Benoni defense

It was a last round of the tournament. After winning in the first round I lost 4 in row as a part of -6, =2 streak (in 2 clubs). Then I managed to win 3 in a row there (+5, -1 streak).  My rating was still going to go down, so I wanted to win that one too.
I prepared to play Benko against my opponent, young guy, but he didn’t play d5, so Benoni. Here is the game.
After 8… Qa5 he played 9. Bxf6 because of the threats Qxg5 and Ne4 . I started to feel good getting 2 bishops.
Then his Bf3 took me by surprise, I saw Rc5 coming and my d5 pawn defenseless, but after some thinking found Bf8.  On move 23 I could exchange his b4 pawn to my d5, but for some reason decided not to do it, the position looked unclear to me. Fritz think that I missed an advantage here.
Some maneuvering followed, then I executed f5, f4 plan. It worked very well and I felt that I have an advantage there. I played Rc4 to get a passed pawn and then saw that I can win d4 pawn. I realized that it will be an opposite-colored bishops endgame, but decided to try my luck there, not seeing anything better.
At that moment we had less than 2o minutes left each, time was almost equal during the whole game, with him having a few minutes more. Suddenly he blundered a pawn and his chances went down.
I got two connected passed pawns and after some delay (criticized by Fritz) finally played d4.  After d3 he resigned.
I will still lose about a dozen rating points despite +5, -4 result because average rating of my opponents was lower than mine, but I am glad that I could recover from a very bad situation.

 

When everything goes wrong

I played yesterday and it was a disaster. I feel like a cook, who was preparing an unknown dish and screwed up every component of it. I was Black, my opponent was a guy I played twice before –  loss almost in the opening in the first game, revenge in the endgame in the second. This game was somewhat similar to the first. He was White, played 1.d4 and 2. c4, and I wanted to play Benko, but already on the 3rd move he played the move nobody ever played before, here is the game. On move 6  I got the wrong idea that the exchange of the dark-colored bishops will be not good for me and played h5 to avoid it. Actually, after  6.  …  Bg7 7. 7.  Bh6 Qb6 (stressing the weakness of his queenside) I was getting -0.91 advantage.  Then I overestimated his tactical threats after Bf4 – Nb5, Nc7+, not seeing Qa5 check after which his knight had to go back.  My move 8… a6 was beginning of the disaster and then I gave up a pawn, thinking that after 9…Nxd5 I will get under pin, but after 10. Rd1 e6 he had to move or exchange his queen. When I moved knight to a5, I saw that it can go to c4, but when he played 10. Be5   I concentrated on the kingside, played 10… g7 and after 11. b4 realised with horror that the knight can’t go now to c4 and after 11…Nb3 12. Rb1 can’t go anywhere.  Anyway, I continued to play, but after losing another piece on move 31, I resigned.

 

Going up the ladder

Yesterday I drew with an expert. It was a guy 25-27 years old.

I was Black, he started d4 and it became Benoni without d5 – 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. e3.

My first 7 moves were intuitive, still very good, then somehow delayed development of my queenside got me under pressure. I played 14. … Qb6 instead of Qc7 and after 15. Rb5 Qc7 16. Be7 lost an exchange. It looked like familiar scenario with much higher rated players – getting positionally overplayed, then missing a tactical blow. There were, however, 2 big differences.

First, I had 2 strong bishops, no weaknesses and thought that the position is defensible.

Second – his clock. He spent about half of his time on the first 15-16 moves (it was G/90), I spent ~30 minutes. I thought it will be a factor. Both my suggestions were right.

I missed winning exchange just after a few moves (try to find it). Eventually after 24 moves I got my exchange back, trapping his rook with my 2 bishops. I could play Nxd5, but was afraid of the pin. As the guy rightly pointed after the game I had Nf4 avoiding it. So I played Qxd5 and had to give up the pawn on g6. He was thinking a lot on every move getting in real time trouble. I decided to keep tension on the board, do not exchange queens and see what happens. Soon I made a wrong move allowing him to win an exchange with decisive advantage, but he didn’t notice it. After 35 moves he had I think less than 5 minutes, I had 20-25. Then it became 2 minutes, he started to play faster. When he had about 30 seconds on the clock ( I had ~10 minutes) he made a move forcing me to exchange queens. After the exchange we got an opposite colored bishops endgame, him up a pawn. Suddenly I felt like blown air balloon, I realized I don’t want to win on time this drawn endgame. I offered him a draw, he agreed, of course. The guy was very nice and friendly before the game, I felt like he didn’t deserve to lose and I to win (I didn’t actually show GM’s 2550 performance in this game).

I will post Fritz annotations later, as always Fritz spoiled my eyphoria :).

Yesterday for the first time I drew with an expert.  It was a guy 25-27 years old.  I was Black,  he started d4 and it became Benoni without d5 – 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. e3.  After the game I said I would play b5 if he played 3. d5,  he smiled and said he doesn’t like this stuff,  prefers pure positional play.  My first 7 moves were intuitive,  still very good, then somehow I delayed development of my queenside and it got me under pressure. I played 14. … Qb6 instead of Qc7 and after 15. Rb5 Qc7 16. Be7 lost an exchange. It looked like familiar scenario with much higher rated players – getting positionally overplayed, then missing a tactical blow. There were, however, 2 big differences.

First,  I had 2 strong bishops, no weaknesses and thought that the position is defensible.  Second – his clock. He spent about half of his time on the first 15-16 moves (it was G/90),  I spent ~30 minutes. I thought it will be a factor. Both my suggestions were right. I missed winning exchange just after a few moves (try to find it). Eventually after 24 moves I got my exchange back, trapping his rook with my 2 bishops.  I could play 25. … Nxd5, but was afraid of the pin. As the guy rightly pointed after the game I had 26. … Nf4 avoiding it right away. So I played 25. … Qxd5 and had to give up the pawn on g6. He was thinking a lot on every move getting in real time trouble. I decided to keep tension on the board, do not exchange queens and see what happens. Soon I made a wrong move allowing him to win an exchange with decisive advantage, but he didn’t notice it. After 35 moves he had I think less than 5 minutes, I had 20-25. Then it became 2 minutes, he started to play faster. When he had about 30 seconds on the clock  ( I had ~10 minutes) he made a move forcing me to exchange queens. After the exchange we got an opposite colored bishops endgame, him up a pawn. Suddenly I realized I don’t want to win on time this drawn endgame.  I offered him a draw, he agreed, of course. The guy was very nice and friendly before the game, I felt like he didn’t deserve to lose and I to win (I didn’t actually show GM’s 2550 performance in this game).

Also, there is an interesting FIDE rule:

Article 10: Quickplay Finish

10.1 A `quickplay finish` is the last phase of a game, when all the (remaining) moves must be made in a limited time.

10.2 If the player, having the move, has less than two minutes left on his clock, he may claim a draw before his flag falls. He shall stop the clocks and summon the arbiter.

If the arbiter agrees the opponent is making no effort to win the game by normal means, or that it is not possible to win by normal means, then he shall declare the game drawn. Otherwise he shall postpone his decision or reject the claim.

Would be just moving the pieces and advancing the pawns in this endgame  ( I can’t win of course) qualify as “making no effort to win the game by normal means”?  What do you think about that?

I posted the game, raw pgn. I will post Fritz annotations later.

Here is the game annotated by Fritz.