Simple Chess: Tactics Training

Hello!

This is David the chessnerdbird. I have been wanting to make my blogs a little more instructive than just words on a screen. Therefore, I have started a YouTube channel where I stream and upload my games and training. I am also recording my live feedback during the games and during the training.

This allows you to see my thought process. For those lower rated this is decent insight into a Class B player and how I think. For those around my rating you can see what you do better and maybe something that I do better.

Also, by starting my YouTube channel I hope to hold myself a little more accountable in both playing and training. I have been recording videos since Thursday of last week and the biggest thing that I have noticed already is that playing and studying chess is fun again. I am also learning more because I can replay the video and see where my thinking process failed or if I missed any calculations.

I hope you find this new format fun, interesting, and instructive. If you like the videos that I share in the blog please make sure you subscribe to my channel as I plan on uploading videos at least 5 times a week.

Before we get to this week's video on tactics training I wanted to share two puzzles that I either found instructive or that I missed during my training. See if you can solve them before watching the video. Once you spent some time on these then watch the video for the answer or to see how I missed them.


Puzzle 1 - White to Move (4:38 in the video)





Puzzle 2 - Black to Move (7:43 in the video)










Thank you for joining me on my journey to reaching the Expert title. I look forward to seeing you at a chessboard soon!

Next week I will be posting a video of going through a lesson on Chess.com covering a strategic concept.

Simple Chess: Tuesday Night Action 35! Round 5 (Clayton vs Blackwelder)

It has been rough on my road to 2000 since June. I peaked at a rating of 1783 and have been in free fall ever since winning only 2 of my last 9 games. It all started with my miserable performance at the Carolina's Classic. If you haven't read that recap then you can do so by clicking here. My rating has now fallen to 1696. I'm not worried about my rating but I am upset at my decision making at the board as well as my lazy calculations.

Posting my frustrations is not a way to get a pity party going. Instead I think it is important to know that if you want to continue to improve at chess there will be moments where it is frustrating. There will be times where you feel like you can't improve and instead you are going in reverse. If you want to improve, you have to keep pushing.

With that being said I am excited to introduce the new format my blog posts will take starting next week. Balancing your knowledge and skills in chess is important and therefore my blog posts will have a topic that is covered each week. For example:

The Thursday following round 1 of Tuesday Night Action 36 will be about tactics training. I will include positions that I solved on Chess.com during one of my daily 30 minute sessions. This will include my thought process, my ability or inability to calculate to the end. Hopefully you will gain some knowledge either in a new pattern or in how I think when calculating.

Following round 2 the next week the topic will cover a strategic concept that I will have studied using the Chess.com lessons. I will highlight my thought process, the key concepts that stood out to me, and anything else I found useful.

Following round 3 I will share my work using the Chess.com drills feature. This means I will be working my way through key positions that one should be able to win or hold out for a draw. I will post my actual methods used against the computer. I will also go back through and include some analysis. These positions will mainly feature endgame positions but there will be other instructive positions as well.

Following round 4 I will share a game where I try and guess the moves of a strong player. You will be able to see a complete game by a stronger player. You will get to see what moves I thought were accurate. You will get some insight based on the annotations of another strong player. I am most excited about this portion of my upcoming blogs.

Following round 5 I will post all of my games from the recent Tuesday Night Action tournament with complete analysis. This will hopefully be a great way to link everything from the previous four weeks together including how I learn openings.

The goal behind the process of writing my blogs this way is so that someone can truly join me on the road to chess improvement.



Here is my round 5 game of Tuesday Night Action 35:

Opening Preparation: The French Defense - Introduction

After what has been a very busy summer, I am writing a six-part article to prepare an opening repertoire for both Black and White in the French Defense. Before going through what each section will cover, let me give you a little history and background.

The French Defense got its name from a correspondence match between London and Paris. Chamouillet, one of the players on the Paris team, convinced the others to play this line, and the Paris team won. The opening remained a rare bird for the rest of the nineteenth century as 1...e5 retained the popularity because opening theory was not established like it is today with computers. However, in modern times, the French Defense is the second most popular response to 1.e4, trailing only the Sicilian in popularity.

From my own personal experience, while I may have learned how to play the game at the age of eight in 1983, I didn't get seriously involved in studying books until 1995, and while I was studying beginner level books on strategy and tactics, I was playing what came naturally to me since I knew nothing about openings at the time. I was playing what felt right and natural, and one day asked if what I played had a name, and low and behold, it was the French Defense, and so I established my interest in the French Defense in a similar manner that a baby determines if it will be left- or right-handed. While I played my first tournament in 1996, it was March of 1997 that I regularly got involved in tournament chess, and while I played other openings for brief stints, my primary defense for my first 10 years of competition against 1.e4 was the French Defense. Then came 2007. A number of new ideas came up for White in the Advance Variation, and it was starting to cause just as many headaches for Black as 3.Nc3 has. 3.Nc3 has always been considered the main line, and White's best shot at an advantage. This caused me to go through an eight year drought of not playing the French Defense, and going with other openings from 2008 through 2015. Then came 2016 and I started playing the French again, particularly after finding a slightly offbeat line against the Advance Variation, and since playing it, I have either won or drawn every game in which I was on the Black side of the Advance Variation. Now that I am older, being in my early 40s rather than 20, I don't see myself discontinuing the French any time soon, if ever!

There are a number of players at the GM level that played the French Defense heavily, and many cases their entire life. I would recommend looking at their games. These include Mikhail Botvinnik, Viktor Korchnoi, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Evgeny Bareev, Nigel Short, and Igor Glek. As for the White side, the biggest advocate of the line I am going to recommend for White would be, by far, Evgeny Sveshnikov, and I would recommend looking at his games if you are an e4 player.

So let's take a brief look at what the future articles will cover. The first five articles will cover the repertoire for Black with the French Defense. They will be covered in the order of importance based on my own personal view of how easy or how difficult it is to fully equalize, starting with the easiest and finishing with the most critical lines. Then, part six will cover a complete repertoire for White on beating the French Defense. Let's have a look at them now:

Part One: This article will cover the Exchange Variation. I can hear the groans already. Oh my god, the dreaded, boring exchange variation! Not all success comes with excitement. You will have plenty of opportunities to show off a bunch of thrilling victories in the French Defense, but in this case, I am going to advocate a very solid line that immediately equalizes for Black, and rely on White to implode. Most of the people reading this article are not grand masters over 2600, and so don't go thinking that White's going to play the perfect game. If he does, you take the draw, but odds are, he won't play a perfect game unless he is a 2600 player, in which case, it would be a moral victory for just about anybody reading this. I will show an excellent game that I played as Black that remained symmetrical into the double-digits against another expert that I then won because of understanding many of the minute details. In addition, more minor options for White will also be covered.

Part Two: This article will cover the Tarrasch Variation. The Tarrasch seems to be all the rage when it comes to coaches recommending a variation to their students on how to beat the French. I will show you once again that, like the exchange, an understanding of ideas should get you an equal game, and if White doesn't know what he's doing, you'll win more than you won't. Many of my games from the Black side of the Tarrasch in 2017 have been published in previous articles. I will be showing games from much higher level competition where Black plays the lines I will recommend and you'll soon feel that the Tarrasch is a non-issue, just like the Exchange.

Part Three: This article will cover the King's Indian Attack. For those that don't know the theory, this is a very tricky variation, and there are many places for Black to go wrong as some of the ideas aren't as clear cut as they are in the Exchange or Tarrasch. It will take a lot of studying to master the line, but in the end, Black should be able to equalize here as well.

Part Four: This article is when we start getting into the most critical third move for White, 3.Nc3. Against this, I am going to recommend the more sane 3...Nf6 over the wild Winawer, which is 3...Bb4. While 4.exd5 will transpose to the Exchange Variation, there are two very critical moves that White can play. The first is 4.Bg5, which will be covered in this article, against which I am going to recommend the MacCutcheon Variation.

