Maurizzi and Dardha leave lessons in games

The splendid form of the Frenchman Marc'Andria Maurizzi and the Belgian Daniil Dardha, first and second place, both undefeated, at the Djerba Island Festival, invites us to watch them closely at the Prague Festival, as well as at the FIDE Junior World Championship for players under 20 years of age in Petrovac, Montenegro. They are two talents who are in a developmental phase and their games, in which they display depth of calculation and strategic ideas that explode in surprising tactical moves, are of the kind that leave a lesson for amateurs and for masters who are careful to incorporate combat forms into their panoply. Both are contenders to dominate in their respective competitions.

Maurizzi, 17, enters the tournament in seventh place with a rating of 2,581, but the reality is that his current strength is 2,616.4 Elo points. And Dardha arrives in Montenegro first on the chart with a rating of 2,662.7 against Indian V Pranav's 2,615 in the World Junior ranking. Dardha and Pranav both won their opening round matches yesterday.

In the Junior World Championship, two Mexicans are taking part, the international master Sión Galaviz and the Jalisco native Paula Sofía Hernández Díaz, with a victory and an adverse result in the first round. Galaviz beat Mical Jaren (2.269), from the Czech Republic; and Paula lost to Wang Chuqiao (2.227). Today they face Asrojon Omónov, (2.399) from Uzbekistan and Charis Plegau, (2.227) from Germany. Dardha beat Anton Zlátotkov, (2.321), from North Macedonia. Today she faces Gong Sunle, (2.407), from China. First surprise, the Chinese favorite Lu, Miaoyi, 14 years old, (2.432) falls with white 0-1 against the Indian Sneha Halder (2.065), 15 years old.

In his last appearance abroad in Qatar, Galaviz (2,501) suffered a second-round defeat against Iranian Mahdavi Reza (2,365), who had caused a stir by beating Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2,777) in the opening round. Most defeats leave more lessons than victories.

One of the first impressions is that there is no weak opponent, even if the Elo seems to testify to it. I remember that in the Casino Metropolitano on Tacuba Street 15, a stone's throw from Bellas Artes, there was a player that everyone knew as "The Lord of the Crutches" , one of the strongest chess players. His characteristic was that, whether he was a novice or a first-rate chess player, he played as if he were facing the world champion. He exploited the positions with positional judgement and thought about attack and defence. The Lord of the Crutches was none other than Captain Francisco Javier Vázquez, former national champion, who had a victory in simultaneous games against Alexander Alekhine, and belonged to the group that studied with the Yugoslavian Bora Kostic, back in 1930-31, for eight months; a group that dominated the country's scene for 30 years, in that generation in which General José Joaquín Araiza shone (in fact the best from 1926 to 1962), with Manuel Soto Larrea, Rafael Acosta - father of El Chorros of the same name - and other military men. In an article in Chess-Coach by MI Raúl Ocampo Vargas - a locomotive for writing chess -, a photograph of the famous and beautiful Portuguese-Brazilian artist Carmen Miranda appears watching a chess game by José Joaquín Araiza.

The phrase that Mark Dvoretsky formulated in his book Never Forget That... You Have an Opponent Ahead of You has been known since long before he formulated it. Competitors in chess and other sports have always known it.

White: Daniel Dardha, Belgium, 2,652. Black: Anton Zlátotkov, North Macedonia, 2,321. Catalan Opening, E-01. R–1, C, FIDE Junior World Cup, Sub 20, Petrovac, Montenegro, 02-25-2025. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bd6 6.Bg2 0–0 7.0–0 Nbd7 8.Bc3 b6 9.Nbd2 Bb7 10.Ne5 a5 11.b3 Bb4 12.Bb2 Nxe5 13.dxe5 Ne4 14.Nf3 a4 15.a3 Be7 16.b4 c5 17.bxc5 dxc4 18.Qc2 Nxc5 19.Qxc4 Qd5 20.Qxd5 Bxd5 21.Nd4 Bxg2 22.Kxg2 Rfc8 23.Rfd1 h5 24.Tab1 Nb3 25.Rd3 Na5 26.Nb5 Rc2 27.e3 Nc4 28.Bd4 Rd8 29.Rdd1 Ra2 30.Rbc1 Nxa3 31.Na7 Nc2 32.Nc6 Rxd4 33.Rxd4 Nxd4 34.Nxe7+ Kf8 35.Nc8 Nb3 36.Rc7 a3 37.Ra7 b5 38.Ra8 b4 39.Na7+ Ke7 40.Nc6+ Rd7 41.Nxb4 Ra1 42.Ra7+ Ke8 43.Nc2 Ra2 44.Rxa3 Rxc2 45.Rxb3 Rc5 46.f4 Rc2+ 47.Kh3 Re2 48.Rb8+ Ke7 49.Rh8 g6 50.Rb8 Rxe3 51.Kh4 Rd3 52.Kg5 Rd2 53.Rb7+ Rd7 54.Rb2 Rd8 55.Ra2 Rd3 56.Ra7+ Rd7 57.Ra3 Rd2 58.h4 Rd8 59.Rb3 Rd7 60.Kh6 Rc7 61.Kg7 Ra7 62.Rb8 Ra3 63.Rb7+ Ke8 64.Kf6 Rxg3 65.Re7+ Rd8 66.Rxf7 Rg4 67.Kxe6 Rxh4 68.Rf6 g5 69.Kf7 Rh1 70.e6 Re1 71.fxg5 h4 72.g6 1–0 .