no it feels like we've sacrificed too many pieces what about h5 h5 queen e8 I have to go back probably queen to g4 queen to g4 I'm starting to get my pieces back into the defense that's the idea and if you put the queen on g3 again it doesn't feel I mean I've sacrificed two pieces right if I just put the king on h7 let's say yeah now you want to play knight to f5 exactly h6 knight to f5 and I already know that it's gone horribly wrong yeah so the knight actually on e6 does prevent a lot of these queen h5 and then sacrificing ideas I guess another thing that you do have to ask is but do you know I think that well now knight to f4 is definitely a big threat and I don't think white should allow it on the other hand bishop to g3 might be a bit slow but it looks like the move to be played right we cannot really afford allowing black to take on f4 and after he takes f4 it might be actually white's king who will get in trouble so your idea is that if black takes here and then decides he wants to take then you want to just take on h7 your idea and then win the knight back like this and say that you've still got an advantage because black king's a bit weak and you can target this d5 pawn I actually think that white might get in trouble here you know really? yeah I don't like this simplification I'm not sure it works for example here what happens if I play bishop c5 let's say check king to g8 and now if I just castle I have a passed pawn here somehow I've managed to trade the h7 for the d4 pawn and it should be to black's advantage right? probably yeah I mean I don't have to castle either I mean I can play a move like knight b5 here as well it looks a bit weird though these moves I'm not in love with them I have to say I'm not in love with this for sure I wasn't actually that keen on bishop g3 yeah it probably isn't working out because of exactly this reason maybe after knight no but after knight d4 we no longer have even queen h5 because black can play f5 and the knight from d4 defends the pawn on f5 exactly so actually knight e6 is a great move by Pia I like it a lot I guess certainly not an easy answer here for white you could in the way if nothing works here the worst case scenario is you play the move knight e2 I think this is a good suggestion and now we can take with the knight was it your idea after knight takes f4 yeah if knight takes f4 you want to take with the knight and if you take on d4 I take back yeah now it's very important that the light squared bishop on b7 is closed and it is basically a bad piece black would want to trade it but then the problem will be the weakness of the c6 square and yeah this position I like much more compared to the previous one yeah this could still be something because queen h5 suddenly again with the big sacrifice on g6 is in the air so I that is what I would say is the backup option for white he might end up going for it if he doesn't find anything else that's decent here he could go for it but yeah Pia looks like she's got a very very interesting position let's say let's quickly go back to Ravi Haria now I was speaking about Ravi knowing these structures very well we last saw it around the move g3 castles and he put the king on g2 was around here and Mari did go for the classic break with f6 exactly how you suggest it now it takes bishop takes and bishop c3 your move and now white has very good control over the e5 square and the e6 spawn is weak yeah and guys at home remember that it's not just about attacking the backwards pawn that you should try to aim for you should also be trying to control the square in front of the pawn that's important because if black could ever play the move e6 to e5 under any circumstance basically a lot of the problems are resolved not always because then you get an isolated d pawn but your position springs into life so with this bishop on c3 you're basically preventing that you've got too many defenders of e5 so here Mari played rook f7 and now I love the maneuver by Ravi yeah it is fantastic it is in the best strategical traditions just bringing the rook towards the e file and the rook every time it's so much better in front of the queen exactly how we see in this position I think Mari is under pressure in this game she found a nice idea though which was now to switch her attention over to the f file so now I can't take on e6 because I lose the knight and if I move the knight she's obviously going to take my pawn on f2 so this position is actually not so easy for white to play you know I believe some moves like f1 even can be possible just protecting the f2 pawn and preparing to play in 95 afterwards probably black will do something like bishop c7 but then you know what I'm thinking the knight on c6 is doing a great job protecting the e5 square yeah exactly what if we play before trying to make it go away I agree I think that's one of the main moves in fact I was wondering whether you could just do that immediately can you just play b4 straight away because 95 afterwards is a threat probably yeah and a6 does not really help because then we can play a4 and b5 is a threat once again there's one thing though I'm going to point out an interesting you ready for this is that black can go b5 and okay and what's your idea after queen b5 rook takes f3 that was mean and now you want to win the queen nice nice trick and knight takes d4 discovery well that is nice there's life in the old dog yet I can still see a tactic and in fact you've got to be a bit careful with white because if you manage to get this position you can't follow up with queen takes b5 you've actually managed to fix two pawns on dark squares and as I say if black is able to play bishop c7 on the next black can then think about re... maneuvering this knight to an interesting outpost there are now squares that this knight could invade e4 c4 a4 and I would start to get a little bit concerned here with white so there's something about that that I don't like but if he has actually gone for something completely different after rook e8 he's played another very classic move in this position which is to play the move pawn to h4 which is trying to establish a bit more control on the king side he was probably concerned actually that at some moment Marie can actually think about the move g5 followed by g4 and try to force her way down the h4 to persuade black from doing that and also sometimes the pawn goes to h5 to fix these two pawns down but he's completely ignoring black's counter play on the f-file I believe how will he continue if black plays g5 anyway? well if you go g5 anyway I guess I can take take and you've got a few options here but you've got to be a little bit careful here with black actually but I always have rook g7 let's imagine that you get your queen to g6 I mean that black's king will not be in that much trouble even though it's opened and g4 is a threat here I was trying unsuccessfully to make this move work rook to e6 I give you a check now it doesn't work because king to h8 I would have this check and I would win but king h7 is the problem and unfortunately here I didn't find successful follow up so it just looks like this doesn't work no no it doesn't so you have to stop me from playing g4 or get ready for it the f2 pawn I guess yeah it's not easy because if I go g4 myself I'm really opening myself up to the move e5 and all of a sudden queen takes g4 is a kind of killer idea and if I take with the knight this isn't I'm still not sure how clear this actually is because you have a rook h8 threat if I take on g4 even this is probably good for white yeah but I shouldn't allow you to give that check on e8 I believe okay so here maybe okay knight takes e5 is kind of forced and now after rook e5 maybe I can play some bishop f6 yeah but you would probably say that white is a little bit better here after something like rook f5 I would think that white is some I mean I think the two rooks are probably better than the queen here though I don't like the bishop on c3 it somehow feels like okay if it would be on e5 probably white would be winning here but there is no real way of getting it there and I guess the position is balanced here maybe white has a small edge but I feel that it's not more than that right could very well be yeah it doesn't look critical either way but yeah well Maria didn't play it she played a6 so they're both playing a bit of a waiting game here but you see now a6 is such a smart move in order to be ready to play b5 in case white plays before I really like how Maria is doing because it looked like she was under pressure here but she found a way to create some counter play yeah we've got to find a way to defend this f2 pawn it's very difficult to actually maybe your move rook f1 could be interesting with what about the idea of them playing knight e1 to d3 so for example if bishop c7 can I now play the move knight to e1 again I have to be careful about not allowing this move but things get completely insane because I play e6 queen d5 check and rook e4 and who knows what's happening exactly if I'm white here if I can get my knight to d3 protecting f2 and covering e5 the knight on d3 is the super square also then you've got ideas sometimes of going f4 and getting a big grip on that center so a lot of strategical questions to be addressed in that game let's move on to something we'll have a quick look at all the screens here and see if there's something that's well we've got a game which is really swapped down and that's actually the Joe Gallagher game and if that's the position then I'm predicting a draw I would say predicting a draw hold your horses Maria Mosey took some pawn up only for the time being because Joe can take on a7 and I'm assuming therefore that this game is just going to play peacefully with some correct play so that one does look like Joe's Joe and Maria are going to make a draw it will probably simplify in a few moves even more than it should be a draw let's go to Belele Bellassine against Mamadzada because we've got a move here that Belele I mean we were looking at this at this Nidorf arena and we got a very quick hop into d5 and now the move a5 by Grunai trying to chase the knight away but when she plays like this she weakens all the light squares indeed in her position but her idea is probably to get a knight to c5 let's see if she managed to so the knight came out c3 protected the pawn why knight to c7 is knight c5 bad here I guess she was concerned that it feels wrong to me to play this move if I play bishop takes B takes c5 and knight d2 oh no I can't you take on d5 but can't know you can't sorry knight to d2 how about this you wanted to bring the knight to c4 yeah on the other hand maybe I can prepare f5 now exactly yeah with a move like 97 yeah yeah 97 and if I go knight c4 you go f5 and you say you're happy yeah because somehow I have some play on the king side and it seems like of course the pawn on a5 is a bit weak but you don't really have a way to attack it something about this move doesn't sit right with me though I have to say maybe some queen b5 yeah so another idea is to take with the knight and sorry take with the knight pawn takes and go queen b5 but you could play the queen b5 immediately oh without taking no also also possible yeah because yeah the point is this is never really possible because I can take on c5 take take and bishop f3 yeah that's good enough c4 is coming yeah yeah maybe that was the reason why she chose knight to c7 instead but the knight's quite bad here isn't it yeah that's why I didn't like it the knight is bad here so knight c7 yeah ideally you want knight on d7 in in all these knight or but probably you know the point is that the knight from c7 of course it attacks d5 and maybe in some scenarios it helps to play b5 but we don't really want to play on the queen side with black here the idea is to fix the queen side and try to prepare an attack on the king side with f5 so let's see how yeah and after knight to c7 it went bishop f3 protecting pawn and now on knight d7 played what looks like a very interesting move to me the move g4 literally putting a hard stop to f5 now on one hand you never want to play this move yet on another hand if you manage to squeeze black here it it makes some sense I love this move yeah especially with that black's knight on c7 if the knight would be on a6 now I would play knight c5 and black would be fine but well you know they say that sometimes the best is to admit your mistake and to bring it back to but you know it's so unpleasant to do that and to bring the knight back to a6 but it might be the way to continue because g6 is not really a good move as after bishop h6 the rook has to go away and still f5 will never happen in the near future you could also consider maybe king h1 here and just after f5 claiming that the opening of the g file is beneficial for white because you have to defend g7 and f5 and rook f7 runs into bishop h5 that would be a disaster for black right unless I'm blundering knight takes d5 knight f4 which oh but that's cute look at this f5 I give up the queen knight f4 f3 knight takes d3 and bishop g7 mate wow you are spotting all the right tactics today I'm on form what can I say hey if they need a substitution for the men's team I can always hop in right we'll just bring you know Joe Gallagher here or something he can do a day of commentary no I mean it just feels like this is very risky but Guna played a different move okay after g4 she played queen to c8 yeah queen to c8 oh yeah yeah she wants to put the queen on d8 as per the game and try to get some very classically try and exchange the dark squared bishops to leave white with this bad bishop so this makes a lot of sense but knight to c4 happened and I'm gonna say unfortunately I think things are