Part Five: This article will cover the second half of 3.Nc3 Nf6, namely the Steinitz Variation, which is 4.e5. I feel this is the most critical line you will have to face, and through coverage will be given when we get to this point.

Part Six: This article will shift to covering how to beat the French Defense, which I am going to recommend the Advance Variation. I am a firm believer that it is the only option White has aside from 3.Nc3 in order to get an advantage, and 3.Nc3 is very dense in theory, whereas the Advance Variation is more about understanding the ideas rather than knowing reams of lines.

So now I will bet a number of you are asking yourself "so what am I supposed to do against the Advance Variation when I'm Black? That is what I am going to cover here. It is the only real offbeat line that I am going to recommend, and it is the line that ultimately caused me to bring the French Defense back as my primary weapon against 1.e4.

So without further ado, let's take a look at what to do against the Advance Variation.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3



We have the starting position of the Advance Variation of the French Defense. Black has a few options here. The main response here is, by far, 4...Nc6, with a number of options at move 5. The second most popular response is what is known as the Wade Variation, which is 4...Qb6 followed by 5...Bd7, intending 6...Bb5 and looking to trade the Bishop. The center is complete shut down, and so play will be a little slower and Black can use this argument to spend the time to attempt to get rid of the bad Bishop. That said, I don't trust this system at all, and the main lines with 4...Nc6 appear to give White an advantage, and have viewed it this way now for the last 10 years when a lot of the recent ideas in the Advance French came about in 2007, almost all of the new ideas being for White. All of these lines will be covered in Part Six.

The little-played line that I am going to recommend is similar to the Wade Variation, but it won't involve misplacing the Black Queen.

4...Bd7 5.Nf3 a6

So we now have the starting position of the line I'm recommending against the Advance Variation. The idea is simple. Black is using the basis of the center be closed as a way of figuring that he has time to exchange off his Bad Bishop without falling too far behind in development.

It should also be noted that this position can also come from a specific line of the O'Kelly Sicilian, namely 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.c3 e6 4.d4 d5 5.e5 Bd7.

I am going to cover three games and a game fragment with this variation. The first game and the game fragment will illustrate what can happen if White blindly tries to expand on the Queenside like he often does in the main lines. However, it can mean trouble for White in this variation. The first game and the game fragment will cover lines where White tries to expand on the Queenside, and yet all it does is gets him in trouble. The second game will cover 6.Be2 and the last game will cover White's best move, 6.Bd3.


Part 1: White Expands On The Queenside

A game that I played against Emily Hu in the Washington, DC area will illustrate why Queenside expansion is not a good idea in this line. As will be seen in Part Six, the early a3 idea, looking to expand with b4, works best when Black has already placed his Queen on b6.


Cherry Blossom Classic, Round 6
W: Emily Hu (1862)
B: Patrick McCartney (2063)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Bd7 5.a3

Better is to play 5.Nf3.

5...a6 6.b4 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb5 8.Bxb5+

This does double Black's pawns, but it also exposes White to tactics based on the Rook on a1 being unprotected.

9.Nc3

One might think that White has just blundered, but actually, it's a mistake later on that give Black the opportunity at a big advantage. The position, despite the temporary pawn loss, is still equal.

9...Bxb4 10.Bb2 Bxc3 11.Bxc3 Nc6 12.Ne2

Once again, 12.Nf3 would be slightly better

12...Nge7 13.Qb3 Qb6 14.Rb1 O-O

The correct move. Trying to hold the pawn with 14...Na7 is clumsy. Black goes for activity over material.

15.Qxb5 Qxb5 16.Rxb5 Rxa3 17.Rxb7 Ra2 18.f3 Nf5

Black has a very slight, nagging advantage due to the the more active position and arguably better minor piece as the Bishop on c3 is pretty bad.

19.g4?

This, however, is a major error. White was likely afraid of 19...Nh4, thinking that 20.Rg1 was too passive, but in reality, Black gets nothing special as a result of that. It's not like castling is a necessity for White at this point. Of course, 20.Kf2 would drop a pawn to 20...Nxg2. However, since 20.Rg1 would work fine against the artificial threat, White should instead play more actively with 19.Rc7! This puts the Black Knight in an awkward position. He could retreat with 19...Nfe7, but all advantage is lost then. 19...Na5?? loses to 20.Ra7 and 19...Nce7?? loses to 20.g4. Best for Black would be 19...Na7 when 20.Rc5 holds Black's slight edge to a bare minimum. After the move played in the game, Black is close to winning.

19...Ne3?

Oh no! Black misses the opportunity and the position is once again roughly equal. Winning is 19...Nh4! White has no defense.
  A) 20.Rf1 Ng2+ 21.Kf2 Nf4 22.Re1 Nd3+ -+
  B) 20.Kf2 f6 21.Ra1 Rxa1 22.Bxa1 fxe5 -+
  C) 20.f4 Ng2+ 21.Kf1 (21.Kf2 Nxf4) f6 22.Rc7 fxe5 23.Rxc6 exd4 24.Bb4 Ne3+ 25.Ke1 Rb8 26.Nc1 Nc2+ -+

20.Kf2 Nc4 21.Rhb1

White should first play 21.Rc7, gaining a tempo on the Knight. The position is still equal, but it would complicate matters for Black.

21...Rc8

Black ceases all hopes for White at victory.

22.f4 f6 23.exf6 gxf6 24.Rd7 Ra7 25.Rxa7 Nxa7 26.Rb7 Nc6 27.Ng3 Nd6 28.Rd7 Rd8 29.Rc7 Rc8 30.Rd7 Rd8 31.Rc7 1/2-1/2

While this case of dropping the b-pawn wasn't totally fatal to White and White's mistake came later in the above game, the following game fragment will show you that White isn't always that lucky when Black pulls off the trap, and actually, the above example was the exception, not the rule. The following game was played just a week and a half later.


Tuesday Night Action 33, Round 5
W: David Blackwelder (1695)
B: Patrick McCartney (2066)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Bd7 5.Nf3 a6 6.a4

Here White tries to outright stop Black from trading the Bishop off, but there are other problems that White is going to encounter here.

6...Qa5

Re-instating the threat, and moves like 7.Na3 don't work here because of 7...Qxa4 where if White tries to use the same pin on Black, he will be up a healthy pawn after 8.Qxa4 Bxa4 9.Nb5 Bxb5 10.Bxb5+ Nc6.

7.dxc5

So White tries to keep Black occupied by capturing, forcing Black to take with the Queen, and then chasing the Black Queen away. Little does he know that expanding like this on the Queenside in this specific situation is causing more harm than good for White.

7...Qxc5 8.b4 Qc7

So White has succeeded in keeping the Bishops on the board. That said, he now has a weak pawn on c3. His d4-pawn is no longer there to cover e5, so he has to use his pieces to cover it. He is also severely lagging in development, and then there are numerous tactical tricks, one of which he falls for shortly.

9.Bd3 Nc6 10.Qe2??

White must play 10.Bf4 here, but already his position is a mess. The problem with the Queen move is that she needed to baby the Bishop on c1 until either the Bishop or the b1-Knight moved. Now we have tricks again on b4!

10...Nxb4! 11.cxb4 Qxc1+ 12.Qd1 Qxd1+ 13.Kxd1 Bxb4

And now with Black up two pawns for zero compensation, the rest of the game was meaningless. I will save White the embarrassment and just say that Black mated White on the 43rd move.


Part 2: White plays 6.Be2

So now we are moving on to the line with 6.Be2. There is nothing systemically wrong with this move, but it does give Black exactly what he is looking for. Here I am going to cover a game that I played in late July that well illustrates what Black can achieve in this line.


