In Day 5, Team Ireland faced another formidable opponent, Denmark. Team Ireland lost 3-1 in this battle, unfortunately, but the games were very instructive in many ways. In the following columns, I will present an interesting game between Connor E Murphy vs. Jonas Buhl Bjerre. The game started very well for Ireland: Bjerre chose a relatively rarely played version of the Italian Game: the Paris Defense. This also called “Semi-Italian”. Mr. Murphy used the space very well, and during the middle game he gained a considerable advantage. Unfortunately, the time allotment was not enough to complete the task. During the time trouble, the advantage was lost, and since it was through a simplification to a lost end-game, Denmark won a point on the Board 1.
Why that has happened? When the game is over, everybody is clever what we could have done differently. However, from this game we can learn one thing: if players are do not move actively enough when it is needed, it will backfire. Also, when chasing a pattern, one needs to be thorough to do so. Accumulate, and build up threat, but do not forget act upon it, instead of releasing the pressure by simplification.