This Sunday I played in the local club, my regular G/90.
The game had the final similar to the one that I had with the same opponent 3 months ago ( his rating at that time was about the same as mine, now 130 less), the opening was the same. The coincidence looked funny, so I decided to showcase both.
I played White, Sicilian, Rossolimo variation.
First game:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 5. d3 d5 6. Nc3 Bg4 7. h3 Bh5 8. Bf4 e6
9. Qe2 d4 10. Nd1 Nf6 11. b3 c4 12. O-O c3 13. a4 Be7
14. Kh2 O-O 15. Rg1 Bd6 16. Bxd6 Qxd6+ 17. Kh1 Nd7 18. g4 Bg6
19. Nh4 e5 20. f3 Nc5 21. Nf2 Ne6 22. Nf5 Bxf5 23. gxf5 Nf4
24. Qf1 f6 25. Ng4 Kh8 26. Kh2 c5 27. Qf2 a5 28. Rae1 Ra7 29. Qh4 Rb7 30. Nf2 c4 31. bxc4
Crafty thinks, that I made a mistake and 31. dxc4 is much better ( I agree ) - 31. dxc4 Qa3 32. Ra1 Qc5 33. Rad1 Ne2 34. Rg4 Kg8 35. Nd3 -with estimate 0.75. I didn’t like 31. dxc4 d3, but White just plays 32. Nxd3 Nxd3 33. Rd1 Qa3 34. Rxd3 – 3.51.
31. bxc4 Rg8 32. Rg4
I am clearly worse and trying this chance. 32. … Rb2 He doesn’t see it. 33. Qxh7+!
33. … Kxh7 34. Rh4+ 1-0 ( 34. … Nh5 Rxh5#).
Second game:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 5. d3 d5 6. Qe2 g6 7. O-O Bg7 8. Nbd2 e6
9. Nb3 Qb6 10. Rb1 Ne7 11. Bg5 a5 12. c3 a4 13. Nbd2 Ba6 14. Rfc1 Ra7 15. b4! – one of the plans in this variation, here it has also tactical ground. My opponent spent quite some time here.
15. … O-O 16. bxc5 Qa5 17. e5 Rc7 18. Be3 Nf5 19. c4 Rd8 20. Bg5 Rdd7 21. cxd5 Rxd5 22. Nc4 Bxc4 23. Rxc4 Rxc5
Crafty says it’s a big mistake because of 24. Rb8+ Bf8 25. Bd2! Qa7 26. Rxf8+ Kg7 27. Ra8 Qxa8 28. Rxc5 Qf8 29. Rc4 a3 30. Bg5 – score 4.85.
24. Rxc5 - I don’t see it too. 24. …Qxc5 25. Rb8+ Bf8 26. Qb2 h6 27. Bd2 – now I see it. He sees it too and again spends essentual time.
27. Bd2 Qa7 28. g4 Ng7 29. Bxh6 Kh7??
30. Rxf8 Kxh6?? 31. Rh8# 1-0
I think the time played it’s role (29minutes/19 minutes), still remembering the first game it all looks like some kind of blindness with regards to that specific vertical/type of mate, chessloser used an interesting word – “chessblind” when he didn’t see the move.
March 11, 2009 at 6:17 pm
These games were positively brutal for Black. The type of experience during which makes you want to take off your life-jacket, gouge out your eyes, then jump off the boat. ;p
Poor Black is expecting a typical, patented open-Sicilian game with sacrifices on c3, yada, yada, then has to endure this. If he lost 130 rating points, I would suggest he not play the Sicilian against you. I’m so glad I play the French.
Those games seemed MUCH longer than just 30 moves or so. You basically put on a clinic, so I’m not even sure how they managed to hold up so long, especially in that second game.
The first game, I knew some shot was there because of Crafty and your comments, so I played Rb2 just to see what your shot against the king was (plus I was tired). I wouldn’t let this happen to me during a tournament game, but at those time controls Game/90, anything is possible.
The way I look at is that before I go off on an expedition, I figure how my pieces will defend my king and opponents best attack, that is when I discover those moves. I don’t just see them because I scanned the board, but because I put myself in opponent’s shoes.
Wow, if I decide to play the Rossolimo, I will try to recite that second game. His Ng7 move was like hitting the fetal-position, it served no purpose. Crazy how Crafty was like exchange bishop for knight on e7, then no, now don’t, like what was up with that? hehe.
The first game, after c4, I would have taken this pawn, like bxc, but you castled and let him play c3, and Crafty was agreeing with all of this. I am like what the heck is that, I don’t get the finer points here.
Game 2 it was amazing how you switched back to the queenside and countered him there. That must have done a mindjob on him to see you do that. hehe.
Good Job!
March 11, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Oh, I played the closed Sicilian for a while. Don’t expect to rely on the gift-mate. Typical move someone would whip out there is …h6 (even Crafty thinks it’s okay), and then you have nothing.
Normally moving a pawn in front of a king is bad, until the position is locked in the center, and then the defender can just shut you down with something like h6. I’ve had them happen to me plenty of times, it’s sorta random whether they counter your attack or just fold.
March 11, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I think their biggest mistake is playing “your” opening. It always supposed to be Black’s opening, IMHO.
Against Gran Prix attack type of closed Sicilian, best strategy for Black is e6, Ne7, g6, Bg6 (when ..f5 is possible against f4). But same principle against Rossolimo var., they should avoid playing a6 and recapture with the knight on e7, just to throw you off. They are letting you play “your” variation against them. Which often isn’t too smart unless they also want to specialize on that defense.
Black completely unwound in that second game, mis-stepped. Putting Queen in front of pawns (I want my queen in front of other guy’s king, not pawns), then miscalculated that you had Be3, so couldn’t capture back with queen on c5. You can’t afford to make those kinds of mistakes. He should have gotten his queen out of Dodge City, about two moves earlier.
