Claudio Triumphant!

"Veni, vidi, vici" - Julius Caesar

"I came, I saw, I conquered."  This is what Claudio Mangione could have said, in the spirit of his famous ancient fellow countryman, after his emphatic victory against Mansfield 1.

Claudio Mangione
in the "heat of battle"

Playing 1.Nf3 Claudio invited his opponent into the Réti Opening, however, very soon the game went by move transposition into the English Opening.
Jim Burnett opted for the Capablanca's set-up with "triangular" pawn structure (c6-d5-e6) and the development of light-squared Bishop on f5.
Both players have followed the game Kosic-Heroic, Pula 1990 till the move 11, and then Jim Burnett employed certain novelty.
With the centre blocked Claudio has no fear to give up the pair of Bishops and he wants to prove that in this particular position his pair of Knights is superior to the pair of opponent's Bishops. And indeed, the Knight on d5 is a real monster! Black has tried to simplify the position but then Claudio launches a massive strike on the king-side. Let's have look at this game in full.


 






















An excellent game just underpinned fully deserved victory of the Grantham first team who is the Nottinghamshire League, Division 1 defending champion. Despite that Nick Payne lost his game there was another victory for Grantham team which I have already referred in my previous post and two other draws for Nigel Birtwistle and Kevin McCarthy. 

Grantham-1: 3.5  -  Mansfield-1: 1.5. 

Well done guys!