Master Trek, Round 1
W: James Dill (1931)
B: Patrick McCartney (2057)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Bd7 5.Nf3 a6 6.Be2 cxd4

It is important to throw this move in first. Note that before now, it would be too early to take on d4 because then White can place his Knight on c3, preventing Black's bishop from going to b5. That said, Black should do it here because unlike the previous game where White has advanced b4, the c3-pawn would not be weak if White were to trade on c5, and with no light-squared Bishop, if Black were to win the pawn on e5, he could be opening himself up to a weakness on e6, and so Black would rather have the open c-file and the d4-pawn as a fixed weakness rather than a semi-open c-file with an e5-target. This also prevents any c4 ideas in response to the Bishop going to b5. When we get to Part Six, we will see this idea of advancing the c-pawn to c4 in the Wade Variation.

7...Bb5

So what we have can be viewed as the starting position of the 6.Be2 variation. Here White has a critical decision to make. He can continue with development by castling and allowing Black to take on e2, which is probably White's best idea, or he can capture on b5, which does double Black's pawns, but comes at a price. The opening of the a-file for Black does expose White to tactics on b4, and so moves like a3 by White won't prevent anything. More importantly, the argument against exchanging on d4 too early for Black is that it opens up the c3-square for the White Knight. Often times it is viewed that Black should wait to trade on d4 until the White Knight has moved to d2 or a3. But in this case, it was best for Black to trade, and another downside to White doubling the Black pawns is that ...b4 can come at just about any point in time, removing the White Knight from his desired square.

In the game, White went with the better plan and continued to develop.

8.O-O Bxe2 9.Qxe2 Nc6 10.Nc3 Nge7 11.Bg5 Qb6 12.Bxe7

Trading off the dark-squared Bishop for a Knight can't be recommended here. White is allowing Black to have his good Bishop with no opposition. Better here was 12.Qd3 with a level position.

12...Bxe7 13.Rfd1 O-O 14.Rac1 Rac8 15.b3

This move is almost never good in the French Defense, and it certainly isn't good here. White should probably have played 15.Rc2 followed by moving the Queen to cover the d4, probably by going to e3, and then double up on the c-file. In other lines, when you see White expand on the Queenside, you see the pawns on a3 and b4, dark squares, which prevent activity from Black's dark-squared Bishop, which is his good Bishop. With Black's pawns on light squares, it doesn't make sense for White to put his on light squares, especially with his opponent having an unopposed dark-squared Bishop. The dark squares on the Queenside are now extremely weak for White, and Black takes full advantage of it.

15...Ba3 16.Na4 Qa7 17.Rc3

Once again, the Rook should have gone to c2.

17...b5 18.Nc5

This move loses material. Relatively best was 18.Qc2 Ne7 19.Nb2 Bb4 20.Rxc8 Rxc8 21.Qb1, but the advantage still belongs to Black. Note that the immediate 18.Nb2 fails to 18...Nxd4!.

18...Nxd4 19.Nxd4 Rxc5

Also possible was 19...Bxc5 20.Rdc1 b4 21.R3c2 Rc7 followed by 22...Rfc8, but taking with the Rook seemed safer. Both are winning for Black.

20.Rh3 Rfc8 21.Qh5 h6

With no dark-squared Bishop to contend with to sacrifice itself on h6, Black's King is perfectly safe.

22.Ne2 Rc2

The best moves are moves that attack and defend at the same thing. The attacking nature of this move is obvious, but what isn't quite as obvious, and White missed it in the game, is that this move also defends h6 until the Knight moves.

23.Qg4 Bc5

Black ignores the threat on h6 by posing larger threats of his own. Two of White's pawns are now hanging, and Black threatens to take the White Knight, removing the piece that is pinning the g-pawn to the King, if White tries to take on h6. Clearly White missed this.

24.Rxh6?? Rxe2 25.Qxe2 gxh6 0-1

The fact that Black's King is slightly exposed is no match to being down a whole piece, especially with very little material left on the board. White decided to throw in the towel.


Part 3: White Plays 6.Bd3

So now we come to the "main line", if there is such a thing. This is White's best response in this variation. I am going to show a game played at the Australian Masters in Melbourne in 2005 that illustrates how Black should react to this line. And actually, this game started out as an O'Kelly Sicilian, which as mentioned earlier, can directly transpose to the line we are covering.


2005 Australian Masters, Round 4
W: William Jordan (2304)
B: Peter Froehlich (2367)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.c3 e6 4.d4 d5 5.e5 Bd7 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb5

So we are at the starting position of the "main line". There is one major difference between this line and the line we covered with 6.Be2. White is able to avoid the Bishop trade!

8.Bc2! Bb4+ 9.Bd2 a5

Once again, Black tried to egg White on to take his Bishop and open up the a-file for his Rook. With the Knight coming to c6 and possibly the Queen to b6, the doubled pawns, once again, would not be a real weakness for Black.

10.Nc3

Black now has a critical decision to make. There are two decent moves here for Black. I am going to recommend the one that is slightly less common that is played in this game.

10...Bxc3

The more popular move is 10...Ba6, but White is going to force Black to trade the Bishop for the Knight anyway. Why waste time retreating? In the game R.Siddharth - N.Sanjay, Vizag GM Open, Round 10, Visakhapatanam, IND, White put his Bishop pair to good use and scored the victory after 10...Ba6 11.a3 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Qc7 13.Ng5 Nc6 14.Qf3 h6 15.Qh5 Nd8 16.Nh3 Ne7 17.Nf4 g6 18.Qh3 Ndc6 19.Rc1 a4 20.Bxa4 Bc4 21.Bc2 Rxa3 22.Nd3 Qa5 23.Bb1 Qb5 24.O-O Nxd4 25.cxd4 Bxd3 26.Rc7 Bxf1 27.Qxa3 O-O 28.Rc1 Nc6 29.Rxf1 Nxd4 30.Bd3 Qb3 31.Qxb3 Nxb3 32.Bxh6 Ra8 33.Rb1 Ra3 34.Kf1 d4 35.Bc4 Nc5 36.Bd2 Ra4 37.Bb4 Ne4 38.Bd3 1-0.

11.bxc3 Nd7 12.Qb1 Ba6 13.Bxh7 Nb6

Trying to trap the Bishop with 13...g6 is not a good idea. Black is not fully developed, and his King will be severely exposed, and at no cost to White as he'll get three pawns for the Bishop. In fact, here White would be completely winning after 14.Bxg6 fxg6 15.Qxg6+ Kf8 16.Ng5 Qe8 17.Nxe6+ Ke7 18.Bg5+ +-.

14.Bd3

White gets nothing out of 14.Bxg8 Rxg8 15.Qh7 Rf8 16.Qxg7 Qc7 17.Qg4 (17.Qg5 Qc4 18.Qe3 Rg8!) Na4 18.Ng1 Nb2 19.Ne2 Nd3+ 20.Kf1 Qb6 with an equal position. After the game continuation, Black's response offers White another pawn, and accepting it leads to a fairly lengthy forced sequence.

14...Nc4 15.Bxc4 Bxc4 16.Qxb7 Rb8 17.Qc6+ Kf8 18.Bc1 Nh6 19.Bg5 f6

White has forced Black to expose his King, but it's not like White's is any safer.

20.Qc5+ Kg8 21.exf6 gxf6 22.Bxh6 Rxh6

After all the fireworks, White has a slightly better position, but his advantage is no more than the slight advantage White gets from the main line of any normal opening and Black's position is still manageable.

23.Nd2 Bd3 24.h4 Kh8 25.Rh3 Bf5 26.Rh1 Rc8 27.Qa3 Qg8 28.g3 Bd3 29.O-O-O a4 30.Kb2 Qe8 31.Ka1 Qb5 32.Rhe1 Bc2 33.Rc1 Bf5 34.Re3 Rh7 35.f3 Rb7 36.g4 Bh7 37.c4 dxc4

Both sides have continued to play really well, but now Black has a major threat with 38...c3, which tactically defends against moves like 38.Rxe6?? since 38...c3 39.Ne4 (attempting to block the Bishop on h7 from eyeing b1) fails to 39...Qb2+ 40.Qxb2 cxb2+ 41.Kb1 bxc1=Q mate. However, White ends up choosing the wrong way to prevent ...c3 by Black, and the game ends abruptly.

