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I played in four - no, make that three - tournaments: Grand Rapids, Lansing, and the Michigan Senior in Flint. All fun, good times, great to be back; so I can't say disappointment drove me back out - 'cause it didn't.
It's just that, well, I'm not a twentysomething free-spirit chessgeek anymore. I'm turning 60 in two weeks (! - yes, I am. Believe it, Baby - it talks!); and I've accumulated more responsibilities than - well, than the Edmund Fitzgerald had barnacles. I got jobs galore - for which, in the BushYears Economy, I am most grateful - I got family to take care of, I even decided to get back in my beloved Gilbert & Sullivan musicals, after a year off. And as far as chess goes - well, the list gets longer. I still have my monthly column of Dvoretsky to translate; Russell Enterprises always has another book for me to work on - and now, I've got another publisher interested. It really never ends. There's no weekends anymore - and chess tournaments have ceased being a welcome break. Now, they're just a distraction - I'm gonna find myself continually thinking about the work I should be doing, translating, back home. Geesh!
So - what to do with the blog? Some would say, Just drop it. Lord knows, it happens often enough, in the blogiverse. But - well, I wasn't raised that way. And who knows - maybe someday, I'll have tournament games to annotate, again.
Meanwhile - hey, how about somebody ELSE's tournament games? I know, there's tons of places where you can read other people's annotations - grandmasters, a lot of them - online and in print. But you know, there's one source hardly anybody gets to read, over here. I'm talking about Fischer's own favorite: Russian chess magazines!
I suspect The Great Loopy One probably only learned enough Russian himself to follow the gist of the annotations. Well, I do happen to have that ol' U of M BA in Russky (although I was pretty damn poor at it, back then, compared to my classmates!); I think I could probably give you a little better taste of what passes for annotations on that side of the pond.
Let's start with something attractive, by some-"one" attractive. Later, I'm going to make a first attempt to upload a picture here. This is the new Women's World Champion, the winner of the FIDE Women's Knockout event last year in Nalchik. She defeated The Great 14-Year-Old Chinese Hope, Hou Yifan, in the Final. This game was from the second-round match, against another young hope, Tatiana Kosintseva. (I'm also going to try uploading diagrams, later) Notes by the winner, except where noted.
Afterwards, I'm going to continue with part of an interview taken by the editor of "64" magazine; I think it gives a bit of a picture of some aspects of the life of a Russian women's chess professional.
- is what a "woman chess professional" looks like. :-) This is Alexandra Kosteniuk, WGM, aspiring model...Women's World Knockout Championship
Nalchik, Russia, 2008
Second Round Matches - Game 1
A. Kosteniuk - T. Kosintseva
Ruy Lopez - C95
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 0-0 9. h3 Nb8
Breyer Defense - solid, yet flexible.[JDM]
10. d4 Nbd7 11. Nbd2 Bb7 12. Bc2 Re8 13. Nf1 Bf8 14. Ng3 g6 15. a5 c5 16. d5 c4 17. Bg5 h6 18. Be3 Nc5 19. Qd2 h5 20. Ra3 Nfd7 21. Rea1 Qc7 22. Bh6 Be7 23. Rf1 Nb6 24. axb5 axb5 25. Rxa8 Rxa8 26. Nh2
(Diagram here)
(I'm pretty sure this is all book so far. I'm gonna turn it over to Alexandra now - JDM)
I thought Black had two good choices here. The first would be to put her knight on d7, meeting f2-f4 by taking the pawn, followed by knight to e5. And the second would be just to carry on with her counterplay on the a-file. My own play would be a lot slower.
Instead, Black continued
26...Bh4?!
To which I, of course, answered
27. Nxh5!? gxh5
- but here, I got really nervous. It was hard to choose between the actual game line and 28. Bg5 Bxg5 29. Qxg5+ Kf8 30. Qxh5 Ke7 31. f4 - and mate's not far off! But finally, I chose the more positional line.
28. Qe2
This looked to me like it maintained all my threats: just snap off the h5-pawn, and then do what I did in the game. But, as always, I had a hallucination about some variation that never happened. And the game turned into a long-drawn-out affair:
28...f6 29. Qxh5 Bg5 30. Qg6+ Kh8 31. Bxg5 fxg5 32. Qh6+ Qh7 33. Qxd6
This is the sort of position they call "dynamically balanced". Materially, I have three pawns for the piece, which is really unusual for me. Lyosha Korotylev (women's trainer - JDM) always scolded me: Name me one time you have ever sacrificed anything positionally! So when I played this game, I was thinking to myself, Okay, Lyosha, look here: a positional piece sacrifice!
But the evaluation was unclear to me, actually- that is, unless Tanya made a gross blunder during her second time-scramble.
33...Nbd7 34. Ng4 Qg7 35. Rb1 Kh7 36. Qc7 Qh8 37. b4 cxb3 38. Bxb3 Qb8 39. Qxb8 Rxb8 40. Bc2 Ba6 41. g3 Kg7 42. f3 Nb7 43. Bd3 Nbc5 44. Bc2
["64" magazine reporter] - If White is repeating moves, does that mean she's OK with a draw here?
No, no! I really was being clever here. I never expected to get to the three-time repetition, because I knew that Tanya would deviate before I did.The Kosintseva sisters never take three-time repetitions, on principle. This is an important point, and everybody knows it. I was horrified, here in Nalchik, when I watched her older sister, Nadja's, tie-break match against Shen Yang. A draw would have been just fine for her, and she had it in the bag: a couple of checks, and that would have been it. But Nadja turned it down, and moved her knight away from her king. I wanted to yell at her: "What are you doing?!" Wanting to win every game is a very fine quality to have, but there's a limit to everything.
- And if we could get back to our game: surely White is not better at this point?
I don't know. But here's how I decided: I would take one repetition, and then drop the bishop back to f1 - but only if I absolutely had to. Because I was certain that Tanya would be the first to deviate. And so she did.
44...Rb6 45. Kf2 Na4 46. Nxe5 Nxe5 47. Bxa4 Rh6 48. Bd1 Rxh3 49. Ra1 Rh6 50. Be2 Rb6 51. Ke3 Kf7 52. Kd4 Nd7 53. e5 Nb8 54. f4 gxf4 55. gxf4 b4
- What an armada of pawns, from the c- to the f-file. Surely, it's easy now.
Right. And I saw that my king could go to d6. So it's just: pull yourself together, calculate one variation, and it's all over. But you know - I just couldn't do it.
56. e6+ Ke7 57. Bxa6 Nxa6 58. cxb4 Kd6 59. e7 Kxe7 60. Re1+ Kd7 61. f5 Nxb4 62. Rh1 Rd6 63. Rh7 Kd8 64. Ke4, and the game was drawn. And in the second game of the match, I took the Black side of the same Ruy Lopez, and won.
- There are persistent rumors floating about that you and the Kosintseva sisters are no longer on speaking terms. This would probably be a good time to either confirm these rumors or lay them to rest, since you yourself have said that if you still have ambitions in chess, then above all, they're team ambitions. And in the Russian championships, there's nobody stronger than the Kosintseva sisters, and Kosteniuk. So if one is going to assemble a team with serious ambitions, then the three of you must certainly be on it. So what does that do to team morale?
All these rumors are fed by people who are a long way away from the Russian first team, and from women's chess in general. And this feeding - the rumors about some sort of tense atmosphere - surprises me and insults me.
The three of us have played in girls' tournaments since we were kids - we grew up together. Of course, there was competition - how could it have been otherwise?! But competition made us grow. I was born in 1984, Nadja in 1985, Tanya in 1986. We scored our first successes together, watched one another develop, hung out with each other - that's normal.
Now, as far as the team goes, I have thought of myself as a team player since I was small. For me, the team is something sacred. And to me, a team like that is more than just a sports organization - it's social life, it's friends, it's having interests you share. Now, for eample, I've had a little boy, and so have a lot of my friends. There's something we can talk about, besides chess!
When you talk about team tournaments, there's absolutely nothing bad you can say about the sisters: they're fighters, and they're always ready to play. They say the men's team has a problem with getting four guys to play on a given day; on the women's team, we have the opposite problem. Now, it's true that I've gotten wiser, and no longer say no to an extra day off; but before, if somebody sat out a round, it was always, like: who have I insulted, why me, I'm ready to play, and so forth.
Yes, we no longer hang out together like we used to. But from a professional standpoint, I have nothing to say against them. We try to maintain normal, correct relations. So all these rumors on that subject I consider useless and disturbing. The only thing that I think creates a tense atmosphere on the team is when the team trainer is also the Kosintsevas' trainer [Yuri Dokhoian - JDM], who for some reason will not talk to me, nor to my friends, nor even to my trainers. Of course, under those circumstances, you can't even talk about having the usual team workshops.
Timofeev - Svidler 1-0 - in 19 Moves!!
This is the sorta thing that's Not Supposed To Happen to a 2700-plus player - especially in the Russian Championship Final - when he's leading the tournament!
So how did it happen?
