Odin opens with the king's pawn- taking the center!
THE SICILIAN DEFENCE
Odin develops the knight- which controls many central squares.
Anna plays her knight out as well, following the opening principles!
Sveshnikov Sicilian!
Odin places a pin on Anna's knight!
Anna attacks Odin Knight, who is too comfortable on the Queenside!
Odin moves his knight, who was under attack, and plans to improve it later.
Anna pushes her pawn forward- pressuring Odin`s Knight!
Odin plays fast and confidently, attacking in the center.
Anna defends from the pinn with her Bishop! Now Odin needs to decide what to do about Anna`s Knight.
Odin gives away the Bishop! But the idea is for sure to try to attack Central Square!
Anna recaptures with the Bishop, not destroying her pawn formation in front of the king.
Odin plays an explosive move on the Queenside, hoping to provoke some weaknesses
Anna moves the pawn forward- not allowing Odin to break her solid pawn formation. This is still a standard theory!
Odin moves his knight, as it is under fire. The knight plans to maneuver to better squares later in the game, but it takes some time!
Anna goes for a short castle- making the king safer and developing the rook! The smart thing to do.
Odin, still in preparation, moves his pawn on the kingside flank. Maybe Odin is preparing an attack—he is an aggressive player after all!
Anna defends the Queenside pawns and takes more space in the process.
Odin is now taking a little time to think, symbolizing that he is out of the preparation. Good news for Anna!
Odin moves his pawn one step forward on the Kingside, maybe preparing to develop the Bishop next. In addition, he supports his flank pawn.
Anna moves the Bishop out, putting some pressure on Odin's knight- who was having a too-easy time!
Odin moves the Queen up, perhaps preparing to move the rook into the game later. This would further support the central knight!
Anna plays a very inspired move—a pawn sacrifice on the Queenside! Let's see how Odin reacts to this!
Odin ignores the sacrifice but instead focuses on central control.
If Odin accepts Anna's sacrifice, she would gain the initiative. However, Odin's king remains in the center, which could be unsafe. Therefore, he would prefer to focus on controlling the center.
Odin goes for a long castle! Now we have the same position as in game 1- a game that Odin won. Indeed, Anna should have made some improvements to up her sleeves. Let's see!
Anna is going aggressive with her Queen- trying to put some pressure on Odin's king. But Odin, for sure now, will try to counter-attack Anna`s king!
Anna says she is happy with her position (in the confession-both), but she quotes Odin, who said, "You live and die by the sword." This is true for this position, as you want to checkmate your opponent, but you must also avoid getting checkmated!
Odin offers the exchange of the Bishop. This is fine in itself- but as this position is very sharp- this Bishop move looks a bit too tame- something faster and more aggressive was needed! Let's see how Anna takes advantage of this chance.
Odin moves his king, trying to safeguard it from the raging attack!
Anna, who had many options on how to proceed with the attack, decided to move her Queen to a more active position. But this have cost her some valuable time—Odin could use this time to start his counterattack!
Odin wastes no time and goes straight for the counterattack with his pawn! The pressure is back on Anna now!
Anna soon has under 20 minutes on the clock, which is a critical situation! She can't let Odin get a raging attack and has no time to defend. If that were to happen, it would be tricky for Anna!
Anna improves her Rook position- placing it in the same position as Odin`s king!
Odin, feeling confident, continues to push forward very quickly! Anna needs to move her Bishop now but to where?
Anna captures Odins Knight with her Bishop!
Odin recaptures with the Knight, as it is impressive in the center!
Anna pushes her pawn forward in front of her king, safeguarding him from Odin's looming attack. THis is a good move from Anna!
Odin pushes forward, trying to open up the King's position in the future.
Anna is trying to open the files to get her pieces to attack Odin's king! Will she manage?
Odin blocks the attack from Anna`s pawns!
Anna invades with her Knight, putting pressure on Odin's king!
Odin brings his Knight backward, trying to safeguard his king from Anna`s attack! But the Knight was such a good piece; it must have been with a heavy heart that Odin moved it away from the central square.
Anna improves her Bishop and puts some pressure on Odin`s Knight, who was just placed on a good defensive square.
Odin checks, and offers a Queen trade!
Anna accepts the trade, as the trade of Queens was imminent. We have an early endgame now!
Odin recaptures, and his Knight is back to the excellent central square. But is the Knight enough for white to be better?
Anna attacks Odin`s pawn- but she seems to be in huge trouble now, as Odin is attacking the Kingside- even with the Queens of the board!
Odin defends the pawn that was attacked with his Bishop- and he keeps all the attacking chances. Odin is for choice now, both on the clock and position.
Anna improves her Knight, placing it in a central square.
The problem for Anna is her poor dark-squared Bishop on the Queenside- it is simply not in the game!
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Odin finds a strong way to open the Kingside pawn formation!
Odin captures Anna`s pawn, as it opens many files in front of Anna`s King!
Odin continues pushing forward; Anna is in real trouble!
Anna is down to just seconds and moves her Knight backward. But it seems to not help her position much.
Odin moves his Bishop out, and also prepares for his other Rook to join the game later.
Anna is trying to exchange off Odin's strong Knight in the center- a good plan because if Odin's Knight is gone, some of the pressure is also gone!
