Anna opens this crucial game with the Queen's pawn forward, taking space in the middle of the board. A good opening move!
Odin responds with the most common move, moving his Knight out and staying very flexible. The Knight controls key central squares from here.
Anna moves her knight out, taking key central squares and developing a piece.
Odin moves his pawn one up, taking central squares and opening up for the Bishop.
Odin responds very aggressively, trying to attack Anna`s center right away!
Odin adds additional pressure on the center by moving his Knight out.
Anna places her Bishop on the logical square in this variation (Catalan opening). The Bishop is powerful from here, as you can see!
Odin decides to release the tension and captures Anna`s central pawn. We will soon see a symmetrical pawn structure; maybe Odin wants to play it solid.
Anna recaptures with the pawn to keep pawns in the center!
Odin checks Anna and develops the Bishop in the process. His next move is to get his King into safety by castling.
Anna blocks the check with the Bishop, safeguarding her King and offering a trade for the bishop.
Odin accepts the exchange offer, and we have the first trade of the game. Now the question is, what does Anna recapture?
Anna recaptures it with the Knight, developing it and eyeing some central squares.
Odin promptly places his pawn in the center, keeping it symmetrical and balanced. Odin wants to play it safe, it seems, after that previous game.
Anna gets her King into the safety by casting short. We have a solid start to this game!
Odin copies Anna's strategy, and now his King is also safe. Now we are in the middlegame- so the players need to find a plan that fits well with the piece coordination.
Anna places her Rook on the open file- an excellent move!
Now Odin is probably thinking about getting his light-squared Bishop into the game.
Odin stays true to his style and goes on the offensive with his Queen!
Anna defends the pawn that was hanging with her Knight and is maybe in the future wanting to go even further forward.
Odin, not shy of his intentions- is attacking with his flank pawn. His idea is to pressure Anna`s pawn by removing her Knight that is defending it. The good news for Anna is that there are several ways to defend against this attack.
Anna understands what Odin wants, so she protects her pawn with her Queen so that the pawn will not hang anymore when Odin moves her Knight away! In addition to this, the Queen is placed well on the open file as well.
Odin moves forward with his Knight, and he is playing very aggressively! But the engine seems to think this is too optimistic- maybe it was better to do something with his passive Bishop?
Anna moves her Knight forward, attacking the Queenside!
Odin moves his pawn forward, supporting his Knight even further. This move does, however, weaken some key squares. But Odin hopes that his strong Knight will compensate for this. But the engine thinks the weak squares are more important!
Anna moves her Knight to the edge of the board, attacking the very active Queen of Odin.
Odin moves his Queen, who is under attack, but it looks very passive now, as it goes all the way back to the starting position. Is Odin's daring play starting to backfire?
Anna moves her pawn one up, ensuring her central pawn is well-defended. That's a solid move!
Odin finally develops his Bishop- as it now stands a bit better. It is still not a good piece because many of his pawns are the same color as the Bishop. But this is not something Odin can change in the foreseeable future.
Maybe Odin can exchange this Knight with his central Knight, and some of the pressure seems to be gone. Still, I like Anna`s position more; her move is very natural.
Odin defends the pawn that Anna`s Knight attacked, but the Rook does not look well where it stands now.
Anna improves her position by placing the Rook in a better position. These are the types of moves a good chess player can make quickly—the ball is now in Odin's court to find a good plan.
Odin, in typical fashion, is going all in for the attack. It looks too optimistic, but punishing such play is not always easy. Let's see how Anna deals with the pressure Odin is creating!
Anna flees with her Knight away from the Kingside- it was likely that Odin was going to push her away anyway, so this move does make sense. Anna plans to re-maneuver the Knight to better squares later. Because the center is so closed- it is OK to play more slowly than if, for example, the pawn formational was open.
Odin attacks Anna`s Queen with his Knight.
Anna moves her Queen to a very natural and active square. Simple and effective.
Odin decides to trade off Anna`s active Knight.
Anna recaptures with her Rook. Her position is powerful- Odin`s position is positionally speaking very shaky- as he has weak dark squares and not much to show for it.
Odin tries to kick the active Rook away by moving his pawn one up.
The main problem for Odin here is that if Anna can kick away Odin`s Knight, her own Knight can start using those weak squares by jumping to them.
Anna moved her Rook, which was under attack, to a solid square.
Odin tries to activate his Queen!
Queen moves her Queen away since Odin prepared a trick with his Bishop. This no longer works after the Queen has moved away.
Odin is doing the best he can with his position. Now, he is trying to activate his poor light-squared Bishop by placing it outside the pawn chain, which makes it very passive.
The reason this is a mistake is that she needed her Knight to make use of the weak squares in Odin's position. Without the Knights on the board, those weaknesses are not "felt" as much as they could have been.
It was a simple and strong move from Odin, defending his Knight. Anna can not take it now, as her Queen could get attacked. It is unclear what Anna should do now.
