Opening catastrophe

It was a first round of the Swiss tournament. I played with the same master, as last time. Here is the game. He was much more attentive this time and in the opening I was on his territory, he played his favorite French ( I play it too, but our experiences probably are not comparable). I played Tarrasch variation and it was line I am less familiar with, just once played blitz. I know there is a sharp move 10. Nf4 here, but I thought White is better when the pawns are not exchanged, wasn’t sure about this case. After some thinking I decided not to go into complications, just play safe exf6. My knowing of this line ended right after that. His Qb6 was delaying my queenside development, so I decided to do something.

I thought about b3 (12. b3 O-O 13. Bf4 – 2nd DB choice), but then decided that a3/b4 (5th choice) is better. His e5 was unexpected, I forgot that I played it myself, it was quite some time ago, in short words – I was rusty in the opening.

Calculating exchange on e5 I thought about Bxh7 afterwards, but because h6 is under control I saw that there is nothing there. After Bxe5 I played Rb1 and sudden Ng4 was pretty shocking. I thought that Be3 was losing only pawn, but it was losing more …

The same Be3, just one move before – 16. Be3 was leading to an equal position.

Funny that it was all theory, all this losing line, it was played before. I was very upset for a couple of days, but life goes on …

 

French, Tarrasch – spoiling for a fight

It was a last game of my regular tourney in the local club.  For the first time in OTB game I got French with White. Good, that’s  what I am trying to learn the last half year. My opponent was rated ~250 lower than me,  I learned that after the game as well as the fact that he overperformed and recently shared the first place in the big tournament  in U1600 category.  It took more than 30 moves and long maneuvering unless he finally opened up, that explains the title. The result was my best ever combination.  Here is the game:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Ne2 Qg5 – not a book move and by my opinion not a good one.

8. O-O

Qh4 9. Nf3 Qd8 10. Be3 c4 11. Bc2 Nb6 12. Qd2 h6 13. Ng3 Be7 14. Nh5 Bf8

8. O-O Qh4 9. Nf3 Qd8 10. Be3 c4 11. Bc2 Nb6 12. Qd2 h6 13. Ng3 Be7 14. Nh5 Bf8 – White is ahead in development, but the position is closed – Crafty’s estimate  - 0.90.

15. h3 Nd7 16. Nh2 g6 17. Ng3 b6 18. Ng4 h5 19. Nh2 Bb7 20. f4 –  ( Crafty likes  20. Bg5 Be7 21. Nf3 Bxg5 22. Nxg5 h4 23. Ne2 Qe7 24. Rad1 Rh5 25. Nf3 O-O-O with 0.81 estimate ), here – 0.08

20. … Qh4 21. Rf3 Qe7 22. b4 Bg7 23. a4 Nd8 24. Rff1 a6 25. Nf3 Nf8 26. Ne2 Nh7 27. Bf2 O-O 28. Bh4 – trying to penetrate deep  defense ( Crafty likes it too, estimate – 0.83)

28. … Qd7 29. Ng5 Qe8 30. Nxh7 Kxh7 31. Ng3 Kg8 32. Qe2 f5 – beginning of the end, Crafty doesn’t like it at all

33. exf6 Bxf6 34. Bxf6 Rxf6 35. f5!

35. … h4 – I didn’t like Nh1, so I started to think and soon saw fxg3.  I looked and looked and  almost gave up to find a forced win. But it was impossible to pass on this nice knight sacrifice, so it made me to find the decisive quiet  move . I spent 16-18 minutes calculating it all and then:

36. fxg6!! – forgive me if I am too generous, it’s actually the first time in my life I put 2 exclamation marks to my own move

36. … Rxf1+ 37. Rxf1 hxg3 38. Qh5 Qe7

39. g7! – this is a move I had to see before playing 36. fxg6. I also found here that I can play 39. Rf7 Qxf7 40. gxf7+ Nxf7, but it’s just material,  there was something better - 39. … Qxg7 40. Qe8+ – Black resigned – 41.  … Qf8 42. Qxf8#

Funny, that Crafty as usual spoiled a bit my euphoria,  noticing that  there was a mate in 2 earlier. Instead of 39. g7 - 39. Rf8+ Kxf8 40. Qh8# . So,  I could also sacrifice  a rook, almost  ”evergreen”  :).