Odin is crashing through!
Odin is now making the finishing touches to this mating attack—it looks pretty hopeless for Anna now, as the checkmate is coming!
Anna finds the only move!! Odin has blown it!
Anna moves the king away from the check- probably very relieved that she is in the game!
Anna trades away Odins Rook, as it was very active.
Odin recaptures the Rook and is still active, but Anna is much better in this endgame, as she can neutralize the pressure. Odin's light-squared Bishop is going to be really bad in the future!
In addition, Anna's dark-squared Bishop, who was terrible just a few moves ago, is the real star now!
Anna finds the best way to punish Odin for not taking the draw. Odin is in real trouble now!
Anna is very effectively improving her Rook position- she has found the best way forward!
Anna moves away from the check from Odin, and her Rook is ready to join the battle on the next move! And then the King of Odin will be the one to feel the pressure! This looks lost for Odin!
Anna defends the pawn with her Rook, saying she has much time and can later improve her position.
Odin is now attacking Anna`s pawns- if he can take them away, his King will no longer be so weak.
Anna sacrifices a pawn to activate her Rook!
Odin wins a pawn with check!
Odin checks are gone- and it is Anna`s turn to go on the offensive now!
Odin tries to run away from the danger zone.
Anna gives a deadly check- Odin has no good way to defend his weak position now- Anna`s pieces are just too strong!
Anna is looking to capture Odin's pawn on the Kingside. If she manages, Odin will have no counterplay at all.
Anna has successfully executed her plan and is now a pawn up. However, the main problem for Odin is that Anna can very quickly attack all his weak pawns later.
If the timing is right, Anna might even be thinking of going after Odin`s weak central pawn now!
Anna is putting pressure on Odin, hoping he will become passive when he defends his weak pawns. Though to be fair to Odin, there is not much to do here for white.
If Odin captures the "free" Bishop, Anna will push her pawn down the board and soon get a new Queen. So Odin can not do that!
Anna moves her king away from the check.
Odin at least takes one of Anna`s pawns, but he needs to deal with the others, too!
Odin prevents the pawn from promoting with check-but Anna will just move away with her King.
The game started with a Sveshnikov Sicilian- both players were very well prepared. In fact, after the 17th move, we had the same position on the board as we had in game 1! Anna was playing well- but was getting way too low on time again. She hesitated in the endgame- and soon Odin was utterly winning. He still needed to pay attention, and after blundering a defensive resource, Anna was back in the game! Odin could not deal well with this turn of events, and instead of taking the draw, he played for the win. However, this backfired severely, as Anna found some powerful moves in the endgame- and took the whole point home! It's a fascinating game with many ups and downs- the players have 1 hour to rest before the next round- stay tuned to that!
Odin resigns! Anna has turned it around!
Odin resigns because there is no way to prevent Anna`s past pawn from becoming a new Queen.
Anna is now up two pawns and is pushing them in to get a new Queen. Odin is soon going to resign, and we will see a huge turnaround in this game. Great news for Anna fans!
Anna is playing the endgame strongly now, but she is under a minute! Will the time situation make it too hard for Anna to win?
Odin was winning- Anna had no time, and the king would soon get checkmated. But Odin blundered a defensive resource from Anna, which is equal now! Odin got way too confident and played too fast. Now, anything can happen- will Odin be able to recover from this turn of events?
Anna is down to 2 minutes and counting now, and her position looks extremely tough to defend—Odin has found a way to misplace Anna's pieces very well! It seems harsh to turn this around, but Odin must be precise!
We have an endgame now! Anna is probably relieved that she will not get checkmated by Odin's attack. The position is definitely more "simple" without the Queens, as they are bringing a lot of heat to the game. As Anna is short on time, " simplifying" the position is a good strategy. But Odin will continue to pressure the clock in the resulting endgame as well, so this is not over!
Anna, who is short on time, is playing great now. She is trying to attack Odin King and finds those moves quickly. But Odin will continue to play fast, so she must keep the pace up and make strong moves!
Odin followed his plan, first trying to safeguard his king and then attacking Anna on the king's side. But the question now is whether Anna's attack will be too fast! But Anna must follow up nicely now, as this can quickly turn around!
Though Anna is getting a bit low on time, having 27 left while Odin has 45 minutes, Odin says he will continue playing fast and putting pressure on the clock!
Odin says in the confession that he is still in preparation, but the problem is that Anna knows all his plans! He is curious about how she will play now, and he is very excited!
Anna comes from a fantastic chess family, with her father and mother being Grandmasters. Maybe she has analyzed these middle positions with them.
Anna is taking her first significant thought—10 minutes and counting. She is familiar with the plans but is trying to figure out precisely what is best in this specific position.
Both players have been playing really fast so far, as they are in preparation. We have a Sveshnikov Sicilian—an opening Magnus Carlsen has been playing a lot!
Get ready; the highly anticipated day 2 of the Anna vs. Odin match is just 30 minutes away!
Odin is leading the match with a score of 1.5-0.5 after winning the first game yesterday with the white pieces and drawing the second game. This match will have six games, making today crucial for Anna if she hopes to stay in contention and turn the tide. Will Odin's experience prevail, or will Anna's youth and ambition shine through? You can follow the action here in the Take 'Take' Take app!