38.Rec3??

Correct was 38.Ne4 e5 39.d5 with an equal game. Note that if Black attempts to build up on b1 with the move 38...Rcb8, White can easily stop the threat with 39.Ree1 and any push of the c-pawn by Black will be captured by the White Knight, and so the tricks on b2 are no longer there like they would be in the lines where ...c3 was allowed.

38...Rcb8 0-1

However, now the Rook on c3 can't come to the rescue of the King by covering the b1-square again. White can only prevent immediate mate by throwing a piece away on b3, and even then, the prevention is only temporary, and so White Resigned.


This concludes this article on the introduction of what is to come, and this interesting, offbeat line for Black against the Advance Varition. At the bottom of each article, I will include links to the other parts of the article. I would recommend saving at least one of them to your favorites so that it will be easy to access, and then you can use the links at the bottom to navigate from article to article.


Links to the rest of the articles.
Part One: The Exchange Variation
Part Two: The Tarrasch Variation
Part Three: The King's Indian Attack
Part Four: The MacCutcheon Variation
Part Five: The Steinitz Variation
Part Six: Beating the French with the Advance Variation

Top Seeds win Reverse Angle 75

Author: Grant Oen, CCCSA Assistant Director


CCCSA held the 75th Reverse Angle Tournament on Saturday, August 12.  60 total players competed for the always guaranteed $850 prize fund in three sections: Top, Under 1800, and Under 1400.


TOP
18 players entered the top section, including National Masters Tianqi "Steffen" Wang (2379), Daniel "DJ" Cremisi (2333) and South Carolina's Klaus Pohl (2201).  It was a highly competitive section, as they were joined by plenty of Experts and A players.

The top seeds proved their mettle, as Wang and Cremisi scored 3/3 and $125 each.  Vishnu "Can I call my dad?" Vanapalli (1954), Ziyang "many sisters" Qiu (1936), and Aditya "draw?" Shivapooja (1770) all scored 2/3 and won top Under 2000 honors, good for $17 each.

Final Standings: Reverse Angle 75: TOP

#	Place	Name	Rtng	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Tot	Prize
1	1-2	Tianqi Wang	2379	W13 (w)	W12 (b)	W5 (w)	3	125.00
2		Daniel Cremisi	2333	W14 (b)	W8 (w)	W6 (b)	3	125.00
3	3	Sulia Mason	2030	D10 (w)	W13 (b)	W11 (w)	2½
4	4-7	James Macdougall	2039	W16 (b)	L6 (w)	W10 (w)	2
5		Vishnu Vanapalli	1954	W15 (b)	W11 (w)	L1 (b)	2	16.67
6		Ziyang Qiu	1936	W18 (w)	W4 (b)	L2 (w)	2	16.67
7		Aditya Shivapooja	1770	L8 (b)	W16 (w)	W12 (w)	2	16.67
8	8-10	Keith Eubanks	1955	W7 (w)	L2 (b)	D9 (w)	1½
9		Adharsh Rajagopal	1883	L11 (b)	W15 (w)	D8 (b)	1½
10		Rohan Iyer	1787	D3 (b)	W14 (w)	L4 (b)	1½
11	11-15	Klaus Pohl	2201	W9 (w)	L5 (b)	L3 (b)	1
12		Ernest Nix	1959	W17 (b)	L1 (w)	L7 (b)	1
13		James Dill	1917	L1 (b)	L3 (w)	W17 (b)	1
14		Jeremy Chen	1903	L2 (w)	L10 (b)	W18 (w)	1
15		Luke Harris	1767	L5 (w)	L9 (b)	B--- (-)	1
16	16-18	Xiaodong Jin	1810	L4 (w)	L7 (b)	H--- (-)	½
17		Austin Chuang	1785	L12 (w)	D18 (b)	L13 (w)	½
18		Robert Moore	1700	L6 (b)	D17 (w)	L14 (b)	½

Under 1800
The largest section of the day was the U1800 section, which featured 22 players, with top seeded Carson "threepeat" Cook (1755) having won this section at RA73 and tying for first at RA74.  Carson ended up winning clear first at RA75, with 3/3 and adding another $150 to his wallet.  William Odom (1652) and Jaiden Chuang (1634) each earned $38 for their split of second place.

The Under 1600 class prize was split between Andrew Jiang, Douglas Taublib, Hassan Hashemloo, and Eric Shi ($13 each).

Final Standings: Reverse Angle 75: Under 1800

#	Place	Name	Rtng	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Tot	Prize
1	1	Carson Cook	1755	W6 (w)	W15 (b)	W7 (w)	3	150.00
2	2-3	William Odom	1652	W22 (w)	D12 (b)	W11 (w)	2½	37.50
3		Jaiden Chuang	1634	D17 (b)	W9 (w)	W12 (b)	2½	37.50
4	4-9	Connor Liu	1734	L7 (b)	W16 (w)	W17 (b)	2
5		David Richards	1680	W16 (b)	L7 (w)	W19 (b)	2
6		Andrew Jiang	1541	L1 (b)	W18 (w)	W13 (b)	2	12.50
7		Douglas Taublib	1529	W4 (w)	W5 (b)	L1 (b)	2	12.50
8		Hassan Hashemloo	1433	H--- (-)	D19 (w)	W21 (b)	2	12.50
9		Eric Shi	1316	W23 (w)	L3 (b)	W15 (w)	2	12.50
10	10-12	Spencer Singleton	1580	D19 (b)	D17 (w)	H--- (-)	1½
11		Sam Fuerstman	1456	H--- (-)	W21 (w)	L2 (b)	1½
12		Advaith Karthik	1453	W13 (b)	D2 (w)	L3 (w)	1½
13	13-20	Danny Cropper	1686	L12 (w)	W22 (b)	L6 (w)	1
14		Kiru Mendez	1593	W18 (w)	--- (-)	--- (-)	1
15		Sampath Kumar	1556	W20 (w)	L1 (w)	L9 (b)	1
16		Mahesh Padhi	1449	L5 (w)	L4 (b)	W22 (w)	1
17		Arav Goldstein	1423	D3 (w)	D10 (b)	L4 (w)	1
18		Paul Jones	1408	L14 (b)	L6 (b)	B--- (-)	1
19		Nishanth Gaddam	1373	D10 (w)	D8 (b)	L5 (w)	1
20		Dan Boisvert	1329	L15 (b)	B--- (-)	--- (-)	1
21	21	Debs Pedigo	1414	H--- (-)	L11 (b)	L8 (w)	½
22	22-23	Connor McElroy	1428	L2 (b)	L13 (w)	L16 (b)	0
23		Rohan Parashar	762	L9 (b)	--- (-)	--- (-)	0

Under 1400
The U1400 section had 20 players.  Featured at the top of the wall chart were previous U1400 Champions RA73 champion Paige Cook (1380), Gautam "got em" Kapur (1346), and RA74 co-champion Donald "Johnson &" Johnson (1301).

Donald Johnson defended his title, scoring 3/3 and tying with Barringer's Nikhil Kamisetty (1182), each earning $113.  Winning the Under 1200 class prize were Robert Murray-Gramlich, Saanchi Sampath, Pranav Swarna, and Rohit Gottiparthi ($13 each).