going badly for Guna here yeah I hate that knight on c7 I think she's regretting having played that yeah alright let's try to check another game here it looks like Beeliel is doing well right yeah alright let's look for the game let's see here let's look at actually the little beast Jean-Claire Abdomalek yeah it was that interesting Grunfeld with knight to d2 and actually a lot of things happened here f5 was played like you suggested she went for f5 typical idea knight c5 simply that's a nice move because the knight was struggling on b3 and now if it will get to e4 that should be great and there are also some queen b3 threats and fxc4 knight g5 look at this threatening to come into e6 and also as you said queen b3 so queen to d5 queen to d5 trying to control some squares and f3 who's saying going for it so he's basically going all in in this position Jean-Claire just took and played queen c4 stopping castling and now Hussein played the move queen b3 which is paradoxical because you would think you would have to keep the queens on here but actually this is black's strongest piece and white is saying I've got stuff down here but wait isn't white upon down yeah that's what I'm saying does he have enough concentration for it because okay the threat was to play knight c6 and then the dark squared bishop then of course white would have the pair of bishops and enough compensation but after bishop h6 the knight is pinned yeah this bishop is being hanging is an issue and the other point is knight takes b7 never works because black has got the important idea rook takes f3, g takes f3 and bishop takes b7 and you lose two pieces for a rook which is a disaster in this position black's pieces start to swarm so what can you do here is white I'm not sure actually some rook f5 may be the threat already no not exactly because you will have h4 yeah b4 isn't good because I have always a4 what else I mean what happens if we just castle castle yes I can just play c6 I really don't see the compensation I would be a bit nervous playing white here and you can see Hussein in the video biting his nails which is normally a sign that you're not that confident and look at the clock he's also behind on it I think the little beast is very ferocious today yeah she this would be a big win for her actually not because I mean she's expected to win a lot of the time she's 150 points high rated but just to win with black it's a really nice win and yeah I think there's a good chance that she wins he really needs to find something very very concrete here but I don't see it myself I really don't maybe king e2 just protecting the bishop and then threatening 96 or something but again I just don't buy any of this you can even go knight c6 oh yeah because now you're threatening either takes and knight takes d4 check yeah it looks like white might be in trouble let's say knight to e6, knight g to e6 yeah knight g to e6 I can even I can probably even take here but let's say I take first then I take king e3 king e3 and then any move ah you want to take on c7 I've got to but hold on are you your knights even this position rook f6, knight takes c7 rook d8 is probably good for black because this king is just so in the open rook a d1 I'm not sure how that is yeah I mean it's definitely unclear but I don't think black in general is going to be unhappy in these positions there might have been d5 instead of rook d1 d5 d5, knight d5 you know some rook to d1 yeah it's getting unclear but ok here I can just take worst case scenario rook d7 d5 is dropping right I don't know it feels like in fact he did go king d2 which is an interesting place for the king because now this comes with check so your tactics along here don't really I'm very worried for white in this position yeah me too and it seems like the first game where the ladies are putting some serious pressure on the men's team yeah I agree I think there's a lot of pressure let's go to Eric Rosen there's a game we haven't seen in a while Eric Rosen against Yovankovsky and wow what happened here because it looked as though after f6 in the opening that things were going well sorry for Yovanka so let's see bishop c4 e5 makes sense a3 and now a5 all of this makes sense b takes a5 and now according to the counter Yovankovsky spent one hour and three minutes on this move can that be true no that should be one minute I suppose has to be one minute right one hour would be too much right I was going to say that's that's insane okay one minute and three seconds yeah it has to be one minute you're right okay so rook takes a5 and now Eric goes with d4 and makes perfect sense e4 knight d2 I don't like the e4 move but what else do you do I think maybe take now I probably take with the pawn now my king might be in trouble yeah exactly I get a rook to the e-file this could already be bad but it's so strange a5 was such a logical move it was yeah but maybe you had to get on with development here I just get play bishop d6 king e7 and bishop e6 but maybe then d4 anyway would happen yeah it could be the case but now I have some knight d7 maybe right and yeah the liquidations in the center will favor me I mean not me but black yeah maybe that was the way to play but a5 looked yeah but apparently after b takes a5 rook takes a5 d4 white getting a bit of initiative e4 okay the knight comes d2 and now your attack now I develop with some kind of tempo and look all of white's pieces are developed and black's pieces are all on the 8th rank knight on b8 how okay bishop b4 c3 and now bishop to e6 um that's not the first move that comes to mind I mean it's probably an okay I would have thought here the move bishop b3 was more natural with the idea of coming back to c2 provoking f5 and then you have for example the e5 square for the knight or you can play c4 and then this diagonal the problem is that black can ever play bishop f7 as the point on e4 is hanging oh it it hurts but I think black is in trouble here yeah well let's see so bishop e6 trying to just control the board also I mean makes a lot of sense 97-93 kicking the rook back rook a7 and c4 I like this very much how Eric is playing rook f8 and this is the position Eric grows in 40 minutes Ivanka Huska 31 minutes and I think you're absolutely right I think black is in huge trouble here yeah those pawns in the center might get moving soon some d5 might follow and then the rook on a7 will get attacked some bishop d4 I really I really don't see how black is going to to find any counter play oh yeah it looks very bad for Ivanka it does look very bad indeed but there's still a long game left there's no decisive way here I don't see a decisive way maybe bishop f7 is actually a threat though because the c4 pawn is now hanging but why yeah the knight went away alright so maybe it's not as bad as we think it is but it was possible to play bishop f7 on the previous move but then probably bishop probably not because I can take take and then go back to d2 in the pawn because of the pin okay so that's why she prepared it but even here rook f8 doesn't look clear to me because this pawn is hanging I don't know I don't know why she prepared it with rook f8 alright so rook f8 and did Eric play a move or is he thinking no he's thinking interesting position yeah interesting again a lock a lock can happen there it's not clear to me at all who should be winning and why anyway why it has the initiative here and black will definitely have to play very accurately not to get in trouble and I guess we'll see if Yavanka manages to yeah agreed let's quickly go back to Olga Giriya against Bobby Cheng yeah because it looked like Olga solved all of the opening problems and actually it looks like she's even trying to press a bit here because well the bishop on a3 is not looking very nice the only purpose it has there is to protect the c5 pawn but maybe actually we would love to get rid of it because then the bishop will at least have a diagonal an opened one and here black actually threatens to play b2 but then white can play rook b2 right exactly this last move by Cheng it's a good move I think because also now the move rook before is suddenly in the air and you know if you win the a pawn suddenly you can start getting a bit ambitious here you know I was thinking but it is too optimistic of course but at some point with black I can consider even taking on e2 maybe not in this moment but I mean that the bishop on a3 is completely out of play and some combinations might work but here not exactly well if king e3 I can play rook to d3 rook a2 to d3 yeah and hope to trap me yeah maybe rook c3 yeah it's probably not oh wait I threatened some rook d4 you have to be careful and then king f7 so just to illustrate if I go here you check and then go here yeah go here and you threaten mate and I think that's all she wrote yeah but unfortunately you could go backwards with the king not on a3 but on e1 probably and then my sacrifice would probably not work but now you've got rook h2 now rook d1 wait I can no you are fine here yeah doesn't quite work and it's I don't think it's Olga's style to try and do something you know so so drastic here when it's not required I think she's thinking about rook d2 and trying to assess what's going on here I would go for the plan with g6 and f5 I think I really like this idea I think she's got a better plan here can she go a3 but then it would be just a draw immediately I was trying to be well not for a win but for a little edge because I really don't like white's bishop I think black's bishop is much much better so let's say I play g6 here what is white's plan you want to do but can't I take rook c6 let's say I exchange one pair of pawns and play rook a5 yeah maybe it was a bit over optimistic yeah I put the bishop on b4 suddenly and no no I don't have to give up the pawn on a4 yeah maybe after all I have to start with rook d2 yeah rook b2 and then first trade one pair of rooks and then go for my plan with g6 and f5 because now it will be more difficult for you to get that rook on the b-file as the a2 pawn is hanging and you of course will never play free right I think black is not risking anything I don't think so either I think Olga is not risking anything here okay Bobby Cheng with some practical difficulties as well let's go to Marcel Fromsky against Brunella sure Sabino has managed to get what looks like a very very pleasant position here with white nice knight on e5 and the big problem for black is how to to get the rest of the pieces out also this bishop on c5 is just loose for one move here yeah it looks like white is having a very nice edge here yeah that bishop from c8 will struggle to find a way into the game now actually Sabino just played b4 and black has an unpleasant question to answer where to go with that bishop bishop d6 is just a blunder because then we take and bishop g6 so you got to go back to b6 there's no other move right? bishop d4 also exists but again I mean it might run into some bishop g6 yeah takes and just take right or even I don't really need it if it doesn't work but even bishop to e2 would be a good move to bring the bishop to f3 and make it even more difficult for black sorry to protect b7 and to develop the bishop in the same time yeah so she probably has to go to b6 and she did go there such a disgusting position for black it is so difficult to play these types of position where you have less space and one piece and you see because of it the rook on a8 is out of play white's pieces are very well placed in the center I really like how Sabina played today and he took that's kind of surprising takes takes what's his idea yeah actually trading pieces work well for the part who has less space because then you get more squares for the fewer pieces left and now the pawn on a3 well it's not really hanging I mean black should be careful but maybe he wants no he cannot want queen c7 because then I'll just take a knight e5 yeah I'm completely shocked at this move why did he open up the e5 wow yeah that's really unexpected I mean does he have I've got absolutely no idea as Irina was saying exactly if you go here I take take and play knight d5 hit your rook hit your pawn I'm hitting this pawn and I'm loving life as black so hold on where is he going he's got the hand over the queen does he just want to play queen b2 or something probably I don't see a better way to continue but now after knight to d5 oh no no I cannot play f5 no but it would be a move to consider maybe he just wants to play g3 and play on bishop d7 perhaps wait are you sure I can't play f5 let's have a look at it f5 the idea is that after he takes f5 I have bishop to c4 and then you might have some problems with the f7 square I'm not sure it works but at least I get rid of the very active knight on d5 which is black's only good piece could be interesting and if I take this way you're claiming that the king is now open and oh we can just take we can just take f5 that's a really interesting suggestion ok let's say black plays knight f6 but now we can take rook f7 I think we can take take with the king probably with the king yeah because if queen takes then we come in and on here now you're pinned from every direction and you just take on c8 and you just take on c8 sorry so you have to take with the king no it's not so clear because if black plays bishop is 6 and he's out of trouble basically but did we have to take on f7 with the bishop maybe we can include some other move after knight f7, rook f7 something like queen b3 or rook e1 just trying to increase the pressure because the bishop is not developing anytime soon from c8 it looks like black will be in trouble here because oh wait so nice now after queen f8 let's say I have queen takes f6 queen takes f6 yeah 94 but then just f3 f3 and yeah the