Twin Cities Championship Round 5
Well, after last week's debacle, I'm effectively out of contention for the championship. I'll be playing round 5 tonight and could still face some tough competition as some other upper board players faltered last round as well. As per my usual, I will post the game and analysis in the next couple days.
Update: I won my game against someone I've played against many times and had only beaten once before (and that was in a blitz game), and who is rated 44 points higher than I am now.
Here is the game score and my analysis:
My Opponent (1523) - CelticDeath (1479) [A60]Twin Cities Chess Club Championship Normal, 15.02.2005 1.c4 My opp favors the English Opening. I wanted to keep my options open so I played... 1...Nf6 2.d4 A surprise! My opp wants to tangle in the world of the Indian. 2...c5 I'm pretty sure this was a surprise for him, too. He was probably wondering how much Modern Benoni book I knew. 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.Nxd5 I'm not sure if this is an actual Modern Benoni variation. At any rate, I had not come across it before this game. I toyed with taking the knight right away, but what would I do after White retakes with his queen? So, I proceeded along normal Modern Benoni lines. 5...d6 6.e4 Here I thought it prudent to take the knight. It's looking more and more like I won't be fianchettoing my darksquare bishop, and I wanted to keep it, so I decided to take.... 6...Nxd5 7.exd5 [‹7.Qxd5 Nc6 8.Nf3 Be6; >=7.cxd5] Here was my last chance to work in a dangerous fianchetto on g7... 7...Qe7+ 8.Qe2 [‹8.Be2 g6 9.Nf3 Bg7 10.Rb1] 8...Qxe2+ 9.Bxe2 Now, I searched to find the most economical way to protect my weak d6 pawn. 9...Nd7 10.Nf3 Ne5!? Allowing a passed pawn, but I was pretty sure I could keep it contained. 11.Nxe5 dxe5 12.0-0 Bd6 13.f4 0-0 14.Bd3 This move just wastes a tempo. [>=14.Be3] 14...f5 15.fxe5 [15.Be3 e4 16.Bc2 Bd7=/+] 15...Bxe5 16.Rb1 I had to think for a few minutes here. I tried to evaluate how the game would progress if I decided to blockade with the lightsquare bishop instead. I didn't see any immediate problems with this, and d4 is a strong square for me, so.... 16...Bd4+ 17.Kh1 Bd7 18.Bf4 I was a little worried at this point that he would try to advance the d5 pawn. So, I endeavored to get his darksquare bishop off the b8-g3 diagonal. 18...h6 19.b3 g5 20.Bg3 Rae8 Beating him to the e file. I might not have been able to do this if he hadn't wasted the tempo on his 14th move. 21.Bf2 I had another long think here. I had to evaluate the position after Bxf2 vs. allowing him to take on d4. I'm still not sure if I made the right decision, but I needed a threat of my own, which I hoped a passed pawn would give me, even if it was going to be difficult to protect. 21...f4 22.Bxd4 cxd4 23.Rbd1 Re3 24.Bb1 Ok...what do I do now? Was my evaluation off? 24...f3! 25.gxf3 [25.Rxd4?? fxg2+ 26.Kxg2 (26.Kg1 gxf1Q#) 26...Bh3+ 27.Kg1 Rxf1#] 25...Bh3 26.Rf2 Rexf3 27.Rxf3 Rxf3 And, again, the d4 pawn is taboo. 28.Kg1 Rf4 29.Re1 Kf7 30.Bd3 White's game is starting to fall apart. 30...Rg4+-+ 31.Kf2 Rg2+ 32.Kf3 Rxh2 33.Kg3 Am I going to lose a piece? Did I blunder? I think not! 33...Rd2 34.Bb1 Bd7 35.c5 h5 36.d6 h4+ 37.Kf3 g4+ 38.Kf4 Kf6 39.Rf1 g3 40.Ke4+ Kg7! [40...Kg5? 41.Rf7; 40...Kg6 41.Ke5+] 41.Kf4 Rf2+! White resigns. 0-1
Update: I won my game against someone I've played against many times and had only beaten once before (and that was in a blitz game), and who is rated 44 points higher than I am now.
