Congratulations to Paul Bielby who won the QGA Exchange Variation themed blitz with a clean sweep 6/6. Well done too, to Dave Patterson, 5/6, and Michael Allen, 4/6, who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Full details here.
All three are playing in the Northumbria Masters tournaments this weekend, so good luck to them there. Looking forward to hearing tales of their successes on Thursday!
Next Thursday’s theme is the accelerated dragon in the Sicilian Defence. Play will start with white to move after the moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6.
Here are two YouTube videos to help with your preparation. First, a very slow but thorough introduction from the excellent Yasser Seirawan on the St. Louis Chess Club channel. In complete contrast the second video covers twice the theory in half the time and obviously a fraction of the explanation from “Hanging Pawns”.