Game of the Week: Rodshtein, Nepomniachtchi

The European Individual Championship, as always, reeled in an enormous number of grandmasters hoping to qualify for the World Cup. When Alexander Moiseenko, the leader for nearly the entire event, was toppled in the last round by Ian Nepomniachtchi, an extraordinary ten way tie for first ensued, with all players on 8/11. Special kudos has to go to Alexander Beliavsky, who will now supplant our own Larry Christiansen as the oldest player in the World Cup. Most of the decisive games I played over seemed to be technical affairs. A notable exception was Nepomniachtchi’s encounter with Israeli grandmaster Maxim Rodshtein. A cutting edge opening variation led to an unusual unbalanced position that was quickly mishandled by one of the players. It’s short, but it’s sweet. Let’s take a look.