Game Analysis: Atlanta Class Championship, Round 2

Hello everyone and welcome. Today we are going to analyze the game I played in the second round of the Atlanta Class Championship. Those that have read the article on Round 1 will know that it featured the main line of the Sicilian Prins Variation. This game features the same opening, except at one juncture in the opening where Black has a decision to make, where his options are to play a dynamic middle game with a weak pawn on d6, or to play an endgame by advancing that d-pawn right away, in the first round, we saw Black take the former route, but here we are going to see Black go for the endgame. With correct play, it is theoretically equal, but it leads to a very depressing game for Black where he has to defend light pressure for a very long time as he tries to weave his way through an inferior endgame, and as we will see below, Black was unable to do this here.

I should note that after beating the top seed in the previous round, this is now the second seed that I'm facing. Due to a number of upsets in the first round, and not a single game won by Black, this lead to some people repeating color as early as round two, and therefore, I did have the fortune of getting White against both of the top two seeds. Let's see how I was able to take advantage of that luxury.


Atlanta Class Championship, Round 2
W: Patrick McCartney (2018)
B: Hemachandra Rambha (2104)
Sicilian Defense, Prins Variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 e5 6.Nb3

For details on the last 3 moves, check the previous article.

Now, Black decides to take the opposite route of that which happened in Round 1.

6...d5

This immediately resolves the backwards pawn, but usually leads to a miserable endgame for Black, despite the fact that it's equal with correct play. The main problem is that Black's winning chances are almost zero barring an egregious error by White.

7.Bg5

The correct move for White. Bad is 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.a3 Be6 9.c4 Nb6 10.Qxd8+ Kxd8 and Black has a slight advantage due to the more active pieces.

7...Be6

The best reply. 7...dxe4? 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Bxf6+ gxf6 10.fxe4 gives White an improved version of the main line, while 7...d4 isn't much better after 8.c3 Nc6 (8...dxc3 9.Qxd8+ Kxd8 10.Nxc3 gives White a small advantage.) 9.Bb5 Be6 10.cxd4 Bxb3 11.Qxb3 Qxd4 12.Be3 Bb4+ (Worse is 12...Qb4+ 13.Nd2!) and now both 13.Nd2 and 13.Kf2 give White a small advantage.

8.Bxf6 gxf6

Of course 8...Qxf6 9.exd5 simply wins a pawn for White.

9.exd5 Qxd5 10.Qxd5 Bxd5 11.Nc3

Now Black has a decision to make. His four main options are 11...Bxb3, 11...Bb4, 11...Bc6, or 11...Be6, the last of the four being considered the main line and theoretically best for Black.

11...Bc6 12.O-O-O Bb4

Play has transposed to the 11...Bb4 line where 12.O-O-O Bc6 takes us back to the game position.

13.Nd5

This move is not bad, but stronger is 13.Nb5!, when 13...Bxb5 14.Bxb5+ Ke7 15.c3 leads to a theoretically winning position for White. Black's pawns are a train wreck, and White's Bishop is better than Black's.

13...Bxd5 14.Rxd5 Nc6 15.Bb5 a6 16.Bxc6+ bxc6 17.Rdd1 Ke7 18.c3

Here is a prime example of thinking beyond the basics. Under normal circumstances, a position like this would be viewed as Black having the better minor piece. Maybe not the better position, but the better minor piece. Here, even that isn't true. While yes the position is somewhat open, and yes there are pawns on both sides, the problem for Black is that he has way too many weaknesses beyond just that of his own pawns. His pawns sit on e5 and f6, and with a pawn also on f7, it is very difficult for Black to be able to advance the e- and f-pawns. This shows the reasoning behind White's last move. He forces the Bishop back so that he can put his other Rook on e1, pressuring the e-pawn if the f-pawn ever advances. However, the moment the f-pawn tries to advance, it will be an easy target for the White Knight, and Black will be forced to advance the f-pawn again to f4, re-creating weaknesses on the light squares, like e4 and f5.