Artyom Timofeev - Pyotr Svidler
Russian Championship Final, Moscow 2008 - Round 9
(Notes cribbed from Sergey Zagrebelny's coverage at www.chesspro.ru)
1. e4 c6
Already a small surprise. Lately, Svidler - a four-time(!!) Russian Champion, has been favoring 1...e5, aiming for the Marshall Attack, or 1...c5, with one of the ..e6 Sicilian variations. Since he was nursing a half-point lead going into this round, perhaps he thought the choice of a Caro-Kann might: a) throw White off-balance; and/or: b) give him a quiet round to rest his nerves.
Timofeev chooses a sharp continuation.
2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4
Howdy, Comrade Panov! Of course, this variation usually transposes into some form of Nimzo-Indian. - SG
4...Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nf3 Bb4
And this move comes from Citizen Nimzovich. - SG
7. Bd3
Black will now take on c4 and aim for the "isolani". - SG
7...dxc4 8. Bxc4
So the bishop must lose a move - nothing to be done, that's the opening we're in. - SG
8...0-0 9. 0-0
As we expected, the well-known transmutation of Panov's Attack into the Nimzo-Indian into the Rubinstein "Nimzo". Here Black usually plays 9...b6, followed by the queenside fianchetto. 9...a6, followed by 10...b5, is a little more aggressive version - SG
(I should mention that these were online commentaries - that is, Sergey was commenting on the moves pretty much as they were being played.)
9...b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Re1
Here, White has different setups he can choose. I won't spend too much time nitpicking.
11...Nbd7 12. Rc1
Timofeev chooses the most natural development of his pieces. Should we talk about the principles of playing "isolani" positions? Is it possible there's somebody out there who doesn't know them already? Fine. Hey - Pyotr's still thinking, anyway. White's chief trumps are free play for his pieces, and a small space advantage. He has only one minus, but it's a weighty one: the potential weakness of the pawn islet - d4. I can sum up the other side shorter still: all White's plusses are minuses for Black, and vice versa. The main struggle will revolve around the key square d5; sometimes, White will open up the game for his pieces by playing d4-d5. - SG
12...Rc8 13. Qb3 Bxc3
No, he doesn't mind giving up the bishop. In this variation, Black can give it up without whining. Black is working in less space, so every exchange is good for him. - SG
14. Rxc3
Now here's an important point. White could turn this into a "hanging-pawns" position, if he were to recapture with the pawn instead; but he decided to leave the game the way it is. And it's not at all because then Black could take on f3 and break up his king's pawn protection. No, that exchange would not be a problem for White, as has been shown by many prior examples (not all of which need to be of this exact position). Most likely Svidler didn't even look at that knight.
(If we're going to bring up the pawn recapture, I should mention the following well-known tactic:
After 14. bxc3 Qc7 15. Bb5, Black has the surprising 15...Ng4, threatening to take on f3 and then on h2. Sometimes, however, this particular trick backfires. I don't have time to demonstrate the most accurate treatment here, but I might offer something like this: 16. h3 Bxf3 17. hxg4 Bxg4 18. Qa4, which attacks the knight, while simultaneously threatening that d4-d5 push. - SG)
14..Rc7?! This is almost a novelty, 14...h6 being the usual move.
(Checking over a few games, it's hard not to believe this is the right move here -
14...h6 15. Bh4 Bd5 16. Bxd5 Rxc3 17. Qxc3 (Brodsky - Macieja, 2007, agreed to a draw right here) 17...Nxd5 18. Bxd8 Nxc3 19. Bxb6 Nxa2 20. Bxa7 Ra8 21. Bc5 Nxc5 22. dxc5 Rc8 23. Re5 Nb4 24. Ne1 Na6 25. Re3 Rxc5 26. Rc3 Rxc3, and Kovacs - Ruck, Hungary 2008 was drawn here - this is the latest game we have in this line. - SG)
15. Ne5
The most obvious move. Besides everything else, it opens the path for the rook to the kingside - this is the advantage of the rook recapture on c3.
(And that's exactly what occurred in the game between some unknown named Alsina Leal and Vilar Lopes (rated 2130), Lisbon 2001:
15. Ne5 Qa8?! 16. Bxe6! Rxc3 17. Bxf7+ Kh8 18. bxc3 Bxg2 19. Bxf6 gxf6 20. Nxd7 Bh3 21. Qd5 Qxd5 22. Bxd5 Bxd7 23. Re7, and White soon won. - SG)
15...Kh8
Getting the king off the dangerous diagonal. And nevertheless - if you have to make such non-standard moves, what does it tell you? Most likely, that problems are suddenly raining down on Black's head. That dull-looking rook move was apparently a serious inaccuracy. - SG
16. Rh3
Now Black's king is in an awful situation. And Svidler is not accustomed to this kind of last-ditch defending. - SG
16...Qa8
Black continues to carry out his plan - ignoring the gathering threats to his king!
With all due respect to a player much stronger than I, in this case, I would definitely rather play White. Here's one nice-looking line: 17. Nxd7 Nxd7 18. Bd3 (forcing his opponent to make a serious weakening on his dark squares) 18...g6 (18...Bxg2?? is way too optimistic here: 19. Bxh7! Bxh3 20. Qxh3, etc.), and here even 19. f3, choking off the Black diagonal battery, with Qa3-e7 or -d6 to follow. - SG
17. Nxd7 Rxd7
Disaster! Now White has a standard straight-line mate.
For a player of Timofeev's caliber, the win here is simplicity itself.
18. Bxf6 gxf6
(Black comes out a piece down after 18...Bxg2 19. Bxg7 Kxg7 20. Rg3+ Kh8 21. Rxg2)
19. Rxh7+! Kxh7 20. Qh3+ Kg7 21. Qg4+ Kh8 22. Re3 Be4
(Or 22...Bxg2 23. Qh5+ Kg7 24. Rg3#)
23. Rh3+ Bh7 24. Qh4! Qe4 25. Qxe4 -
Artyom has been solving such mating-position problems, I'll bet, since he was in short pants - SG)
18. Bxf6 gxf6 19. Rxh7+!
No one doubted he'd find it - Black resigned.
Words fail me... I can't imagine anyone expected this. It's not at all the fact that he lost - in this kind of Superfinal, anybody can beat anybody else - or lose to anybody else. But to lose like this...
One gets the impression that Pyotr left all his best qualities behind on the playing field at yesterday's soccer games.
His problems clearly began with 14...Rc7?! The time-tested 14...h6 was preferable. What happened next was more like odds-play. - SG
(Part of a continuing series in "64" magazine / "Junior" section)
Vladimir Kramnik
When I chose a game for "Junior", I unexpectedly discovered that I had played my first Berlin Defense Ruy at the age of five. I was not yet six, when I played in my first official tournament. I scored one quick victory, thanks to opening preparation. Of course, I understood nothing about the openings; but my father went out before the tournament, and bought me two or three books.
One turned out to be the usual piece of crap, full of opening traps - and quite by accident, one of those traps turned out to be the one I used. I didn't know that this was called the "Berlin Defense"; but I remembered the trap.
After my match against Kasparov, his fans were upset that he hadn't tried 4. d3 - but how could they have known that I was already armed to the teeth at age 5?!
Oganesian - Kramnik
Berlin Ruy - C65
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Ne7!?
And now I'm sure this move will become popular... I analyzed it, and decided it wasn't very good. Well, it's not entirely worthless - it does have some positional sense to it.
5. Nxe5
A logical enough continuation to play against a five-year-old who leaves a center pawn unprotected.
5...c6!
A dirty trap!
6. Bc4
I remember exactly that the book said 6. Nc4 would be bad, because of 6...d5. But then 7. e5!, and White is no longer losing a piece. 6...d5 is just a bad move. Let me say it again: the book was just trash. 6...d6 is the winning move instead. But my opponent had decided that he was playing a beginner, and suspected nothing. Apparently, he figured that I was going to play 6...b5, and then the game would be over right away. Of course he had to play 6. Nxf7, followed by 7. Bc4+, 8. Bb3, and White can still put up some sort of a fight.
6...Qa5+
Here he became confused, as the game wasn't going the way he'd planned.
7. Bd2 (7. Nc3 was better) 7...Qxe5 8. Bc3
The way he was playing, I could tell taht he was hoping I'd just leave the queen on e5 to be taken. No, I won't...
8...Qg5 9. 0-0 Qg6
I'll be honest - this wasn't necessary. 9...Ng6 would have been more accurate.
10. f4 d5 11. e5?
A terrible blunder. He had to play 11. f5. Now White's game is just hopeless.
11...Ng4 12. Bb3 Ne3 13. Qe2 Nxf1 14. Qxf1 Nf5 15. Kh1 Bc5 16. Nd2 Ng3+. White resigned.
Later, I would meet this same opponent many times in our city championships. He wasn't that bad a player - in this game, he apparently thought he would deal with a five-year-old just like that, and didn't concentrate at all. In our other games, I also outplayed him; but he put up far more of a struggle.
****************************************
Since my last post - the "chicken" post, where I said I was NOT going to a tournament - was so long ago; and since I may not get to another tournament for a while, and hence have no games to annotate, STILL - well, I thought I'd reproduce somebody else's (great!) work, as long as I put in a plug for his (great!!) newsletter.