Anyway, I was happy with this win giving me the first place, best ever result in any tournament  - 4 out of 5  (3 wins, 1 draw, 1 bye) and performance rating about 1800, which hopefully should bring my rating to ~1750.

 

French, Tarrash, opus #1

I played this Sunday my regular G/90 and my 2-month effort learning/trying online French defense culminated in playing it for the first time OTB. My opponent is rated 100 lower,  I am playing Black.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Ngf3 cxd4 8. cxd4 f6,  next move takes me by surprise – 9. O-O ( though, actually, it’s a 3rd choice from the book)

9. … fxe5.   I decide to take the pawn,  not that I knew the stats from chesslive.de – +10-3=2.  Basically, accepting this pawn sacrifice requires precise play, which I don’t demonstrate. 

10. dxe5 Ndxe5 11. Bb5 Bd7 12. Re1 Bd6 – mistake, much better was 12. … Nf7 13. Nb3 Bb4 14. Bxc6 bxc6 15. Bd2 Bd6  -  -0.76. 

                                                                                                                                            

Now a forced ( almost ) line follows – 13. Nxe5 Nxe5 14. Bxd7+ Qxd7 15. Rxe5 Bxe5 16. Qh5+ Qf7 17. Qxe5 O-O. Crafty gives here – 0.91. I felt bad at that point and it took me some time to recover.                                                                              

        

                                                                           

18. Nf3 Rac8 19. Be3 Qg6 20. Nd4 Rce8 21. Rc1 Rf7 22. h3 a6 23. Rc7 23. Rc7 h6 24. Rxf7 Qxf7            

                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                

25. a4 Re7 26. b4 Qg6 27. b5 axb5 28. axb5 Qf7 29. Bd2 Kh7 30. b6 Qf6

I had a feeling that without queens my life would be easier.  I just found in the excellent article “The Evaluation of Material Imbalances” by IM Larry Kaufman a solid confirmation of that : ”in the case of two minor pieces vs. rook and pawns; the side with the rook wants very much to trade major pieces, even if he is a bit behind in material. Why this should be so is subject to debate; my explanation is that having more than one major piece is somewhat redundant – in many games there may only be time to employ one major piece on an open rank or file. Having at least one major piece (preferably a rook) to bring to an open line may be critical.”                                                                                                                                          

                                                                       

31. f4 Qxe5 32. fxe5 Kg6 33. Kf2 Kf7 34. Ke3 Rd7 35. g4 Rd8 36. Nb5 Ra8 37. Kd4 Ke7                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                    

38. h4 – Crafty’s estimate goes here from 2.5 to ~ 1.0.  38. … Kd7 – I want first to secure my pawn, Crafty wants Ra4+, then Kd7, no big difference. I had time advantage at this time, something like 20+/15.  Playing pretty fast, at the same time I tried to “watch my back”.  39. Kc5 Rc8+ 40. Nc7 Rf8 41. h5 Rf2                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                   

42. Be3 Rc2+ 43. Kb4 – mistake,  much better was 43. Kd4 Rc4+ 44. Kd3 Rxg4 45. Nb5 Rh4 46. Nd6 Kc6 47. Nf7 Kd7 48. Nd6 Kc6 – draw

43. … Rc4+ 44. Ka5 White resigned                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

OK, so I survived , meaning the opening survived too, which is good news because I like it. Good news was also my tournament performance rating, which should get my rating over 1700 for the first time ( I will know exactly in 2 days).

 

Fighting in the French trenches

OK, it’s not about WW1, it’s just that French d5,e6/d4,e5 structure looks like trenches to me, so a correspondence game that I played in the thematic tournament goes under this title.  French defense, Tarrash,  I play White:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. c3 c5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Ngf3 cxd4 8. cxd4 Qb6 9. Nb3 Be7 10. O-O O-O

11. Ng5 g6 12. Qg4 – following the game Jurcik (2285) vs. Ragger (2476) 1:0.  Black plays 12. … Kg7 here instead of 12. … Re8

13.  h4 – the last following move, 13. … h5 ( in the game was 13. … Nf8 ) 14. Nxe6!

The knight is untouchable because of Qxg6+ and Qh7#. 14. … Kh8 – more resilient was 14. … Kg8 15. Qg3 Nb4 16. Nxf8 Nxf8

15. Qf4 fxe6 16. Qh6+   1-0