Final Standings - Reverse Angle 75: Under 1400

#	Place	Name	Rtng	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Tot	Prize
1	1-2	Donald Johnson	1301	W13 (w)	W9 (b)	W6 (w)	3	112.50
2		Nikhil Kamisetty	1182	W20 (w)	W15 (b)	W5 (w)	3	112.50
3	3	Arjun Rawal	1273	H--- (-)	W18 (b)	W10 (w)	2½
4	4-9	Paige Cook	1380	L9 (w)	W11 (w)	W12 (b)	2
5		Gautam Kapur	1346	W12 (b)	W8 (w)	L2 (b)	2
6		Robert Murray-Gramlich	1171	W14 (b)	W16 (w)	L1 (b)	2	12.50
7		Saanchi Sampath	1156	L15 (w)	W20 (b)	W14 (w)	2	12.50
8		Pranav Swarna	1139	W17 (w)	L5 (b)	W15 (w)	2	12.50
9		Rohit Gottiparthi	1108	W4 (b)	L1 (w)	W16 (b)	2	12.50
10	10-11	Brian Miller	1256	D11 (b)	W19 (w)	L3 (b)	1½
11		Avneesh Tamhankar	1063	D10 (w)	L4 (b)	W18 (w)	1½
12	12-17	Akshay Rajagopal	1075	L5 (w)	W13 (b)	L4 (w)	1
13		Zihui Qiu	1071	L1 (b)	L12 (w)	W19 (b)	1
14		Richard Trela	1049	L6 (w)	W17 (b)	L7 (b)	1
15		Matthew Odom	1002	W7 (b)	L2 (w)	L8 (b)	1
16		Rohan Parashar	762	B--- (-)	L6 (b)	L9 (w)	1
17		Bruce Stevens	unr.	L8 (b)	L14 (w)	W20 (w)	1
18	18-19	Matthew Mecia	1151	D19 (b)	L3 (w)	L11 (b)	½
19		Henry Nguyen	871	D18 (w)	L10 (b)	L13 (w)	½
20	20	Parijat Majumdar	1055	L2 (b)	L7 (w)	L17 (b)	0

UPSETS - 150 points or more
U1400, Round 1 - Rohit Gottiparthi (1108) def. Paige Cook (1380) - 272 points
Top, Round 2 - Vishnu Vanapalli (1954) def. Klaus Pohl (2201) - 247 points
U1800, Round 3 - Eric Shi (1316) def. Sampath Kumar (1556) - 240 points
U1800, Round 1 - Advaith Karthik (1453) def. Danny Cropper (1686) - 233 points
U1800, Round 1 - Douglas Taublib (1529) def. Connor Liu (1734) - 205 points
Top, Round 3 - Aditya Shivapooja (1770) def. Ernest Nix (1959) -  189 points
Top, Round 3 - Sulia Mason (2030) def. Klaus Pohl (2201) - 171 points
U1400, Round 3 - Nikhil Kamisetty (1182) def. Gautam Kapur (1346) - 164 points
U1400, Round 1 - Matthew Odom (1002) def. Saanchi Sampath (1156) - 154 points
Top, Round 2 - Douglas Taublib (1529) def. David Richards (1680) - 151 points


USCF Rated Results


Reverse Angle 76 is Saturday, September 9.  Rated Blitz tournament featuring IM John Bartholomew next Friday, August 18!


Until next time,
GO

Simple Chess: 2017 Carolina's Classic Tournament

I promise I didn't disappear, I have been out of commission with a broken hand. While not impossible, it just took too long for me to try and type a blog post every week. Now my hand has healed enough for me to type again. More chess articles to come!

For me it was a last minute decision to play in the 2017 Carolina's Classic tournament. I was originally going to play in the US Open this year. However, other obligations hindered me from playing. Therefore, I decided to play in a local tournament.

Before we get any further: A huge thank you to Peter, Walter, and Rudy for making it an amazing event. Thank you to everyone behind the scenes that I didn't get to see or don't know the names to the faces. Without people sacrificing time and sometimes money we wouldn't have these great events. Thank you!

I had played in the first Carolina's Classic tournament in 2016. In fact, I scored 4.0/5 which was half a point behind tied first. I felt I was better this time around. I thought I could take first place this year in the U1800 section with my training that I had been doing.

Well, thinking and doing are two different things.

This was a very mentally draining tournament for me. I hope to share not only the game analysis but also the mental and emotional struggle that one can experience through a tournament like this. 

Alright, enough babbling let's get to the chess. I will update this within a week with the analysis of the games. I simply wanted to get the mental and human aspect of my experience of the tournament out first.

I was confident leading up to the tournament until a few days before when I started to doubt my abilities in the opening. This was caused by a terrible game I had played during the 5th round of the Tuesday Night Action tournament. I had a losing position after 10 moves! It was a confidence killer for sure. 

I had decided to play the 3 day option so my first round game was at 730pm Friday night. My first round opponent was Kiru Mendez. A friendly blitz competitor after our Tuesday night games. I usually have an advantage over him so I was happy to see this match up. While I didn't think it was going to be easy, I felt comfortable since I already knew his style of play.

Well, the game was going my way and then against my own judgement of playing "simple chess", I decided to complicate matters and then failed to convert one more time to end up in time pressure and refusing a draw with 9 seconds on my clock due to being stubborn.

Here is the final winning position for me:


After feeling like I should have won and not, I decided to do something I never do. I reentered the tournament.

My "first" round game was at 10am Saturday morning. This time I was paired against Luke Harris and I had a 2-1 record against him. I had the White pieces which meant I was going to see the Dragon variation of the Sicilian defense. Sure enough I did. This time I grabbed my pawn early in the game but it allowed way too much activity for his pieces and my King succumbed to his fiery dragon.

Man. At this point in the tournament I am in the exact same position of 0/1. However, mentally I was 0/2. I tried to mentally remind myself that I still only had 1 loss and that I won money last year with only losing one game.

This didn't work. My confidence was falling faster than American's trust in our political system.

Then round 2 was here. I wanted a win. I needed a win for my mental state. I chose to play the Dutch against his 1. d4. I was playing it pretty well too and then I left a crucial pawn without any defenders and the strategic poison of the Dutch started to corrode my position and mind. Another loss.

Tournament showed me 0/2. But my mind was telling me 0/3. Ouch!

I took a walk over to Boardwalk Billy's and got some chicken tenders. They usually make me feel better. Usually.

I walk back and challenge some people to blitz games and even though I lose 90% of them it got my excitement for chess back.

I had considered withdrawing and spending the rest of the weekend with my family. Not that I don't love my family but I had worked too hard to just give up.

Alright, time for round 3. Time to turn this around, hopefully. I just wish my mind would stop reminding me I was really 0/3.

Finally, my mind clicked through to chess mode and my opponent made a mistake in the opening to lose a central pawn in the Ruy Lopez. Then I decided to go on a Napoleon-like conquering expedition of the entire board. Meanwhile I allowed my king to be stabbed through the weak holes like Julius Caesar. Once we traded down, I think my opponent had a final chance to put some nails in my coffin in a King, Rook, and pawns endgame. However, he failed to keep the pressure and I went on to demonstrate how to win the game.

FINALLY!

A win. It was the one I needed to give some of the confidence back that I had lost. Confidence is a lot like a chess rating though. You can lose a lot at once but it takes much longer for it to build back up. This wasn't a clean win but it was a win. I could go home and sleep a little better. Tournament results so far: 1.0/3. Mental results so far: 1.0/4.

Now it is Sunday. The final day. Only 2 games left. My plan is finish with at least 2.5/5. Do or die.

Round 4 turned out to the toughest game for me the entire tournament. I decided to play the Kan Sicilian and it felt extremely tactical during the game. I took a lot of time and I think I actually ended up in a worse position in the middle of the middle game. However, I have also learned how to complicate positions over the board as well for people around my rating. I got to play some deflection tactics, I won the exchange thanks to my opponent trapping his rook in the middle of the board, and I was able to finish the game by sacrificing my rook to promote a pawn. Then my Queen was able to battle his Knight to bring in the win.

WOW.