Anna offers to exchange the Bishop of Odin. Odin probably does not mind, as this is typically his problem with Bishops in such positions. I think the last five moves have gone heavily in Odin`s favor, and he is not worse anymore.
Anna is down to 16 minutes against Odin, who has 30. So, the time factor can quickly become important again in this game.
Odin makes an inspired move, attacking Anna`s pawn at the board's edge.
Anna defends the pawn and attacks Odin`s Bishop.
Odin now takes Anna`s Bishop.
Anna recaptured the Bishop with her Rook to keep the harmony in the position.
Odin now goes on the offensive by pushing his pawn forward- trying to attack Anna`s King if he gets the chance!
Anna is very short on time, and she feels Odin's initiative is growing. She now tries to attack it by moving her pawn forward, but all it does, I am afraid for her, is provoke further weaknesses in her position.
Odin captures Anna`s pawn to open files to her King.
Anna does not recapture right away- I am not sure what else she is considering doing! Her time is ticking.
Anna finally moves- and she does not recapture! Now Odin is up a pawn with the initiative.
Odin captures the pawn quickly, as he is up a pawn now!
The King, but the King should be defended, not the one going forward.
Odin moves Queen forward, strong move!
Odin Queen closes in for the win; Anna has a lost position and no time left.
Odin is now up two pawns with a deadly attack: Anna will resign.
Anna moves her King to a surprising square, but it looks all over anyway.
It was a strong move, stopping the threat from Anna and attacking the pawn in center.
Odin activates his Rook nicely.
Odin finds the most convincing check!
Odin takes the pawn with the check.
Odin finds one of the good ways to win!
Anna tries to blockade the Pawn.
Anna Resigns! It was an exciting game that started very calmly. Odin soon, however, started playing aggressively, which left him with many weaknesses. Anna was much better in the middlegame, but she misplayed it very badly and had very little time. In the end, Odin was completely winning, but he showed slightly shaky technique—but in the end, the position was too winning for it not to be won.
This is an important win for Odin, who is now leading the match 2.5- 1.5 going into the last day!
Anna Resigns! It was an exciting game that started very calmly. Odin soon, however, started playing aggressively, which left him with many weaknesses. Anna was much better in the middlegame, but she misplayed it very badly and had very little time. In the end, Odin was completely winning, but he showed slightly shaky technique—but in the end, the position was too winning for it not to be won.
This is an important win for Odin, who is now leading the match 2.5- 1.5 going into the last day!
The problem for Anna is that Odin has 2 passed pawns- she can not stop both! Odin will now simply push them forward, and win because of this.
Still very difficult for Anna.. little time does not help either.
Odin goes for the Rook endgame!! he gives up checkmating the King- Rook endgames are never easy! He is still better however, but really shaky technique.
Anna is trying to run away from the checks, and Odin looks shaky! This can turn now.
Odin can not believe this is not over yet
Anna`s King is taking an epic run, but it will not last forever.
Odin is now completely winning—the only danger for him is if he plays too fast and blunders. But it looks hopeless for Anna now.
Anna seems to have frozen- she has less than a minute left! She is in deep trouble..
Anna now has 8 minutes on the clock and counting—probably she is slightly tired, as this is, after all, a double round. But she needs to be precise to brush away Odin's looming attack.
5 minutes now!
Our position in front of us is typical for the opening variation 'Stonewall defense.' Despite Black's admission of the position's vulnerabilities, it stands like a resilient wall, not easily penetrated. Anna's successful trade of the dark-squared Bishop further strengthens our position, exploiting Odin's weakness on the dark squares.
Odin is playing fast and confidently- but it seems he does have some strategic problems- specifically, the light-squared Bishop of Odin and some weak central squares. Lets see if Speed and optimism prevails over positional play!
Playing a double round is never easy (2 rounds on same day). Playing very fast can be energy-saving for Odin and put pressure on Anna on the clock and psychologically. Even though it backfired for Odin in the previous round, having almost no time left is a significant liability. So Anna needs to watch her time!
Anna is now taking a little think. She has 50 minutes left, while Odin has 1 hour 1 minute. This is nothing unusual for this match, as Odin is generally a much faster player. It is generally a good idea to take some time when we have gone from the "opening stage" to the "middlegame stage," as in the opening, you get your pieces out, while in the middlegame, it is time to use those pieces. Let's see what plan Anna comes up with!
We have a very different start to this game than to game 3. Game 3 was highly theoretical with 17 move preperation. Here the players are for sure playing on their own almost from the very start. This can lead to more creative play, as the players must create their path!
Welcome to round 4 of the Anna vs. Odin match! Odin had a winning position in the previous game, but a blunder led to a loss. Such losses are tough, but it would be impressive if Odin manages to shake it off. For Anna, the previous game was a significant morale and confidence boost- she has leveled the score and the momentum has shifted in her favor. Stay tuned for the action in the Take` Take `Take app! Starting in 15 minutes.