Game Analysis: Charlotte Open, Round 1

Hello everyone and welcome to another year of articles on the blog. Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays.

I will be starting off the year with analysis of games from the Charlotte Open played in late December. This will likely be followed by coverage from Land of the Sky, which will take place in Asheville in three weeks. Over the course of this article and the following six, we will be seeing a number of different themes, and from an opening perspective, these articles will include three Torres, a French (which will come as the 17th edition of The French Connection), a Catalan, a London, and an Unusual Opening.

So here we will be looking at Round 1. I have White against a GM. A little word about facing significantly higher rated players. Often times, they fear that lower rated players are booked up with openings, but if they play something that is either offbeat or outright unsound, the lower rated player, due to his lower rating and lower rating alone, will not know what to do, and will play outright inferior moves, and when bad moves are met by bad replies, the bad moves are no longer bad, and they lead to a decent position.

I have covered a number of games that I have and won against either offbeat openings (see the final game in The Art of the Miracle Draw from mid-2017) or outright unsound hogwash (see The French Connection: Volume 9 from last year). Here, we are going to see a game where the side facing the garbage ends up playing a series of inferior moves, and the side playing the trash turns that trash into treasure. Be sure to pay close attention to White's possibilities that are pointed out in the notes.

Without further ado, let's take a look at Round 1 of the Charlotte Open!


2018 Charlotte Open, Round 1
W: Patrick McCartney (2061)
B: Elshan Moradiabadi (2626)
Unusual Opening

1.Nf3 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4 e6

This move does not coordinate well with the Kingside Fianchetto and it weakens the dark squares. 3...d6 or 3...Nf6 is better here.

4.e4 Ne7 5.Nc3 d5

So here we have the first critical decision in the game, as early as move 6. This is why GMs like to play this kind of unsound chess against lower rated players. They have to make decisions on their own earlier rather than following well known theory that they are pretty booked up in.

In this position, White has no less than 8 ideas to consider:

1. 6.Be3 is not good on account of 6...dxe4 7.Nxe4 O-O and White must constantly worry about ...Nf5 coming. The pressure is too great on White's center and Black is slightly better.
2. 6.Bg5 is slightly better than Line A, but it's still not good. After 6...f6 7.Be3 dxe4 8.Nxe4, the ...Nf5 issue isn't nearly as bad as the Bishop on g7 is blocked by his own pawn on f6, but after 6...dxe4 7.Nxe4 Nd7 8.h4 h6 9.Bf4, Black has fully equalized after 9...b6 as White has no real way to plug up either of Black's Bishops raking along both long diagonals, and the slight space advantage is not enough to claim anything tangible.
3. Trying to develop the other Bishop with 6.Be2 leads to dynamically balanced positions after 6...dxe4 7.Nxe4 O-O 8.Bg5 f5 9.Nc3 h6 10.Bf4 Nbc6 11.d5 g5 12.Bc1 and then Black has a choice between 12...exd5 13.cxd5 Bxc3+ 14.bxc3 Nxd5 and 12...g4 13.dxc6 gxf3 14.cxb7 Qxd1+ 15.Bxd1 Bxb7 16.gxf3. The first option puts Black up a pawn, but surrenders the Bishop pair to White and Black has the weaker King. In the latter option, it is White with the extra pawn, but then White has the weaker King and weaker Pawns, and his pieces are passive, which also compensates Black for his being a pawn down.
4. 6.Bd3! - Of all the moves that develop a piece, this is by far the best one (we will get to the pawn moves in lines E thru G and the main game). After 6...O-O 7.O-O dxe4 8.Bxe4, Black's problems are not solved. While the following lines are not 100% forced and there are alternatives, none of the alternatives are any better and there are numerous options that all lead to the evaluation of either winning or significantly better for White. After 8...Nbc6 9.Be3 Na5 10.Qe2 f5 11.Bc2 f4 12.Bd2 Bxd4 13.Nxd4 Qxd4 14.Nb5 Qb6 15.Bc3 Nac6 16.b4 a6 17.a4, White has a winning position (17...axb5 18.c5!). Instead, a slight improvement comes from 8...c5, but after 9.dxc5 Qxd1 10.Rxd1 Na6 11.Bf4 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Nxc5 13.Bc2 e5 14.Be3! (14.Nxe5 Bf5 +/=) b6 15.Bxc5 bxc5 16.Be4 Rb8 17.Nxe5 Re8 18.Nd3 Bf5 19.Nxc5 and White has a clear advantage.
5. 6.c5? makes absolutely no sense at all. After 6...dxe4 7.Nxe4, White has a big hole on d5 and Black maintains total control of it with also an attack on d4. Black is significantly better here.
6. 6.exd5 only really makes sense if you intend to capture twice. After 6...exd5 7.cxd5 (again, 7.c5 makes no sense here as White can't make any use of the open e-file, and while the cavity on d5 is filled with a Black pawn, all the play is centered around attacking d4, which gives White nothing and leaving the tension there with a move like 7.Be2 or 7.Bd3 will just lead to a version of the Isolated Queen Pawn that is merely equal for White), Black is best off temporarily sacrificing a pawn with 7...c6! (7...Nxd5 8.Bg5! leads to problems for Black) 8.dxc6 Nbxc6 9.d5 Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 Nxd5 and the position is equal. White has the Bishop pair while Black has the better pawn structure.
7. 6.e5 - This is the best of the pawn moves. At first glance, it appears that White has a major weakness on d4 with an open hole on d5 after the move 6...dxc4, but this move is actually not good at all for Black. The e5-pawn is protected, and so any frontal attacks with ...f6 won't do much as White can recapture with the d-pawn and maintain the wedge on e5. Occupying d5 with the Knight leads to the issue once again with the weak dark squares. After 7...Nd5, White's advantage is significant after 8.Bg5 (similar to the issue with taking on d5 in the line where White captures twice on d5). Black also can't afford to advance the c-pawn to either c6 (to get a firmer grip on d5) or c5 (to attack the base of the pawn chain and try to weaken e5) because of the major hole it creates on d6, and White has a direct route to d6 via e4 for the Knight on c3. Therefore, Black can ill afford to take on c4, and should instead play something like 6...c5! where 7.dxc5 (7.Bg5 Nbc6 is fine for Black) Nd7 8.Bf4 O-O and White only has a slight advantage.