Actually it's an online newsPAPER - a CHESS newspaper, believe it or not. This marks the 2858th issue of the Web's first and ONLY daily chess newspaper - www.chesstoday.net - still publishing, almost eight years later! It's great, folks. Not only does he cover ALL the major events as they happen - he also fills his four-to-six pages a day with guest GM analysis, interesting letters from GMs and IMs on current subjects, and sometimes, his great love: endgames!
I'm going to reproduce one of them here. Notes by the Chess Today editor-in-chief, Alex Baburin, will be marked with an AB.
Women's World Championship (Knockout)
Nalchik, RUS September 3, 2008 Rd. 2.3
Ju Wenjun (2389) - Stefanova, Antoaneta (2550)
(White to move)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| | | | | | | | |
| WR | | | | | b
| | | | | bk | | bp | bp |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | b
| | | | | | | WP| |
| | br | | | | WP | | |
| _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _WK_ | _ _ |
OK, White is a pawn down - fortunately, it's a rook endgame (and "All rook endgames are drawn" :-) ), and all the pawns are on the same side. This OUGHT to be a draw, with best play. Of course, it's the higher-rated player's JOB to make sure her opponent DOESN'T find "best play". (She didn't win a previous Women's World Championship on her looks, after all...)
54. Ra8
54. Ra5!? was worth considering too - White would then keep the enemy king at bay. - AB
Do you follow? What he's saying is, if the Black king can't cross the 5th rank, Black - who can't force a passed pawn with this formation - cannot win. If Black interposes her own rook on, say, d5, that's not progress.
Of course, White's actual choice of defense isn't bad, either - she's going to hit on Black's pawns from the side, to tie down the Black king to their defense - again, no progress.
54...Kf5 55. Ra7 Kg4
Interesting try (if 55...f6 56. Ra6). - AB
Black's going to give up one pawn (or two!) to try to unbalance the position (which is, basically, how you win). When her king gets to h3, the mate threat will smoke White's king out; then, sacrificing the extra pawn on e3 will break up White's pawn structure, making the pawns vulnerable to rook and king.
The key will be to gobble White pawns on different files than the ones White will be taking; that will create passed pawns. And Black, the higher-rated player, will try to prove that her passed pawns will advance faster than White's.
56. Rxf7 Kh3 57. Kf1 e3 58. fxe3 Rb1
After 58...Rg2, the easiest way to a draw is 59. h5! - AB
59. Kf2 Rb2 60. Kf3
From a practical point of view the best move was 60. Kf1!, repeating the position. - AB
60...Rg2
Strangely, now it is White who is a pawn up! But not for too long. - AB
(You should have this position now: W K on f3, R on f7, pawns on e3, g3, h4. B K at h3, R at g2, pawns at g6 and h6.)
It looks like mission accomplished: White must lose her g- and h-pawns, which gives Black the passed h-pawn she was gunning for. But in fact, there are still drawing strategies in this position - in fact, as GM Alex points out, White had no less than three ways to draw, from here!
61. e4
DRAW METHOD #1:
White should have kept the material balance with 61. Rf4! Rxg3 62. Kf2 Rg4 63. h5! = - AB
In other words: White had to lose the g-pawn; but by pushing her h-pawn before it gets captured, she makes Black turn her strong connected pawns into weak doubled h-pawns (on 63. h5 g5? 64 Rf6! would actually turn the tables).
61... Rxg3 62. Kf4 Kxh4
Now White has a[nother] problem - Black won't mind to sacrifice the rook for the e-pawn if her own passers will be well advanced. - AB
If White's king were away, this would be a relatively simple matter: Black keeps her rook behind the White e-pawn while advancing her pair of passers; once they reach the 3rd rank together, White just takes the e-pawn, and White's rook can't stop one Black pawn from queening.
Having the kings in the mix complicates matters, though.
63. Rh7
DRAW METHOD #2:
This move probably does not spoil much yet, but it seems that White could draw after 63. e5 g5 64. Ke4 Rg1 65. e6 Re1 66. Kf5 g4 67. e7 h5 68. Kf4 Kh3 69. Kg5 h4 70. Rh7. - AB
White will snip off the weakened h-pawn - even after 70...Kg3 71. Rxh4!, since 71...Re5 is no threat: 72. Kf6!, and Black's rook is just as loose as White's.
63... h5 64. Ke5?
DRAW METHOD #3:
Correct was 64. e5 Rg4 (or 64...g5 65. Kf5 =) 65. Kf3 Rg1 66. e6 Re1 67. e7 g5 68. Kf2 Re6 69. Kf3 g4 70. Kf4 Re1 71. Rg7 Kh3 72. Rg5 =. - AB
As will soon be clear, White lost a vital tempo - her king soon gets chased right back, and meanwhile, Black's rook gets to her proper square, for free.
64...Re3 65. Kf4 Re1 66. e5 g5 67. Kf5 g4 68. e6 g3 69. Rg7 Kh3 70. Kf6 h4 71. Rg5 g2 72. e7 Kh2 0-1
Well, it's been a busy couple of months - and things aren't looking to let up anytime soon. I've got not one, but TWO book-translation projects I'm working on. I hope to free up enough time to perhaps show you a snippet or two of what I've been working on.
Until then - may ALL your pawns become queens!
the Undead Master
You know how sometimes, you make the right decision on instinct - I mean, you don't know why you do it, but you do anyway, and it turns out perfect?
This weekend, I had planned to play in my monthly one-day event, the Grand Rapids Open, partly because I wanted to see the new digs they'd negotiated for themselves, at Calvin College's spiffy new Hotel/Conference Center; partly because I always play in just one 1-day tournament a month; and partly because I wanted to support the organizers' brilliant, enlightened policy of offering free entry to every rated Master (EFs deducted from any prizes won).
Friday night, however, I just had this...feeling... that playing Saturday the 12th would be a really bad idea. So I stayed home - partly because I really do have a lot to catch up on; partly because I felt more like staying home with family (see picture, above); and partly because of - OK, I'll admit it - instinct.
Well, now I'm dead-certain my instinct was right - for proof, see the accompanying crosstable:
http://main.uschess.org/component/option,c
Looka that, man: two Masters entered, two A-players, buncha Bs and Cs beneath them - and not only does neither one win, they get nicked for half their points each! If one Master loses half his games to players rated way below him, that's called "having a bad tournament"; when both Masters lose half their games, I call that a jinx - and boy, am I glad I dodged that bullet.
So, what have I been so busy at, that I can't spare one day a month to play some chess?
Most immediate has been the windstorm that went through here 4th of July weekend. We got off pretty lucky - only one tree, out of the nine or so gracing our small yard, went down - and it nearly missed our house. Just nicked the corner, in fact - but of course, these days, it costs $500 to get a dead tree removed, plus $1200 to fix a corner of the house. Well, it coulda been worse - a foot or so to the right, and BANG! goes our picture window...
Then last week, in the middle of cleanup, another huge branch came down, in our backyard this time. Facing a $500 bill for one tree, I decided to start cutting this one up myself - not the simplest task, when you don't own a chainsaw. But I am making progress, and expect to have the bozo completely dealt with in another couple of weeks.
That's outdoors chores; indoors, I have not one, but two projects I'm working on. One is for my "regular employer" [joke there, folks] at ChessCafe.com - the place where I translate Mark Dvoretsky's monthly world-class training lectures, doncha know. It's an encyclopedic examination of the life and career of Emanuel Lasker, the longest-reigning World Chess Champion ever. 27 years - a record that most certainly will not ever be broken!
Being an encyclopedia-type book, it doesn't really have the time or space for meaty analysis; but the biographical stuff is fascinating. For example, I had no idea that "good German" Lasker (he put all his money into German war bonds in 1914-18, and lost it all when the Kaiser surrendered) actually became a Soviet citizen in the 1930's! Fascinating. indeed...
The other project, which I am attempting to translate simultaneously, more or less, is a long-overdue look at the so-called "Hedgehog English" (1. c4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 b6 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. 0-0 e6 6. Nc3 a6 7. d4 cxd4 8. Qxd4 d6), by a great theoretician, an entertaining annotator, and perhaps the foremost Hedgehog practitioner alive today, GM Sergei Shipov. The book has been a long time finding an English translator, but I think this independent startup company and I may just be the ones to do it.
It's been a bit of a slog, I'll admit - although translating this opening survey does provide the occasional bit of welcome relief from the unrelievedly heavy prose of the Lasker book. GM Sergei fancies himself a bit of a litterateur, doncha know - unfortunately, nearly all of his literary references are straight out of Russian literature and the arts, hence inaccessible to the average English-speaking chessbook-reader.
What to do?
Well, every time one of Sergei's incomprehensible references comes up, I consult with Leonid (the aforementioned "independent startup") about where it's from, what it means, and most important - whether I should bother including it in the translated book.
Sometimes, we just flip a coin.
Anyway, good progress is being made on both fronts. I expect to finish both of them on or before Thanksgiving, which probably means the Shipov book will be out by Christmas, and the Lasker book somewhat later.
More news as it develops.
I now have a mission....
A week or so ago, my editor at the Chess Cafe website, Hanon Russell, tied for first at the US Amateur - and he's older'n I am! Time to git crackin', young'un!