March 11, 2009 at 9:06 pm
linuxguy – yeah, he would be better off with e6. I usually execute plan with h3, Nh2, f4, but these games were different. In the first game, after c4, I didn’t play bxc4 because of 12. …Bb4+ 13. Bd2 Bxd2 14. Qxd2 Bxf3 15. gxf3. In the second game I didn’t want to exchange bishop for knight on e7, because he castles artificially in 2 moves – Re8, Kf8 and my bishop is gone, the last one. That bishop, by the way, served greatly later. I tried to use my previous experience with him, i.e. not let him to play on queenside and it became counterattack. I found that with all my love to attack I like counterattack too, so that’s maybe why I like French.
March 11, 2009 at 10:00 pm
RP – I liked c3 in that game of yours. You are right about not taking the pawn on c4 with bxc because the night is practically trapped on d1. Here is a variation with c3 that I just whipped up with Crafty. It’s amazing how long development takes out of these cramped positions.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 5. d3 d5 6. Nc3 Bg4 7. h3 Bh5 8.
Bf4 e6 9. Qe2 d4 10. Nd1 Nf6 11. c3 c4 12. O-O cxd3 13. Qxd3 Bxf3 14. Qxf3
c5 15. cxd4 cxd4 16. Rc1 Nd7 17. Qg3 Qf6 18. e5 Qg6 19. Qf3 Rd8 20. Rc4 Bc5
21. b4 Bb6 22. Nb2 O-O 23. Qb7 Qf5 24. Bg3 d3 25. Rd1 a5 26. Qe4 Qxe4 27.
Rxe4 axb4 28. Rxb4 d2 29. Nc4 Bd4 30. Kh2 f6 31. exf6 Nxf6 32. Rxd2 Ne4 33.
Re2 Nxf2 34. Rxe6 Nd3 35. Rb1 Rc8 36. Nb6
*
You are right, not exchanging gave him one more way to go wrong. He should have played Qc7 instead of Ra7 to protect the knight, but mission accomplished, you had a decent position.
It hadn’t even crossed my mind that he would play Kf8 and use his rook on h8 to attack. Good thinking!
March 11, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Sometimes I say offhand embellishments as humor like I did up on that first reply. Probably one of, if not the most painful losses I suffered at a tournament was very similar to Game 2. I used to play the Najorf Sicilian at tournament.
I remember this one guy had played at the faster time controls and had just joined the main part of the tournament, it was a big money tournament, but I think he just came back from a bible group or something. He was 1397 or 1400 and something rated.
Anyway, as Black I lost to him in a closed system. I was doing the usual on the Q-side, but then he was countering everything I tried and so I started even temporizing a bit, back and forth between kingside-center-queenside.
He counter-attacked on the Q-side, after looking pretty stuffed in there, and won the game. He even came down the center and king-side. But for a while, it looked like the play was up to me and I never found the handle.
If you look at that c3 game I posted above this one, it’s a little bit of the same idea, counter-attacking out of nowhere, but it’s a little more even and contained, if Black plays it better, probably.
March 12, 2009 at 4:56 am
I beter avoid playing sicilian against you.
I wonder if this opening is always this affective against equal or lower rated opponents?
March 12, 2009 at 8:37 am
chesstiger – you overestimate me, thanks anyway
It works not only against equal/lower rated. For now I have 3.5:0.5 result ( OTB ) with a draw against WFM (rated 1950+ at that moment). Some GMs played it too:
Ivanchuk – +3=1, with 1.5:0.5 against Anand
Carlsen – +2=2
Tal – +3=2
March 12, 2009 at 11:41 am
2 very good games.
In the first game blacks queen moves once to d6 and stays there,no help what so ever in the rest of game.
Game 2 i wish i could play attacking chess like that.
I find i doult myself at important moves, then play safe and regret playing safe.
In both games the black king came unstuck on the h file.
In the sicilian you are the man!!!
March 12, 2009 at 12:01 pm
chessx – thanks. I doubt or not see good moves too, you saw it in my posts. Maybe you should just trust your understanding of the position a bit more. You can start from online games, it is easier, just convince yourself – OK, it’s risky, but I am willing to take that risk, let’s see what happens. Don’t forget that your opponent in complicated position will spend more time, even though it won’t warranty that he will find the best moves anyway. Sicilian is not only Nc6, and though Bb5 against d6 gave me +1-1 against higher rated, with e6 I can’t play Bb5, have -1 and should work on it.
March 12, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Yeah, that’s the problem with the Sicilian, it works against X, so you need a different variation for Y,Z.
Rossolimo, that should be your “go to” move against …Nc6, just like c3 is my go to move against …c5…d6 (because it avoids the ..d5 variation).
Right now I play the open Sicilian, unless they play an early…d6
Open Sicilian is actually easy, anyway, com pared to the Scotch. Against a good player, you need a perfect move-order in the Scotch. Sicilian is nothing whatsoever as demanding as the Scotch against a good opponent. With the open Sicilian, the game is right there in front of my face the whole time, and the sacs are not all that uncomfortable for White.
March 12, 2009 at 4:04 pm
The problem with the open Sicilian for Black is that everyone knows it, essentially, at least the basic moves. There are a lot of sacks in theory, but they mostly lead to draws, a lot of flash but not as much sizzle, most of the time.
March 13, 2009 at 11:06 am
linuxguy – I played the basic moves against Sicilian 2….e6 and lost a pawn, then the game. There is a lot of things in open Sicilian, so I would stick with Bb5 for now. As for 2. …e6 I can play the line 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c3 d5 4. e5 Nc6 5. d4 , making it Advanced variation of French, it would also make it “my opening”.