Nairobi Chess Club (NCC) organised the 12th Capablanca Cup at the weekend of 21/22 January 2023. It consisted of 3 sections according to rating: Open, U1600 and U1400, with a total of 112 players. The event took place at the premises of the German School Nairobi.

The Open section, where 18 players took part, showed a surprise in round 1 when a more experienced player lost his game against a lower-rated opponent. It's the game presented in today's post.

Lawrence Kagambi, 4th in the initial rating list, lost against Jackim Arigi (member of NCC), who was more than 200 ELO points lower.

The game is instructive because Arigi faced his opponent not fearing the rating gap, being aware of his position and ready for an uncompromising game.

It was a great success for one of NCC players in this tournament. It's worth mentioning that NCC regularly offers training sessions for its members and they are getting good results in competitions.

Following a strategy of attacking first, choosing the appropriate variation and facing the game with the right mindset, Arigi succeeded. As he mentioned: "My strategy was to play aggressively since it was my only option. I had nothing to lose anyway."

It seems that this strategy works against stronger opponents. A similar case happened in the "Sunway Sitges International Tournament 2018" when Ivanchuk lost his game in round 1 against a much lower rated player.

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