And I aim ter - er, to. This weekend is the Michigan Senior - restricted to 55 and older. Which I are. So, even though it is a (full) weekend tournament - although with no late-Saturday round, in deference to us creakies - and even though I have to haul my aching old butt all the way over to Flint, fer gosh sakes, I will put forth an effort, and see if I can't add a title to my collection.
Uh-huh, yeah. There will probably be more than one Master in attendance; and I suspect a couple of those will be actual practicing Masters - as in, the type that have spent the last ten years or so actually playing in tournaments. Unlike myself. What will probably happen is: I'll be lucky if I break 50%.
There - now that expectations have been OFFICIALLY lowered, I can drive off to Flint with a song in my heart and a spring in my step. (Maybe that'll be worth an extra half-point...)
Meanwhile...
Some of you may be wondering how I kept up a semblance of playing strength, with no tournaments in twenty years. Well, it might have been "no tournaments", but it certainly wasn't "no chess".
First and foremost, of course, there was postal. At least, at first, there was postal. Gradually, e-mail chess was added to postal, and then supplanted it entirely. I mean, whaddya want, eh? Free sending; moves back in a day - three, at the most - instead of a week, two weeks, a month if he was losing. And free play - the place I use the most, www.gameknot.com, doesn't offer cash prizes (or any prizes at all, as far as I can tell), so it doesn't charge entry fees, either. Play till ya puke.
And then, of course, there's computers. Oh, it was great fun at first - watch Chessmaster play like an idiot - win twenty games straight! Ah, but then the next iteration got stronger....and stronger... and stronger. Time was when I stopped playing the program I'd bought - because, as I told my wife, I don't play to lose.
But then, Chessmaster introduced the learning curve. Besides the lesson plan for beginner-through-about-B-player it now includes, there was a graduated series of opponents. You could start out, literally, playing a monkey; and move up as you beat successively stronger opponents. Of course, when you got to the 2400-rated opposition, you'd still get beaten - badly - but you'd learn from it.
Now, all I had to do was reconnect with the guy who used to think it was worthwhile to sit for an hour or two at a time, trying his damnedest to WIN. The return to tournament play, and the studying that comes with it, represents that reconnection.
Here - let me show you what this "graduated opposition" is like.
The instructional program in Chessmaster (starting from about Version 9, if I remember correctly) is narrated by former chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin. Amusingly, several of the graduated opponents in the program are - Josh. There's 7-year-old Josh, rated about 1200; there's 9-year-old Josh (1800), and 11-year-old Josh, whom I'm still struggling to get back up to speed with. Tonight, as a sort of "limbering-up exercise", I played against 9-year-old Josh (actually, ChessMaster matched me up with him - I'm currently only 1781 against this version of the program). The game was 30 minutes a side.
The Undead Master - Josh @ 9 (1800) 5/29/08
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Bc4
Here, "Josh" stopped to think. One of the things that makes this the "9-year-old Josh" is its very limited "book" - it tends to try erratic moves in the early opening - and then wriggle out tactically, if your concentration wavers. Fortunately, my wife & daughter had to go out shopping this evening, so I had nothing to distract me.
6...Be6?
This time, J-9 comes up with a howler.
7. Bxe6 fe 8. Qe2
My ChessAssistant program says even 8. 0-0 leaves White with a huge plus. Don't worry, I'm not using CA to find my moves - what would be the point of that?! I did want to check my game score, since I didn't start writing my moves down until around move 25; and of course, I wanted to see if I could have done better (yes, of course).
8...Nd5? 9. Qxe6! Nxc3 10. Qc8+ (even 10. bc! is OK) 10...Qd8 11. Qxd8+ Kxd8 12. bc Nd7 13. Ng5 Kc8 14. 0-0 e5?
J-9 is an incorrigible optimist.
15. Re1 (Maybe he'll miss that 15...ed?? hangs the rook) 15...Be7 16. Nf7 Rf8 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. Rxe5
18. dxe5 is stronger - the protected passed pawn, supported by the rook, should make short work of Black's defense.
18...Bd6 19. Re6 Kc7 20. Rxd6! Kxd6 21. Ba3+ Kd5 22. Bxf8 Rxf8 23. Re1
The endgame is, of course, an "easy win" - but won games always have to be won. Good practice, still. Here, White should play c3-c4 ASAP, to forestall ..b7-b5 by Black, crippling the majority. I miss this for several moves; fortunately, J-9 is really bad at endgames.
23...Kd6 24. Re5 g6 25. Kf1 Kd7 26. Ke2 Ra8?! 27. f4 Rf8 28. Ke3 Re8?
Wha'd I tell ya?
29 Rxe8 Kxe8 30. c4 a6 31. d5 Kd7 32. Kd4 cd 33. cd h6 34. c4 Kd8 (he's down to five minutes here) 35. c5 Kd7 36. Ke5 Kd8 37. Kf6, etc.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
OK, so reality wasn't as all-conquering-hero as playing a weakened computer program; still, it turned out well. I made two wins & two draws, which MIGHT have been enough to become the 2008 Michigan Senior Champion - except that A-player Greg Bailey, whom I was unable to beat in Round One, was able to beat three people (except for me!), and pull ahead by half a point. Congratulations, Greg!
Games will follow shortly.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
First off, a big hat-tip to Jeff Aldrich, director/organizer of the 2008 Michigan Senior, who not only ran a smooth group of events (there was a Young Guns side-event on Sunday, too), but even stepped in as house-man when occasion demanded - AND sent off the rating report, AND posted (almost all the) winners' pictures AND the games of the tournament on the MCA website.
http://www.michess.org/interim/champions/s
Since all the games (including mine) are typed in - and playable! - I'm only going to annotate one of them here: my first win, in Round Two, against longtime Grand Rapids native Stan Jarosz.
After taking a draw (when he finally had the better position!) against Greg Bailey, the eventual tournament winner in Round One, I was paired with Stan, an extremely solid player, in Round Two.
Jim Marfia - Stan Jarosz [1922]
MI Senior 2008 - Round 2
1. e4 c5
Already a surprise. I remembered Stan as having a much less challenging repertoire - 1. e4 e5, for example. As the opening progressed, Stan rattled off his moves pretty quickly. I began to suspect that maybe he'd been reading one of *my* favorite books, "Starting Out: The Taimanov Sicilian", by James Rizzitano.
Well, nothing for a rusty Master to do but play an aggressive line, and hope his memory fades before mine does.
2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3
To help resuscitate my career, I had planned to use the 5. Bd3 line here; but from what I could recall, the lines after that were excessively dry and positional, and I expected Stan would feel more comfortable there. So I aimed for the old line-em-up-vs.-his-King setup, and see what shakes loose.
5... Qc7 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Nb3 Nf6 8. f4 d6 9. Qf3
Actually, this is a setup White can play after 5. Bd3 Bc5 6. Nb3 Be7 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. f4 d6 9. Qf3 Qc7, etc., where White is a tempo up on our game here. The tempo saved allows Black a pretty comfortable game, as we shall see.
9... b5 10. Be3
10. a3 or 10. g4 are alternatives.
10... Be7 12. g4?!
White should take the opportunity for 12. Kb1, but I wanted to get something started. I do, but it's not what I'd like.
12... Nb4 13. g5 Nxd3+ 14. cxd3!?
Yes, I saw that he could play 14...b4 15. gxf6 Bxf6 16. Kb1 bxc3 17. Rc1 Qd7 18. bxc3 - I wasn't too happy with it, but I figured I could survive - and in fact, it's in the database! But Stan actually came up with a novelty - which may be better!
14... Nxe4! [TN!?] 15. dxe4 b4 16. Rd3
16. Kb1 bxc3 17. Rc1 Qc6 is just ugly - now the e-pawn is very soft, and all the vulnerable White pieces on the diagonals radiating outward from that square make White's life very difficult indeed. In fact, I thought I might be lost here.
16... Rc8 17. Kb1 bxc3 18. Rxc3 Qd7 19. Rxc8+ Qxc8 20. Rc1 Qa8 21. Nd2
Our silicon friend suggests the continuation 21...d5 22. Bd4 dxe4 23. Qc3! 0-0 24. Bxg7 Rc8, and gives Black the advantage; but Stan would never play anything this hairy, if he has a choice.
21... 0-0 22. Bd4 Rc8
22...f5 23. exf6 Bxf6 24. Bc3 Be5! may be the right path. Black could also play an immediate 22...e5, which wins a pawn after 23. fxe5 Bxg5; White should answer 23. Bc3 instead.
23. Rxc8+ Qxc8
Black should be better here: he has the bishop-pair, his king is safer, and White's pawns are mostly extended and weak.
24. h4 d5 25. e5
Of course I want to keep his bishops bottled up - especially that potential monster on b7!
25... Bc5?!
A misjudgment. Having gotten a protected passed pawn, Stan evidently thought that all endgames would be better for him. This would be true - IF all the rest of the pieces were to magically vanish from the board. [I myself have had bitter experience with this phenomenon: ask anybody who's ever played the Exchange Ruy Lopez.] But once his "good" bishop is traded off, all White has to do is keep the Black Queen and Bishop bottled up on the queenside - i.e., by occupying the blockade square d4 - and both the Queen + Knight vs. Queen + Bishop and the simple Knight-vs.-bad-Bishop endgames will favor him.