Had Black's Bishop been a light-squared Bishop, this wouldn't be that big of a problem for Black. However, with a dark-squared Bishop, Black's position is terrible due to the light squares, and we are about to see a Knight tour where the Knight will end up on f5 in short order.

18...Bd6 19.Rhe1 Kd7 20.Na5

Headed for f5.

20...Kc7 21.Nc4 Rad8 22.Ne3 h5 23.Nf5 Rhg8

Now, based on the current position and what has happened recently, this might just look like a run-of-the-mill endgame that is really boring in nature. Truth is, this position is only boring for one player. Black! The trick here is to recognize various endgame tactics, not just the positional nature of the position. Sure, we all know that White's Knight is in an excellent spot, and Black's Bishop stinks, but that is not enough to win the game. However, what are the various ways that White can win the game? Some of the answers may include:

• Flat out winning material via tactics.
• Removing all the Rooks. If you were to envision the position with all the Rooks off, the Knight would easily beat the Bishop as Black has Pawn weaknesses all over the place, and the Knight can get to any of the 64 squares on the board.
• Recognizing that if everything were to get traded off, White's 3-on-2 Queenside majority is far superior to Black's 4-on-3 Kingside majority, and figuring out that White would most likely win all pawn endgames.

So the last 2 bullets are long term ideas, but let's look at how we can threaten to win material. Well, the first thing to recognize is that with the Knight on f5, covering e7, there is no way, at the moment, for Black to move his Bishop on d6 and be able to cover the d8-Rook. This is significant. While it doesn't take long to recognize that this doesn't actually win material, because if White gets two Rooks on the d-file and forces the Bishop to move, because the h8-Rook and King both guard d8, Black can move the Bishop away to a square like c5 and no material is lost, but the important thing to recognize is that if White can achieve this, all of the Rooks will be forced off the board, and we will have the second bullet with a winning Knight vs Bishop endgame. Black also threatens g2-for the moment. So therefore, we want to double up on the d-file as quickly as possible, but we also want to cover the g-pawn. We could advance 24.g3, but that does nothing to double our Rooks on the d-file. Therefore, we probably want to lift a Rook to the second rank, but which one?

This is where recognizing minor details comes into play. Ultimately we want our Rooks on d2 and d1. We can lift the Rook on the d-file with 24.Rd2, planning to play 25.Red1, or we can lift the Rook on the e-file with 24.Re2, threatening 25.Red2. Which should White play?

The thing to recognize that if Black can advance the e-pawn, and once he does, it opens up the Bishop to the f4 square, which would pin a Rook on d2 to the King on c1, and so 24.Rd2 would be a slight error. It does not lose, but it gives Black counterplay with something like 24...e4 25.Rxe4 Bxh2. Therefore, White's next move should be fairly obvious at this point.

24.Re2 Rg5

Now, with the Rook lifted off of g8, the move Rd2 becomes a threat to win material as there is nowhere for the Bishop to go (again, e7 is covered by the Knight). The minor detail is that the Knight itself is under attack, but that should spark an idea in your head. If Black is not immediately attacking a piece, then Rd2 wins outright, and so therefore, do we need to move the Knight right now? Do we need to take the Bishop? The answer is no! White has another move that defends the Knight tactically.

25.g4!

But wait a minute, isn't that square attacked twice by Black an only covered once by White? Well, yes, but again, if Black captures twice, the Knight on f5 is no longer under attack, and moving the Rook from e2 to d2 would win a minimum the Bishop. Therefore, this tactical defense works here.

25...hxg4 26.fxg4 e4

Black recognized that taking the pawn on g4 drops a piece to 27.Red2, and therefore plays this idea mentioned earlier to be able to check or pin a Rook with the Bishop on f4. The problem here is that this pawn is now hanging, and so White can cash in by trading down and winning a pawn. You might say that a Rook ending is the last thing you want being one pawn up, but think about the position of the pieces and pawns after the combination.

