Player of the Week

Each week I will be looking at a player from our Chess @ 4 series. This will be the player of the week and it is possible to be Player of the Week more than once! To be considered for this position, all you need to do is score 15 points during the week in the Chess  @ 4 series on Tornelo. Chess @ 4 is a series of 5 round events that run Monday to Friday, starting at 4:00pm. Between the rounds there are interviews with players, analysis of games and positions, and chat about other chess related things.

​It seems that each week I look at a player who has made a massive improvement since the lock down started in Australia. This week our winner is Alexander Zhang who has been playing school chess for some time, but only recently stepped up to tournament chess. Once he did this, his play improved quickly.

Alexander joined the Tornelo tournament scene at the end of June when his rating was just 253. He has played lots of chess and this week won three of our chess @ 4 Challengers tournaments to finally rise above 800 which means he'll be trying out in the Premier division for the first time. That will be a new challenge for Alexander, and we all wish him good luck.
Alexander is generally a safe player rather than a risk taker. He is good at spotting tactics that win him material, and then he uses the extra material well.

This is a tricky position. It is White to play, what move would you choose? The whole game, including this position, can be found here. The next position is what was possibly the move of the week.

It is White to play. What is the winning move? Check your answer here.

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