A Silver Lining for a Darkened Cloud
After my piss-poor performance at the Bloomington Open, I was glad to be able to best a higher rated player on FICS today.
[Event "FICS rated standard game"]
[Site "FICS, San Jose, California USA"]
[Date "2005.05.15"]
[White "CelticDeath"]
[Black "pacovsky"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "1714"]
[BlackElo "1763"]
[TimeControl "1800+5"]
{B06: Modern Defence} 1. e4 g6 2. d4 d6 {At this point, I conclude that my
opp is going for the Pirc, to which I always respond with the Byrne System
characterized by 4. Bg5 to place it outside the pawn structure.} 3. Nc3 Bg7 4.
Bg5 a6 {I briefly weighed responding with 5. a4, but felt that my opp had just
given me a tempo so I had better make good use of it by completing my
development.} 5. f4 b5 6. Nf3 {Daring Black to play b4, wasting more time.} Bb7 7. a4 b4 8. Nd5 a5 9. c3 f6 10. Bh4 e6 {Black will now win a pawn, but at the cost of isolating his light square bishop from the defense.} 11. Ne3 Bxe4 12. d5 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 e5? (Fritz: 13... bxc3 is a viable option 14. dxe6 cxb2 +/=) 14. Bb5+ +- Nd7 15. fxe5 dxe5 16. O-O bxc3 17. bxc3 h6? (Fritz: 17... Ne7 18. Qh3 Rb8) 18. Nc4 {Now, the threats begin to mount.} 19. Nxe5! {Fritz: the knock-out blow} gxh4 (19...fxe5 20. Qf7# {A double attack}) 20. Nxd7 {and the threats are simply too much. Black resigns} (Fritz shows that this leads to 20. Nxd7 Qxd7 21. Bxd7+ Kxd7 22. Qg4+ Kd8 23. Qxg7 Ne7 24. Qxh8+ Kd7 25. Qxf6 Kc8 26. Qe6+ Kb7 27.Rab1+ Ka7 28. Qe3+ Ka6 29. Rf6+ Nc6 30. Rxc6#, but found a faster route with 20. Qh5+ Ke7 21. Qf7+ Kd6 22. Qe6+ Kc5 23. Nd3#) 1-0
[Event "FICS rated standard game"]
[Site "FICS, San Jose, California USA"]
[Date "2005.05.15"]
[White "CelticDeath"]
[Black "pacovsky"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "1714"]
[BlackElo "1763"]
[TimeControl "1800+5"]
{B06: Modern Defence} 1. e4 g6 2. d4 d6 {At this point, I conclude that my
opp is going for the Pirc, to which I always respond with the Byrne System
characterized by 4. Bg5 to place it outside the pawn structure.} 3. Nc3 Bg7 4.
Bg5 a6 {I briefly weighed responding with 5. a4, but felt that my opp had just
given me a tempo so I had better make good use of it by completing my
development.} 5. f4 b5 6. Nf3 {Daring Black to play b4, wasting more time.} Bb7 7. a4 b4 8. Nd5 a5 9. c3 f6 10. Bh4 e6 {Black will now win a pawn, but at the cost of isolating his light square bishop from the defense.} 11. Ne3 Bxe4 12. d5 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 e5? (Fritz: 13... bxc3 is a viable option 14. dxe6 cxb2 +/=) 14. Bb5+ +- Nd7 15. fxe5 dxe5 16. O-O bxc3 17. bxc3 h6? (Fritz: 17... Ne7 18. Qh3 Rb8) 18. Nc4 {Now, the threats begin to mount.} 19. Nxe5! {Fritz: the knock-out blow} gxh4 (19...fxe5 20. Qf7# {A double attack}) 20. Nxd7 {and the threats are simply too much. Black resigns} (Fritz shows that this leads to 20. Nxd7 Qxd7 21. Bxd7+ Kxd7 22. Qg4+ Kd8 23. Qxg7 Ne7 24. Qxh8+ Kd7 25. Qxf6 Kc8 26. Qe6+ Kb7 27.Rab1+ Ka7 28. Qe3+ Ka6 29. Rf6+ Nc6 30. Rxc6#, but found a faster route with 20. Qh5+ Ke7 21. Qf7+ Kd6 22. Qe6+ Kc5 23. Nd3#) 1-0
posted by CelticDeath at 5:12 PM
6 Comments:
Well done, always nice to see someone down a pawn win.
Thanks, King. As Silman says, imbalances are imbalances. Being material down is okay as long as you have compensation elsewhere.
CD,
Was playing through the game, and I'm confused on the notation. It looks like black plays g5 on both move 18 and 19. Is this a typo?
On another note, you seem to have solid handle on openings based on your notation. I remember you saying you spent six months or so going through an openings book. Which one was it? I think you said you basically memorized the illustrative games to help further understand the openings. Did you see a big leap in your rating after completing this excercise?
PMD, it looks like I left on a variation Fritz added that I was trying to delete (it was a minor variation beginning with 18. ... Kf8.) I'll edit that a little better. After I annotated the game, I let Fritz add to it, and sometimes Herr Fritz adds more variations than don't add a whole lot of value.
As far as openings, I'm by no means an expert. I do have a semi-set repertoire, though, with certain lines that I play against certain defenses. I've had the chance to play against the Pirc a few times, so I'm somewhat comfortable playing against it. The Byrne system is a fairly aggressive response!
The book that I took 6 months to read was acually a middlegame book. It was Ludek Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy. I did experience a pretty good rise in points during the time I was reading it (I've gone up over 200 points since a year ago), but I think my improvement has been more the result of a combined study of tactics, strategy, and endgames together with tournament play. I usually only check my opening out when something doesn't work or when an opp makes a move I hadn't seen before. Then I go and review the moves to see how masters/GM's play against that particular move. Usually some of that sticks to my grey matter!
Thanks CD. Of the knights I think you're journey is the most intriguing because it seems that you came to chess relatively recently (or returned to it recently) but have made a concious effort at improvement. I think many could learn from how you've raised your rating. Clearly tactics are important and the nice thing is that they are relatively easy to incorporate into learning (i.e. do tactics problems). It's the other aspects, (openings, middlegame, end game) that are bit difficult to get a handle on from the outside looking in.
I will check out Pachman's book....once I've finished these circles of course.
I've played chess off and on for a number of years (I had posted my bio on one of the knights blogs a while ago, but I can't remember that was or I'd direct you to it). Anyhoo, I taught myself the game at age 9. I played in high school going from last chair in my first year of chess club (my sophmore year) to first chair in my senior year (I also went 6-0 at the Illinois state scholastic chess championship at first chair that year).
Despite that good performance, I was always around a 1300 player USCF-wise even though I made a few unfocused attempts to get better in 1996-1997 and again in 2001. In December 2003, I committed myself to improving my chess. I did 2 circles of MDLM's program during 2004 and part of a third before getting agitated that it was taking me so darned long to get through level 50+ problems. Also during that time, I rejoined USCF, joined a local chess club, started playing fairly regularly in OTB tournaments, and began playing in Internet tournaments and leagues. Plus, I read Pachman's book (there are several good middlegame books, but I happened to already own this one and it is a good one) and memorized the games in it (just enough to be able to play them through once from memory - to demonstrate that I had assimilated the material).
As a result of all that, my rating has gone up from its eternal 1300 rating to its present 1543 (soon to drop a little due to some poor performances recently).
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