position is falling very interesting so queen b2 it's over to Marcel so knight d5 f5 looks like a serious threat but maybe it can work even better with queen b3 because then the knight on d5 will be eyed by the queen as well very interesting interesting idea by white let's see if if we'll have it on the board all right moving on let's go back to Pierre Kramling actually playing black against Leandro Cressa and Leandro ended up going for the move queen to g4 here so with this is a move we didn't actually mention protecting the bishop this way and I guess the idea is that after c takes d4 well what is the idea bishop no b6 can I just take a knight yeah it doesn't work yeah not sure okay let's say just e takes d4 just e takes and now bishop h6 and knight e6 there should be something here bishop f5 probably bishop f6 queen d6 it's all getting a bit out of control to say the least but to R yeah it's getting completely crazy isn't it I wonder why again she probably just believed that Leandro was just not blundering c takes d4 and had some ideas so she played knight takes f4 after just to get rid of that bishop so there are no bishop h6 any time knight takes f4 queen takes f4 are you sure he's going to take with the queen yeah he took with the queen right I can see that on the board and over to I think she'll be happy that this bishop is off the board but she still has got some minor problems to resolve because for example knight d7 doesn't run into queen f5 because of knight f6 but it does run into bishop takes h7 check and if king takes h7 queen f5 and we are winning upon again I don't know how serious it actually is but a pawn is a pawn and that's the very least a move that Leandro has so you can't quite complete development that way maybe knight c6 knight c6 is possible yeah this looks like the most likely likely move maybe white should just switch now to playing strategically how look I have the move h5 here trying to make queen f5 a threat and then g6 so won't be possible probably some knight takes e5 lots of ideas aren't there, lots of ways to play such a position actually yeah probably white is still better here yeah let's see how Pia will try to solve all these problems probably she will have to develop the knight from b8 let's try to check another game in a while yeah let's go to another game um which one, let's check Iran we didn't check her game Irene yeah we haven't checked her game for a while again oh right okay yeah this is an interesting position let's take it here so alright so okay the queen is under attack, the queen moves so it has this nice pawn on d5 like the advanced free pawn for now it is blocked by the bishop but we know that the bishop is not the ideal blocker of a past pawn black would prefer to have a knight there but what to do probably queen to d8 should be played queen to d8 yeah I don't see another way to defend the bishop on d6 because queen c7 will run into rook c1 okay so queen to d8 wait there is a big problem with all of that knight f6 was a threat so queen c7 would run into knight queen c7 knight f6 yeah so that's why queen d8 was the only force actually right but she took on e4 well she took on e4 first okay yeah that makes sense just to get rid of all those knight f6 open checks and now how do you ah you have to take with the rook because the bishop is hanging right okay the queen will now move somewhere c7 or d8 or a7 probably not a7 yeah I guess queen c7 looks or should I I actually like this bishop takes e4 because now f5 will be a threat f5 e4 but let's say after queen d8 I now try and ruin the party and play rook g4 does this move make any sense it is a little bit strange oh okay you stopped me from playing f5 of course but what else could be the plan for me well that's the question it's not so easy to oh look I can play queen e8 queen e8 no I've read the f5 I've defended the knight from g6 with bishop a4 all right queen e7 let's say okay queen f5 but what are your threats what do you want you want h4 at some point I don't know what I want I'm just trying to dominate some squares see how that works but even after queen e7 you're not threatening f5 anymore right so I could theoretically play rook e1 yeah you're right I don't know it feels as though it's a bad bishop it's a weird knight it feels as though white is actually better here to me just in this position here and rook g4 has been played so this is on the board I believe I can't see because of his hat can somebody go in there and tell him to take his hat off so we can see the moves but you know actually I think what if h5 now is it a terrible move yeah I thought that but I thought it wasn't a terrible move but if I go rook g5 attacking the pawn you want to go h4 and now I go rook a4 and I bring all the boys to the party yeah it looks it looks very nice you like that one yeah fantastic thank you yeah it looks like Iran is in some trouble today yeah it's not an easy position to play for black here something has gone wrong I think when you have to play this this is not a move you really want to play but you know I was thinking that if I start being very worried about that I can play knight f4 in this position trying to sort of liquidate everything you're close to not make yeah it's close to not working right takes takes bishop c2 you can go f5 yeah but okay even f5 I'm not convinced rook g6 and I mean you've at least I don't have to worry about my king anymore of course there is an e6 square to worry about yeah I can put a rook on e6 and then I can try and well I'm claiming that it's very difficult for black here maybe queen c7 though it should be 3 let's say but it's a bit difficult because my king can't get too safe because there's always a back rank and an f3 or yeah that was my point so maybe knight f4 is actually a really good shout of course I don't have to take to be careful about where to place the queen because then f5 might be a threat if I go queen f5 immediately that queen is brave yeah well you can't really attack it because g6 is no threat and now maybe I'm just threatening to go g3 in the right circumstance let's let's try g6 anyway okay so I go let's say I well I also have got this I mean you have to calculate this and again I have a draw in hand but probably not more right I probably just can't get my pieces yeah so that's a draw and if I just go g3 you want to go h5 yeah and knight knight g5 aha if I take you've got the importance vision so g6 f5 yeah I'm not loving that I'm not loving that yeah perhaps white will just have to take on f4 and try to play like with an extra pawn in the center but probably black has enough resources here because of the different colored bishops agreed alright well look I tell you what we're gonna do we're gonna go for another very short break now the games are all in full swing we'll be back in a few minutes plenty of time before the time scramble and I think today we're probably gonna get a couple of time scrambles so it should be interesting no results yet we'll be back in a few minutes don't go anywhere see you soon this format of the men against women tournament is new to me and I think it's a great idea just 10 men against 10 women the match up from the organization is very interesting because rating wise the two teams are very close and well I'm the man captain so obviously I will be supporting my team and I really hope we can win but it's a very close match and it's going to be interesting and I think fun for both the players and spectators and anybody who wants to guess the results or has any opinion about it it will be it will be interesting and we'll find out what's going to happen the format for the battle of the sexes I was very excited I was very curious and I was very very pleased to see that and I think it's just a very lovely idea to have two teams we have a lady team we have a men team and the two teams are matched according to rating the two teams but also according to age so in all way trying to make two teams as similar as possible and then to see which team will prevail will win and now I think it's just fantastic and also there is history of course behind this because during the Gibraltar chess festival there always have been a lot of social activities which is so fantastic so beautiful and the highlight of the social activities was the battle of the sexes every Saturday and then it was played with six players six lady players, six men players it was played on a big board you had to run to press the clock and it was just a big show and now we're going to play this for real so I think it's just very very nice very very beautiful and I'm very much looking forward to play this match some of the sexes here in Gibraltar we are well into the thick of things in round two we have had one result that happened in the short break we had Ravi Haria against Marie Sabag did end in a draw Marie weathering a bit of pressure didn't really look like Ravi was putting on enough and ended up being a draw which is probably a fair result so that means nine games left which one should we jump to? well it looks like we might get another result let's quickly go there and that's the game between Belby Ching and Oleg Agiria yeah it was one it was that position with the two rooks and the opposite color bishops but now that the rooks are coming off after bishop takes a eight I struggle to see how either player can continue here indeed there should be probably a draw agreement very soon absolutely neither player can really do anything here so that should be a draw okay so let's go to a more exciting position shall we? let's check Gensai's game right it looked that white was in trouble with the pawn down but a lot happened since yeah a lot has happened I think we should probably just take it from this position because so much has happened but what we can say here is that white is an exchange up but black has got two pawns and a bishop for it right and this pawn is weak indeed this king is weak knight c2 is a threat so there are a whole bunch of threats and it looks as though Gensai has found a tactical way to get a huge advantage here yeah it definitely looks so and also rook c8 might be coming at some point and then rook c2 will be a threat hmm it is interesting does white need to protect the h3 pawn to protect black else instead oh wait I've got an idea what about rook a4 in your style I like it it is my style I like that move what's wrong with it makes a lot of sense you hit the knight you save a tempo in fact this is a very good move I expect him to play this because knight c2 and knight b4 oh actually I completely missed that rook c7 I guess and I probably don't want to play b5 because the rook on a4 isn't greatly placed you can just go rook a1 and then the rook will come to c1 so okay not b5 instead I think already here white should be quite happy right yeah it's a double attack hit the pawns yeah I think rook a4 is a nice move I really like rook a4 I really like it maybe not knight c2 because it looked a bit strange maybe we have to find a better place 96 maybe 96 but now you can play b4 and if you go b6 the point is I can take take and go rook a3 or maybe go with h4 first maybe after b4 I can just go h4 put the pawn on a dark square prepare rook a3 try and win this might not be so easy actually I don't like that here black has d4 actually maybe even immediately instead of b6 d4 with the idea to play rook c8 and rook c2 but actually maybe it doesn't really do very I don't know if I get rook c2 oh yeah you got knight a4 coming yeah somehow feels that black achieved something yeah the rooks are a bit offside here maybe I can even take on b2 yeah yeah so after rook a4 knight e6 we should probably find something else what else it means that d4 is a threat how do we deal with it maybe we can't and in any case this wasn't played maybe knight gf they didn't play that he went for rook c3 immediately which okay it's also fairly logical move yeah but the problem is that the rook cannot really go away from there because it has to protect b3 so maybe black can play b5 b5 b4 and a4 yeah something like that well knight b3 is not a threat because of rook b3 but we can first go away with the rook and then try to do something about it yeah very unbalanced position and from the point of view of the material it should be equal because a bishop and 2 pawns equals a rook by the way what do you think how much is the bishop worth is it worth 3 or 3.5 it's definitely not worth 3.5 no it's worth 3.2 at the absolute maximum but you know what we're not mathematicians we're chess players sometimes it can be worth 3 sometimes it can be worth 3.2 3.5 5 10 yeah alright so very complicated isn't it I'm not clearly seeing I mean this is not guaranteed for chance I mean this is but you know black can have also a slow plan like king g7 king f6 to bring the king over there because it will be safe possibly yes but again the problem is that bishop h3 is not so great as after rook d3 the pawn on d5 will be hanging when the knight goes away so the bishop has to stay on f5 for the moment but we need to find a way to bring the rook into the game as well um yeah it's not easy at all is it? it's actually a very difficult position how are they doing on the clock Hussain has 8 minutes against 15 yeah so close close close they might be running into a trap for sure they're on move 25 there's a really really good chance let's let's go to another game while we sit on that one let's check Eric's game because we haven't seen it in a while oh wow okay Eric Rosen with 10 minutes and well we don't know how much time Yvanka has at the moment but it looks like Yvanka is in trouble to my eyes here like if I take oops if I take let's say takes rook here if you take I take take but the a pawn might be a bit dangerous I was