Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The world's oldest continuing chess fixture, the annual Oxford- Cambridge match was played for the 114th time last weekend at the RAC Club (with sponsorship from the law firm Watson, Farley & Williams) and saw Cambridge winning by 5-3 to go one ahead in a series dating back to 1874.
The best combination came on the women's board and brought Oxford their only win. Emilia Holland (Cambridge, playing White) had drifted into a passive position from a Queen's Gambit. In the diagram, she played 1.Rd2 to keep the black queen out of d3, but was surprised by 1...Rxe3!
After 2.Rxe3 Qb1+ White regains the rook to stay a pawn ahead. Instead, she gave up her queen for two rooks with 2.Qxe3 Rxe3 3.Rxe3, but after 3...Qb1+ 4.Kf2 g6 5.a3 Qc1! 6.Rde2 Qd1! White was struggling. The end came abruptly with 7.Re7 Qxd4+ 8.Kg3 g5 9.R7e5 Qh4 mate.
The moral is clear: with this Queen's Gambit pawn structure, White must either play a minority attack with b4 and b5, or plan a central advance with f3 and e4. If you try for both at once, you end up with neither.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments