Alireza Firouzja produced a momentous performance for France at the European Team Championships, held in Slovenia last month. The 18-year-old, originally from Iran, had taken first place at the Fide Grand Swiss in Latvia just a few days earlier. In Slovenia, his seven wins and two draws was a staggering achievement, earning him an individual gold medal and propelling him to second place in the world rankings. In the overall team standings, it was Ukraine that took gold, finishing narrowly ahead of France on tiebreak.
The England team got off to a shaky start, and we didn’t come close to repeating our bronze-medal-winning performance from the previous edition in 2019. But 22-year-old Ravi Haria made a confident debut, crossing the rating threshold to earn his grandmaster title during the event. Meanwhile, Gawain Jones earned an individual silver medal for a splendid performance on third board. Appropriately, his most exciting game was fought in the Mar del Plata variation (literally, ‘sea of silver’). It is one of the sharpest lines in the King’s Indian Defence, named after the Argentinean city in which Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric won two formative games (against Najdorf and Eliskases) in 1953. The pawn chains, locked at move 11, define the plans for both sides. Strategically, Black’s queenside is a sinking ship, so he must try to deliver checkmate on the kingside before he runs out of pieces.
We knew the match against Denmark would be tight, so this was a risky choice, but not a reckless one. Gawain had studied the variation intensely, since he published in August (on the chessable.com website) the first part of a detailed King’s Indian study course, including substantial analysis of the Mar del Plata variation. Add to that, he was on a roll, having won his previous two games.
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