26. Qc3
See "bottled up", above. 26. Nb3 Bxd4 27. Nxd4 Qc4 would be "not bottled up".
26... Bxd4 27. Qxd4 Qc6 28. a3?!
Beginning a lot of dithering that ends up releasing both the Black Queen and Bishop. The proper way to tighten the screws was 28. a4!, to be followed by Nd2-b3-c5, etc.
28... g6
28...h6 was better - besides creating luft for the king, it also makes possible counterplay later with ..Kg8-h7-g6, if White gets too preoccupied on the queenside.
29. Nb3 Qb5 30. Nc5 Bc6 31. Ka2 Qe2 32. Qd3!? Bb5?
A double hallucination. I thought Black had to trade queens, but he doesn't: 32...Qf2! provides Black so much counterplay that Shredder suggests White bail with 33. Nxe6!? fe 34. Qxa6, and go for a perpetual check. And Stan thought that the endgame was stll better for him, now that his bishop is out.
33. Qxe2 Bxe2 34. b4 h6 35. Kb2 hxg5 36. hxg5 Kf8 37. Kc3 Ke7 38. Kd4 Kd8
Finally, Stan settled down for a bit of a think. He saw what was coming, but decided that his queenside counterplay would more than compensate for the loss of the f-pawn. Unfortunately, he had overlooked something else.
39. Nb7+ Kc7 40. Nd6 Kb6 41. a4!?
Actually, a bit of an inaccuracy - because I hadn't yet spotted the winning trick myself! After 41. Nxf7 Bg4 is forced, and then I can play 42. a4 in comfort.
41... a5!
Now facing the destruction of my queenside, I sat down and calculated the winning line.
42. bxa5+ Kxa5 43. Nxf7 Kxa4
Now it's too late: after 43...Bg4 44. Nd6 Kxa4 45. f5! anyway.
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|bk| | |wk | |wp| | |
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44. f5!
Of course, this needed a bit of calculation, but the conception is really quite simple: White gets a passed pawn, one way or the other, and the Black bishop is too mis-placed to get back in time to stop either one.
44... exf5
Or 44...gxf5 45. g6 Bh5 46. Nh8, and 46...Bxg6 is forced, as after 46...f4 47. g7, the White knight covers f7.
45. e6 f4 46. e7 Bb5 47. Nd6!
Stan might have missed this - now Black has to waste a move with the bishop.
47... Bd7 48. e8Q Bxe8 49. Nxe8 f3
Now it's just a matter of the monarch holding all Black's minions, until the horse gets back to round all the little pests up.
50. Ke3 d4+! 51. Kxf3 Kb3!
One last try: my king can't get in front of the d-pawn (52. Ke2?? Kc2!), so I had to foresee (before playing 44. f5) the following little dance:
52. Ke4! Kc3 53. Nd6 d3 54. Ke3 Kc2 [or 54...d2 55. Ne4+] 55. Ne4
It's called zugzwang, kids: if he pushes the pawn, the knight snips it off; and there's no king move that'll keep hold of the pawn. After that, king & knight can return at leisure to polish off his g-pawn and queen mine.
Not a great game - I only played decently after the queens came off!
Thanks to my daughter, Kara, and her husband, Todd, for putting me up Saturday night - it made the whole weekend away from my Grand Rapids family more bearable (Not that I plan to take any more weekends away from family, for a good long while!). Next up: a Grand Rapids one-day mini-Swiss, in a new location: Calvin College!
In the meantime? Well, besides my monthly column to translate for Dvoretsky in Chess Cafe, I now have TWO Russian-language books to translate.
I think I'll be busy enough...
On the heels of the National Junior Teams competition – and with a bit of a gap to fill in my blog, before my next tournament – I thought it might be nice to feature a couple of junior games that came across my desk this weekend. The games are from a Junior teams event in Russia, which has been held at the Petrosian Chess Club in Moscow for the last 22 years. The first game was won by a member of the first-place team – and he's 11 years old! The second game was won by the kid who finished with the second-highest score - in the under-10 division.
The winners also furnished the surprisingly mature, objective notes to both games. [My notes will be added in italics.]
Mikhail Omariev – Daniel DUBOV
Petrosian Memorial Junior Teams Tournament,
Moscow 2007
Sicilian Sveshnikov B33
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6
This line, the Four Knights’ Sicilian, can certainly have an independent existence, if White plays differently than he does in this game. After 6. Ndb5 d6, however, it’s just a way of getting a Sveshnikov without having to prepare for those annoying [1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6] 7.a2-a4 or 7. Nc3-d5 lines - or the Rossolimo [1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5], for that matter.
6. Ndb5 d6
The “mainline” Four Knights’ is 6…Bb4 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. Nxc3 d5, trading the two bishops for easy development. It’s not a bad line – but not as aggressive as the ‘Svesh’.
7. Bf4 e5 8. Bg5 a6 9. Na3 b5 10. Bxf6 gf 11. Nd5 Bg7
The ‘Kramnik Variation’ – introduced by its namesake, to keep his favorite weapon going a little longer, after the mainline 11…f5 had been analyzed to twenty-five or thirty moves deep. (Nowadays, of course, Kramnik meets 1. e4 with 1…e5 and a Petroff.)
12. Bd3 Ne7 13. Nxe7 Qxe7 14. 0-0 0-0 15. c4 f5
Black knows the “strategy” of his chosen defense: let the queenside go, to gain time for a (hopefully) decisive kingside attack! White also knows his ‘book’, and chooses the line currently regarded as best.
16. Qf3 Re8
Black more often plays 16…bc, but 16…Re8 has also been seen at grandmaster level – for example, in Shirov – Kramnik, Linares 2000. Black throws a spanner in White’s memory works. Not only is 16…bc three times as frequent as 16…Re8 in my database, but even 16…d5!? has been seen more often than this. Will White know how to continue?
17. Rfe1 b4 18. Nc2 f4 19. Nxb4!?
Shirov continued 19. Be2 in this position. Three out of four database games elected 19. Nxb4, with overwhelming results for White. Well, White has his pawn.
19…Rb8 20. Nd5
White can’t continue 20. Nc6 Qg5 21. Nxb8??, because of 21…Bg4.
20…Qg5 21. Qe2
| | br | bb | | br | | bk | |
| | | | | | bp| bp |bp|
|bp\ | |bp| | | | |
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| | |wp | |wp| bp| | |
| | | |wb| | | | |
|wp|wp| | |wq|wp |wp |wp|
|wr| | | |wr| |wk | |
21…Re6!
But Black has his attack!
Without this rook in the attack, Black will hardly get anywhere.
In the previous game, Zdebskaya – Vega Gutierrez, Heraklio (World Under-18 Girls) 2004, White prevented 21…Bg4 with 21. h3 instead, to which Black had replied 21…h5, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as an attacking move. After 22. Be2 Re6 23. b3 Rh6, instead of attacking, the Black rook was reduced to defending a pawn. Not too surprisingly, Black went down to defeat.
The 10-year-old handler of the Black pieces in this game has a much more active role in mind for this rook.
22. b4!
To create a passed pawn – and for prevention. I can only assume the last bit means “to free up his Q from having to defend the b-pawn.
22…Rg6
22…Rh6 wasn’t bad, either.
23. g3 Bg4
To take away f1 from the White queen. Well, yeah, once it goes to d2.
24. Qd2 Re8!? 25. Be2
White wants to trade off the light-squared bishop, which is important for attacking purposes.
25…Qh5
25…h5 here, with the idea of continuing …h5-h4, was worth considering.
26. Bxg4 Qxg4
If 26…Rxg4, White plays 27. Qd1, followed by f2-f3 and g3-g4.
27. Qd3?
27. Qd1 was more accurate, in order to meet 27…Qh3 with 28. Qf3.
27…Rh6 28. Qf1 f3!
With this move, Black practically nails the enemy queen to f1. White’s position is growing difficult (Black is threatening Rh3 and Qh5), so he decides to give back the pawn.
29. Ne3 Qxe4 30. Rad1 Qg6 31. h3 Qe6 32. g4 Rg6 33. Kh1 h5 34. gxh5 Rh6 35. Qg1 Rxh5 36. Ng4 Rxh3+ 37. Nh2 Qh6 38. Rd4 (pretty, but it no longer helps) 38…Kh7 39. c5 exd4 40. Rxe8 d3 41. Rd8 d2 42. Rxd6
Stops the passed pawn, but a little exchanging combination removes that obstacle.
42…Rxh2+ 43. Qxh2 Qxh2+ 44. Kxh2 Be5+ White resigned.
* * *
A. Kudenko – Mikhail ANTIPOV
Petrosian Memorial Junior Teams Tournament,
Moscow 2007
King’s Indian Classical E94
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 0-0 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 Nbd7 7. 0-0 e5 8. d5
Not the best possible move – I had expected my opponent to continue 8. Be3 c6.