27.Nxd6 Rxd6 28.Rxd6 Kxd6 29.Rxe4 f5 30.gxf5 Rxf5

Were you able to visualize this position back at move 27? This is a critical thing to be able to do. Visualize the position moves later and with who it is to move. By visualizing, you should have been able to figure out that White would be a pawn up, that he would have the outside passer compared to Black along with the majority on the Queenside, and most importantly, you'd be able to recognize that this position comes with White to move. Had it been Black to move, then being able to plop the Rook on the 2nd rank would cause White many problems, but it's White to move here, and so he moves his King up so that if Black tries to intrude on the 2nd rank, White can block with his own Rook.

31.Kd2 Rf1 32.Re1

This is better than the immediate 32.Re2 as it entices Black to check the White King, and then White gets his Rook to e2 with tempo.

32...Rf2+ 33.Re2 Rf1

So we have the exact same position that we would have had with 32.Re2, but the difference is, here it is White to move, and in that line, it would have been Black to move.

34.Ke3 f5 35.Rf2 Re1+ 36.Kd3

This was probably the wrong direction to go, but there is nothing that Black can do to take advantage of it. It simply doesn't allow White to make the progress he needs to make to win.

This brings up another interesting point. There are a number of ways that White can win. Identifying them, and figuring out which one is the most likely to be successful at happening, are both critical.

White can win by successfully achieving any of the following methods:

• Getting the h-pawn advanced and being able to get behind the h-pawn with the Rook. This would tie Black down to stopping the h-pawn, and White would use his majority on the Queenside to win. If Black tries to win the h-pawn, he is forced to do so via trading the Rooks, and White will snatch the f-pawn with his King, his King will be closer to the Queenside, and he'll be a full pawn up. White wins.
• Trading the h-pawn for the f-pawn if it means dragging the Black King to the Kingside.
• Forcing a trade off of the Rooks.

So the last one is a complete pipe dream. It is a blend of the first two that wins for White in this scenario. White needs to bring his King towards the Kingside to try to start advancing the h-pawn up to the point that the Black King has to come that way, and only then, White will trade the Kingside Pawns off, get to the Queenside first, and slowly snatch the Queenside pawns before promoting one of his own on that side of the board.

So instead of 36.Kd3, the King should be coming the other way to the Kingside. White soon fixes that issue.

36...Rh1 37.Re2 Rd1+ 38.Ke3 Rf1 39.Rf2 Re1+ 40.Kf3 Rg1 41.Kf4 Ke6

White's last move has forced Black to start bringing his King to the Kingside due to the threat of the f-pawn.

42.Re2+

And this move then forces the Black King to the f-file, a file further away from the Queenside.

43.Kf3 Rd1 44.h4

Threatening to get behind the passer.

44...Rh1

And so Black stops that idea, but White is going to try to force the issue.

45.Kg3

Threatening 46.Rh2.

45...Rg1+ 46.Rg2 f4+

Since going back to the h-file just leads to the threat White just had previously, Black tries to take advantage of the pin to advance the f-pawn, but this advance actually weakens it, and soon White will switch gears to the approach of trading off the Kingside pawns and then running to the Queenside.

47.Kf3

Of course, taking the f-pawn drops the Rook.

47...Rh1 48.Kxf4 Rxh4+ 49.Ke3 Ke5 50.Kd3

There is no use in 50.Rg5+ yet as the King is too close to the Rook, and the White King is not close enough yet to the White pawns on the Queenside to guard them. However, now if 50...Kd5, then 51.Rg5+ followed by 52.Kc2.

50...c5

However, advancing this pawn doesn't help either. Now when White checks, Black has to go towards the hanging c-pawn and can't harass the Rook. It also doesn't allow the King to move forward either as d4 is covered by the White pawn. Therefore ...

