The FIDE Trainers Commission is pleased to announce the winners of the 15th FIDE Trainer Awards 2023 and the Yuri Averbakh / Isaac Boleslavsky Award for the best book published in 2022. Ramesh R B, Abhijit Kunte and Djakhangir Agaragimov were chosen as the top trainers of the year. In the book category, a work co-authored by Sergei Tiviakov and Yulia Gokbulut received the top accolade, while Vassilios Kotronias and Mihail Marin were the runners-up. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Today I’m returning to a subject I’ve covered a number of times in the past: passed pawns. Passed pawns are a crucial aspect of chess and your attitude to them can have a profound effect on how you play and, in particular, your opening choices. To explore this topic, I look at a game played by Vasilios Kotronias, in which he was overwhelmed by an absolute pawn avalanche. The final phase is extraordinary and somewhat reminiscent of the famous game McDonnell versus De La Bourdonnais.