Anna
Slightly better
Odin
Anna
 
Odin
 
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

Game 6

Anna vs Odin

Commented by: IM Tor Fredrik Kaasen

1

Anna opens the game with Queens pawn up, fighting for the center.

00:05 d4
1

Odin develops his Knight.

00:06 Nf6
2

Anna moves her Knight out, fighting for the center.

00:08 Nf3
2

Odin plays excellent moves, fighting for center and opening up for his Bishop.

00:08 e6
3

Anna fights for the center!

00:14 c4
3

Benoni

Super aggresive variation

00:16 c5
4

Anna declines the Benoni from Odin and instead plays a sideline here. It is not so critical, but it is aimed at avoiding preparation from Odin.

00:08 e3
4

Odin captures in the center!

00:46 cxd4
5
1 turn without comment
5

Odin moves his pawn towards the center!

00:08 d5
6

Anna develops her Knight, putting pressure on the center.

00:11 Nc3
6

Odin copies Anna`s strategy- putting pressure on Anna`s center.

01:32 Nc6
7

Anna pinns the Knight of Odin- developing and putting pressure.

01:23 Bg5
7

Odin defends from the pinn; in addition, he prepares to castle soon.

00:31 Be7
8

Anna moves her Bishop out, preparing for the castle.

01:15 Be2
8

Now that Anna has moved her Bishop, Odin captures the pawn in the center.

00:11 dxc4

If Anna now recaptures the pawn with her Bishop, she has moved her Bishop twice- that's why Odin waited to capture the central pawn only until she moved her Bishop.

9
1 turn without comment
9

Odin castles have an excellent position.

00:13 O-O
10

Anna castles as well, and we are in the middlegame.

00:34 O-O
10

Odin kicks the Bishop away.

00:19 h6
11

Anna moves the Bishop away since it was under pressure from the pawn move of Odin.

01:50 Bf4
11

Odin prepares to kick away the Bishop of Anna and later develops his Bishop. Anna needs to try to prevent this from happening again!

00:23 a6
12

Anna moves her Rook out, hoping it will be a strong piece on the open file.

05:11 Rc1
12

Odin follows his plan and kicks the Bishop here. Next, he probably wants to develop his light-squared Bishop, thus finishing his development.

01:00 b5
13

Anna moved her Bishop away, as it was under pressure. From here, the Bishop potentially puts pressure on the center and Odin's King.

03:42 Bb3
13

Odin moves his Knight to the edge of the board- but from here, the Knight is annoying the Bishop of Anna. Smart move!

01:24 Na5
14

Anna moves her Pawn forward, but Odin is much better now!

14:46 a4

Odin is better here because he can soon take Anna`s Bishop with his Knight, and later, his light-squared Bishop will reign supreme.

14

Odin takes the Bishop!

01:14 Nxb3
15

Anna recaptures with the Queen.

00:03 Qxb3
15

Odin finds the best move, forcing Anna`s Knight to go passive!

00:22 b4
16

Anna moves her Knight as it is attacked, but the position looks grim now.

00:51 Nb1
16

Odin made a smooth move, attacking the Bishop of Anna and improving his Knight position. Next up is improving his light-squared Bishop.

00:17 Nd5
17

Anna moves her Bishop, keeping it in a nice long diagonal.

00:55 Bg3
17

Odin places the light squared to the natural square. Because Anna lost her light-squared Bishop, this Bishop will be strong for Odin.

02:56 Bb7
18

Anna improves her knight position, as it is not standing so well in the starting position.

00:15 Nbd2
18

Odin moves his Rook out, challenging the open file for Anna`s Rook.

01:01 Rc8
19

Anna tries to improve her Knight, placing it towards the center soon.

01:38 Nc4
19

Odin advances his pawn on the Queenside- takes more space, and defends his pawn further.

05:10 a5
20

Anna improves her Rook position; from here, it stands harmoniously.

00:55 Rfe1
20

Odin moves backward with his Knight, maybe preparing to bring his Bishop into the center soon.

01:10 Nf6
21

Anna has improved her Knight maximum; it now stands excellent in the center.

03:16 Nce5
21

Odin attacks Anna`s Queen.

01:31 Bd5
22

Anna moves her Queen to a logical square.

01:03 Qd3
22

Odin improves the Queen's position.

02:25 Qb6
23

Anna moves her Bishop to the side, trying to annoy Odin on the Kingside (right side of the board)

02:39 Bh4
23

Odin creates a strong "battery" with the Queen and Bishop nicely lined up on Anna`s weak diagonal. Odin is playing great so far!

01:06 Qb7

Odin is up 25 minutes on the clock, in addition.

Anna is down to 17 minutes and counting- the time situation is not looking great for Anna!

24

Anna captures Odin Knight.

10:14 Bxf6
24

Odin recaptures with the Bishop.

00:21 Bxf6
25

Anna offers a Queen trade- hoping to have some drawing chances in this endgame. Odin now has many options on how to continue.

00:47 Qb5
25
1 turn without comment
26

Anna recaptures with the Rook.

00:02 Rxc1
26

Odin offers another Rook trade. This is very solid, but he could have exploited his advantage even more effectively. Still, Odin is better here.

00:42 Rc8
27

Anna finds an annoying move here for Odin; she is fighting well!

01:59 Rc5
27

Odin blunders!!