thinking that but then I was thinking maybe maybe not maybe for a3 how do you stop my pawn well I can always play rook f1 okay a2 now some knight b6 knight e2 yeah I don't see a way to to get to that pawn no I mean that's obviously just the most straightforward way of playing this position but maybe there's something better here but even if I take pawn f5 g takes f5 perhaps I can do something and not sacrifice the pawn because after a takes b6 let's say rook a1 bishop a1 knight b6 why do you still better because of that pawn majority in the center but doesn't feel like this is probably enough now because the reduced material I think black is just solid enough here yeah and look he played rook a2 f1 immediately okay because this also sets up after b takes a5 you can play knight takes e4 that's an important distinction yeah indeed and now because of that pin over the f file black might be in trouble how do we deal with it it is a very big threat yeah and now after after it we see that Yovanka is in deep thought and I'm not sure what to suggest for black how do we protect the e4 pawn it's not even about the f5 one it's actually about the e4 pawn bishop h4 bishop h4 that's how that's a nice move did he miss that might be because I certainly did miss that and now rook f4 sorry it doesn't work because of bishop g3 and suddenly the rook is trapped and otherwise where to place the rook on h2 yeah rook h2 looks logical doesn't it but then bishop g5 hitting the pawn on e3 and it looks like black is doing fine here yeah suddenly I think rook rook a f1 might have been a small mistake there by Eric actually indeed now what I don't know yeah I don't see a better move out than rook to h2 maybe rook no but rook e2 doesn't make sense because then I just take the pawn on a5 and I have an extra pawn right right I wonder if he just missed bishop h4 no definitely because the bishop is hidden there on d8 it's definitely a missable move yeah so bishop h4 so it might be the case that Yovanka is out of trouble yeah yeah it could be and she's got 14 minutes and you can tell by Eric's body language as well he goes rook h2 now probably bishop to g5 will follow shortly yeah and she did play it and now what is Eric gonna do here yeah the problem is that rook h8 or is it no it's not a threat we can just play king e7 and after bishop b4 c5 or even king e6 king e6 rook e8 check gotta be a little bit careful ah we'll put that on the board because rook h8 king e7 then the pawn on e4 is hanging yeah king e6 rook e8 and after bishop e7 probably I've got the move well in the worst case I take everything take on b6 and take on f5 but you have 94 now yeah I probably have 94 but this is also a fairly simple solution where I'm still not 100% because rook a2 94 knight c4 might still be okay for black but there is some knight takes e4 somewhere I think for example if knight takes e4 here bishop takes b4 you cannot do that you are pinned oh I completely missed that of course knight takes e4 and now that's the whole point if takes e4 rook takes f7 yeah so she cannot play king e6 and she will have to play then c5 I guess yeah and c5 I can take I think can you there are some bishop e3 checks okay king h1 and now how do I continue a bit messy maybe rook a2 ooh no no no no I don't believe this d takes c4 sorry I'm going to blunder blunder everything am I it's suddenly so messy it's not messy it feels like it should be winning for white but I can't see exactly how he did play rook h8 so we've got rook h8 on the board so the other thing I was thinking was can you anchor block with she can't block with knight f8 yeah because the pawn is hanging and if she blocks with the rook this is also a problem because you take king takes and then it feels like it's too fragile here no the pawn on e3 is hanging yeah I know but let's say takes king here no I want to I'm sorry I want to take here first yeah probably it works better bishop e3 and now knight b6 I have to take it unfortunately now it's still not not the end of game is it because you can take here yeah and then knight c4 bishop e4 check it might liquidate to some drawish but yovanka has to be very careful here yeah no yovanka having a bit of a think now right so yeah we'll see what yovanka chooses king e7 feels more natural but you have to be sure that after bishop b4 c5 is working and they both have 11 if I see right minutes on the clock and still a lot of moves to be played yeah could go three ways let's go to another game let's go back to leandra kriss against pier crambling this one was very interesting the whole time and we got a bit more of a clarification let's just go from here because we're getting close to the time scramble so looks as though pier has done extremely well in this position look what a little trap white has said e5 is the threat and then queen e5 bishop h7 yes so she took on b2 wow so why isn't this good for black rook b1 no wait can I play some h no h6 just g6 yeah but she wants to go rook b1 and now if bishop takes a3 I think she wants to go h6 and it's the end of the game yeah g6 queen f6 g6 queen f6 wins exactly so pier very of course experience decides to come back to f6 gaining time against the queen now why hasn't this been just a fantastic success for black I'm not sure actually because it looks like white did not go anywhere with the attack on the king side and now black just has a pawn up and two running pawns towards the queen side what should white play here queen g4 yeah queen g4 or something but I don't like it even the rook b8 can be enough but also okay b5 we still cannot play because of bishop to d7 but at some point we will threaten to do so and I don't see how white will attack maybe here white should just play a4 or something you know just to try and hold these pawns up what about some no but rook d7 goes nowhere right it's still a little bit weird for black because you haven't got full harmony of your pieces but let's say I play some queen to c6 okay queen c6 bishop d7 oh sorry I'm blundering the rook sorry okay let's say I go back rook d1 I can play rook d8 I believe if I'm not blundering I think bishop d7 queen c7 yeah and now what I want to do is put the bishop on b5 and claim that I'm not actually worse here with white because I have the but certainly black has again the edge in this the pawn up was successful in converting it I believe that Leandro will have a hard time to hold to hold the balance I'm not sure I'm not sure it's as difficult because yeah you've got the control over the light squares right it feels very difficult like just say for example let's say takes takes rook d8 just an example takes takes and g3 absolutely no idea how black is supposed to win this I control c4 and if I just pass I don't think black has got any chance to win this position hmm okay let's say I play h6 now you always have backrank problems so I'll just pass sensibly queen f3 hmm yeah maybe maybe it's just not enough yeah I don't think Leandro is actually that worried about his position he just has to be careful not to um after queen g4 where are we here after this move he's just got to be careful not to allow something like pawn to a4 and b5 yeah if he avoids that he's gonna be he's gonna be fine right I still think that's odds on for a draw um but that would be a good result for Pia because it seemed like she was in a bit of a trouble at some point but uh yeah no more problems king problems to be worried about here agreed oh we have a move that looks spicy hello let's go there Brunello against Marcel Efraimski and I've seen a little tactic here queen g7 rook takes e6 what is that well it looks like a winning move are you sure don't I have some knight c4 here or something along those lines knight c4 queen c3 and the problem is if you try and get the two pieces you run into a nasty double discover check indeed and it's the end of the game because there's a mate very nice mate wow that oh and that bishop on a4 is so terrible really terrible yeah rook takes e6 oh wait I found a very nice move okay he probably missed it go on in this position here or 98 for black yeah does rook f7 work yeah why not yeah this is gorgeous oops sorry rook f7 is delightful look at this knight takes e8 check king g8 worst case scenario as we come back king f8 yeah but now just any move queen e5 just dominating probably do you think I'm not sure really you want to go rook a6 something like that yeah rook a6 I mean if you survive this it's a miracle but then like just to illustrate like worst case scenario bishop d5 queen e7 knight takes h7 check I knew it was coming I mean I guess that this is winning but even this I'm not sure queen f6 king e8 rook d7 and you survive here I'm probably not losing with white but I'm I'm not sure yeah exactly I can take at some point and then if I take g6 I mean even then I'm getting nervous because of the light squares I've got something but I mean here this has to be winning for white I mean even knight takes h7 check probably just works queen takes h7 for example if I go queen f6 check king g8 must be played maybe here no there is no maybe rook f8 queen e6 but bishop d5 yeah and there's bishop d5 maybe rook a6 now and look now bishop d5 yeah bishop d5 that's really nice that's really nice mate I mean just intuitively as well you've only sacrificed an exchange and you get to come back with check should be winning for white and I guess there are many ways here but look she chose a different move she went knight f5 same idea can we not take no this one's too much but the problem is that ok the threat is knight to d4 actually to cover that long diagonal and Sabino has just played something he just took a pawn just took a pawn you know actually Marcel is very dangerous in these tactical scrambles I know she calculates very well and if Sabino will not be very accurate he might does knight d4 work here just to ignore the threat of bishop takes a8 yeah because this and then this and I'm hitting here I'm hitting here and then I have to go rook a7 but then I can play knight d4 back and you are in big trouble knight d4 back because you cannot go away because then this check right wow yeah this move feels off to me oh by the way we have another result it's a game we covered not so much but Nino Bacciashvili playing black against Chonka and that ended in a draw I would say that's a fairly expected result that was two very solid players in a draw so all draws so far yeah and I believe your prediction might not happen uh oh why not where are the winds coming okay so here I'm not sure what happens oh yeah Brunello might lose after knight d4 do we miss anything okay let's put this on move on the board knight d4 knight d4 played yes and Sabino replied immediately I think he's really low on time could be what did he play what did he play rook b6 yeah this looks these rooks are just incredibly weird indeed the problem is that we can play even something like rook a to b8 yeah that's what I was thinking just pin the bishop yeah and none of white's pieces are actually able to move anywhere I don't like how this went for Sabino yeah I agree and she just played it rook a to b8 so let's see can we get a close up of Sabino's time has he only got one minute because I'm very curious maybe we can zoom in ever so slightly and see that clock because to play this position with one minute is really unpleasant right it is very easy to just blunder something yeah absolutely in fact his best move might be something like king g2 here just to stop any check oh no yeah but then I can bring my bishop back maybe play some bishop b3 actually yeah bishop b3 is good or even you've got the idea of bishop d1 sometimes oh wow that is a nice move bishop d1 is really cool yeah because now bishop f3 check is a threat because that rook is hanging yeah yeah I I am putting my money on Marcel yeah I think Sabino is big bro he does go king g2 he does go king g2 so let's see if we're going to get bishop d1 I think Marcel sees bishop d1 here she looks very calm and confident she is and Sabino looks really worried because he had a very promising position and I think it got completely out of his control here I agree all right should we keep an eye on this one yeah let's keep going yeah we'll keep an eye on it let's go to where else where are the ladies in trouble ah let's check ah just game to see if it liquidated to draw his position to Joe versus Maria oh Joe versus Maria okay oh Joe won a pawn wow wow that's huge Joe now is as he would say free rolling this position I mean this is a dream for Joe Gallagher yeah there is completely free rolling position and he can just play it and play and well it is a pleasure to play such kind of position of course not to say that you can that he'll win this position because there's a good chance of course that Maria draws but that is all Maria can possibly do and Joe has got all day to try and convert this indeed so this is a this is a dream situation for Joe Gallagher the boys this is a much needed position oh look the chat is saying that Iran is winning who? Iran should we Irene is winning okay Irene ah okay now for some reason we haven't got the moves which is very annoying for Irene's game and they haven't updated for whatever and so we're going to have to unfortunately pass there until we get those moves in but we'll take chat's word for it that she is winning so can we check let's go back to Abdul Malik because that was looking very spicy as well Rook C7 on the board here oh so he played H wait the pawn on B3 is hanging yeah so she forced it basically she forced this Rook away and he's sacrificing this pawn to get active oh so knight B3 check king to E probably E1 I guess now it's a shame Bishop B1 if the pawn was an A4 Bishop E1 would win the Rook would be running towards