Pobo Annotates: Strange Endgames and the Grand Prix Attack

Hi Chesskids!

My name is Elizabeth Vicary, and I’m a chessplayer and teacher from New York City. I teach at a middle school in Brooklyn called IS (Intermediate School) 318. Chess is very popular at IS 318: 90 kids are in the after school chess club! A lot of my students love chess a lot and practice and study all the time. This year, we won the K-8 section of Junior High Nationals, and came 5^th in the High School Nationals. I asked my students to write about their favorite games from Nationals and they have turned their annotations into articles for you to read.

Our first Player-Annotator is Oghenakpobo (“Pobo”) Efekoro. Pobo is an eighth grader, our School President (his campaign slogan: “Vote for Pobama!”), and rated 1900. He’s also one of the friendliest and most positive members of our club. He’s always encouraging his teammates and cheering them on. You can see him in action in this video. Pobo is known for his attacking chess: he plays very aggressive openings like the Vienna, the Grand Prix Attack, and the Portuguese Variation of the Scandinavian, and is always looking for exciting ways to sacrifice his pieces.

Readers, where do you think Pobo went wrong? I think his endgame attack might have been too slow: maybe playing 18. Rd2+ before 19. Rxc2 wasted a tempo, but it's a hard position to figure out! I hope you enjoyed this game as much as I did. Look for more IS 318 annotators soon!