51.Rg5+! Kd6

But now ...

52.Rg6+ Ke5 53.b3

White avoids the issues with the check on c4. The a-pawn is not going anywhere, and there is no need to take it immediately. Now if the Black Rook goes to the second rank, then taking the pawn on a6 guards the a2-pawn.

53...a5 54.Ra6 Kd5 55.c4+

This creates a safe route for the White King via Kd3-c3-b2-a3-a4 and potentially take on a5 with the King.

55...Ke5 56.Kc3 Rh3+ 57.Kb2 Kd4 58.Rxa5 Rh2+ 59.Ka3 Rg2 60.Ra8 Kc3 61.Rh8

61...Rf2

The position might look scary for White because his King is pushed against the edge of the board, but in reality, it is a non-issue for White. For example, if 61...Rg7, then 62.Rh3+ and 62...Kd4 gives the White King the escape out the bottom on b2, but if 62...Kc2, then White can escape out the top. After 63.Ka4!, if Black tries to win the a-pawn with 63...Ra7+ 64.Kb5 Rxa2, then White wins via 65.Rh2+ Kxb3 66.Rxa2 Kxa2 67.Kxc5.

62.Rh5 Kd4 63.Rd5+ Kc3 64.Rxc5

Black is now down three full pawns and can safely resign.

64...Rf6 65.Ka4 Ra6+ 66.Ra5 Rb6 67.a3

White starts advancing the Queenside pawns on the basis of a tactic that Black falls for immediately.

67...Rxb3? 68.Rb5!

Despite giving up one of the pawns for it, the Black Rook is now trapped and is forced to be traded off. White is now winning easily and the rest needs no commentary.

68...Rxb5 69.cxb5 Kb2 70.b6 Ka1 71.Kb3 Kb1 72.b7 Ka1 73.b8=Q Kb1 74.Qh2 Ka1 75.Qg1# 1-0


So I started the tournament with two wins, both as White, against the top two rated players in the section. There was only one other two remaining, and so it was known immediately that I would have to play Black against the three seed the following round. That round will be covered in the next article. That said, there are a few things to pick up from this game.

One is that even in theoretically equal positions, they are not a piece of cake to execute. This line is supposedly equal for Black, but he has to sit through a long and miserable endgame just to get a draw, and he failed to do so here. White can basically drag this out at little to no risk. He really has nothing to lose. And so while 6...d5 may be the best move theoretically, practically, it's a nightmare for Black. For White, it's a simple case of "slow and steady wins the race".

The other thing that this game can be used for is to work on your visualization skills, especially around the moves in the 20s. If White doesn't use this to calculate his 24th and 25th moves, we might be looking at a different result as White can't afford to sit back passively. Otherwise, Black will consolidate and have very few problems getting half the point. Another thing that you can do is when you study a chess game, try to see how far you can mentally visualize the position without moving the pieces on the board. Only after that, make the moves on the board to see if your assessment was accurate, or if you are mis-visualizing the position.


This concludes the coverage of the second round. Until next time, good luck in your games, and have a good Thanksgiving.

Game Analysis: Atlanta Class Championship, Round 1

Hello everyone and welcome. Here, and in the next four articles, I will be covering the games I played in the Atlanta Class Championship played in mid-October. This was a tournament that was restricted to players rated under 2200, and were in 200-point sections called classes, and you were restricted to playing either in your class, or you could play up 1 section. For example, to play in the Expert Class (2000-2199), you had to be at minimum 1800. To play in the Class A section (1800-1999), you had to be at minimum 1600, etc. Often times, local tournaments with a restricted rating range tend to be smaller because the masters are not there, and some players go to tournaments to see the top players play. While the turnout was fairly small, the Expert section did draw 14 entrants, and I was the 6-seed of those 14, and end up winning the tournament outright, and the road to victory was not easy as I had to face the top seed in round 1, the second seed in round 2, and the third seed in round 3.

