Último e-mail del año del GM Alex Colovic:

Since it’s «that time of the year,» I wanted to share with you a game that I’ve always thought was very entertaining.

In fact, it’s not the whole game, only the last 3 moves of it.

I played the game against Cruz Alvarez de Ron in Round 4 of the Malaga Open in 2006. After 22 moves the following position occurred.

Black’s activity fully compensates for the material deficit. But now something very curious happens.

As if in a cooperative study, White starts setting up the pieces for a new game, starting with the king and the queen, and wins the game!

23 Kf1

This was necessary, since Black’s idea is to play …Rd2 and take on f2, so the king gets ouf the way in time.

23…Rd2

There is nothing better.

24 Ke1

The rook is attacked. Now 24…Rd3 or 24…Rc2 would still suffice for equality, but Black continued with his plan and took on f2.

24…Rf2??

This allows the final component of the «study».

25 Qd1

Even giving away a bishop on d5 or d6 won’t save Black for long, so he resigned.

The final position, together with the fact that White was deliberately moving back his pieces to their initial position, were always very amusing to my mind.

This is my last email this year and I hope you enjoyed the ride. In 2019 it will be business as usual with my emails arriving every Saturday. Looking forward to another great year!

Happy New Year and all the best in 2019,

Alex