2 wins in a row now. 2.0/4 in the tournament. Only half a point away from my plan. The confidence was seeping back into my body now. I could win the final round. Sure I could. I just need to play smart chess. Let's do it.

Round 5, here we go.

My opponent opened with 1. d4. Since I would be okay with a draw here I elect to go for the solid Slav defense. I held up well against Kiru in the first game and my loss came because of mistakes after the opening phase. I can do this. And then I make a rookie mistake.

I try to hold onto my pawn after capturing on c4 with b5 and then a6. I am now down a pawn early in the game. Now mentally upset with myself and the rest of the tournament is rearing itself back into my mind. I close my eyes, take several deep breaths, slow my heart rate. Reopen my eyes and shove the negative thoughts into a locked box. Time to focus only on the game in front of me. I'm only down a pawn, I can still hold out for a draw and maybe I can even get a win.

The game continues and gets even more complicated in the middle game. Multiple captures and multiple in-between moves to consider in my calculations. The pressure is on.

The smoke has cleared and as I stare through it with only one eye halfway open, I am surviving.

Then to my surprise, my opponent boldly miscalculates and loses a piece!

Alright, time to close my eyes, take several deep breaths, and slow my heart rate. I have lost several won games before in the past (some in this tournament) and so I know it is time to focus even more.

I end up in a King and pawn endgame except I have a Bishop. I don't think I played it accurately but I was able to finesse my King around his king and pawns and went on to win the final game.

WHOA!

After starting out 0/4 I finished 3/6. In the tournament I finished with 3.0/5.

I don't think my games are that instructive. What I hope is more instructive is the mental toughness that one can have even when they don't think they can. One thing I find that will separate great players from good players is perseverance. I may have started too late to be great but I won't stop until I find out.

I am competitive. I am driven. I don't know how to stop. This is my road to the Expert title. I look forward to seeing you all along the way.  

 

Game Analysis: The Charlottesville Open

This is part two of the game analysis from the tournaments I played in during my 10-day road trip. Last week, I published the four games from The New Hampshire Open that took place July 8th and 9th. This time, we are going to look at the five games from The Charlottesville Open, which took place the following weekend, July 15th and 16th.

There were a few major differences between The New Hampshire Open and The Charlottesville Open. First off, the attendance at the Charlottesville Open was roughly half that of The New Hampshire Open (53 versus 104) and had two sections, Open and Under 1700, versus six sections in New Hampshire where the next section below the open section was Under 2000. Another major difference was the time control. While The New Hampshire Open saw a time control of 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by the rest of the game in 60 minutes with a five second delay per move, The Charlottesville Open saw a more rapid time control of game in 90 minutes with a five second delay. So with a larger disparity in rating between players combined with the significantly shorter time control, the games you will see below will feature more errors than that of The New Hampshire Open. While there were mistakes made in the games in New Hampshire - see White's play in Game 1 or Black's play in Games 3 and 4 - there was never really big swings in position assessment, and that article became a good source of seeing how to win the won game, and all games were decisive.

Here, on the other hand, you will see errors that completely change the assessment of the position. Probably the most significant one is in the final round, seeing Black play a very strong game including a pawn sacrifice just to botch the won endgame, and the clock did play a factor in that game. To go along with four draws, of which I'd say the two games that I had White were legitimate, but wins were missed in the other games. That said, the one decisive game, Round 3, was by far the best game I played in the entire road trip, and is also visually appealing, and that says a lot after seeing a strong positional performance by Black in the second round of New Hampshire and two very strong attacks by White in rounds three and four, the former of which was also executed by me while I was the victim in the case of the latter.

So without further ado, let's start with the first round of The Charlottesville Open.


Round 1
W: Sudars Sriniayer (1824)
B: Patrick McCartney (2054)
King's Indian Defense, Fianchetto Variation

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.g3 d6 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O c6 7.d4 Qa5

So through transposition from the English Opening, we now have what is known as the Kavalek Variation of the Fianchetto King's Indian. Black's idea is simple. He wants to move the Queen to h5 and then play ...Bh3 and trade light-squared bishops. White has two ways to avoid it and pretty much any other move poses no challenge to Blaack. One of the two is the move played below. The other is to play 8.h3, with the idea that if Black plays 8...Qh5, then 9.g4 and Black is nowhere near ready to sacrifice a piece. With the move played in the game, White goes for complete control of the center as his way of countering any ...Bh3 ideas.

8.e4 Bg4

Black's idea is very crude. He is out to dominate the dark squares, and particularly d4. Black figures to give up the one piece that can't control d4 directly, and take one of the White Knights off the board, giving Black a one-piece advantage when it comes to controlling the dark squares. After trading on f3, the idea is to play ...e5, which does multiple things for Black. From the attacking perspective, it takes over control of the d4-square. From the defensive perspective, it will keep the e-pawn locked on e4, blocking the Bishop from dominating the entire long diagonal (h1-a8).

9.Qb3

This move is quite unusual. More common is 9.h3, forcing Black to make a decision of what to do with the Bishop. As mentioned prior, Black would take and play ...e5.

9...Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Qc7 11.Be3 e5 12.d5 Na6 13.Rac1 Nd7 14.Qa3 c5 15.Nb5

Now Black has a critical decision to make. He can keep the Queen active at the cost of a pawn, or he can place the Queen very passively on b8. After 15...Qb8 16.Bg5, White's advantage would be significant, and so Black goes for the pawn sacrifice.

15...Qb6 16.Bd2

With the major threat of trapping the Queen. 16...Nc7 drops a piece and 16...Nb8 gives the Rook no escape after 17.Ba5 and 18.Nc7, and so Black's next move is totally forced.

16...Nb4 17.Bxb4 cxb4 18.Qxb4

This works and doesn't fail to a pin because the d6-pawn is loose.

18...Nc5 19.Qd2 a6 20.Nc3 f5 21.Bg2 Rf6 22.Kh1 f4 23.Qe2 Raf8 24.Bf3 g5 25.g4 R8f7 26.Kg2 h5 27.h3 h4 28.Qc2 Kh7 29.Rb1 Qb4 30.Qe2 Bf8 31.Rfc1 Be7 32.b3 Bd8 33.Rc2

We now have a critical position. With the correct move by Black, the position remains for the most part balanced with White maybe having a miniscule advantage, but not enough to win the game with correct play by Black. Do you see the correct move?

33...Kh6??

This move should cost Black the game. The only move is 33...Ba5, but that move is enough to balance the position. White, however, fails to see the idea, which I actually saw but failed to realize that 33...Ba5 actually stops it. Time was not severe at this point, but it was getting low, and rushing analysis leads to mistakes and missed opportunities.

34.Rcc1 1/2-1/2

White offered the draw while returning the Rook to where it came from. However, White was winning and this idea was a total mistake by White and it cost him half the point. After 34.a3!! Qxa3 35.b4!, Black's Queen gets trapped. Therefore, Black would be forced to retreat, and White can just continue to expand and roll the pawns on the Queenside where he has the majority. Had Black played 33...Ba5, this idea wouldn't work as 34.a3 Qxa3! 35.b4 would simply be answered by 35...Bxb4.


In round 2, we see the first of two games that were legitimately drawn, and admittedly, neither of the games that I had White in this tournament featured much in the means of fireworks. Some ideas can be learned from them, but they won't be quite as exciting as the three games where I had Black, especially rounds 3 and 5.

Round 2
W: Patrick McCartney (2054)
B: Nathan Lohr (1966)
Modern Defense

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4 d6 4.Nc3 Nc6

20 years ago, this move was extremely popular amongst those that played the Averbakh (or Modern Defense with c4, or the "d4-Modern"). However, shortly after the turn of the century, it was determined that this line is very dubious for Black because of 5.d5!. That said, White's follow-up must be very exact and precise if he wants to take advantage of Black's theoretical error, and because I hadn't played this line as White or Black in over 15 years, I wasn't prepared to play that line, and played the other main line. These days, in order to avoid the issues with 4...Nc6 5.d5 Nd4, those that don't want to transpose to the King's Indian Defense will typically play 4...e5, the idea being to answer 5.Be3 with 5...Nc6 transposing to the line played in the game.