02:50 Be7
28

Anna finds the best move

00:37 Qxb7
28
29
3 turns without comments
30

this is what Odin has blundered- Anna wins a pawn!

00:12 Nc6
30

Odin defends the Bishop with his King.

05:46 Kf8
31

Anna wins a pawn!

00:56 Nxa5
31

Odin activates the Bishop.

03:02 Ba6
32

Anna moves her Knight to a central position, which can create many deadly forks and trickery.

02:26 Ne5
32

Odin starts a king walk- maybe hoping to blockade the passed pawn of Anna in the future.

02:07 Ke8
33
1 turn without comment
33

Odin kicks the Knight away from the central square.

04:21 f6
34

Anna moves her Knight to not-the-best square, Odin is back in the game now!

05:33 Ng4
34

Odin misses a chance to exploit previous mistake by Anna

00:58 Kd7

Odin made This move super-fast, so he did not sense that something was wrong with what Anna did.

35

Anna now stabilizes her position and is better again!

00:57 Kf2
35
36
2 turns without comments
36

Odin stops the Knight from approaching the dangerous square, but Anna can make this move later. She seems in control here.

00:59 Bb6
37

Anna re-manouvers her Knight to a good square- it can later try to attack the weak Queenside pawn of Odin, perhaps.

04:29 Ne3
37

Odin improves his King position.

01:41 Kd6
38

With 8 seconds left, she attacks Odin`s weak pawn!

04:05 Nc2
38
41
7 turns without comments
42

Anna finds great move- ready to push the pawns now!

01:14 Na2

Odin can not take the Pawn as then Anna has a trick with her Knight!

42
1 turn without comment
43

Anna pushes the pawn forward, but Odin has a smart move now!

00:31 a5

It looks like that Odin Bishops are really strong here- and Odin can now use his King to attack the passed pawns of Anna.

43

Odin finds the best plan!

03:08 Kc5
44
44
2 turns without comments
45

Anna tries to improve her King here, but it's hard to see how she can proceed here to put pressure on Odin.

00:41 Ke2
45
1 turn without comment
46

Anna pushes her pawns on the Kingside but must watch out not to create too many weaknesses in her own position.

00:13 g4
46
84
76 turns without comments

It's a Draw in the end! Odin got off to a very good start and was much better in the middlegame. It looked very bad for Anna, but suddenly, Odin blundered. Anna was winning in the endgame, but Suddenly, Odin's bishops became really powerful, making the win impossible for Anna. In the end, it was a Draw in an Equal endgame—and Odin won the Anna vs. Odin match!

Anna is not giving up, she is trying to win!

Odin is placing his Bishop far away from the Knight, so it will not fall into some tricks!

Anna will try to push for some time here, because she can! But Odin must blunder something really big to lose this one.

Anna is a pawn up now! But because it is so few pawns left, Odin should hold this without much difficulities.

Anna will now win one pawn back on the Kingside, and we will have three pawns vs. three pawns on the Kingside—this is a draw normally.

Odin has now decided to win back the pawn, but he has lost his Bishop pair in the process. I think Anna will not have much problems here to hold the draw, but she needs to win to draw the match!

Odin can now win Anna's passed pawns, and we could be close to a draw. But maybe he wants to play for a win?

Things have not turned out the way Anna wanted in this endgame—Odin is closer to winning here than Anna because of those 2 Bishops. But anything can still happen here!

Anna now has 2 dangerous passed pawns. The only problem for Anna now, however, is that Odin Bishops suddenly has a lot of room and space to attack! This might not be so simple for Anna now; she is also low on time.

Anna is down to 1 minutes; can Odin hold it?

Anna seems to have frozen, she must make a move!

Anna will now come with her King, as we are in a clear endgame. She will then try to push her passed pawn forward and win one of Odin's bishops for the pawn. There is nothing Odin can do here than to wait for this to happen- unless Anna blunders something, of course!

It was a dramatic turn of events, as Odin was in complete control with much better positions- it was just one blunder it took before it completely turned around! Now Anna is much better in the endgame, as she is winning a pawn. Will Anna level the match score now?

Odin needs to adjust himself to the new situation if he wants to give some good resistence. But it looks tough now for him!

Odin has an great position here, as his light-squared Bishop is tremendous, and Anna has a weak central pawn (isolated pawn, it is called). So, positionally, his position is overwhelming. The problem for Odin, however, is that he is known for being great in attack; positional chess is not something he is as strong in. So let's see if he can maximize the potential in this position- the situation might not be so grim for Anna, as the engine says.

Anna is spending some time now trying to figure out whether she should move her Bishop away or allow Odin to capture it. If she moves the Bishop, she is losing valuable time, but losing the Bishop and the Bishop pair is not ideal either. Tough call here for Anna!

Anna has 40 minutes, while Odin has 1 hour. It's a good start for Odin in the last game here.

We are now in the middlegame. Anna looks sharp with the black pieces, but with white, she seems to avoid theory. Odin has no reason to complain about the opening; he might be slightly better here. Anna`s main problem is her central pawn; it can become a weakness in the future. Let's see how this continues!

The game is about to start!

Welcome to the last round of the Anna vs. Odin match! Odin leads 3-2 in the game, so a draw would secure the win. Anna is playing with the white pieces and will try to put some pressure on them. However, when Odin is playing, a fight is guaranteed! Stay tuned; the game starts at 15 CET.