Last year GM Krishnan Sasikiran won the Sparkassen NC Online Open, but in his preliminary round he only came second in 2021. The winner then was Amir Ali Ghafourian. Today Ghafourian won the second preliminary round in the Sparkassen NC Online Open 2022.
He was already qualified for the final, having finished in fifth place yesterday. But he has great fun with the mode without castling and played the second preliminary round as well. In the sixth round it came to the decisive game against FM Janusz Koscielski - which he won and with it the tournament after 7 rounds!
Ghafourian will certainly go into the final of the Sparkassen NC Online Open next Sunday as one of the favourites. There he will compete for an invitation including an overnight stay in the players' hotel to the 50th International Dortmund Chess Days. There were again many dynamic games right from the start:
FM Koscielski - "SweetChinMusic_04"
So far, so normal, the game looks independent of NC Chess. But both players are not allowed to castle, so:
9.Kf2!?
White makes it possible for the king's rook to intervene in the game after e1.
9...b5 10.a3 Qb7?
This allows White to open the centre. Black should have kept the e5 point under control.
11.e5! Nd5?
The lesser evil would be 11...dxe5 12.fxe5 Nd5 13.Nxd5 exd5 14.Bf3, even though White has great advantage.
12.Nxd5 exd5 13.exd6 Bxd6
14.Bf3! Bd7 15.Re1 Kf8 16.Nb3 and the black position quickly fell apart.
A beautiful game on the subject of king security.
Peter Zackrisson, a young German player born in 2004, finished between Ghafourian and Koscielski. Since the winner and third-placed were already qualified after the first tournament, 9th and 10th place are also eligible for the final:
1. Amir Ali Ghafourian (IRN)
2. Peter Zackrisson (GER) (Jg. 2004)
3. FM Janusz Koscielski (GER)
4. samiii125
5. Norbert Wagner (GER)
6. Michal Slomczewski (POL)
7. SweetChinMusic_04 (ARM)
8. Reinhard Krahn (GER)
9. Nikola Krajinovic (BIH)
10. Arthur Friesen (GER)
The last chance for the final is in Preliminary Round 3, on Monday at 6pm german time!