5.Be3 e5 6.Nge2 Nxd4 7.Nxd4 exd4 8.Bxd4 Bxd4 9.Qxd4 Qf6

So White has a lead in development, and under normal circumstances, letting your opponent initiate trades is a good thing because, in theory, the person that initiates the trade loses a tempo, which in essence is true, but the problem here is with how much that has been traded already, trading Queens leads to very few problems for Black because the space advantage and lead in development are typically less relevant when many of the pieces have been traded off and the player with less space ends up being no longer at risk of suffocation. Therefore, the right idea here for White is to play 10.Qe3, keeping the Queens on the board. That said, White allows the trade of Queens.

10.Rd1 Qxd4 11.Rxd4 Bd7 12.Be2 Ne7 13.O-O Nc6 14.Rd2 O-O-O

The position is completely equal, and a couple more trades will make the draw inevitable.

15.Rfd1 Rhe8 16.f3 f5 17.Kf2 a6 18.Bf1 Rf8 19.Kg3 f4+ 20.Kf2 g5 21.h3 Be6 22.Nd5 h5 23.Be2 Ne5 24.b3 g4 25.hxg4 hxg4 26.Rh1 Bxd5 27.cxd5 g3+

With the total blockade of the dark squares and White having a light-squared Bishop, he realizes that a win is not going to happen, and makes sure that Black can't invade via the h-file. With correct play, neither side has a breakthrough, and both players realize and acknowledge this just a few moves later.

28.Kg1 Rh8 29.Rxh8 Rxh8 30.Rc2 Rh7 31.Rc3 Kb8 1/2-1/2


The next game was by far my best game of the entire road trip.

Round 3
W: David Hulvey (1900)
B: Patrick McCartney (2054)
French Steinitz

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.Qf2

While this move has been played before, it is slightly unusual, and far more common is to trade twice on c5 before doing this: 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.Bxc5 Nxc5 11.Qf2 and White retains the slight advantage that he gets for going first.

9...Qa5 10.Bd2 b4 11.Ne2 cxd4 12.Nexd4 Nxd4 13.Qxd4?

13.Nxd4 would have retained a level position. Instead, via taking with the Queen, White has gone from an early attempt at dominating the g1-a7 diagonal to losing complete control of it in a mere matter of 5 moves! Black is already better.

13...Bc5 14.Qd3 Qb6 15.O-O-O Bf2

WHAT? Some drunk must have thought up this crazy move! No, actually, it serves a purpose. Black is attempting to paralyze White's development and at the same time, open up the c5-square for the Knight where it is headed for e4.

16.Ng5

The point behind Black's last move is that 16.Be1 doesn't make things any easier for White. After 16...Nc5 17.Qe2 Ne4 18.Nd2 Be3 19.Kb1 Nc3+ 20.bxc3 Bxd2 21.c4 Bc3 and White's position is a total mess. After something like 22.cxd5, Black could even consider ignoring the pawn and playing 22...O-O. For example, after 23.d6 Bb7 24.Bh4 Bd5 25.Rxd5 exd5 26.Be7 Qa5 27.Qe3 Rfb8 28.d7 Qa3 29.Qc1 Qa4 30.d8=Q+ Rxd8 31.Bxd8 Rxd8, the material count may be equal after all of this, but the position surely is not. Black has a big advantage.

Another thing to note is that 16.Be2, connecting the Rooks, is also unplayable as 16...Nc5 then traps the Queen.

16...h6

If there was ever a bad time to castle, it would be now! 16...O-O?? 17.Qxh7 mate!

17.Qh3 Nc5 18.Be2 O-O

Putting the question to the White Knight.

19.Nf3

White should have considered 19.Rhf1 first, making Black put the Knight on a4 rather than e4 while White could still force a Knight trade if Black went to the most desirable square.

19...Bd7 20.g4

Too little, too late. Black's attack is way faster here.

20...Bb5

If there was any piece of little use for Black's attack, it was the light-squared Bishop, and if there was any soft spot around Black's King, it would be the light squares, and so Black decides this is the one piece to eliminate before proceeding on with the mission to kill the White King.

21.Qf1

If White has to make backwards moves in what is a race at the opposite side's King, then he is immediately admitting defeat. Since he doesn't want to open the a-file for Black, a move like 21.Bf1 was necessary, keeping the Queen out there to try to get at the Black King.

21...Bxe2 22.Qxe2 Rfc8 23.Kb1

The Bishop is poisoned. 23.Qxf2?? Nd3+ nets Black the Queen.

23...Ne4 24.Rhf1

24...Rc3!!

A rare tactic known as Alekhine's Block. Black places a piece on the third rank that can't be taken for tactical reasons, and it prevents White from ever advancing the c-pawn. With its advancement, White can guard b2 and a2 with his heavy pieces along the second rank. With the c2-pawn in White's way, it becomes very difficult to defend Black's attack down the b- and a-files.

25.Rxf2

Relatively best was 25.Ne1 Be3 26.Nd3 Bxd2 27.Rxd2 Nxd2+ 28.Qxd2 Rac8 29.Rc1 R3c4, but Black is still in the driver's seat.

25...Nxf2 26.Rf1 Ne4 27.Ne1 Rac8 28.Bc1

28...Ra3!!

The Rook is still poisoned as 29.bxa3 bxa3+ followed by Rb8 and mate can't be stopped. Also note that while this now allows advancement of the c-pawn, it doesn't help White. For example, 29.c3 b3! and the Rook still can't be taken as 30.bxa3 bxa2+ 31.Kc2 Rxc3+ 32.Kd1 Rxc1+ 33.Kxc1 Qb1 is mate while 29.c4 is no improvement as after 29...b3 30.bxa3 bxa2+ 31.Kc2 Rxc4+, White can prolong it by 6 moves if he plays 32.Qxc4, but it's still mate all the same. The move also comes with another major threat, namely Nc3+.

29.Qg2

White saw half of the threat. The fork on the King and Queen. However, he overlooked the mate on a2. The only way to prolong the game was 29.Rf3, but Black will win all the same. Now it's mate in four.

29...Nc3+ 30.bxc3

Or 30.Ka1 Rxa2 mate.

30...bxc3+ 31.Ka1 Rb8 0-1

There is no way to stop mate on the b-file.


And now we go from what was the best game of the entire road trip to what is by far the dullest. The position was equal or close to equal for the entire game with the slight advantages fluctuating between both sides.

Round 4
W: Patrick McCartney (2054)
B: Andrew Rea (2074)
Torre Attack

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bg5 g6 4.Nbd2 Bg7 5.c3 c6 6.e4 Bg4 7.Qc2 Qc7 8.e5

Primarily played to prevent ...e5 by Black.

8...dxe5 9.Nxe5 Be6 10.Be2 Nbd7 11.Nd3 Bf5 12.Qb3 O-O 13.O-O e5

Now the center liquidates and we get a symmetrical pawn structure with equal material.

14.Nxe5 Nxe5 15.dxe5 Qxe5 16.Bxf6

Due to tactical threats, I surrendered the Bishop pair. That said, Black's advantage will be so miniscule that the result is still not in doubt.

16...Bxf6 17.Bf3 Rad8 18.Rfe1 Qc7 19.Nf1 Rd7 20.Rad1 Bd3 1/2-1/2

The draw was agreed upon at this point.


The final round sees a pawn sacrifice by Black followed by brilliant play that leads to a completely winning position from what looked like an inferior position, just to blunder away the win in time trouble and having to resort to a draw.

