It was a first round of Monday’s tournament. My opponent was a guy I lost to once in the past. We played Ruy Lopez. The goal of 13… cxd4 and all of my following moves was to avoid usual White’s pressure on the kingside with Nf5, etc. I recently lost in such a game, so didn’t want to repeat it.
I was surprised by his 18. Bxd4, expecting Nxd4 and felt OK after that. But the real surprise was 25. e5. First I thought that it is a trap, but even without much calculation realized that it is not and took the pawn. He said after the game that it was intentional. Of course he got some initiative, but I was optimistic. On move 29 Fritz found an amazing winning line starting with 29… g6. White can’t move the knight, because following 30… Nh5 31. Qg4 Bd6 creates Nxg3+ threat and if 32. g3 then Qf2.
Anyway, we exchanged queens later and then his 40. a4 somehow unbalanced me. I made a strange 41… Nxa4 instead of a5 and then I am not sure I even saw Bxc8 threat when I played 43. … Nc3, because usually I do not reply to threatening my piece by counter-threat. I saw Rd3 right after I made a move, luckily the same thing as in today’s game 6 of the World Championship happened and he quickly played 44. Rd7.
Suddenly I found myself defending, trying to relocate my not well placed pieces. I made another mistake playing 51… f5, though not so crucial. I was having a very little time left, reaching 10 seconds at one moment and playing on increment. Then he allowed me to activate my pieces. In the end I could move my king to the center, but got a feeling that it is dangerous taking into account his active king, rook and bishop. So we went for a three-fold repetition and agreed to a draw.
November 16, 2014 at 7:00 am
Any wins you missed in this game were relatively easy compared to that amazing tight-rope draw that you found. I probably couldn’t have played as well as you did, or hold that position. I was looking at …f5 as well, and missed his Ra7+ just as you did.
There were a bunch of ways to lose and somehow you found only-move moves that lead to a draw, fit for a textbook on defending in endings, which assumes 4 hr time-controls as well. 😉
The fact that he didn’t play d5 (best) or dxe5, and allowed the double-take on d4 suggests his tactical predilect. White can get some nice tactical wins playing this way, but then you jump all over him positionally in your usual manner and get an advantage by doing so.
18.Bxd4 looks surprising, but is more or less forced, positionally, else you will play 18.Nxd4 Ne5, 19.Bf1 Nc4 is maybe close to being -+ already.
22…Re6. I think that this is the supremely logical move, like a computer move, but positionally I like 22….Re5. This is more like the type of position where you could use a coffee-break during the middle of the game (assuming a luxurious time-control, of course). Let’s throw in some scary-looking moves for him 22…Re5, 23.Kh1 g6, 24.f4 Re8 (although a crazy exchange sac is …Rc5, 25.Ne3 Rd5, 26.exR QxNd4, but Black can avoid it as well with 26.Nf5 repeat) 25.Ng3 Qd4, and Black is simply better, -+.
25. e5. He could have played 25.Qf4, but between your nice, direct attack that has damaged his kingside and center, with initiative there, and his propensity to start thinking about your shots, as a tactical player himself, probably caused him to sack this pawn for some initiative, and get his own attack back on track.
27.Qg5 his attack is a bit superficial here, IMHO, so I would play not 27…Kh8, but rather …Qc7, inviting him to pin it with 28.Qg3 when you could respond with …Nh5 hitting the queen. You want that whole setup with …Nh5, …g6, and …Bgh6 anyway, played in that order.
29…Qe6. Time to wrest the intiative. I had a bit of chuckle when I saw your maneuver here at first (after such an awesome game so far) “The ‘Anand moment’ – Why go for a win, when you can just force the draw!?” But in all honesty it’s difficult to imagine how one can play a game like this in sub-classical time-controls. 29…g6, 30.Nh4 Bd6, 31…Nh4, it’s the steam-roller from hell as far as White is concerned. That whole queen trade maneuver was tantamount to a help-draw for Black.
