In Street Smart Chess, model players teach how to play against opponents of different strengths. The chapters do inevitably clash against each other. If one of the players want to create a tactical game and the other a boring game, both can’t succeed. The question is who manages best. A few days ago, David Navara mentioned that he will play Baskaran Adhiban in Mr. Dodgy Invitational. It was a test for both of them, as Navara’s chapter in Street Smart was beating lower rated opponents, and Adhiban’s was beating higher rated opponents. This time both could succeed with their intentions: winning games. After eleven games, they had played only one draw, with Navara winning 6,5–4,5. But did they follow their own advice? Let’s examine one win each.
Adhiban
first step in the ideal attacking game is to “strive for a pawn structure
where it’s possible to throw pawns at the opponent’s king at a later
stage.” King’s Indian is a good choice doing that.
Our friend Renier returns with annotations of a recent game. You can see the game here or you can download it with this link.
David Navara – Robert Ris
European Club Cup 14.11.2019
Renier Castellanos
Trust,
but verify A common tradition in chess is to copy our colleagues whenever they
play a new idea in certain opening. In the recent Chess.com FIDE Grand Swiss we
witnessed a funny situation when Alexei Shirov, playing next to Sergey Karjakin
decided to follow Karjakin’s novelty in a well-known position of the Sicilian
Four Knights. A peculiar situation but not new to me. Few years back I was
playing in the Ortisei (Italy) Open when a something similar happened.
Nisipeanu played a new (strong idea) in a popular variation and the opponent of
a friend of mine started following the Grandmaster’s moves. They were playing
very far from the top board but it turns out that there were large screens with
the top games in the playing hall. She got up and asked the arbiter to do
something about it but it was too late. Something to think about. Back to our
main game, the real story behind this comedy is that Karjakin had totally
forgotten his game against Yu Yangyi from played in Baku in 2015 and played the
wrong move order leading to a lost position. Karjakin managed to get away and
win any anyway but Shirov was held to a draw, both were lucky as they could
have been severely punished. One would think that this tragicomic incident ends
here but it gets better. In the recently finished European Club Ch. David
Navara also played Karjakin’s novelty, was he unaware? One thing is certain,
his opponent Robert Ris a strong IM and respected theoretician was well
informed and ready to serve justice in this line.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4
cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 6.Ndb5 is also a move here and black has now
the option of playing 6…d6 inviting the Sveshnikov or the more fashionable
line: 6…Bc5!? 7.Bf4 0–0 8.Bc7 Qe7 9.Bd6 Bxd6 10.Qxd6 Qd8 surprisingly this is
back in tournament practice with not bad results for black at all.
6…bxc6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Ne4
Qc7 9.f4 Qb6 10.c4 Bb4+ 11.Ke2 f5 12.exf6 Nxf6 13.Be3 Qd8 14.Nd6+ Bxd6 15.Qxd6
Bb7 So
far we have been following a rather forced line of the Four Knights
16.g4 16.Rd1 Is right and it’s what John Shaw recommends in the book Playing 1.e4 Sicilian Mainlines 16…Rc8 17.g4 c5 18.Rg1 Rf8 19.f5 (19.g5 also looks promising and it’s Shaw’s mainline.) 19…Qb6 20.fxe6 dxe6 21.g5 Nd5 22.Qxb6 Nxb6 23.Ke1 Nd7 24.Be2 Ke7 25.Rd3 Be4 26.Ra3 Rc7 27.Kd2 e5 28.Rf1 Rb8 29.Kc3 Rb6 30.Rd1 Rbc6 31.Bg4 Nb6 32.Ra5 g6 33.b3 Bf5 34.Be2 Nd7 35.a3 Be6 36.h4 Bf7 37.Bf3 Rb6 38.Rxd7+ Kxd7 39.Bxc5 e4 40.Bg4+ 1–0 Karjakin – Yu Yangui, Baku 2015
16…c5! Simple, logical, and
strong. Black takes over the initiative
17.Rg1 Ne4 18.Qd3 An improvement over
Karjakin’s and Shirov’s 18.Qe5 However, statistically white has better chances
with 18.Qe5
18.Qe5
Qh4? (18…0–0! and it’s just game over, the white king will not survive long
in the centre. For instance 19.Bg2 d6 20.Qxe6+ Kh8 and black will play either
Rf6 or Qb6 followed by Rae8 with winning positions in both cases.) 19.Bg2 Qxg4+ And now the two
games diverged.
A
natural blunder. Let’s pay attention to the nature of this move, white
threatens to take on d7 with check but the rook on d1 also takes away the
square d1 leaving the king stuck on e2.
19.Bg2
is the only way to stay in the game 19…Qxh2! 20.Kd1 Nf2+ 21.Bxf2 Bxg2 with a
complex middlegame, I suspect white can survive, but that’s the only thing he
can hope for
19…0–0!–+
20.h3 On 20.Qxd7 Anything wins 20…Qxh2+ 21.Ke1 Qh4+ 22.Ke2 Rab8 the attack goes on, …Bd5 is a neat threat.
20.Rg2
d5 also winning for black.