Combining what we have seen here along with the game, the conclusion is evident. White should keep all the tension in the center and play 6.Bd3! here with a significant advantage. With all the weaknesses that Black has on the dark squares, it's not time to commit the dark-squared Bishop yet. It's similar to the old adage that "The threat is worth more than the execution". By not disclosing what we do with the dark-squared Bishop yet (lines A and B above), we maintain maximum flexibility. The other thing to figure out is that the pawn advances and pawn captures aren't that great, combining lines E thru G and the main game, though with 6.e5, Black has to know not to take on c4. Here inlies another difference between a GM and an amateur. An amateur has to remind himself to develop the pieces with the greatest flexibility last, and those with a single good location first. An amateur also ends up having to spend time calculating these pawn moves whereas a GM is likely to know in a split second that leaving the tension on the board is in White's best interest. A GM should find 6.Bd3 in less than a minute's time while amateurs need all the time in the world to churn this out because they haven't fully learned the concept of intuition. Sure, they are aware of intuition, but are unable to put it to full use correctly.

In the game, White plays the pawn move that we have not considered yet.

6.cxd5

Of all the pawn moves, this one is probably a little worse than 6.e5.

6...exd5 7.e5

Compared to 6.e5, we see no pawn on c4 for White or e6 for Black, which opens up the Light-Squared Bishop for Black (not a good thing for White). Also, with a Black pawn on d5, undermining the White center is easier as advances of the c-pawn are not an issue like they are after 6.e5 dxc4 as the e4-square is covered. With this ability to undermine c5, Black can undermine the e5-pawn via a frontal attack once the d4-pawn is eliminated, which is what we will see in the game. This is why it was best to leave all tension there in the center and play 6.Bd3 earlier.

7...h6

This move is unnecessary. Black can immediately start chipping away at White's center. Either 7...f6 or 7...O-O is better here. Note that it is too early to play 7...c5?! because of 8.Bb5+. Black should hold off on c5 until he has castled. For instance, after 7...f6 8.exf6 Bxf6 9.Bb5+ c6 10.Bd3 Bg4, Black has already equalized.

