This is what I told the president of the club after I finished this game. My opponent was a young guy, I lost to him once before playing against his Modern defense. I have a score -3 in it and -2 in Pirc, so definitely there are some things …
So I decided to do something else and played 1. d4, for the first time in the last 3 years I think, here is the game. He still made Modern defense out of it, but I felt comfortable in the opening. Then on the move 12 he played g5. I thought that Nf3, g4 is not good for me and decided to sacrifice a pawn. Houdini supports Nf5 and thinks it is sound. I quickly started to gain advantage and he spent a lot of time on his moves. I thought a lot after his 19… Qe6 on 20. Re1, but wasn’t sure that after 20… Qxc4 21. gxh6 Bxd4 I have enough compensation for two pawns.
His 23… Bxf4 was not good, exchanging the important defender. It’s too bad I didn’t see 25. Rh4+ Kg7 26. Rg1, winning on the spot. Then not the best moves were played from the both sides. I still continued my attack and then the critical moment came when I played 37. b4. I didn’t see the best Na4 and the move Be6, that I also looked at and considered after the game the better one, keeping all the advantage, worth only 0.4.
After 37. b4 I saw right away that I blundered the knight on c3. It was a shock, though I still had some attack. The funny thing is that after he takes the knight he loses by force after 39. Rxc5!, so it wasn’t a blunder at all. Anyway, the game continued and he decided to give up his rook for my c6 pawn. I didn’t play well after that, one reason was that my time was running up, it was about 5 minutes left. With 4 minutes left I stopped writing the moves, he had about a minute. I lost material and found myself in a losing position. Having, I think, something like 28 seconds left (with me having more than 2 minutes) he went for three-fold repetition. I was actually glad at this moment. Then I came home and computer told me, how exactly I managed not to win the game, that was won. I knew that I was winning, just didn’t know how close I was to it.
December 21, 2011 at 2:40 am
That title is not quite accurate. A more accurate description might be:
“It’s good I am not playing chess for a living at G/90 at the end of a day.” Which, if you want to look at it critically, doesn’t really make sense to do such a thing. I mean, even your day job is probably 9 hours if you count lunch and breaks. Could you imagine a tightrope walker between two buildings – “Sorry, we’re going to have to cut you free, it’s been 90 minutes. It’s only fair to the rope to give it a chance too.”
You played very well. You missed the winning shot in a won position, that happens. I also liked b4, didn’t see the QxNc3, but still felt White was winning. Didn’t see the winning shot though, either.
This was a strong game on your part, but we both know how these things usually come down to execution, and not by who is winning at any given point.
Nice attack, your attacking game is improving.
December 21, 2011 at 3:45 pm
linuxguy – thanks, you know, I woke up today and this is what I thought – that it would be different if not for 90/G time control.
Your previous comment is absolutely right – he is young and didn’t want to lose at all.
Anyway, before the game he was anxious to play me (previous Monday too, it’s good that it didn’t happen then), I don’t think that he will be next time, he admitted to a few spectators that he was in a huge positional trouble.
I should get back to 1800+ today and in the New Year my chess hopefully will be alright.
December 21, 2011 at 6:21 pm
I too was looking at h3 and Nh4 when you played them, that plan seemed best. You played it better than I would have while looking over the game quickly, because you were very involved, playing precisely, and calculating deeply.
But then the G/90 time-control simply became too much, and I can tell you that you would have won at the time-control that I used to play at at 30/90 SD/30, essentially a 2 hour game. G/2 is a world of difference than G/90. The better player will really show through much more at G/2. It’s important to look 3 or 4 moves ahead, and I know I am often only looking one or two moves ahead to keep pace on the clock, but it’s better to get into time-trouble, must always look deep.
I liked a Ne4 approach first over Re6, but those were deep complications. It was difficult to know whether it was best to play the knight to e6 or Bg4 or both. I don’t know but I also liked Bg4 and Rf8 when you played them. Sort of an impossible game to play at G/90, too much was happening in that game, but you hung in there and kept it alive until the end.
Oh, I never even noticed your rating, just that his was close to 1700. It doesn’t really matter what your rating was because that was a game that needed to be played at 1900+ level by both players.
It sucks to lose those games (or not win them) due to the need for clock management, but it can happen a lot of times.
December 22, 2011 at 12:21 am
Yeah, everything you are saying about time control is right. I think it also comes to the ability to feel the critical moment and spend those 5 minutes times the number of not so important moves on the really critical position.
By the way I was close in the case when I missed Rh4+, Rg1 – I wanted to put my rook on g4, but his f5 prevented it and kind of kicked me out of the right path.
My rating got back to 1820.
December 22, 2011 at 3:54 am
Had fun playing over the game. Especially the moment where white sacrifaced his king safety to demolish black’s king position I found intreging. Did you play this kind of position before and is opening up the kings positions the best plan or did you go over lots of games where this was played?
Pity you didn’t succeed to finalize your attack after you chased his king all over the board.
On move 25 Houdini suggest Rh4+ followed by Rg1. Not that I am a better player then Houdini, far from it, but I wonder if one can play first Rg1 to follow with Rh4+ ? Reasoning is to lock up the king, can not go to g7 because of loss of the black queen.
I wonder why black agreed to a draw? Afterall, if he can swap his d-pawn for white’s a pawn he must have chances to win, or am I missing some tactics? Probably you where both in time trouble at move 52.
All by all a wonderfull game of chess where certainly white didn’t shy away to go full out into the attack. Thanks for showing this game.
Btw, If you were living from your chess you probably wouldn’t have been tired from a full work day. You would have slept out, prepare some chess stuff and then went to the club or tournament to kick some butt.
December 23, 2011 at 12:32 am
1820 is a pretty decent chess rating, congrats!
Those critical positions can be a big deal against stronger players; I missed one in my game tonight, although tried to find the right continuation just as you did. As soon as you mentioned the Rg1 move, I looked at the game again and it appeared obvious that Rh4+ followed by Rg1 will win it. Yes, you were that close, just missed playing the critical idea correctly (I did the same sort of thing as you did, in my game tonight).
December 23, 2011 at 11:01 am
Johan – thanks for your comments. I didn’t consider moving “g” pawn as sacrificing my king’s safety, because I still had “h” pawn and bishop on g2 covering my king.
The position was very similar to King’s Indian defense, where Black attacks on the kingside and bishop on g7 covers the king.
I had an open “f” vertical and advantage in development, so yes, I think it was the best plan.
Your idea about playing first Rg1 is right, after 25. Rg1 Nf6 26. Rh4+ Nh7 26. dxc6 Nxc6 28. Bxc6 White is winning.
He was winning that endgame, I think, but he thought that he has not enough time to do it and was afraid to lose on time, having 28 seconds left (without increment),
I had about 2 minutes more. This was a result of him thinking heavily during the game, he was much more behind on time all the game.
I am glad you liked the game, maybe next time I’ll find that knockout.
Sure, rest and preparation are crucial and directly affect the flow and the result of the chess game.
January 4, 2012 at 10:56 am
Planning those open file attacks like the g-file always seem to be among the most surprising moves/attacks. I liked the line you gave above.
So, RollingPawns, are you not playing for a while?
January 5, 2012 at 7:46 pm
Yeah, I am not playing today, too busy.
January 6, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Hi RP,
I subscribe to your feed and have seen a lot of interesting games here, so I hope you will contribute:
You and your readers are invited to submit items to the The Best Of! Chess Blogging Carnival. Deadline is January 27. Hit the link for more details, and please post a link on your blog or chess forum.
Best regards,
Robert Pearson