winning after D4 okay so king D1 actually was played this is the position on the board king to D1 what about A4 now yeah I like A4 sure setting up exactly at that point Rook takes E7 Bishop B1 yeah and that should win the game oh wait there is Rook E8 check Rook E7 king F8 ah you're running away I'm running away yeah it looks like white is in big big trouble here I think she'll play A4 and we do have a result by the way in the Jillian vs Irene game and it looks as though Irene has won what an unbelievable start for Irene 2 out of 2 ah wow I mean this could be a great tournament for her and you can see Jillian there looking at his score sheet probably asking what happened and now as I say we don't have the moves unfortunately they stopped coming for whatever reason but hopefully we can get those moves or in the worst case scenario um in the post match interview you can catch Irene and she can talk about the game but it's just that one game with the moves that haven't come through so maybe some slight issue there alright we'll keep an eye on this Jean-Claire Abdul Malik game meanwhile ah yeah it looks like she's taking some time but I think that she will play the A4 move she looks oh no she played a different one what is that she played rook f6 rook f6 ok let's have a look let's go back to Jean-Claire oh she just wants to get the f4 yeah she's actually saying look she's actually saying that this rook on A2 is completely trapped yeah because now let's say after rook e7 we have bishop b1 exactly and then rook takes f4 just to play it like this also makes a lot of sense this rook is really just a joke oh and we have another result Pierre Kramlin getting up against Krissa and I bet that's a draw if it ended that quickly oh wait they are saying in the chat that Irene's game was was a draw but not anymore no no I believe she won yeah let's we'll get confirmation soon about Irene but I saw the king on a black square so I think I think she did win let's stay here let's look at Jean-Claire Abdoumalik knight c6 played ok so he wants to take the a5 but does he really have time for that because now again bishop b1 can also take take oh no then rook d6 yeah so if you take here just to explain king f8 knight takes d5, rook d6 I'm pinning and winning that was nicely said and if rook a4 then what rook f4 maybe oh she did something completely different sorry we've missed she can just go check what is this check king c2 rook takes c6 I shouldn't scream she probably heard that rook takes c6 check tricky Jean-Claire ok so he doesn't fall for that so king to e1 but now it's just an extra pawn well well I think she wants to take and if Hussain takes here I think she wants to try and give now with some check king goes here and then some knight d4 she protects everything and now she wants to come in check and check and check and use these three pieces to give mate it looks like white is in big trouble here ok which other game should we check let's go back to Eric Rosen because that was extremely exciting let's check it we got something very similar so we got this so it was rook h8 king e7 b6 b3 king h1 we had something similar takes and now knight takes e4 very nice tactic by Eric the point being if you take I can just exchange the rooks and then play the skewer tactic winning this rook nice one now rook a4 by Jovanka and doesn't feel like Eric has got much here at all yeah I don't see a follow up for white here f takes e4 is definitely the threat now so white has to do something about it and the problem is that white is also hanging so where to place the knight then the bishop h3 will be hanging as well I think that Eric has spoiled it yeah he's really spoiled it hasn't he definitely and head in hands Eric Rosen yeah this looks like a very very difficult position well I guess he will have to to liquidate the position to draw I don't see how you do that me neither oh no yeah this could get very bad very quickly for Eric 5 moves to make and very little time on the clock as well assuming he has very very little time here I can't see he takes on f5 Jovanka is going to take back with the pawn no question and now he needs to find a move maybe knight g3 oh but then f4 knight g3 f4 but where else knight c5 runs into rook c4 yeah I just don't see a move here for Eric shame because I think he had a really nice position indeed yeah that will be a pity for Eric but nicely defended by Jovanka because it wasn't easy wasn't easy at all yeah I think Jovanka is going to win and that's going to be a big blow to the men's team if Jovanka wins this that will mean that women are up 2-0 on the day and with the remaining positions Hussein well Hussein just going back here he's now pinned and that might be curtains actually for Hussein that just might immediately be the end of the game after rook a6 indeed because you can't protect the knight and if you take here I simply take the rook and then I win this pawn and I've got how many extra pawns two pawns for now and third one coming it's over it's effectively over no this is just game over Hussein is not surviving this one she played rook takes a5 ah so he went rook a4 I see he went rook a4 rook takes a5 with the idea of rook takes b4 um but there is no checkmate the knight can come to d2 check can relocate to e4 and the rook is coming to a1 as well yeah it's just just a winning position for black yeah it's just it's just winning you got to be a little bit careful for example let's say you got rook a1 and rook b2 the only thing you got to watch out for is check king f7 rook b7 and you claim that I can't protect and you can't protect e7 at least not easily oh yeah 94 king g2 just yeah okay so let's not keep that rook takes b4 it feels feels like it should be winning well we have at least oh knight c5 rook b8 king f7 b4 let's say we have an intermediate check correct and the knight a6 might be coming ah knight a6 yeah well if the king probably has to go to a better square well actually doesn't have maybe king g2 also knight e6 just hitting that's really the way forward yeah looks like transfer will bring the first point probably the second point actually we have an update on Irene's game she did win it oh yeah here we go we've got the position so we were looking at things around here so something went horribly wrong for he allowed f5 allowing f5 didn't feel right ah but she can't go queen f5 because knight e2 check yeah he lost he lost coordination around this area here and now h4 and now suddenly the rook is in trouble e4 and the rook is gone just like that so he really lost the thread and then the position and then she wow and then she just played f4 and is playing f3 next and it's it's the end of the game absolutely great victory very nice game by Irene and 2 out of 2 on fire mmm it seems like she will be having an amazing tournament here absolutely meanwhile yvanka huska played knight takes c4 and protect my position rook a2 feels very natural here maybe some bishop b4 can I can I play like this I think that's what he's gonna do ah it's actually rook a2 she played it but there's no actual threat or is there probably not so let's say I go f4 I was trying to find some perpetual here but I'm not sure how let's say knight e4 is it move he went rook b1 which is also a move I was just thinking about actually rook b1 trying to come in and actually suddenly she just doesn't care at all the point is that after rook b7 king f6 there is no d5 no d5 because we take nice one and 20 seconds for eric rosen he still got a move to make is he gonna give the check 12 seconds for eric rosen the nerves oh my god he went under 10 seconds oh I cannot watch it I can he got there but that feels like you know at the very least now rook c1 check exists and all the danger is over this is the minimum that black has and no checks f pawn is running he should have played rook b7 I'm not sure because also it didn't look like that was that might just lose immediately right rook b7 king f6 and you might actually just have to resign so I mean I don't mind that he played bishop b1 and now yavanka got time but the practical move is just to play rook c1 because now rook b7 and d5 check does exist it is in the air she's going with the knight somewhere interesting 96 she wants to play does she she does and they reach move 40 but at least now he's got half a move to try and make something work but even still in this position here this looks very difficult for white yeah it does the bishop on a1 is really unhappy there because now the rook cannot really go to b8 let's say it would be a nice place to put it but then rook c1 and the bishop would be lost yeah I think yavanka is in full control here and it won't be easy for white to survive it yeah I agree I think yavanka big favorite here let's go back to Joe Gallaghan's music and wow oh I have a fantastic idea queen e7 check queen e7 check that was a trap queen takes ah okay and you want to put the king on g4 yes and you will have no moves and I'm in tuxfang and now you just go here and then you come to h5 king h5 and it's winning beautiful okay so check so I have to go away yeah well here I know no it's not so easy yeah he does go queen e7 check what will maria do I guess she's gonna go king g8 or something like that and now Joe needs to think does he ever want to play g4 here just fixing this pawn on g5 and if queen c6 check to play with f3 yeah or even king g3 g3 immediately yeah and there are no checks the problem is that the bishop is very bad on h6 right and as we've seen before the end games even bishop against bishop might be lost and now I really like Joe's chances because well if the bishop would be on f6 it would probably be a draw but here maria will have to work hard for it if there will be any draw at all I'm starting to doubt it but wait you know I have one more idea so for example after king g8 let's assume that I can play queen d7 without and there is no queen e4 check but okay even with queen e4 check let's put it king h3 I just want to play to bring the king to g4 also makes a lot of sense yeah I like that because this is just one check another check and we just walk up the board this is probably winning I guess for Joe I mean it feels really bad and you're right if queen g7 doesn't work because we can just take and put the king on f3 then it's just no good yeah and very nice game by Joe yeah a game we haven't checked for a while has been Bilal against Mamadzada they have got to move forward and this is the position and it's super complex position yeah it's it's even difficult to realize what's going on here but it looks to me that black black did well yeah no it looks to me like black did really well how did that knight from c7 escape I don't know it escaped somehow oh so she brought it to c5 she recognized her let's say mistake as I was saying admitting it is very difficult it is yeah but she did that apparently and now her knights are fantastically well placed in the center controlling all the dark squares the g4 move doesn't do any good for white right and it looks to me like black is doing very well here yeah let's just zoom forward to the current position yeah I mean I don't know how bad it is for white because you've still got the light squared bishop controlling some key squares you've still got some opportunities on the queen side but you're right I'm not in love with white's position here yeah and suddenly it seems that one more game is going wrong for the men's team let's go back to Brunello because it looked as though he was losing the thread and they've made move 40 here as well oh he's lost the exchange she did go bishop d1 after king g2 queen a2 and she went bishop b3 now ah protecting f7 aha protecting f7 yeah because if we do our line from before with bishop f3 check firstly yeah well you can just take and if takes takes and the queen's in trouble because we take this yeah rook takes h7 that was a good resource by by Sabino so bishop b3 he played queen b2 queen b2 bishop to d1 back and he doesn't want a repetition he didn't want to repeat no he just said I want to try and win queen to c3 wasn't it a bit over optimistic probably let's see what happens so she went bishop b3 he sacrificed the exchange and went knight to d7 so tactics galore rook here and knight to e5 and this is the position as we have it on the board sorry rook to f6 what oh no she blundered what what is happening oh no they both double blundered Sabino with this what is going on here she played rook f6 Sabino quickly took on d4 thinking that after rook takes queen that there's a back rank mate probably but you can just go queen g8 here he only saw the move queen f8 after which you can take and on king g7 play some move like I don't know knight g4 and you're winning actually with white and he's completely missed that after rook takes c8 you can just go queen g8 and it's completely winning for white for black sorry after takes takes you're two exchanges down yes you've got two pawns but it shouldn't be enough yes I mean you can still play on but it's Sabino looking disgusted with himself as well because well it's still I mean you have to play on here with white perhaps even rook takes c6 yeah but I was thinking takes takes rook d3 knight a7 yeah and after rook a3 it might be a draw yeah if you go into this ending sorry rook a3 knight b5 rook b3 let's say this just for argument's sake I'm not convinced that black is winning this position and she would have to work so I wonder if there's something else here so rook c8 check yeah he is so upset queen g8 and now he understands he has to take and go bishop c6 wow what a blunder that was unbelievable that is what happens when you are down to seconds yeah but he wasn't down to seconds he had lots of time really did he? yeah they've reached move 40 he had