Here is the game score and my analysis:
My Opponent (1523) - CelticDeath (1479) [A60]Twin Cities Chess Club Championship Normal, 15.02.2005 1.c4 My opp favors the English Opening. I wanted to keep my options open so I played... 1...Nf6 2.d4 A surprise! My opp wants to tangle in the world of the Indian. 2...c5 I'm pretty sure this was a surprise for him, too. He was probably wondering how much Modern Benoni book I knew. 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.Nxd5 I'm not sure if this is an actual Modern Benoni variation. At any rate, I had not come across it before this game. I toyed with taking the knight right away, but what would I do after White retakes with his queen? So, I proceeded along normal Modern Benoni lines. 5...d6 6.e4 Here I thought it prudent to take the knight. It's looking more and more like I won't be fianchettoing my darksquare bishop, and I wanted to keep it, so I decided to take.... 6...Nxd5 7.exd5 [‹7.Qxd5 Nc6 8.Nf3 Be6; >=7.cxd5] Here was my last chance to work in a dangerous fianchetto on g7... 7...Qe7+ 8.Qe2 [‹8.Be2 g6 9.Nf3 Bg7 10.Rb1] 8...Qxe2+ 9.Bxe2 Now, I searched to find the most economical way to protect my weak d6 pawn. 9...Nd7 10.Nf3 Ne5!? Allowing a passed pawn, but I was pretty sure I could keep it contained. 11.Nxe5 dxe5 12.0-0 Bd6 13.f4 0-0 14.Bd3 This move just wastes a tempo. [>=14.Be3] 14...f5 15.fxe5 [15.Be3 e4 16.Bc2 Bd7=/+] 15...Bxe5 16.Rb1 I had to think for a few minutes here. I tried to evaluate how the game would progress if I decided to blockade with the lightsquare bishop instead. I didn't see any immediate problems with this, and d4 is a strong square for me, so.... 16...Bd4+ 17.Kh1 Bd7 18.Bf4 I was a little worried at this point that he would try to advance the d5 pawn. So, I endeavored to get his darksquare bishop off the b8-g3 diagonal. 18...h6 19.b3 g5 20.Bg3 Rae8 Beating him to the e file. I might not have been able to do this if he hadn't wasted the tempo on his 14th move. 21.Bf2 I had another long think here. I had to evaluate the position after Bxf2 vs. allowing him to take on d4. I'm still not sure if I made the right decision, but I needed a threat of my own, which I hoped a passed pawn would give me, even if it was going to be difficult to protect. 21...f4 22.Bxd4 cxd4 23.Rbd1 Re3 24.Bb1 Ok...what do I do now? Was my evaluation off? 24...f3! 25.gxf3 [25.Rxd4?? fxg2+ 26.Kxg2 (26.Kg1 gxf1Q#) 26...Bh3+ 27.Kg1 Rxf1#] 25...Bh3 26.Rf2 Rexf3 27.Rxf3 Rxf3 And, again, the d4 pawn is taboo. 28.Kg1 Rf4 29.Re1 Kf7 30.Bd3 White's game is starting to fall apart. 30...Rg4+-+ 31.Kf2 Rg2+ 32.Kf3 Rxh2 33.Kg3 Am I going to lose a piece? Did I blunder? I think not! 33...Rd2 34.Bb1 Bd7 35.c5 h5 36.d6 h4+ 37.Kf3 g4+ 38.Kf4 Kf6 39.Rf1 g3 40.Ke4+ Kg7! [40...Kg5? 41.Rf7; 40...Kg6 41.Ke5+] 41.Kf4 Rf2+! White resigns. 0-1
posted by CelticDeath at 3:26 PM
7 Comments:
Rakshasas, I'm actually of the Clan Henderson, but Virtue Alone Ennobles isn't quite as omenous as the MacNeil/MacDougal motto. :) Can you adopt me?!
Go get 'em!
Rakshasas...niiiiice! :)
KOTS: I got 'im! I will post the game later. I have played this opponent many times in the past and have only beaten him once and that was in a blitz game.
I appreciate the time you have taken to analyze the game, Rak. However, I know that your OTB rating is only higher than mine by 9 points, so I must conclude that your analysis skills are not a whole lot better than mine. I haven't run the game through Fritz yet, but I'd be interested to see what Fritz thinks about both of our suggestions. I'll do that tonight and give Fritz's evaluation of the game at the points in the game where our evaluations differ.
Heh, heh! I've just come through a streak of those. I even drew 2 games and won 1 in the OCL tournament when one of the draws and the win should have both been losses. I still want to run the game and our analyses through and see what Fritz thinks. It could make for an interesting post. What I'll do is give each of you, me, and Fritz 1 point for each correct evaluation (per Fritz). Fritz only gets points, though, when his evaluation on the best move is something completely different than either of ours.
Well, Rak, I did a thorough point-by-point analysis of our differences using Fritz and gave each of us a point when we matched Fritz' best move and gave Fritz a point when neither of us were right. It turns out that you did a better analysis by over 2-1 than I did. I identified 24 points of contention and the final score was Me 6 You 13 and Fritz 5.
I worked for several hours last night to put together the entire analysis in a post and was keeping a running score. Then, I had computer problems and lost everything I had composed. I do have printouts of Fritz analysis and will try to recreate it this weekend. As a teaser from off the top of my head, a couple of things I had correct were the fact that White should retake with the queen if I take his knight with mine before moving d6 and the blockading move Bd6. A few things you had right included White's move Rg1 instead of Rf2 after gxf3 occurs and the move Kf7 (you didn't actually express this specific move, but you did mention that Black should make a move to centralize his king) allowing the d pawn to fall, but protecting against White's d pawn. Fritz had a nice shot at the end that we both missed. He showed that my last move Rf2+ actually loses most of my advantage. What was needed was g2!
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