In this current article, we will be looking at the first round game. Here I am facing a kid that is supposedly well known to the local Atlanta area, and I can't help by say that what happens this game is very typical of what happens in many of my games against kids. They are out to try and go after your King, as opposed to playing some kind of maneuvering game where they win with a passed pawn or a better minor piece. They want blood. Well, in this game, Black has one opportunity to go for blood, but instead tries to hold on to a pawn that is attacked. After that, when he does throw his pieces at White, one of them gets trapped, costing Black the piece, which in turn costs him the game.

Without further ado, let's see how White wins this game.


Atlanta Class Championship, Round 1
W: Patrick McCartney (2018)
B: Alexander Rutten (2172)
Sicilian Defense, Prins Variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3

This is the starting position of the Prins Variation. The idea is simple. White wants to avoid moving the Knight to c3 to block the c-pawn, and would rather have the c-pawn out on c4, leading to a Maroczy-Bind type of position. This is a very positional approach, and hence why the only book that I'm aware of that covers this line is called "Steamrolling The Sicilian", the idea of the title being that it is a system where you slowly kill Black like you are running him over with a Steamroller rather than going for an assault-style attack.

One thing to note is that this system only works when Black plays 2...d6. The reason is simple, and those that play the Taimanov or Kalashnikov Sicilian will understand immediately. In the Maroczy Bind structure, with White pawns on c4 and e4, even with a pawn on f3, the one thing that White must avoid is a Bishop pinning and trading off the c3-Knight as it is a major contributor to the control of d5, the square that the c-pawn and e-pawn are clamping down on.

In the Taimanov Sicilian, after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6, White has problems after 5.c4? Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4, creating pressure on e4 and fighting for control of d5. If Black breaks through with d5, the bind has failed. Therefore, in the Taimanov Sicilian, White must play 5.Nb5 first if he wants to play a Maroczy Bind position instead of the main line, 5.Nc3, and only after 5...d6, blocking the Bishop from going to b4, can White play 6.c4.

Same deal in the Kalashnikov. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 and only now, 6.c4 is a line. It's the more positional option while 6.N1c3 is the more tactical choice.

So now we see the importance of Black's second move. With 2...d6, the Bishop is blocked from that diagonal. Notice in the Dragon it usually goes to g7 while in lines like the Najdorf or Scheveningen, it's typically Black's bad Bishop and sits on e7 behind the d6-pawn. So just something to keep in mind when Black plays an early ...Nf6. If ...d6 has not been played, this f3 idea is no good. But here, it's an excellent line to use against someone that might be an avid fan of quick attacks and wild, tactical lines like the Dragon and certain lines of the Najdorf.

5...e5

Considered Black's strongest response. The other two main options for Black are to play a dragon set-up, which will directly transpose to the Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind (something most regular dragon players loathe), or else play an early ...e6, and it will usually lead to a Hedgehog-type position that you often see in the English Opening. Most other moves are bad. For example, a Najdorf player that is unfamiliar with 5.f3 will often try to play something like 5...a6, but the move is pointless after 6.c4, preventing Black from the typical ...b5 expansion.

6.Nb3

Now Black has a major decision to make. He knows that White is probably intending to play c4. Why else would White have played 5.f3 instead of 5.Nc3? He has 3 main options.

Black can play 6...d5 right now, beating White to the punch. This move leads to a very early endgame, and the cost for Black is his pawn structure that results from it. It leads to a long, grind it out type of endgame with a small advantage for White due to the pawn structure. We will actually see this occur in Round 2 of this tournament in the next article.

