I actually started off the tournament with a complete dud as White against Xiaodong Jin (1830) and decided to re-enter, taking a half point bye for the first round. I was initially a little skeptical about it despite being the 8 seed out of 36 players given that the loss had me riding a four game losing streak, but I went ahead and did it anyway, and little did I know that it would actually pay off in the end as the extra $40 turned into $300!
So without further ado, let's get started. In this article, I'm going to thoroughly analyze my round 2 game against Solomon Painter. Future articles will cover rounds 3 through 5.
North Carolina Closed Championship, Round 2
W: Patrick McCartney (2090)
B: Solomon Painter (1836)
Barry Attack
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3
This move can be very annoying to King's Indian players. White is threatening to play 4.e4, which after a move like 3...d6, would transpose to the Pirc Defense, an opening that not a lot of King's Indian players play. The only reasonable way to stop the transposition is to play the move 3...d5, which Black does in the game, but while this move is natural to someone that normally plays the Grunfeld, most King's Indian players loathe this move, but their choice here is to either play that or else deal with playing a Pirc Defense. I will add that I did happen to notice Solomon playing the Black side of a King's Indian in the fourth round!
3...d5 4.Bf4
This is the starting point of the Barry Attack, not to be confused with the London System where the White Knight normally goes to d2 and the c-pawn is pushed to either c3 or c4. Mark Hebden was a major advocate of this opening. The idea in the Barry Attack is simple. Maintain a position that is free of weaknesses for White, and if Black plays actively in the center and on the Queenside, White aims for a slightly favorable endgame. If Black plays passively, White goes for a caveman-like attack via shoving the h-pawn up the board to get at the Black King. The latter is what happens in this one.
4...c6 5.e3 Bg7 6.Be2 O-O
Black is applying no pressure to White's center, therefore ...
7.Ne5 Nbd7 8.h4
Here we go with the Kingside attack.
8...Qa5
As much as it appears to weaken Black's Kingside, either 8...h5 or 8...Nxe5 9.Bxe5 h5 was absolutely necessary. It does gain Black at least a move or two as after 8...h5, the immediate 9.g4? drops a pawn after 9...Nxe5 and 10...Bxg4. While a computer might try to claim equality after 8...h5, White still has the trumps, and Black is likely playing for nothing more than a draw.
9.Qd2
The threat of 9...Ne4, while not fatal, was extremely annoying for White, and so he prevents it with this move as now 9...Ne4?? would drop a piece to 10.Nxe4 as the Queen is hanging on a5, and if he takes on d2, White takes back with the Knight on e4 and it's no longer being attacked.
Now you might be thinking "Great! Even one less piece of White's is covering g4! 9...h5 or 9...Nxe5 10.Bxe5 h5 must be even better than it was before!" Actually, it's just the opposite. as after 9...h5 10.Nd3 or 9...Nxe5 10.Bxe5 h5 11.f3, Black has nothing better than to retreat the Queen back to d8, losing the time gained for slowing down White's attack and other moves simply don't work. For example, after 9...h5 10.Nd3, the move 10...Nb6 can be answered by either 11.Bc7 or 11.b3, both of which are better for White.
9...Nxe5 10.Bxe5 e6
I presume that Black was looking to play ...c5 without dropping the d-pawn as 10...c5? is answered by 11.Bxf6 and no matter how Black takes back, he has no tricks to regain the pawn. For example, 11...Bxf6 12.Nxd5 Qxd2+ 13.Kxd2 cxd4 is answered by 14.Nxf6+ while the lesser evil, 11...exf6, is answered by 12.Nxd5 Qxd2+ 13.Kxd2 cxd4 14.exd4 and again there are no tricks to win the pawn back without wrecking the position. For example, 14...Rd8 15.Bf3 Be6 16.c4 f5 17.Kc3 Rac8 18.Ne7+ Kf8 19.Nxc8 Bxd4+ 20.Kb3 Rxc8 21.Bd5 Bxd5 22.cxd5 Bxf2 23.h5 Ke7 24.Rac1 Rxc1 25.Rxc1 and while the material is equal, the position is not! The position after 25...Kd6 26.Rc8 Kxd5 27.Rh8 Ke6 28.Rxh7 gxh5 29.Rh6+ followed by 30.Rxh5 is winning for White as is 25...Kd7 26.Rh1 and now both 26...Bd4 27.Kc4 Bxb2 28.Rb1 and 26...Bg3 27.hxg6 hxg6 28.Rh7 Ke7 29.Kc4 are both winning for White.
11.h5 Bd7 12.g4 Rac8
This move is an error as White can now force Black to either lose material, or pry open his Kingside. Black should have played the other Rook instead with 12...Rfc8.
13.Bd6!
Plugging up the last available escape square for the Knight without having to take on h5 once the g-pawn is pushed. Instead, Black can surrender the exchange with 13...Ne8 or 13...Rd8 14.g5 Ne8 15.Be7, but no matter white, Black is in major trouble.
13...Rfe8 14.g5 Nxh5 15.Bxh5 gxh5
16.Be5!