tons of time oh it was after move 40 it was after move 40 oh my god then it how did he allow that to happen well I don't know but well this is still not an easy task for for Marcel but you know what I'm thinking after rook c6 knight c6 rook d3 knight a7 I can play maybe rook d5 yeah that's what I was thinking as well just go rook d5 and on king f3 play f5 yeah and the knight is not so great on a7 and I just want to come with the king king f7 yeah and you can there was even a rook d3 oh sorry yeah sorry or maybe maybe not because we lose b5 but certainly when the knight moves rook d3 suddenly and this king being cut off is a huge problem indeed for white because now the king is cut now you can just well you can do anything you want you can walk in this way this way and the knight is really bad I also think here after bishop c6 it won't take her long and realize that this f5 move locks the king and once you lock the king it's it's really really difficult yeah what what a mistake by Sabino I feel for him yesterday he had a bad game but today he played a really nice game up to some point but then Marcel found these tricky moves in time trouble and Sabino probably regrets now for not repeating the moves before the time control and yeah this happens what to do what to do and again we are going away further and further from your prediction we are, they've had a bit of a disaster today the boys yeah it just seems like the ladies kept their cool much better in time trouble because there were a few promising games for the men's team but it seemed like they have lost it in the time scramble going back to Jan Sire she is maintaining control though you got to give some credit to Hussein here who's keeping the game alive who is he well maybe not, maybe the game is still dead because this king is so weak yeah now I just want to play rook f1 and you have no way to protect f4 yeah also this d pawn can, oops yeah pawns don't move like that, this d pawn can just run down the board yeah I mean that pawn can just go d4, d3, d2 queens exactly I guess you try and make h5 work but the problem is I can just take and you can't give a check because you lose your other rook now I think you think this is all over right yeah definitely yeah I agree I think this d pawn running is unstoppable alright who should we check then now it could be end up oh wait what is this f5 what is this move well let's just put it he's hoping for bishop takes f5 after which rook f7 is checkmate and that would be good for white so f5 now what if I take with the king oh yeah I can take with the king as well because I thought that after g takes maybe he had some h5 idea hoping to do something with that pawn even that doesn't feel like it's look nice g5 they have a pretty variation oh that's nice rook here oh that's very nice locking communication yeah that's very nice that's very nice yeah I guess Gencei has just got any move in the book here king takes f5 looks good g takes f5 the only move she doesn't want to play is bishop takes f5 and she's got 25 minutes no she is going to win that one that's too much yeah let's check Eric's game to see how did the time trouble end so oh so 96 Eric actually gave off at the rook trade from h8 to h2 takes takes an f4 and yeah Yavanka in full control here I mean actually this is pretty just running this pawn is there a way to stop it actually also f3 there are some mating nets as well just to put it on the board I'm just being actually I've got to be a little bit careful because you would never play this because of rook here but just to put it on the board but you know there are mating threats ideas in this position definitely yeah it looks like Eric is in big trouble now serious doubts that he'll be able to save this one and it's a pity because it seems like in time trouble he missed many opportunities in both his games yesterday because he had a better position and today once again yeah I guess maybe he should try to avoid those time troubles yeah yeah very very very disappointing day for the boys who really needed a bounce back and as things stand it looks as though Yavanka should win Zansaya is going to win Marcel is winning Marcel is winning Gunai has got a good position it could be a blowout Joe Gallagher is he going to be the only one to save face even this is not like I'm not sure this is completely winning but wait very nicely played queen check now he can go queen d7 yes but now maybe she has bishop g7 yeah bishop d4 queen e4 check I'm blundering sorry no no he cannot allow that bishop to escape from h6 perhaps he has to what about this move g4 just fixing it feels so right to do that what about queen e4 king g3 king h3 exactly just play dance around the squares yeah and oh and Marcel went in for this ending I'm shocked why did she do this now I'm not saying she's not winning but her job of winning this looks very very difficult what yeah she went for she went for this and then she took this pawn instead I don't know but she really should have gone rook d5 here because now after knight takes b5 and I think rook b3 and whatever she does here let's say sorry whatever sorry Sabino does let's say knight d4 here and let's just say for example knight f3 I don't think this is an easy win I have serious doubts that it is a win at all because even without the f4 pawn it is not so easy to win that hand game it would be winning but now with the pawn on f4 I guess it should make a difference yeah I think Sabino's got reasonable chances to try and make a draw but it is you still do have three pawns and anything can happen of course Marcel is just playing risk free but still it's not what I would have done alright listen we're going to go for a very quick break we've still got a lot of chess to be played for example this game here the game between gunai and bilal lots of chess to be played we're going to be joined by an esteemed guest I believe after the break as well we'll keep that as a nice little surprise for you don't anywhere we'll be back in a few minutes with continued coverage of round 2 of this tournament see you soon everybody and welcome back to round 2 of battle of the sexes here from the garrison library in Gibraltar we're joined by the ladies captain the women's captain pia cramling pia thanks for joining us here you've had two interesting games so far in the tournament it's going alright on one and a half out of two today it looked as though for one moment that he was trying to create a bit of initiative on the king side and that you had to be very precise were you ever worried at that moment yes no I was worried because it went it went wrong very quickly in the opening I had a maybe normal position but a free a fine was played and then it's a big hole on b5 so so it was it was just it got very I think it was a very nice plus from white after the opening it's like a queen's gamut but I had played this a5 and no one with every thinking of playing a5 in this position so it was just it was just a mistake then yeah I was worried when he started to play on the king side h4 surprised me I didn't I didn't think of playing like that but so and then yeah I just try to to keep on keep the game going but I thought it was what I play I guess I thought it was I liked 96 I thought that was good yeah I thought that was good and then after now we go yeah queen g4 so and then then I took an f4 I somehow I have to be careful here because there can be some things hanging I didn't know so and now I played what did I play he took with the queen yeah even taking with the pawn was interesting but he took with the queen and now I went yeah I went 96 here yeah I need just to change the pieces I have to get rid of them so and here what did he yes do an h5 that's the way yes so the idea is to go queen f5 yeah and so to open the h5 so I actually I expected h5 absolutely expected h5 so and now I play queen d7 and just to avoid queen f5 here provoking bishop f5 yeah yeah he has to do and queen 8 I wasn't sure queen 6 perhaps but sometimes I'm a little worried but maybe he could have some e4 move and I don't want to let him to come enter with the knight so I play queen 8 and yeah and now he comes so let's surprise me also so and then yeah now you are feeling a bit happier about things yeah I was happier at this moment but we had quite a little time here and then I played bishop c7 so he had to choose between what he did or to yeah now I was less worried but it's I don't know here maybe he should take the other rook if he wants to play rook d1 rook cd1 is maybe more logical so I'm not kicking the bishop when I take a bishop kicking the rook when I take on b2 but okay I play bishop c7 anyway knight 8 d5 and bishop yeah it will be similar I guess so but I thought I was around here you were I wasn't quite comfortable yeah I wasn't so worried here even I thought I don't know if he's better but I thought it was okay now I was more I was less worried than than before yeah yeah and you you managed to take these off win a pawn and come back yeah I went back yeah because I have to I have to keep the bishop with the with the king yeah so here yeah so I I guess okay I have a pawn but he's he's very active and so it's an a4 fix a4 yeah this is so what did I play queen is 7 here I think this was yeah so rook d7 queen d5 bishop d3 and I play with that rook so so I had some idea if it takes maybe I will take with the bishop so and bishop d7 and queen d8 it was a little bit some idea I had actually so but he he took on he took on b6 and I took on b6 and then I wanted to take on he offered me a draw and I took it but I wanted to take on d5 and I take on h5 and we played it so but he's very active against f7 so I mean I think so if this was a must win game you would you would play on here basically but it's not a must yeah but you know he's very active so I don't think he I don't think he's worse in this position because it is pawn more but my pawn can't you know they don't do anything so and he he will ask put all his pressure against f7 so so what can okay I can go g6 king g7 now g6 not I have to guard f7 with my queen so he played he played bishop c4 okay bishop c4 here I'm out now bishop c4 doesn't work I go rook d8 so he shouldn't play bishop c4 this is not in this position so yeah maybe I was maybe he can play rook c6 or something yeah rook c6 you've got perpetual yeah I have perpetual if I wanted to yeah so in rook d8 you have rook c8 so rook c8 so this is yeah yeah it feels like the right result doesn't it Adroid feels like he should have enough the first round was a blowout victory for the women you must have been very happy and you know what today it's looking the same fantastic result zero losses so far and you all have the black pieces today yeah no it's so incredible it's incredible I'm so amazed it's so yeah so fantastic and yeah I was yesterday when I finished my game I played a very long game I because when I play my game I'm very focused I don't know so much what's happening around and I went up and I saw all these white keys so it was very yeah I was very happy but yeah it looks good here today too looks fantastic I mean there are one two three games four games remaining the only game which looks suspicious oh he didn't play bishop d4 oh he did allow bishop g7 yeah because bishop d4 you have the queen for a check so it doesn't work so you need to go king f3 the idea is to play with the king king on g4 yeah so queen h5 yeah so this is a trick can probably just come in queen h1 this is funny don't blunder king f5 queen h3 hold on g4 it's not the end still probably winning for white no it's not but if I go queen h5 now check you will go queen g4 I go king g6 queen g4 and you go where I go king g6 king g6 do you think that holds so little pawns left so little pawns left I just have to avoid not losing the pawns so I just think if I put the king on g6 and I can defend my pawn maybe bishop f6 yeah should it be should be fine and also if you take take just to illustrate here you can probably go king h4 here because actually sorry king I don't know ah here sorry e4 king h4 even ah and if you go king g6 is this any danger no that's what I was saying even king g6 is probably an easy draw isn't it because it looks you can't attack the pawn from any angle no you can't attack more than with a bishop yeah it's an easy draw so I like queen h5 here but then ok queen h5 short you will go king g6 and now king e4 king e4 I think king e4 must be the idea by Joe and if queen h1 I mean you can also just go f3 ah but then I go queen h1 check yeah then this is because as long as soon as I can get my king to g6 when we change queens it's I think it must be fine but can I do this I mean I know it's crazy but it's one of those that either work or it doesn't work what you want to do sorry here here I want to go here and now I have queen h3 check yeah and if I go g4 aha yeah but then I don't go but no no no but you know what I will do I will go queen f4 ok now I go queen f3 check ok I'm going to take aha no no no this I don't want to play so sorry no this I don't want to play ah so you have g4 here well it's either checkmate or it's not that's my reasoning either we're gonna survive that because I don't think it's checkmate right queen g6 king h4 queen h6 king f5 no it's not it's not made so this is fine yeah but in this position yes ah queen f5 no no no queen h1 then this is wrong and what happen if I go this has been played which is a shocking move to me but maybe a good one I don't know maybe it's good because queen h5 you have queen h3 check king h6 yeah I mean this move is just incredible to my eyes but now the point is defend this and now maybe she's starting to have some idea of making lots of checks because now I want to play queen h5 I want to play queen h1 