33.Nc2. This is the sort of whacky overly defensive, yet semi-aggressive move that people play in time pressure. Better would be 33.g4 and then 34.Rc6, if possible.
33…Bh6. 33…Nh5 was your winning chance, as the bishop is still lose after ….Nf4.
34…Bf8, tit for tat, time pressure on you this time. 34…Bf4 being the move, as his reply showed. The threat of 35.Nb5 is one of those kind of ghost-threats that crop up in time-pressure.
41…Nxa4. It’s hard to avoid this sort of move in time-pressure, but your instinct should be to not trade a center pawn for an a-pawn unless there is a tactical reason to do so. His pawn wasn’t that far advanced nor supported. At a slow enough time-control, you’d probably win this game.
The rest of the game, you were once again in your element once again as you outplayed him, even though he played well, in what would have constituted a miracle draw for many class players. 😉
Great game to show. Nice job, and well played defensively at a high-level, throughout! 🙂
November 16, 2014 at 7:17 am
Actually, you were probably trying to go for the win with a draw in hand, believing his rating too much. This is usually what happens to most of us players. Eventually, you will realize there is no need to fear these guys at all, from the strong types of positions that you have created. The strong moves played on the board will do their work for you.
Here is a for-instance.
https://denverchess.com/Games/ViewPGN?id=6435
31.Rb5 is a simple win, a yawner, for White (not even mentioned in the notes). The game is completely over, and yet Black makes Master as a result of this G/30 performance. I don’t feel that G/30 should be standard rated for exactly this reason. Nobody should be making Master based on kicking butt in a lot of G/30 and G/70 tournaments, but I suppose that’s just me, honoring well played classical chess, over who can blunder more or less in time-pressure at quicker time-controls.
November 16, 2014 at 11:01 pm
Thanks!
22… Re6 I played to defend against Qg5 with Nh6+ and Nxf7. Re5 works too.
25. Qf4 doesn’t work because of 25… g6 26. Nh6 Bxh6 27. Qxh6 Qd4,
but simple 25. exd5 Nxd5 26. Rxe1 with rooks and then soon queens exchange gives him almost equal position. But as you rightly noticed ( and he admitted after the game ) he wanted to attack.
33. Nh5 is a good idea. I ran shootouts after queens exchange and Black wins in almost all cases, so I definitely misplayed that endgame with a passed “d” pawn. Then, yes, it was a miracle that I was able to save a draw.
He actually was happy in the end to force a draw, maybe he didn’t like his chances on the kingside.
But he also played well, activating to a maximum his pieces.
November 18, 2014 at 8:18 am
I looked at the master’s game, that was a colossal blunder.
Is G/30 is rated in US as regular? In Canada it is rated as “Active”.
I played yesterday with master (now rated 2172), French with White again. He sacked an exchange on f3, that typical sacrifice.
There was one defensive move, exchanging queens with giving up another pawn, so it would be R vs. N + 2P.
I saw it, but didn’t want to lose a pawn underestimating the strength of his attack. Eventually he broke my defense and won.
November 19, 2014 at 9:37 am
That ….RxNf3 idea against the French is, I wanna say usually crushing, in Black’s favor, if it’s under any favorable circumstance. Labordannais crushed McDonnel in at least one game with that sac.
G/30 has gone back and forth, I think it is regular now, has been for many years, so that is why there are shorter time controls like G/27, etc. Congrats to Gunar for making Master, of course, but right we are talking about how to avoid the death of classical chess. OTH, if I was really desperate for rating points, I would want to play as many games against Masters – at any time-control, but particulary at G/30, and just wait for them to have a bad day and give it away.
Brian Wall loses a lot of games where he massively outplays a number of local kids who are close to making Master, and then they just wait for his fatigue blunder at the end, just by hanging around long enough. I can’t rightly complain as this is how I won against him as well. 😉 It is rather sad though. As for Gunar, he has had great results even at classical time-controls, but why make Master any easier than it has to be? Quicker time-controls should favor youth, as long as they can stretch the game out long enough.
