Congratulations to Dave Mooney who won the Ponziani’s themed blitz with 8/8. Well done to Yaroslav Kolodiy for coming second with 5.5/8. Full details here.
Next Thursday, 26th September, the theme will be the Petrov Defence (or Russian if you hail from Eastern Europe). Play will start after 1 e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 with white to move.
Two videos for your prep. First an introductory video from the excellent “Hanging Pawns”. This is the first of five. There are four more in his series going into the possible variations for the keen student. Since the defence has a bit of a boring reputation, here is a video from the St Louis Chess Club on one possible white attempt to make life exciting, the Cochrane Gambit where white plays Nxf7, sacrificing a piece on move 4!