and now yeah the white king is still not quite happy but ok maybe we go now can we play some g4 move e4 I don't know if it's logical to just to have the pawn on a white square looks logical to me and I don't know what will happen then g4 but if you go g4 maybe let's say I can go just down with my bishop be my queen queen c2 or something bishops hg5 ah yeah no I can't so I need to defend it so maybe queen f5 queen f6 check probably come to the lights I could come up I have to actually calculate this but let's just say I go here yeah you go here and now I guess I go queen f5 yes let's see what happens here not easy but there's some idea now maybe you can go queen I want to give some checks but maybe just go I don't know not so easy huh not so easy because there's a few pawns left there are only two against one so even if the pawn is you have it on black but I think this white has to keep the coins yeah you have to play just out of interest I know this is going to look like a ridiculous suggestion does this move ever make sense yes it does it makes sense it does make sense I mean firstly there's yeah I mean queen but let's see on the take king h5 king e4 and now I go this could be dangerous what happened here g4 I'm going to go king d5 king e6 I guess unless you have some yeah I also have some bishop f4 yes I don't know how to yeah bishop d4 bishop f8 I guess I go let's just say I go here and I go with my king to h4 okay bishop f4 I am no no no this is okay I go yeah no no you can't play this is over you just play bishop g3 no this is finished so no no no you can't take it so and if you go queen c6 check then I can go king um g3 yeah and I'm just going to park the king on h3 I guess if you check I go king h3 now I'm threatening this pawn I guess you can come queen f6 or queen g6 oh yeah you have to go yeah something like that queen f6 so but wow maybe you're still holding here maybe yeah but you need king that way I think yeah the king is the wrong direction so if I come here and you give check here yeah no no you don't have any way I don't have any way do I you don't have any way so this is yeah you don't have any way so some good drawing chances still I would say for Maria here actually yeah I think so I think it's good oh that didn't happen sorry that didn't happen no no that didn't happen the position is after king h6 thinking let's get your opinion just on something well let's have a quick look well this one is still going on which is surprising the d3 is played here aha she played d3 maybe I would prefer to have but she wants the king to be safe okay yeah still looks winning to me for black yeah yeah no it looks it looks very good of course it looks very good so yes the two pieces rook d7 played she played rook d7 but aha no I can't take that's a trap sorry I wanted to take and then take and bishop c4 no but you take rook f7 first and then you play yeah so you can't take the pawn but let's see so maybe here now but maybe can we go for some bishop e6 here perhaps now I go bishop c6 and now yeah you go oh yeah I don't really have a good square for this rook I don't know if you go rook e7 yeah rook e7 no if you go rook d7 isn't that dangerous I give maybe maybe I give a check where are you going with the king maybe rook b2 right no my rook my rook yeah and you can maybe take I think you need to keep the rook on the d-line yeah a little bit but I don't know where to put it on d8 but then there's some rook d6 was I was thinking but maybe there are some rook d6 but now I thought king maybe king g7 is good but now you have rook e8 again rook e8 so now it's made now it's made so it's true no feels like it should be losing doesn't it because it's so good you have a pass point you have the knight and bishop with the rook and the king is cut off on the last rank so it looks very good for black very quickly over here well this is a completely crazy position lots of chess to be played so many pieces so many pieces so I and Eric is just trying to hold this position but it doesn't look like it's holdable 94-92 check 94-95 rook h7 rook g7 rook g3 looks like lots of ways yeah but rook g7 you have knight f4 no or am I wrong bishop takes f4 yeah of course so yeah so it's looking good for the ladies you could even get a bigger win than yesterday all with the black pieces today you must be very very happy yeah I know it's fantastic and I'm just so impressed that we have we haven't lost any game that's amazing imagine today and Maria holds and zero losses you'll be in a great position thank you so much Pia I know you've been playing and you must be tired so we'll let you get some rest and hopefully we see you again soon we're gonna go to a nice little one minute interview now with I believe Pia that was recorded earlier so enjoy that and we'll be right back with the remaining action played chess the first time this was 1973 in the autumn I was 10 years old I have a brother I started to play in the club half year old earlier and I did everything my brother did but when you went to the chess club I said no but half a year later this first day of the season in September I followed him to the club and it was there when I played chess the first time I didn't know how to move the pieces I didn't know anything but from the first moment it was like magic for me it was a little bit like the feeling you have a new world was discovered for me and I loved it from the very first time hello everybody welcome back to round 2 of the battle of the sexes tournament here from the garrison library in Gibraltar we just had Pia Kramling the captain of the women's team who had a really nice game yesterday also a good game today she managed to sort of stifle a blossoming initiative and held the draw and not only that her team is doing fantastically well no losses yet for the women all playing black today there was some shaky looking positions but it seems as though they've been able to ride the ship and we've got so far just one decisive result that's Irene Sukunda who beats Gillian and now with 4 games remaining Irina we've got very very good prospects Jovanka Huska in a dominating position Abdu Malik also looks like she is winning although she's she's taken a route that's slightly unusual I hope she's still winning because she was dominating and the only game which is really for me well being one that's difficult to play is the Maria Muzichuk game she's defending Guna is doing very well she has a very promising position here Guna is suddenly out of nowhere has got a fantastic position actually with a knight on d3 so if all games go as they look it could be a plus 4 day for the women which would mean they're on plus 7 after 2 days which would be shocking actually let's go to this Guna Mamadzada game playing black here against Bilal and she has managed you know her knights were the big problem in this game and she's managed to reorganize and now look at them in perfect position supporting one another this position looks just so bad for white I'm even not sure how does white want to untangle what are white's hopes here how can it go anyway in Bilal's favor maybe first you can try and kick this bishop away well the bishop comes back I don't know if that helps white to be honest because you're putting the bishop on a pretty good diagonal bishop d4 is coming I think in exchange of rooks Guna would like but I think anytime you do that I'm going to plant the rook on b5 and not allow that my intuition again is telling me that this position is perhaps not losing for white maybe some 91 at some point to try to trade a few pieces because with the knight on d3 it is very unpleasant to play f2 is always hanging we have to be careful about that perhaps after h4 bishop f6 then 91 is it working something about this I don't like yeah it looks a bit ugly knight b4 knight b4 and I've got to worry about this pawn queen d1 looks so ugly what if I just attack a pawn maybe I can play oh I can't play knight c2 yeah the white pieces just aren't working very well together there's poor coordination and the black pieces are working well together and that's the big difference between these white and black position he played he played something what did he do bishop d1 now that's a sign of a position that's ugly having to play that move he's trying to over protect this which makes sense he's basically saying I'm trying to hang on here don't believe it don't buy it for a second but now you need to find a root it's still not easy to find the root yeah maybe we can prepare something like e3 let's say rook e8 and if I play knight e3 knight e3 I'm not sure about rook e8 maybe rook c8 trying to go for the c4 but again you will play knight e3 you know that's what I'm saying it's one of those weird positions where it feels as though black is doing really well but I'm not sure how much better black actually is I have an idea knight a6 bringing it to b4 wow I like it a lot because you go knight b4 and queen c5 exactly so for example well it's already difficult let's say knight e3 knight b4 the queen goes where do you even put this queen I don't know e2 I can even take on e3 and just win a pawn this is domination this is a great move knight a6 maybe even knight b4 works with the same idea knight b4 and then bring the other knight to d3 and then e4 and then e4 is hanging now I cannot do that I love knight a6 this is a class move yeah so Bilal big practical let's go back to Eric Rosen against Yovanka Huska so it's black to play and Yovanka managed to activate the rook now can you not just go f3 check here what after king e3 oh it's not mate I was gonna say checkmate excuse me king f2 is see you don't want to blunder that alright that was a big oops what else can we play here maybe it's not that easy no no no but we need to find a way to regroup the pieces the problem is that white has those checks from behind no Eric certainly not dead here she played something what did she play knight c4 I believe yeah I was looking at this and then after check where should we go she wants to go to g4 I believe and g2 is it working though I have some doubts king h3 rook h8 king g2 knight e1 it's a draw suddenly knight f3 is it yeah oh king e2 sorry and then king g2 rook g8 no it's not working so check sorry rook g8 check king h3 check king g2 and then a miracle knight e1 check king g1 knight f3 knight f3 and we have a draw yeah by repetition because g1 knight f3 I wanted to try this and then knight d2 but after king e2 my pieces are just poorly coordinated yeah if the king would be on g2 ah but still even then there would be a check and it's in fact I can lose this position now with black which is crazy so we can't do that okay so knight c4 so what's her idea after check I have no clue no king e4 knight she wants king e4 no rook e8 king d5 rook no knight b4 knight b4 king d6 it's not mate here right no not yet but rook d8 check okay king e6 maybe it's the way to play knight c5 king e7 maybe now I can go in and your knight has been distracted exactly the same position except your knight is on c5 I don't know yeah but also king e7 as you say rook d7 king e8 oh look there is a result shansaya has just won yeah shansaya did win no surprise that she won so congratulations to her and the advantage of the women's team increases to plus 2 yeah so let's just go to the position on the board so rook f8 was played yeah so it's now over to yvanga key moment here she will definitely see this idea of knight e1 yeah of course yeah maybe she can go even king e6 oh wait the pawn on f4 is hanging yeah that's the point king e6 knight xf4 drops a pawn wait then king e7 rook f5 what's going on here knight d6 rook e5 check goodness me hold on rook f5 and no no moves here no but wait it wasn't necessary to give the pawn of course let's just play like you said king e4 rook e8 king d5 but what if what if white plays rook f8 here is it terrible no rook g2 king f3 isn't there a mate somewhere not quite but by the way I just want to say just looking here in this position after king e4 I can go knight c5 check I've just blundered sorry this is actually rook d8 rook d8 knight d6 but now I can take wait you had rook f5 as well yeah rook f5 but king d6 now knight e4 and it's winning exactly wow super complex so after rook f8 check what actually happened she played king g5 which avoids all of the stuff that makes a lot of sense king g5 and now but what about rook g8 now she played that right the rook yeah so rook g8 king h4 king h4 rook h8 yeah he's going to give another check and then she's going to go here and he's going to give check and then I think she's going to go back and we're going to get some kind of it might be a draw it might be a draw yeah wow unbelievable what you mean yeah yeah yeah it felt like she was crushing but put us to Eric for defending so tenaciously yeah he's very tricky Eric for everybody who watches him online you know he's the swindle king he's very resourceful wow yeah this is it will be an important save yeah rook h8 check and I think Ivanka will be very disappointed if she doesn't win this one oh well let's quickly go to Joe Gallagher because Joe well a pair of bishops have come off and this is a dream for Maria Muzichuk I mean this position you never win with white yeah it's just a draw yeah this is just how do you possibly win this position with white with the pawns fixed and the king unable to get active the only thing you don't want to blunder is the queens coming off for example you know well something like let's say check I block let's say you go back and yeah I go f3 and you just allow queen e4 check or something like that that's the only way you even this position by the way is probably a draw because I can take take here no it's winning king f2 but even king f3 what is wrong yeah king f3 sorry