20.Bg2
Rxf4! similar to the game
20…Rxf4 21.Qb3 Rf2+
22.Bxf2 Qxf2+ 23.Kd3 Qxg1 24.Qxb7 Rf8 A win is a win but black could have finished it
off in a glorious, unforgettable way.
24…Qg3+! 25.Kxe4 (25.Kc2 Qh2+ 26.Kd3 Nf2+) 25…Rf8! is mate in three moves Rf4,Rf5,Qe5 no matter what. Deserves a diagram 26.Qxd7 Rf4+ 27.Ke5 Rf5+ 28.Kxe6 Qe5#
25.Qxe4 Rxf1 26.Rxf1
Qxf1+ 27.Kc2 Qxh3 28.Qa8+ Kf7 29.Qxa7 Qg2+ 30.Kb3 Qf3+ 31.Ka4 Qc6+ 32.Ka5 e5
33.Qb8 d6 34.Qd8? 34.Qa7+
apparently was more resistant. Not easy for black after this 34…Kf6! (34…Kg6
35.Qe7 and draw is the most likely result) 35.b4!? cxb4 (35…e4 36.b5) 36.Qf2+
Ke6 37.Kxb4 white is still worse, game goes on
Jorden van Foreest – Viswanathan Anand Tata Steel Masters, 12.01.2019
With Sam Shankland playing in the elite Tata Steel event (and currently sitting on a respectable 2/4 with four draws), we can’t help but pay attention to some of the pivotal pawn moves being made in the tournament. When you see games at this level being won and lost due to good and bad pawn play, it makes you appreciate even more what a vital topic this is. Take the following example:
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.c3 Qc7 6.h3 g6 7.Nf3 Bf5 8.Ne5 Nc6 9.Bf4 Qb6 10.Bxf5 gxf5 11.Nd3 e6 12.Nd2 Rg8 13.0–0 0–0–0 14.a4 Ne4 15.Rc1 Bd6 16.Bxd6 Nxd6 17.b4 Kb8 18.Qe2 Qc7 19.Qe3 Ne7 Black has a comfortable game but there was no need for White to self-destruct with his next move:
20.f3?? Van Foreest must have thought he could withstand the pressure along the g-file, but in reality this is much too weakening, as Anand expertly shows.
If you want to know your opening repertoire well, you need time to memorise it. Some of it will make a lot of sense and some of it will be concrete, but counter-intuitive. Sometimes a line a tempo down is no worse, for example.
I just played a blitz game where I successfully remembered all of John’s analysis on the Alekhine, but ran out of time… As online blitz games have no relevance for the real world, I am still pleased by being able to get all the way to +-. After this I missed mate in four and lost on time in a totally winning position. But who cares…
The main reason I remembered the line, was because of an attractive shot in this position (did not really happen). Often these types of anchors and little nuggets of information helps us remember what comes before.
White to play. What is the strongest continuation?
Our friend and my compatriot Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen won a composition tournament in front of the two modern giants of chess competition, Afek and Pervakov. On request, he has written a small report for our blog, which I have decided to attach in a PDF.
But I wanted to give the readers a chance to solve some of the studies on their own. First of all, here is Steffen’s study.
There will be an informal, combined rapid/blitz match taking place this Sunday 6th August in Glasgow, starting just after 3pm and finishing at roughly 6pm.
Six leading Scottish players (GM Jacob Aagaard, IM Andrew Greet, FM Alan Tate, FM Neil Berry, IM Steve Mannion and our newest FM and Scottish Champion, Murad Abdulla) will be taking on six strong GMs/IMs who are all here for a training camp hosted by Jacob.
Spectators are welcome to drop in, enjoy watching some entertaining chess, and have a few laughs. The venue is All Bar One at 56-72 St Vincent Street in Glasgow’s city centre, where we have been granted the use of the entire upstairs area.
The foreign players are GM Sam Shankland (US), GM Mads Andersen (DK), GM Swapnil Dhopade (IND), IM Johan Salomon (NOR), IM Tania Sachdev (IND) and IM Sam Collins (IRE).
Congratulations to Quality Chess’s own IM Andrew Greet, who was first outright in the Dundee 150 international tournament. His 6/9 gained plenty of rating points, but was not quite enough for a GM norm. GM Colin McNab started well, but sadly faded to finish on 3/9. Full results here.
Congratulations also to 16-year-old Murad Abdulla who became Scottish Champion and looks to have gained enough in rating to become an FM. This makes Murad the second-youngest-ever Scottish Champion – GM Paul Motwani was also 16 when he first won, but a few months younger.
The Scottish Championship was held as part of an Open, so I will complete my congratulations by saying GM Andrei Maksimenko of Ukraine won the Open, but was of course not eligible to be Scottish Champion. Full results here.
Update: Dundee Chess Club have very helpfully put a link to a report that was broadcast on the Scottish TV programme ‘STV News’. It’s just 2 minutes and worth a watch. Spoiler: as Colin is on-screen, the reporter says: “If this was football, you’d be watching the equivalent of Cristiano Ronaldo.”
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