8…Nc5 9. Qc2 a5 10. b3
A rare continuation – 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3 Nh5 or 10. Ne1 Ne8 are more common.
10…Nh5 11. Re1?!
Not a very good move: he ought to look at 11. Ne1!? Nf4 12. Nd3 Ncxd3 13. Bxd3 Nxd3 14. Qxd3 f5.
11…f5 12. Bg5!
It’s a good idea to get Black’s bishop to f6.
12…Bf6
12…Qe8 13. Nd2 Nf4 14. Bxf4 exf4 isn’t bad, either.
13. Be3 Na6!
Avoiding exchanges, and planning to continue 14…f4. After the inferior 13…fxe4 14. Nd2 Nd3 15. Bxd3 exd3 16. Qxd3 18. Ne4, White blockades the pawn at e5.
In plain English, Black sees that his opponent is not too familiar with this system, and wants to keep the game as complex as possible, by keeping lots of pieces on the board. Further, he sees that after his plan of …f5-f4, followed by a kingside pawn roller, White’s pieces will be tripping over one another in their confined space, so he wants to allow White as few trades as he can.
14. a3
If White plays 14. exf5 to forestall …f5-f4, then Black continues 14…Nb4! 15. Qd2 (15. Qb1 Bxf5 16. Ne4 Nf4 is more passive) 15…Bxf5, with equality.
14…f4!
Black closes the position, in order to generate his counterplay.
15. Nd2 Ng7 (planning to continue with g6-g5) 16. Rec1?!
This was a strange move. White must get in b3-b4 as soon as he can – 16. Qb2!? 16. Reb1 would be inferior, as White isn’t threatening b3-b4: 16…g5 17. b4 axb4 18. axb4 Nxb4.
16…g5 17. Ne1! g4 18. f3 h5 19. Nd3 Bh4!
I planned to create an attack with bishop to g3.
20. Rab1?!
20. b4 Bg3 21. hxg3 fxg3 22. Be3 Qh4 was more exact.
20…Bg3!! 21. hxg3 fxg3 22. Be3?
White would have been better off after 22. Be1 Qh4 23. Bxg3 Qxg3.
22…Qh4 23. Qd2!
White would lose right away after 23. Ne1? Qh2+ 24. Kf1 Qh1+ 25. Bg1 h4: Black simply pushes the h-pawn.
23…Qh2+ 24. Kf1 Qh1+
Giving up the exchange doesn’t work yet: 24…gxf3 25. Bxf3 Rxf3+ 26. gxf3 g2+ 27. Ke1.
25. Bg1 gxf3 26. Bxf3 Bh3?
Here I should have played 26…Bg4! 27. Ne1 Rxf3+ 28. Nxf3 Bxf3 29. gxf3 Rf8 30. Ke1 Rxf3.
Notice how the attack works, once the board is cut into two parts by …f5-f4, with most of White’s pieces stuck on the queenside: Black simply cuts down one White defender after another, while steadily bringing up more pieces. Locally – that is, on the part of the board where it counts, namely next to White’s king – Black has superiority of forces.
27. Ne1
After 27. Ke1! Nc5 28. Ke2 Bxg2 29. Nxc5 Bxf3+ 30. Kd3 dxc5 31. Bxc5 Qh4 32. Bxf8 Rxf8, too, the position is in Black’s favor.
|br | |bb |bq | |br |bk | |
| |bp|bp | | | |bn | |
|bn | | | bp| | | | |
|bp | | |wp|bp| | |bp|
| | |wp| |wp|bp|bp |bb|
|wp|wp|wn|wn| |wp| | |
| | |wq| wb|wb| |wp|wp|
| |wr|wr| | | | wk| |
27…Rxf3+ 28. Nxf3 Rf8 29. Qe2?
White could still have held on after 29. Ke2! Qxg2+ 30. Kd1 Rxf3 31. Kc2 h4; but here too, his position is dangerous.
29…Bxg2+! 30. Qxg2 Rxf3+ 31. Qxf3 Qxf3+ 32. Ke1 Qg2 33. Be3 h4 34. Rd1 h3 35. Rd2 Qf3 36. Re2 h2 37. Kd2 g2
White resigned.
Howdja like to face either of those kids in a simul?!
* * *
The last annotated Junior game was provided as part of “64” magazine’s regular Junior section, by a visiting grandmaster of some repute.
Evgeny BAREEV: “I Found My Old Notebook…”
This game was played in the 1979 Junior Championship of the Chelyabinsk region. I had spent three years away studying at the Moscow Internat [according to Alex Baburin of Chess Today, a special school for future international sports stars], and was home on summer break. I played in the semi-final, and easily took first place; but I was nervous about the final. I had heard the legends, circulating among us backwoods folk, about the powerful Chelyabinskian chess school and its students – Panchenko, Sveshnikov… Just thinking about them gave us the vapors; their students made us quake.
In the end, though, matters were not so dramatic. I held the lead throughout; and after a few adventures at the finish, took first place.
Here and there, I am reproducing the annotations from my old notebook, which I wrote down right after the tournament. I’ll put my 2008 annotations in italics.
Bareev – Kozhevin
Nimzo-Indian Saemisch E29
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 c5 6. e3 0-0 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. Ne2 b6 9. e4 Ne8
A characteristic maneuver. Before starting operations on the queenside, Black takes measures to ward off the threats on the kingside. This idea was first introduced by Capablanca, in a game vs. Johner at Carlsbad, 1929.
I grew tired of the Saemisch Variation soon enough, even though as a youth, I loved to attack. White’s pawn structure is awful. The deepest impression on me came from the game Geller – Euwe, 1953, Zurich Candidates’ Tournament, where Black won after breaking through on the queenside.
10. Be3 d6
10…Ba6! was stronger: 11. Ng3 Na5 12, Qe2 Rc8 13. Rc1 Nd6 14. dxc5 Ndxc4 15. cxb6 axb6, and Black has an excellent position.
Instead of 13. Rac1, White should probably better play 13. d5.
11. 0-0
11. Ng3 Ba6 12. f4 was stronger.
But then Black plays 12…Qh4! Smyslov used this idea, again against Geller, and naturally won.
11…Ba6 12. Ng3 Na5 13. Qe2 Rc8
13…Qd7 was stronger: 12. a4 cxd4 13. cxd4 Rc8 16. Rac1 Qxa4 17. c5 (17. Ra1!? Qd7 18. Rfc1) 17…Bxd3 18. Qxd3 dxc5 (18…bxc5 19. dxc5 Nb3 20. Rc4 Nxc5 21. Bxc5 Qa6 22. Qc2 Rxc5, and Black is better) 19. dxc5 Nf6, with an equal game.
The text move is a serious error, after which Black has no counterplay. He can no longer reach the c4-pawn, whereas the kingside attack still hasn’t been stopped.
14. d5 Qd7 15. a4 Qe7
15…e5 16. f4 f6 was passive, but solid.
16. f5 g6 17. f5
Here’s an interesting question: was this an oversight, or a sacrifice? Apparently, I was afraid of Black playing either e6-e5 or f7-f5.
17…exf5 18. exf5
18. Rae1! would give White a powerful attack.
18…Bxc4 19. Bxc4
I think 19. Rae1! Bxd5 20. c4 Bc6 21. Qg4 was better, with a deadly attack. But I clearly recall that I had not the strength then to resist the terrible temptation to lay a transparent trap.
19…Nxc4 20. Bb6 Qxe2 21. Nxe2 Ng7
21…Nf6 was correct, and Black has an equal position.
22. f6 Rfe8
Black had to give up the exchange here with 22…Nf5 23. Bxf8 Rxf8 24. Rf4 Nfe3, when it will be very hard for White to win this position.
24…Nfe3 is a mistake, after which 25. Re4 gives White an eventual win. White has the better of the exchange-up endgame, certainly; but perhaps 24…Re8 was strong.
23. fxg7 Rxe2 24. Rxf7 Black resigned.
I can’t be certain, but it seems to me that, when I made my 17th move, I had seen the final position.
Continuing the promised string of not-my-games, today I have the distinct pleasure of introducing my small (but, I hope, capable) readership to one of the great joys that come with the abilities to: (1) play chess on a near-Master level, and: (2) read Russian. I'm talking about Israeli (former Soviet) GM Emil Sutovsky. This lad, besides being one of the world's top fifty players, is a member of a still more exclusive "club": past winner of the immensely powerful Aeroflot Open Christmas tournament in Moscow.
If that's not enough - he boasts the height of Peter Svidler, a powerful baritone voice reminiscent of Lajor Portisch in his younger days, and both the playing and writing style of the late, lamented Mikhail Tal. I tell you, I shed a tear upon the news of Tal's passing, so much had I come to anticipate his near-monthly antic stories of tournaments he had played in, and games he had rescued from the fires of his own imagination. Imagine, then, my joy at finding a kindred spirit to Mikhail in this genial Israeli!
And now, I discover, through the pages of my favorite chess magazine, Russia's 64, that Emil has been retained as our own Gata Kamsky's second through this cycle of the World Championship. Not only does this mean that Gata has perhaps the best help available for his serious try at the World Chess Championship, it means that I will no doubt be seeing a lot more of Emil's erudite, yet cheery prose in the Russian-language chess press.