The second option is to play an early ...a5. After 6...a5, White is at the crossroads. Here, 7.c4 is not very good as Black can chase the Knight away, and it is forced to block the Bishop in on c1. White can play 7.a4, and even follow it up with c4 after that, but then Black has achieved a major weakness on b4. White can play normal lines with 7.Nc3, or the move that would be my preference for White and what most shows the downfall to 6...a5 is 7.Bb5+. White develops a piece, waits to see what Black does, and after the most common move, blocking with the Bishop, White trades Bishops and Black, with his pawns already locked on d6 and e5, has to deal with a long term weakness on the light squares.

The third option is to anticipate the c-pawn advance by White, and play 6...Be6, intending 7...Nbd7 and 8...Rc8, attacking the c-pawn. White can be a materialist and try to hold on to the pawn with 9.Na3, or he can play in gambit style with 9.Nc3, where at the cost of a pawn, White gets a huge attack.

The third option is what Black plays in this game, though he delays it first via moving his King's Bishop, giving White a move of extra time.

6...Be7 7.c4 Be6 8.Be3 O-O

Yet another move that gives White time, rather than immediately going after the c-pawn. Unlike the Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind, White has a Knight on b3. While this is good in the sense that it can go to a5 the moment Black advances ...b5, going for a trade on d5, retaking with a Pawn, and then plopping that a5-Knight on the weakened c6-square, it also has the downfall of not being able to play b3 to protect the c-pawn. White spends the extra time getting his own King castled.

9.Be2 Nbd7 10.Nc3 a6

Another time waster. 10...Rc8 immediately was better. Black may have been afraid of losing the a-pawn, but White can't take it. The rescue mission with the a-pawn is too slow, and saving the Bishop with Nb5 leads to severe inflexibility in White's position. After 10...Rc8 11.Bxa7? b6 12.a4 Rc7 13.Nb5 Bxc4 14.Bxc4 (14.Nxc7 Bxb3! -+) Rxc4, Black has a far superior position.

11.O-O Rc8 12.Rc1?

This is an error by White. He is already better if he plays 12.Nd5. The extra moves by Black change the situation. In the normal line, which runs 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 e5 6.Nb3 Be6 7.c4 Nbd7 8.Be3 Rc8 9.Nc3, Black can take the pawn, but at a cost. After 9...Bxc4 10.Bxc4 Rxc4, White has 11.Qd3 as a strong response. Black is not ready to play ...b5 here, and so the Rook has to retreat. In the game, with ...a6 already played, Black can take the pawn twice, and then Qd3 is not as strong because black has the resource ...b5 to cover the Rook. In the normal line, after 11.Qd3, typical play might look like as follows: 11...Rc8 12.O-O a6 13.Nd5 Nxd5 14.Qxd5 Rb8 15.Rfd1 Be7 16.Na5, with heavy pressure on b7 and sometime later in the game, the White Knight will be ready to leap into c6 if Black ever advances the b-pawn, or else c4, further pressuring the d6-weakness.

12...Nb6?

As explained in the previous note, Black in this case should have taken the c-pawn.

13.Nd5 Nbxd5 14.cxd5 Rxc1 15.Qxc1 Bd7 16.Qd2

White has the advantage here. He has an advantage in space. His pieces are either active, or in the case of the Rook on f1, he can easily get to the open c-file in a single move. Black's position is cramped, and if you look at the direction that the blocked pawns are pointing in the center of the board, White's play should be on the Queenside while Black's is on the Kingside. Notice that Black's attack hasn't even started yet!

16...Nh5

So Black does exactly what is indicated and starts trying to attack on the Kingside. Probably better is 16...Qb8, looking to contest the c-file with the Rook and trade the Rooks off since Black's Rook is clearly more passive than White's.

17.Rc1

White is already better with the space advantage, and Black doesn't have much counterplay, and therefore, the prophylactic move 17.g3 was stronger, keeping the Knight out of f4. We are going to see that this could have been very costly for White has Black played correctly the next half-dozen moves.

17...Nf4 18.Bf1 f5 19.Na5?

