Gamesters of Triskelion | 28 September 2017

The triskelion, or three-legged emblem, has been on the coat of arms of the Isle of Man since the late 13th century. The Isle of Man has now attracted one of the strongest ever lineups for an open competition in the history of formal chess tournaments. The lists include world champion Magnus Carlsen, former champions Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand, and Hikaru Nakamura as well as the former world title challengers Boris Gelfand and Nigel Short. The British contingent is joined by Michael Adams, the newly minted British champion Gawain Jones, and David Howell. Doubtless the munificent prize fund of £133,000 is a lure.
 
The first round saw the following impressive strategic performance by Nigel Short, who first gains control of the dark squares in his opponent’s camp, then converts this into material gain, finally infiltrating his opponent’s lines of defence and strangling him to death.
 
Short-Osmanodja: chess.com Masters Isle of Man 2017; Catalan Defence
 
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 d5 3 c4 e6 4 g3 In former times Short was a strict adherent of 1 e4. In recent years, however, he has graduated to becoming a fine exponent of the subtle flank openings such as the Catalan, which he employs in this game. By adding a deeper and richer vein to his openings arsenal, Short has revealed an innate talent for openings that lead to closed positions. 4 … Bb4+ 5 Bd2 Be7 6 Bg2 0-0 7 0-0 c6 8 Qb3 b5 9 cxb5 cxb5 10 Rc1 Avoiding 10 Qxb5 met by 10 … Ba6 followed by full activation of Black’s forces. By placing his rook on the open c-file White sets the strategic tone for the remainder of the game. 10 … Ba6 10 … Qb6 11 Bb4 Bxb4 12 Qxb4 Bd7 13 Ne5 was seen in Nikolaidis-Ricardi, Elista 1998. 11 Bb4 Strategically the key move.