Speaking of sad, fatigue-blunders, I published my loss from Tuesday night.
November 19, 2014 at 10:54 am
22….Re6, nice defensive reasoning! I like your thinking. 🙂
Yes, the …Nh5 attack lines are delicate to find OTB.
You guys probably got a lot of snow. That cold front has past on from here, but it seemed like 10 degrees for a week.
When I get sick, I can’t focus. I was trying to look at chess book yesterday before work and only checked the answers, couldn’t bear to concentrate on lines. I don’t know how I am able to get it together at the chessboard; we must be able to because we have trained ourselves well from playing so long. But in any case, I have that habit of coming up short if I am feeling anything less than spectacular. hehe. Even today, I feel better but have troubles concentrating. Man, every winter. I’ll jog sometime today, try to get back into shape, but then it’s a six-day work week from Thursday to Wednesday, getting Thanksgiving off. I don’t know how you do it, man. hehe. I think I’ll skip the last round, next Tuesday.
November 21, 2014 at 11:50 am
I hope you are better now. I feel you.
I saw your games, will comment later.
Yesterday I had serious doubts as whether to go to the club. I had to wake up early and had a long drive before work. But I came home, had 20 minutes nap and felt better. I got master, the winner of the previous tournament with 7/8 result, no losses. But as he played 1. e4 I already felt relieved and then we went into Ruy Lopez. He chose not very active continuation, so I played active. We exchanged quite a few pieces and the resulting endgame was very equal. Draw.
November 22, 2014 at 7:21 am
Thanks! 🙂
Smart play. The nap is a big deal. When I got to the Tuesday tournament, Paul A. wanted to talk about what had happened last week, and I was standing up, too excited to sit down. You can’t get any rest before a game at a club, the atmosphere is too full of excitement with a lot of players showing how raring to go they are, which is yet more depressing when you know you are the one that isn’t feeling it.
That’s great that you drew a Master! I feel positive now you will make Expert. 🙂
November 23, 2014 at 8:40 pm
The Anand-Carlsen press conference was a little surreal. Anand shows this brilliant drawing line, but decided against it and played the exchange sac instead; you’d think Anand had been taking advice from me or something. lol.
Still, it would seem that Anand didn’t want to face your Bb5 variation against the Sicilian that Carlsen also likes. I’m surprised that Anand didn’t come up with anything sharper, and it just goes to show that you can’t count on getting that last game as White in a match.
When I got home, that little voice told me that Carlsen had won, but my objective brain could scarcely believe it, yet there it was.
November 25, 2014 at 1:09 am
I actually expected this result of the match, that Anand will lose, but will put some fight. Carlsen simply is stronger and deserved to win.
It will be interesting to see who will qualify for the next match, I am sure it will not be Anand, maybe even not one of the usual suspects – Aronian or Kramnik. It could be Caruana or Grischuk.
I played today with an expert. He won the tournament in August with 5/5.
I got Black, he played Torre attack. I stopped his attack on the kingside, even eventually locked the pawn structure and developed some initiative on the queenside until it got locked too. Then he maneuvered, probably thinking that he can sac a bishop, so I carefully defended. I already started to count how many moves left until 50, but eventually he realized that there is nothing there and offered a draw. 🙂
November 26, 2014 at 2:03 am
“so I carefully defended”
What is the is word you speak of? I’m going to have to write this word of wisdom 50x and get back with you – definitely not what I did in my game! Clearly my chess has gone bonkers, which is what happened to Anand in his last game. Actually, I thought during the game that when Anand played that exchange sac, that he should have captured White’s bishop with his other pawn instead, seemed like a secondary blunder to me that he did not play it that way.
That’s great that you drew, definitely have your Expert rating now! 🙂
I know, you think Kramnik and Aronian should be a lot stronger than the others (who doesn’t?!), but you sort of know in your heart that it is Caruana or Grishuk for no particular reason that anyone can tell us. Caruana prepares for his opponents well, I’ll give him that, it’s even starting to seem like a lost art since you’d think that that’s all they would do with their time.