How much fun is Emil Sutovsky? I'll just show you, shall I? Here's a game he played for his national team, at the Turin Olympiad of 2006, annotated in his own inimitable style.
Tiger HILLARP-PERSSON [SWE] - Emil SUTOVSKY [ISR]
Turin Olympiad, 2006
Grunfeld Defense D80
(Notes by Sutovsky)
This was a really different kind of game. There were no particular special effects - but its unusual structure and the amazing harmony of the Black pieces, even though they appeared to be scattered all over the board, made this game especially attractive to me.
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5
Again, this 4. Bg5 system. Thanks mainly to the efforts of Georgian players, this half-forgotten system was resurrected a few years back. Later, it was adopted by Aronian, Radjabov, Dreev, and other official authorities.
4...Ne4 5. Bh4 Nxc3 6. bc dc
The most principled choice. Of course Black has very good chances to equalize after 6...c5; but he can't even think about taking the initiative. By taking the pawn at c4, Black practically obliges himself to spend the next move on a clumsy bishop maneuver. However, to modify an old proverb: not all that doesn't glitter, isn't gold!
7. e3 Be6 8. Rb1
The most aggressive move. White provokes the weakening ...b7-b6, after which he intends to just develop his pieces, occupy the center, and thereby obtain really excellent compensation. During my preparation, however, I had managed to come up with an interesting idea for Black. (By the way, the other popular move, 8. Qb1, was played in a game Sargissian - Vachier-Lagrave, a couple of days after this one. The young Frenchman responded 8...Qd5 [considered the main line], and obtained good play.)
8...Nd7!
A very strong move, which casts the whole 8. Rb1 line into doubt. Actually, I thought this was a novelty, and only when I was preparing my notes to this game did I stumble upon the game Reilly - Zhao Zong [not to be confused with Zhang Zhong!], where Black quickly gained the upper hand. For some reason unknown to me, many strong grandmasters have played 8...b6 here, and after 9. Nf3 Bg7 10. e4, White had full compensation. Evidently, this had been just the position Tiger had been aiming for, because after 8...Nd7, he went into a deep funk and thought for 20 minutes, trying to resolve the difficult dilemma - to take, or not to take?
9. Nf3
After prolonged thought, the Swedish GM refuses the proffered gift. In fact, after 9. Rxb7 Nb6 (9...Bg7 10. Nf3 0-0 11. Be2 Nb6 12. Bg3 c5 13. 0-0 Bd5 14. Rc7 cd 15. ed e5 16. Rc5 ed 17. Nxd4 Re8 [=/+] [Reilly - Zhao Zong, Queenstown 2006; 10. Rb1!?]) 10. Bg3 c5, White is already too far behind in development. Let's check the variations: 11. Rc7 (note that 11. dxc5 would lose to the textbook 11...Qxd1+ 12. Kxd1 0-0-0+!; and 11. Be5 f6 12. Bg3 Bd5 13. Rc7 e5 is also clearly in Black's favor) 11...cd 12. Qxd4 Qxd4 13. cd Bg7 14. Nf3 0-0, and White simply hasn't enough time to finish his development before the Black c-pawn literally charges in to queen (after the preparatory ...Rfc8, of course).
9...Nb6!
Now this is a slightly different chorus. Black has successfully redeployed the knight, and White will have to go in for a not very profitable forcing operation, or else he will have absolutely no compensation for the pawn.
10. a4 a5 11. Ng5
A typical maneuver for this setup - which meets a no less typical response:
11...Bd5 12. e4 h6
This in-between-move forms the linchpin of all variations with the unaesthetic bishop maneuver ...Bc8-e6.
13. ed hg 14. Bxg5
14. Rxb6 looks nice; but after 14...cb 15. Bxc4 [threatening Bb5+!] Bh6, White has no particular compensation for the exchange.
14...Bh6!
An important move. Of course, Black could just snap off the d5-pawn; but I wanted to trade off the dark-squared bishops. After 14...Qxd5 15. Rb5 Qd6 16. Qd2, White obviously has compensation (although the All-Seeing Eye looks at matters far more unsentimentally, and grants Black the advantage). 16. Qf3!? might be stronger still.
15. Bxh6 Rxh6 16. Qf3
[And now:]
16...Rh5!
This, perhaps the most difficult move of the game, is far stronger than the natural 16...Qd6, to which White would have replied 17. g3. After this, he would play Bg2 (Be2 is also possible, in some lines), quietly castle, and obtain decent counterplay, whether I take on d5 or on a4. By playing 16...Rh5, I provoke the weakening 17. g4, after which the White king will no longer be able to find shelter on the kingside.
17. g4
On 17. g3, I had prepared 17...Rf5! 18. Qe4 Nxa4, when the White position falls apart. Thus, in order to forestall the deadly rook maneuver ...Rh6-h5-f5, White is forced to weaken his position.
17...Rh7!
One more important move, overprotecting the f7-pawn, which Black will need in many of the variations which follow. Naturally, I didn't cook up this whole plot with the rook maneuver in order to get an even endgame after 17...Rxd5 18. Rxb6! cb 19. Bxc4 e6 20. Bxd5 Qxd5 21. Qxd5 ed.
18. Bg2 Qd6
Now it's time! Just as the referee watches the seconds ticking away in the 87th and 88th minutes [of a 90-minute soccer game - Tr.], just so the Black queen eyes h2 and a3: she knows it's still early, but she's preparing the onlookers for what might soon follow...
19. Qg3
After 19. h4 0-0-0, at last we understand why the rook had to retreat precisely to h7! After 20. h5 Rdh8, White is more or less doomed: his king can't find a safe spot anywhere.
In the post-mortem, my opponent suggested the move 19. h3. But after 19...Nxa4 20. Rxb7 Nb 21. 0-0 a4, I wouldn't want to be White. Black simply pushes the a-pawn - and if that's not enough, there's the maneuver ...Ke8-d8-c8 (not ...0-0-0?, however, because of Rb7-a7), seriously compromising the prospects of White's cut-off rook.
19...0-0-0!
I didn't find the correct solution right away. I felt that after 20. Rb5 Nxa4 21. Rxa5, Black ought to have something, but was unable to find a concrete continuation. Finally, the idea appeared; and after spending a few minutes calculating the variations, I went ahead and castled.
20. Rb5 Nxa4 21. Rxa5
I also had to calculate what happens after White exchanges queens. Black wins after 21. Qxd6 Rxd6 22. Rxa5 Nxc3 23. Kd2 b6! - still another vital in-between-move! - 24. Ra8+ Kb7 25. Rha1 Nxd5, when White has no way of exploiting the dangerous-looking pin on the long diagonal, while Black's material advantage must eventually decide the outcome.
21...Qb6!!
This rather strange-looking move practically decides the game. Black had to evaluate the position after 22. Ra8+ properly, as well as seeing what happens after 22. Rxa4. Fortunately, I was able to handle both the one and the other. (The win after 22. Rxa4, by the way, is far from being a trivial one; I recommend that you try finding Black's win for yourself, before checking out the following note.)
22. Ra8+
22. Rxa4 Qb1+ 23. Kd2 Qb2+ 24. Ke3 (24. Kd1 Qb3+) 24...Qxc3+ 25. Kf4 Qxd4+ 26. Be4, and now, totally unexpectedly, comes: 26...Qf6+ 27. Ke3 Rh3!!
I think it's quite fitting that the decisive blow comes from the rook that's been covering Black's entire left wing - Rh8-h6-h5-h7-h3 - how's that for a Roberto Carlos [another soccer metaphor! - Tr.]?
22...Kd7 23. Rxd8+
23. Rxa4 Qb1+ 24. Kd2 Qb2+ 25. Ke3 Qxc3+ 26. Kf4 Qxd4+ 27. Be4 f5 is an immediate win for Black. Or he could insist on the purity of his conception, and still play 27...Qf6+ 27. Ke3 Rh3!
23...Kxd8 24. 0-0 Qb2
What an amazing position! Black's pieces remind me of some strange orchestra, where each piece is playing its own game, independently of all the others. And nevertheless, this scattered trio has managed to achieve complete harmony. Meanwhile, the proud king, having sent out all his sworn loyal subjects (although really, the impression one gets is that they all swore their loyalty - and then split to who knows where), calmly defends himself with the aid of a small cohort: the pawns at c7 and e7. Indeed, it is a most unusual picture; and the most interesting detail of this picture is that Black also has a decisive advantage!
25. Re1 Qxc3
Naturally, not 25...Nxc3?, because of 26. Qe3! Qb4 27. d6! - and Black's in trouble.
26. Qe5 Qb4 27. d6
The only chance White has of breathing some life into his bishop and muddying up the waters. However, it appears that elephants [Russian for "bishops" - Tr.] don't appreciate muddy waters all that much, and so the effort falls apart.
27...Qxd6 28. Bxb7 Nb6
The most accurate: the knight returns, to prepare for the transformation into a winning endgame.
29. Kg2
And here, I was lucky enough to find a strong move that also involved a pretty trap!
29...Kd7!