White is in no hurry to grab the h-pawn as it is literally going nowhere. White would rather take on h5 with the Queen instead of the Rook. However, after something like 16.Qd1, Black has 16...e5 17.Qxh5, Black has 17...Bf5, defending his Kingside. Therefore, we block the e-pawn so that the Bishop can't come to the rescue of h7.
16...Bxe5
This trade really doesn't help Black at all. The immediate 16...c5 is preferable, though still significantly better for White, if not already winning.
17.dxe5 c5 18.Qd1 Kf8
Black does not have time to hunt down the Knight. After 18...d4?, White doesn't bother to capture twice on d4, but rather, play 19.Qxh5, winning as 19...dxe3 20.Qxh7+ Kf8 21.Qh8+ Ke7 22.Qf6+ Kf8 23.Rh8 is mate as is 19...Kf8 20.Qh6+ Ke7 21.Qf6+ Kf8 22.Rxh7 and mate can't be stopped. That leaves 19...Bc6, which is answered by 20.Qxh7+ Kf8 21.g6 Rc7 22.Qh8+ Ke7 23.Qf6+ Kd7 24.gxf7 Bxh1 25.fxe8=Q+ Kxe8 26.O-O-O and Black is busted. He can't take the Knight because of mate on d8. If he moves 26...Bc6, then White breaks through in the center starting with 27.exd4. If he moves the Bishop anywhere that White can trade his Knight for it, he can follow up with Rh1 with mate soon to come, and going to g2 simply drops the Bishop to a fork.
19.Qxh5 Ke7
And here inlies Black's other major problem. His own pieces block all the light squares, and so the Black King must walk down the path of the treacherous dark squares!
20.Qh4!
Both defending the d4-square and threatening discoveries on the King, leading to an advanced passed pawn on the seventh rank.
20...Kd8
Getting out of the discovery with 20...Kf8?? leads to the same mate as discussed in the note to Black's 18th move. Also worth noting is that 20...Qb4 doesn't work either. White can simply answer with 21.f4! and White will castle Queenside the following move as 21...Qxb2?? leads once again to mate, this time via 22.g6+ Kf8 23.g7+ Kxg7 24.Qh6+ Kg8 25.Rg1+ Kh8 26.Qg7 mate.
21.g6+ Kc7 22.gxf7
This is where you can throw general principles out the window. Yes, a passed pawn on the edge of the board, especially with most of Black's pieces on the complete other side of the board, maybe harder to stop, but here, gaining the tempo and forcing the Rook off of the e-file is more critical so that the Queen can come in.
22.Rh8 23.Qe7
Threatening 24.Qd6+ Kd8 25.f8=Q, winning a Rook. Note also that Black can't win the Knight with 23...d4 as not only does White have major threats around the Black King, but even if White had nothing else, he could trade pawns once on d4 and follow up with a check on d6 and then grabbing the pawn. That said, White's after bigger things, like mating the King or winning a Rook.
23...Rcd8
Giving the King the c8-square and allowing the Rook to continue to eye f8.
24.O-O-O!
There is no reason to go pawn hunting with 24.Qxc5+ as then White would need to go back to e7 to hold his major trump card on f7. Instead, White gets two more pieces involved in the attack. The dormant Rook that was sitting on a1, and the Knight on c3 that has been pinned for most of the game.
24...Kc8 25.Rh6
Setting up even more problems if Black tries to use the Queen to cover the d6-square.
25...Qa6 26.Rf6
Covering f2 in the event of any checks on f1 once the Rook leaves the back rank and also threatening to win a Rook via promotion on f8.
26...Rhf8
27.Rxd5!! 1-0
The fatal blow to Black's position. White's threat is 28.Rxd7 Rxd7 29.Qxf8+ followed by 30.Qc5+ and promotion of the f-pawn. If Black takes the Rook via 27...exd5, then 28.Rxa6 bxa6 29.Nxd5 and Black is not surviving this as 30.e6 is coming. Therefore, exhausting all of his possibilities, Black resigned.
In the next three articles, I will cover the final three rounds of the NC Closed Championship. For completeness, and for those of you that are curious how I got pounded in the first round, I had White in the following game against Xiaodong Jin (1830): 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 b6 4.Bd3 Bb7 5.O-O d5 6.b3 Bd6 7.Bb2 O-O 8.Nbd2 Nbd7 9.Ne5 c5 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.f4 cxd4 12.exd4 Qh4 13.Qf3 Rac8 14.Rae1 Nf6 15.g3 Qh3 16.Re2 Rc7 17.Rg2 Qg4 18.h3 Qxf3 19.Nxf3 Ne4 20.Ne5 f5 21.Kh2 g6 (I declined a draw offer at this point) 22.c4 Bxe5 23.dxe5?? (23.fxe5 is equal. The move played loses.) 23...Nc5 24.Ba3 (Maybe not the best way to handle it, but no matter what, Black's winning material.) 24...dxc4 25.Bxc4 Bxg2 26.Kxg2 Rd8 27.b4 Rd2+ 28.Kg1 Rc2 29.Rc1 Rxc1+ 30.Bxc1 Kf7 31.Be3 Ne4 32.Bb3 Rc3 33.Bf2 Nxg3 34.Kg2 Nh5 0-1
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