king f3 king e5 king e3 and we win so I mean all the all the king and pawn endings are probably winning so you just have to avoid that and there must be like must be a draw must be a draw yeah I mean if I just pass oh she played queen b7 this is also perfectly fine but wait what if queen e4 check now and queen f5 ooh that's cheeky okay but I'm never gonna swap queens yeah you will play queen yeah queen d6 check oh I have an idea okay but it doesn't work I thought to play f4 but you have been a free check well I can even take this is a drawn king and pawn yeah I was hoping to play some king h4 but it cannot really work I can't actually lose these positions sometimes if you're really but even you know even if you give f4 a point it's still still a draw yeah I can just go here I can do anything it's a draw so yeah I fully okay Joe has played f3 so what is this queen d7 and f3 but as I say this this should be a relatively relatively relatively straightforward draw for Maria yeah just queen f7 probably yeah there's just nothing you can do here as Joe she goes queen d2 this is also a perfectly good move this is a great move actually because now the king is locked all the king and pawns are drawn if you give a check I can just go back and you're protecting this pawn queen f5 immediately as a draw after queen e1 yeah and Joe understands now that after queen d2 this is the move this is a draw yeah this is just a really easy draw for somebody of Maria's strength so she's going to make a draw okay so that means Yvanka still playing on with king g4 oh she looks disappointed Eric looks very confident already he knows that it's a draw and it's so disappointing you play a nice game for four hours five hours we're approaching five hours now and you know in one bad move and you blow an advantage and it's incredibly cruel has happened to all of us yes it has yeah and that means that only Bilal against Mamadzada is still unclear yeah this is just the only game left which can still have a surprise basically I think queen d2 now by Bilal it's amazing how all the pieces are still on after 48 moves she played that night a6 yeah she did she just took a pawn why not what about the pawn on a5 queen s6 a5 okay it looks terrible but somehow it's just terrible I hate this position for a white just bishop d4 be careful you'll blunder your rook oh wait it wouldn't be so terrible after that indeed well I have to be a bit careful yeah you have to be careful there are still a lot of pieces maybe you actually want to play bishop b3 maybe bishop b3 or queen b5 or some kind of maybe it's not so clear I guess he's gonna take on a5 I wanted to play rook c8 b3 there am I losing the piece you could just drop a knight here yeah gotta be a little bit careful here he does take on a5 so let's see now what G'nai has planned they are coming closer to the second time trouble I believe well the last time trouble they don't get more time after this yep and well I guess that black is winning here but she will have to to be careful not to blunder anything perhaps just moving the knight away would be the best idea let's say knight a to c5 yep that makes a lot of sense she didn't do that what did she do oh but wait there is knight e3 well queen a2 queen a2 yeah in fact that's what she did straight away she went queen a2 immediately which is actually just a very good move hitting the rook and the pawn on f2 potentially threatening the pawn on f2 so how do you defend this rook rook rook actually rook anywhere so there's now queen a1 ideas in some positions but there is still knight a3 so let me just say can we take here probably probably can like I take take but wait there is now queen f1 check no and now bishop d4 threatening a mate and g1 king h2 but now I go check and I win here check from the other side bishop e5 sorry yeah bishop e5 and mate yeah and he played it rook b6 yeah so now I fully ah this is a bit different because now the queen can come back to e1 so if I take take but now you have queen f1 and it's the same problem ah you're right and that's it so she can take now on f2 I'm pretty sure let's do this again rook b6 I take I'm threatening this so if you go king h2 I can just take and then knight e3 so you have to take queen takes f2 if you play queen takes a6 I can play bishop d4 threatening mate all forcing moves if you go king h2 no no no wait here we have ah yeah but we had queen f1 immediately check and it's a mate with checks queen f2 rook a6 ah rook a6 queen f1 and bishop e5 and mate yeah this is in any combination good and she did take on f2 of course she took on f2 she's far too good not to play this move and Bilal is going to lose this game yeah it's totally lost and yeah completely deserved result for Gunai who just handled fantastically this position it looked like she was in trouble after the opening with that knight on c7 but she managed to turn it around yeah it looks like the ladies will be winning with a very big score today huge score and all with black pieces unbelievable yeah so knight takes f2 is on the board and I see absolutely no way for Bilal to continue and Gunai who she also won yesterday right I think no she made a draw oh she made a draw that she yesterday okay but you know look at her now she somehow seated back and you know she never does it unless she's winning because I played against her so many times and she usually likes to take her hand her head into the hands and think like that and when she's winning she always sits back no yeah I can believe she's relaxed she's comfortable she should be she's calculated until the end very quickly back to Joe Gallo Maria Musichuk no change this is a stone cold draw Queen a7 check Maria just double checking I just think any move is good here I don't see how she can even blunder to be honest this position I just don't see I don't see a way this is ever yeah I just don't see how you can play we'll wait for Gunai yeah but it looks like the ladies are winning with a high score really high score and the men's team didn't even manage to win one game amazing amazing and it could have gone even worse if Sabino wouldn't save that could have been much worse yeah I agree I agree and Queen B6 check and I think they are close to repeating in Gallaga Musichuk Jovanka has there been any change no after King G5 Eric what is Eric thinking why not to rotate straight away is he trying to get ambitious because that's how you lose these games because F3 check Rook here is threatening mate indeed no it's no way to play differently Rook G8 yeah he played it and this is probably just gonna be a draw yeah there is no way to win this for Black anymore well a game with ups and downs but it will be an important save for Eric and perhaps it will give him confidence for the next games Jo has tried to move Queen F2 meanwhile against Maria Musichuk just to demonstrate I think the king and pawn ending is a draw still so if I take King F6 if you go King E3 King E5 yeah it is King E2 King E2 just the funny way but even King F4 right King F2 King E5 King E3 King D5 what about oh no F4 is winning sorry it's the G pawn sorry this is you see you can screw this up and King H6 is winning oops okay so King E3 no I could lose this actually yeah that's why you had to play King E6 yeah you don't so after King F6 King E3 to go King E2 so King E5 King E2 King E5 King King E2 and King E6 take the opposition this way yeah that's nice this is the distant opposition 3 squares and this is probably still a draw actually King D3 King D5 King C3 well now you can go King C5 probably I'm still in the square also just to show you guys I get back so even the King and Porn ending is probably a draw oh and Gunai just won the game yeah and Gunai just won that doesn't surprise me well he just resigned after Queen's XF2 it seems so doesn't surprise me a very good game by the young Azerbaijan player fantastic result and Bilal in big trouble he lost both of his games yeah Bilal having a very bad start alright let's go back to Eric and Yavanka I expect it will be a draw very soon Rookay check King G4 this must have been 3 times already yeah I believe so yeah it definitely looks like both games will end with the draw yeah Rook G8 there is no need even to claim the free time repetition because there is just no way for Black to continue pressing because after King F5 I can even play Rook G3 and King F3 keep the opposition distant just make sure there are an odd number of squares between the kings just to show that King D5 here probably is losing because now White can take the opposition with King D3 and on King E5 play King E3 and all of a sudden you've lost because of King D5 and after King F6 it is funny that we should go for King D4 exactly taking the opposition King E6 and King E4 and finally I get in and Maria well I mean exactly trained Joe just understands that there's probably definitely gonna end in a draw I mean 99% can you try King E1 King E7 King E8 still it is funny yeah there is no way Maria can mess it up and it looks like it will be very hard for the men's team to get to get back and score some match wins because today was their chance having all the white pieces yeah hugely disappointing day for the men and remember guys the concept of this tournament which is men versus women's team every point counts because it is a £50,000 difference between the winning and losing teams that's £5,000 per player which for a lot of these guys probably for all of these guys is a lot of money not often you're able to play for £5,000 for a tournament like this definitely so it's you know it's huge and King E3, King E5 now played by Joe but Joe understands that she's an F4 and now it's going to be a a draw just any move is actually good only not King D5 just not King D5 King F6 King takes F4 and King G6 Joe will probably play to King and Pawn because there's no benefit in just accepting the draw G5 King G7 King F5 will be played it looked like he had and they just agreed to draw they just didn't even bother yeah wow what a day incredible day incredible scenes my prediction was completely wrong before the day I thought the men were going to get two wins today plus two I was also wrong because I believed it will be an even match 50-50 yeah and what's ended up happening the women have destroyed the men plus three on the day could have been more, Jovanka Huska could have won Marcel had a winning position for sure it could have been a blowout day plus five and then the task for the guys would be horrible still there are seven more rounds so lots of chess to be played so what should men do now what should be the strategy to get back and try to even the score I have absolutely no idea play better moves I don't know get lucky it's been desperate so far to get zero wins today all with the white pieces shocking they need to have a real hard look in the mirror and ask themselves how are we going to get out of this one that's it that's all we got for today ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us as usual we will be back for round three tomorrow same time same place and the question on everybody's lips as they go home are are the men toast it's two rounds in they are losing by six whole points unbelievable how are they going to come back I don't know are they going to come back tomorrow with the black pieces they need a miracle quickly you'll only find out in one way and that's by coming back tomorrow three o'clock Central European time until then see you guys see you later have a nice evening nice night Marie Sebag with us today has drawn her game with the new English grandmaster Ravi Haria can you tell us something about the game Marie I was black and it was a normal game it was I was some difficult position at one moment but I tried to play my best to do the group right have you played him before no it's my first time first time right okay right shall we have a look at the game okay Marie let's have a little look at this position okay in this position you can take some advantage with this move because now we want to play match this two and match this four and I cannot play this because you can take on E6 and it was very good move because I am under the pressure and white has some advantage because this is very weak and I cannot move my hook and it's difficult position for black it's quite cramped isn't it and you've got the backward e-pawn so it's difficult to know what your plan is going to be here I don't know I want to put this on E6 so I don't know what I do B6 it can be possible but B5 for this to take this square so H4 the move you were worried about yeah but after rook e3 rook e3 and now I am very happy because I play this and now he cannot move this because because of f3 and he cannot take because rook f3 and if he plays like this I can play just this okay too and now this yes you've got a nice line up and I have a lot of pressure and if you play just this for move this move I can take take oh right okay which would be very nice for you and I want one pawn so now that's okay for black H4 and now it's good because I can move just this and now I have some plans with bishop b6 e5 I have a lot of breakies so I just play this yeah I took took I just this is not a game this is the I play E6 bishop b6 I don't know what I want but I don't want before b5 so 6 is very good if she plays instead of H4 instead of H4 if she plays before I can play just this because if she takes if he takes and again and they are okay so it's very good for black so after that it was very even only level after A6 A6 I play A6 and now rook e5 and now it changes because I want to play bishop e6 queen f7 and a lot of pressure for black if you play some like this I can play just this and now big exchange you've got that you've got a lot of play okay thanks very much