8.Be2 Be6 9.O-O b6 10.b4 O-O 11.a4

Up until now, after Black's dubious opening play and inferior 7th move, White has been taking advantage, but this is where all things start to slide for White. Instead of 11.a4, White should complete his development, and after something like 11.Re1 c5 12.bxc5 bxc5 13.dxc5 Nd7 14.Nb5 Rb8 15.Nbd4 Nxc5 16.a4, White is better. Not that 11.a4 is completely bad, but it just wasn't best.

11...c6

12.Ne1?

This move, however, completely wipes away any advantage that White had. This move is a sign of White having the completely wrong idea. The critical spot on the board is the base of the pawn chain, d4. This Knight was a key defender of the d4-square. Why is White relocating it? The answer is that White's focus was in the wrong place. I was focused on e5 rather than d4. The idea was to relocate the Knight to d3 and to play f4. However, it takes to moves to relocate it to d3 from f3, and in 1 move time, Black can play ...Bf5 at a point when he has his d5-pawn secured, and then the Knight is threatened to be traded off anyway. White can maintain a significant advantage with a simple move like 12.Re1, continuing development and maintaining the e5 strong point that way, or 12.h3, stopping the Bishop from going to g4 and trading itself off for the Knight on f3. Since the focus is on d4, a dark square, this is the one way that a light-squared Bishop can have influence of a dark square. Trading itself off for a Knight.

Also, not only does it take two moves for the Knight to relocate and one move for the Bishop to attack it, but that extra move for Black is clearly defined because the moving of the knight loosened d4, making Black's next move automatic.

12...c5!

Of course! Why not? White just completed begged for Black to attack d4, and this is one case where Black is more than willing to comply..

13.bxc5 bxc5 14.f4?

Now Black has the advantage. White could have maintained equality with 14.Ba3, but this leads to another issue for White. When you have a bad plan, you often end up continuing that bad plan to the end, and things just continue to go down hill. You need to realize that your original idea was a train wreck, and before you let it continue to fly off the track at 100 miles per hour, you need to step back and reassess the position, which can be hard to do, but the problem here is that White is still trying to patch up the center which he cannot prevent at this point from being blown up by Black, and so this calls for different measures by White, and what f4 does that Ba3 does not do is weaken the White King. If your center is going to get blown up, don't go and weaken your King as well. The advancement of pawns in front of your King is only called for when the center is stable. As we will see here, White's center is anything BUT stable!

14...cxd4 15.Qxd4??

This was White's last chance to at least keep a manageable position. The only move here is 15.Nb5. After the move played in the game, White's position cannot be saved barring some kind of egregious blunder by Black.

15...Nbc6 16.Qc5 f6 17.Qd6 Nd4!

Unlike White, who at move 6 spent 6 minutes to incorrectly decide to relieve tension, Black, in half the time, 3 minutes, figures out that the tension should be left along for now, and he plays the best move. This is another issue at the amateur level. Amateurs trade way too often. Are there times to trade? Sure! If there wasn't, you wouldn't ever see an endgame at the GM level. But GMs trade for the right reasons. Amateurs trade often times because they feel that fewer pieces and the lack of pawn tension often simplifies the position. On the flip side, often times amateurs don't trade when they should. Some attacking-minded amateurs feel like their dreams are over if their Queen is traded off despite the fact that accepting a trade down gives them a completely winning endgame. Some positionally-minded amateurs or endgame lovers just want to get everything off the board for no other reason than to get it off.

I can tell you that I personally have no bias for or against trading down to an endgame versus maintaining tension between pieces or pawns, but it doesn't change the fact that my ability to correctly judge when a trade is appropriate or not is a bit clouded. I will be fixing that, and a book that covers just that, the art of knowing when to exchange and what to exchange, is actually in the mail right now at the time of the writing of this, called "Your Kingdom For My Horse (When to Exchange in Chess)".

18.Ba3 Nef5 19.Qa6 Re8 20.Nf3 Nxf3+ 21.Bxf3 fxe5 22.fxe5 Bxe5 23.Rae1

White may be grasping at straws, but what else does he have? Based on the diagram below, do you see the way for Black to win?