Round 5
W: Patrick Spain (1907)
B: Patrick McCartney (2054)
French Chigorin

1.e4 e6 2.Qe2

This is known as the Chigorin Variation. The idea behind it is that White wants to disrupt Black's normal flow of development, intending to answer 2...d5 with 3.exd5 where Black can't take back with the pawn due to the pin on the King. It does, however, impede White's light-squared Bishop, virtually forcing the Bishop to fianchetto. What usually arises out of this opening is a strange sort of King's Indian Attack where White plays f4 before developing the Knight.

2...c5

This is the best response to 2.Qe2. It prevents d4 by White, trying to get the big center with Black unable to contest it immediately with the normal d5 push. Black will develop his Knight to c6, his Bishop to e7, and only then play d5, followed by Nf6 and castling, leading to the same structure that French players typically play against the King's Indian Attack.

3.f4 Nc6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.g3 d5 6.d3 Nf6 7.e5 Nd7 8.Bg2 b5

Following the same script as in the normal KIA versus French. White is looking to attack the Black King while Black gains space on the Queenside, trying to force weaknesses.

9.O-O a5 Bh3 Qc7 11.c3 b4 12.c4 dxc4 13.dxc4 Nd4 14.Nxd4 cxd4 15.Bg2

So let's assess what we have here. Black has an isolated pawn on d4, though it is passed, and he has the c5-square as a lauching pad for his minor pieces. In return, he has a lead in development. In the current position, it was probably best to play 15...Bb7, looking to eliminate the light-squared Bishops, but instead, Black played a different move with the idea of getting the Rook active, and to cover e6 in case Black ever does want to break in the center with and f6 push, the e6-pawn would be covered.

15...Ra6 16.Nd2 Bc5 17.Qd3 a4 18.Ne4 f5?

This move is an error. White misses the opportunity here to win a pawn for basically nothing. Instead, after 18...O-O 19.Nxc5 Nxc5 20.Qd4 Rd8 21.Qf2, White is up a pawn, but Black has definite compensation for it. In the game, both sides miss the idea of taking the Bishop on c5.

19.exf6 Nxf6 20.Nxf6+ gxf6 21.Bd2 O-O 22.Rae1 Rd6 23.h3 Qg7 24.Kh2 Kh8 25.Re2 Rg8 26.Rfe1 Ba6 27.b3 axb3 28.axb3 Bc8 29.Ra1 e5 30.Bd5 Be6 31.Bxe6 Rxe6 32.fxe5 fxe5 33.g4

So let's assess the situation. The material is equal. Both Kings are fairly open. Black's biggest problem is that his pawns sit on the same color complex as the Bishops. If Black just sits around and allows White to place a piece on e4, he will have nothing to do but sit back and defend, allowing White to set up his pieces optimally before executing while all Black does is watch. Therefore, a sacrifice is called for here to open up Black's pieces.

33...e4! 34.Rxe4

Ok, before we go any further, let's assess the situation. Black is down a pawn. White has a protected passed pawn on c4. Black has an isolated passer on d4. Let's apply general knowledge of pawn-up endgames to figure out what Black wants to do here.

With maybe a few rare exceptions, any King and Pawn endgame is going to be winning for the player that is a pawn up, and so a King and Pawn ending will win for White pretty easily.

Same color Bishop endings also tend to heavily favor the player with the extra material, and so that is not what Black wants either.

Double Rook endings, like Pawn endings or same color Bishop endings, also tend to favor the player with the extra pawn, and so we don't want this either as Black.

Single Rook endings are often viewed as the best shot at a draw for the player down the pawn, but with the d4-pawn being isolated and advanced, the White King can easily get to it faster than the Black King can assist the pawn, and if the d4-pawn falls, so does Black's position, and so we don't want a Rook ending either.

That leaves the Queen ending. Queen endings, unlike any other endgame, do not favor the player with the extra material, but rather, the player with the farthest advanced passed pawn. Black has a passed pawn that is 3 squares from promotion while White's passed pawn is 4 squares away. In many cases, being down material but having the farthest advanced passed pawn may lead to nothing more than a draw, and both sides have to constantly watch out for perpetual check in Queen endings, but it is 100 percent clear that a Queen ending is specifically what Black is looking for, and White pretty much wants anything in the world but that!

34...Bd6+ 35.Bf4

I think White should prefer moving his King, if nothing else, on the sheer basis that this move allows Black to remove two of the three pieces he wants gone immediately!

35...Rxe4 36.Qxe4 Bxf4+ 37.Qxf4 Rf8!

I spent a long time on the move 33...e4, and while this line was not forced, it was what I anticipated by White, and the move 37...Rf8 is what made me decide to give the pawn sacrifice a shot. I should note that Black does not care to give the discovery with 37...d3 as all it does is weaken the pawn and invite the Rook to come into the game on a more active open file.

38.Qd2

In my opinion, not the best square for the Queen. 38.Qd6 was probably stronger as it keeps the Queen active and at the same time, covers the diagonal his King is on, and Black can't start harassing the King with checks.

38...Qe5+ 39.Kh1 Rf3 40.Qh6

White now threatens 41.Ra8+, winning, but Black's next move both defends a8 and keeps the Queen on an active square and continues to harass the White King. In fact, Black is actually winning here.

40...Qe4 41.Kh2 Qe2+ 42.Kh1 Rf1+!

Mission Accomplished! Black has gotten his desired Queen endgame.

43.Rxf1 Qxf1+ 44.Kh2 Qf2+ 45.Kh1 d3!

The fact that White has no checks makes this idea possible.

46.Qd6

46...Qf3+??

Having spent so much time on moves 33 and 34, I was low on time here, and started to hallucinate things that weren't there. For some reason, I thought that the White Queen had three prongs to work off of, namely d5, f5, and h5, failing to realize that White does not have f5 from where my Queen already was on f2. I played this move to cover d5 and f5, but if I had more time, I'd have figured out that the Black King can wiggle out of check. The winning move is 46...d2!!. The White Queen can't prevent my King from getting into g3. For example, after 47.Qd8+ Kg7 48.Qg5+ Kf7 49.Qd5+ Kg6 50.Qg8+ Kh6 (This also played into my move. Black can't allow White to skewer the Black King to the Queen on the f-file, and so this move is forced, but it works.) White has two options, but neither work. A) 51.g5+ Kh5 52.Qxh7+ Kxg5 53.Qe7+ (53.Qg7+ amounts to the same thing) Kf4 54.Qf8+ Ke3 55.Qc5+ Ke2 56.Qe5+ Qe3 57.Qh2+ Ke1 -+ or B) 51.Qd5 Qe1+ 52.Kh2 d1=Q 53.Qh5+ Kg7 54.Qg5+ Kf7 55.Qh5+ Ke6 56.Qe8+ Kd6 57.Qf8+ Ke5 58.Qg7+ Kf4 59.Qh6+ Kf3 60.Qf6+ Ke2 61.Qe5+ Kf1 -+. The other hallucination was that with the pawn currently on d3 and not d2, and scrambling for time, I had the idea that White has time for one free move, and he doesn't. All moves must be check.

47.Kg1 Kg7 48.Qd4+ Kg6 49.h4!

And here inlies the difference between the pawn being on d3 versus d2. White has time to play a non-checking move that slams the door on the Black King from getting in. Black has nothing better than a perpetual that is available to him.

49...Qg3+ 50.Kh1

White could also go 50.Kf1, but after 50...Qf3+, White has nothing other than going back to g1 as both 51.Ke1?? Qe2# and 51.Qf2?? Qh1+ 52.Qg1 Qxg1+ win for Black.

50...Qh3+ 51.Kg1 Qg3+ 52.Kh1 Qh3+ 53.Kg1 Qg3+ 1/2-1/2

Such a sad ending to what was previously brilliant play by Black given the situation of the position, and he even converted it to a won position just to throw it away on a single move.


So all told, I finished the road trip with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 4 draws, including almost perfect results with the French Defense, an opening you are likely to see in future articles when I cover opening analysis!