Well, actually, the move itself may not be all that trappy: I simply threaten to lock up the bishop by 30...c6; and on 30. Be4 Qxe5 31. de, my king has an excellent post at e6. The only thing left for White to try is 30. Qb5+.
30. Qb5+
With only a couple of minutes left on his clock, White decides to try his luck, but -
30...c6! 31. Qxb6
31. Bxc6+ Qxc6 32. Rxe7+ fails, because when I take the bishop, it's check!
31...Qxh2+ 32. Kf1
Calculating the consequences of 29...Kd7, I saw that 32. Kf1 loses at once; and 32. Kf3 isn't very helpful, either. But 32. Kf3 turns out to be exactly 7 times stronger: it takes 14 moves for White to be mated, instead of the mate in 2 that follows here. The variations after White's "strongest" reply aren't too complex: 32. Kf3 Qh3+ 33. Ke4 (33. Kf4 g5+ 34. Kxg5 Rg7+ and mate) 33...Qxg4+ 34. Ke3 Rh3+ 35. Kd2 Qf4+ 36. Kd1 (36. Re3 Qxf2+) 36...Rd3+ - here, I stopped calculating. The computer confirms that there's still a fight ahead, with mate a full 10 moves off - but such nuances are no longer of interest.
32...Qh3+
And in view of mate next move, White resigned.
Many, many years ago, when there was a “Soviet Union” and a “Yugoslavia”, who were, practically speaking, the top two chess nations on Earth, there was an annual team match held between the two countries, invariably won by the USSR Team. But the games were hard-fought, and the atmosphere was comradely. Heh heh.
Small wonder, then, that many, many years later, somebody would get the idea to put the two teams back together again, to see if the “old men” (and the “old women”!) could still play this game. The first such resurrected match was held in Moscow last December, and a fair number of big names from the old days showed up for the gala. The following instructive endgame is taken from that match.
You may, in fact, remember the player of the Black pieces. Drazen Velimirovic was the inventor of the Velimirovic Attack in the Sicilian, and was one of the most feared attacking players of his generation. The point I'm making here is that the following win gained him, and his team, just as valuable a point as if he had used one of his famous, multi-piece-sacrificing attacks to score a spectacular checkmate. At the end of the session, they're both the same point!
Yuri BALASHOV (Russia) – Drazen VELIMIROVIC (Yugoslavia)
“USSR” – “Yugoslavia” Team Match, 12/07
| | | | | | | | |
|bp | | | | | | |bk|
|wp|bp | | | | | |bp|
| |wp|bp| |bp| | | |
| | |wp|bp|wp|bq|bb| |
| | | |wp| | |wq| |
| | | | | | | |wp |
| | | | | | |wn|wk|
[Forsyth: 8-p6k-Pp5p-1Pp1p3-2PpPqb1-3P2Q1-7P-6NK]
After a tense struggle, the Yugoslav grandmaster forced a favorable endgame, where he was able to demonstrate the advantage of bishop over knight.
41…Qxg3 42. hg Bd1
A good beginning: Not only is White’s knight almost stalemated (he can only go to h3, and where to from there? Both his good squares – g5 and f4 – are interdicted by Black’s pawns), and there’s an immediate threat of ..Bd1-c2, wiping out every pawn White’s got.
43. Nh3 Be2 44. Nf2
Second step: bring up the king (the bishop isn’t going to win this by itself).
44...Kg6 45. Kg2 h5
Step three is a conception that Mark Dvoretsky (The Greatest Trainer In The World[TM]) calls “enlarging the battlefield”. White’s king and knight may be stalemated, but Black’s king can’t break in, either: notice that impenetrable barrier from f4 to g4 to h4. Here is an exception to the general endgame rule that the side who’s ahead should trade off pieces, not pawns: by exchanging one pair of pawns (g3 and h4), he creates an avenue for the entry of his king.
46. Kg1 Kg5 47. Kg2 h4! 48. Nh3+ Kg4 49. Nf2+ Kh5 50. Kh3 Bf1+ 51. Kh2 hg+ 52. Kxg3 Kg5
And now the crowning touch (and the usual way these endgames are won): zugzwang! (- defined as: the unfortunate compulsion to move) On 53. Kf3 Kh4 forces the knight to abandon the d-pawn; and on 53. Kh2 Kf4, and the king marches in. So White seizes his chance to do some damage, at last, with the knight.
53. Ng4 Bxd3 54. Nxe5 Bxe4 55. Nc6
Well, this should be something – 55…Bxc6?? 56. bc would actually lose for Black, since his king’s not in the square of the newly-made passed c-pawn – and the a7-pawn goes lost otherwise, doesn’t it?
55…d3!
Nope – the d-pawn queens first: 56. Nxa7 d2 57. Nc6 d1Q 58. a7 Qa1, followed by 59…Bxc6 and 60…Qxa7. So White’s king must “get in the square” of the d-pawn.
56. Kf2 Kf4
More troubles: now if 57. Nxa7? Bf3; and if 58. Ke1 Ke3 forces the pawn through.
Can the knight create some distraction, though?
57. Ne7 Bf3 58. Ke1 Ke4 (58…Ke3 59. Nf5+) 59. Kd2 Kd4
Enough of this nonsense: Black’s going to snip off all of White’s pawns. So much for your counterplay then, comrade!
60. Nc6+ Kxc4! 61. Ne5+ Kxb5 62. Nxf3
What’s this? Has Black hung a piece?!
62…c4
Yes he has; but as Black had foreseen (don’t forget: Black’s a grandmaster, too!), there will still be too many pawns for one poor knight to deal with.
63. Ne5 Kc5 64. Nd7+ Kc6 65. Ne5+ Kd5,
and White resigned.
A possible finish might be: 66. Nd7 b5 67. Nb6+ Kd4 68. Nc8 b4 69. Nxa7 c3+ 70. Kc1 b3 71. Nb5+ Kc4 72. a7 b2+ 73. Kb1 d2 74. Kc2 b1Q+! 75. Kxb1 d1Q+, and mates in two moves.
Vandenburg Cup, Lansing
Round 4, Board 1
Marfia [2218] - Seth Homa [2261]
Fischer Exchange Ruy [C68]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dc
Since Lasker (and probably before that), this has been known as "not-a-drawing-line". White deliberately gives his opponent the two-bishop advantage right in the opening. In return, he generally plays d2-d4; if Black takes, then White has a built-in, winning advantage in the king-and-pawn endgame - if he can get all the other pieces off! So the battle lines are drawn, right from the start.
5. 0-0 f6 6. d4 Bg4 7. de Qxd1 8. Rxd1 fe 9. Nbd2?!
OK, first off: The reason White plays 9. Rd3! here is not particularly to be able to meet 9..Bxf3 with 10. Rxf3, but because, after 9. Nbd2, Black's best reply, 9..0-0-0!, puts White in a double set of pins, where the best he can do is 10. Re1. Now, compare the rook's position with that after 9. Rd3!
The Fischer Exchange Ruy is remembered because of Bobby's stunning, slashing wins - but as Soltis has shown, it's really a delicate positional weapon; and White's advantages come from just such subtle refinements as keeping the rook out front, rather than behind the pieces.
9...Bd6
Here, White should play 10. h3! at once. Why? Because, if Black takes, he no longer has the bishop pair, the only compensation he has for his lost-pawn-ending pawn structure. And if he retreats, by 9...Bh5, then after 10. b3 Ne7 11. Bb2, he must play 11...Bxf3 anyway, because 11..Ng6?? 12. g4 loses the bishop.
10. b3 Ne7 11. Bb2 Ng6 12. h3 Be6 13. Ng5 Bg8
Now I come up with a positional howler:
14. Nc4? Bxc4 15. bc Ke7
Black has given back the bishop pair; but he has everything covered, and several clear ideas for improving his position. White, on the other hand, has nothing constructive to do - try to find a coherent plan in my next dozen moves! - and a shattered queenside, which Black will eventually find a way to get to.
16. Kf1 h6 17. Nf3 Rhf8 18. Rd2 Ke6 19. Bc3 b5 20. Rdd1 c5 21. Bd2 Rab8 22. a4 b4 23. Rab1 Ne7
A nice juicy square has opened up on d4, and the knight heads for it.
24. Be3 Nc6 25. Rd5 Na5 26. Bxc5 Nxc4 27. Bxd6 cd
I've kept the balance of material - for now - but my position is so awkward: 28. Nd2?? Ne3+.
28. Ke2 Rf4 29. Kd3 g5 30. Kxc4 Rxe4+ 31. Rd4
31. Nd4 ed 32. Rxd4 Rc8+ 33. Kd3 Rxd4+ 34. Kxd4 Rxc2 is just another way to die. I thought being the exchange up might confuse him...
d5+ 32. Kd3 ed 33. Nxd4+ Kd6 34. f3 Re5 35. a5 Kc5 36. c3 Ree8 37. Rc1 b3 38. Rb1 b2 39. Kc2 Kc4 40. Rxb2 Rxb2+ 41. Kxb2 Re3
White resigned [0-1].
Seth played a fine, straightforward game here. No spectacular combinations - just good development, and fine understanding of the principles of the endgame. This is how a Master wins, kids.