23...Bd4+

There are actually two solutions. The first is what happens in the game. The other is 23...Qh4!, threatening mate via 24...Bxh2+ and 25...Ng3#, and the only way to stop it is also to give away the exchange via 24.Rxe5 Qd4+ 25.Kh1 Qxe5.

24.Kh1 Qh4 25.Ne2 Be5 26.g3 Bxg3 27.Nxg3 Nxg3+ 28.Kg1 Nxf1 29.Rxe6 Qxh2+ 30.Kxf1 Qh3+ 31.Bg2

There is one final trap that Black must dodge. If you are not paying attention to detail, three moves look equally promising for Black, namely 31...Rxe6, 31...Qxe6, and 31...Qf5+ (taking the hanging Bishop on a3 allows White to mate the Black King in 5 moves and is therefore not an option). Do you see which move fails?

31...Qf5+

This move works, as does 31...Rxe6, but 31...Qxe6?? would throw half the point away because the loose Bishop on a3 ends up being the savior. After 32.Bxd5!! Qxd5 (Black is lost if he plays anything else) and now because that a3-Bishop covers the f8-square, Black has no way to avoid perpetual check via 33.Qxg6+ Kh8 34.Qxh6+ Kg8 35.Qg6+ etc.

32.Kg1 Rxe6 33.Qb7 Re1+ 34.Kh2 Qf4+ 0-1

After 35.Kh3, it's mate in four, and so White resigned.


Some things to keep in mind from this game:

• Often times, when a grandmaster plays an amateur, they have a tendency to play either offbeat or unsound openings on the basis that the amateur may be booked up on their pet lines, and not know what to do against the garbage, and figure they can simply "outplay" the amateur. While that often works, as was the case here, that can also blow up in their face, as was the case in the first article referenced previously, The Art of the Miracle Draw, which by the way, that is still to this day the highest rated player I've beaten, though I do have one draw against a player a few rating points higher than that.
• Tension is a very good thing! It is released way too often, way too soon, by amateurs. While the releasing of the tension may be a benefit, you have got to observe the numerous consequences, which most amateurs fail to do. Probably the most common scenario is mixing up lines in the Queen's Gambit Declined where I have seen White play something other than the Exchange Variation (4.cxd5), like 4.Nf3 or 4.Bg5, and then later trade on d5 at an inappropriate time, improving things for Black, like opening up the diagonal for his bad light-squared Bishop.
• Don't just look at a backwards pawn or the square in front of it, like in the case of 6.e5 dxc4 above in the notes, and assume that it is automatically weak. Other factors, like the weak d6-square, and pieces controlling the weak square, such as White's Knight on c3 and Bishop on c4 in that line, might make it virtually impossible for the other side to take any advantage, and therefore what may be "optically" weak isn't really weak at all.
• When you realize you made an error, such as 12.Ne1, and you see the strong response like 12...c5, stop and reassess and see if anything can be salvaged, such as keeping an equal position via 14.Ba3, rather than just blindly continuing with the bad plan like what was done here with 14.f4 and 15.Qxd4, both of which were horrible moves, and many ways even worse than the bad 12th move White made. It can be very difficult to switch gears psychologically, but sometimes you have to approach a position mid-game with a clear head. For some people, that might mean getting out of your seat and walking around, or anything to keep from staring at the board while trying to clear head. In some cases, it is considered bad form to leave the table on your own turn, and there may even be something in FIDE against that, but that doesn't mean you can't stand up, take two steps, and face a different direction. Anything to get your eyes off the board. If you find that you can't clear you mind of the bad ideas while staring at the board, get up and just try to mentally think about something until you clear your mind of the bad plan you had previously. For some that might mean thinking about the position and what else you might be able to do but not actually looking at the board (that is my usual course of action), but for some, to clear the mind, maybe you just have to think about something completely different, like what you are going to eat for dinner that night, or where you are taking your wife or girlfriend next weekend, or Metallica, or stinky feet, or whatever else floats your boat. The important thing is not to continue to dwell on something that was clearly bad in the first place.

Next we will be looking at Round 2. Until then, good luck in your games.