With the pawn on f5, blocking the view of the h3-square by the Bishop, this was White's one other opportunity to play 19.g3!, shooing the Knight away, and White maintains a large advantage.

After the move played in the game, Black has the opportunity to take over the advantage, and at worst, equalize the position, but for equality to be maintained, White will have to find a lot of only moves.

19...fxe4 20.fxe4 Qb8?

Black needs to take a more dynamic approach. After 20...Qe8, White has two ways to maintain equality, but both entail finding a number of not-so-obvious moves. Black's advantage can be held to a bare minimum via 21.Nxb7 Qg6 22.Bxf4 Rxf4 23.Rc7 Qxe4 24.Be2 Qb1+ 25.Qc1 Qxc1+ 26.Rxc1 or via 21.Rc7 Bb5 22.Nc4 Bd8 23.Rxb7 Qg6 24.Bxf4 exf4 25.Kh1, and even then, it's White that will need to show extreme accuracy to survive.

21.Qb4?

A more restrained approach with something like 21.b3, 21.Nc4, or 21.Bc4, is called for here. Moving the Queen away abandons the defense of the e3-Bishop, which is now loose and entices Black's next move.

21...Bg5

With the major threat of 22...Nh3+, 23...Bxe3+, and 24...Bxc1.

22.Qa3 Bb5

Black has a major threat. Do you see it, and how do you stop it?

23.Nc4!

This move is almost forced. The major threat was 23...Bxf1, which depending on how White recaptures, Black's follow-up would have been 24...Ne2+ if the Rook takes the Bishop, leading to mate in 2, or if the King takes back, then 24...Nd3+ and taking the Rook. White's light-squared Bishop is a critical piece in the defense of his King.

23...Bxc4?

Black misses his chance. After 23...Qc8!! 24.Nxe5 Qe8 25.Nf3 Nh3+ 26.Kh1 Bxf1 27.Rxf1 Qxe4 28.Bg1 Nxg1 29.Rxg1 Be3 30.Rf1, Black has a big advantage.

24.Rxc4

Now suddenly, White is slightly better, and Black has to be very careful here or else he will lose outright.

24...Qe8??

After all the times that this move would have given Black an advantage, here it loses for Black as he completely overlooks his minor pieces getting trapped. Black had to find the only move, which was 24...Qd8, protecting the Bishop on g5 and answering 25.g3 with either retreating the Knight, or else playing the very tricky 25...Qf6, after which the only way for White to get an advantage is with 26.Rc1! Note that 26.gxf4 Bxf4 27.Bg2 Qh4 28.Bxf4 Qe1+ 29.Bf1 Rxf4 30.Rc8+ Kf7 31.Rc7+ Kg8 is only equal.

After the game move, Black drops a minor piece.

25.g3!

With the Bishop on g5 loose, the Knight has nowhere to go.

25...Qh5?

This basically is self-captulation. Black had to at least make White work for the win, which actually isn't easy at all after 25...Qg6! Yes, White is still winning, but look at the hoops he has to jump through to win this: 26.gxf4 Bxf4+ 27.Bg2 Bxh2+ 28.Kxh2 Qh5+ 29.Kg3 Qg6+ 30.Bg5 Qxg5+ 31.Kh2 Rf4 32.Rc3, and White has a Bishop for only two pawns. White is not forced to shoot his King out into the wind, and can retreat to g1 instead of going to g3, but then White is surrendering a draw by perpetual check. In the final position of this line, with two heavy pieces each, White still has to be careful, but with correct play, he should win.

The game move brings no real challenge to White, and Black is basically waving the White flag.

26.gxf4 exf4 27.Bf2 Qg4+ 28.Kh1 b5 29.Rc7 Bd7 30.Rc1 Qg6 31.Qf3!

This time, White does it right and doesn't allow Black back in. Earlier, on move 17, White had a huge space advantage, which is a long term asset provided the side lacking space isn't able to trade the pieces off, giving him more room to maneuver his remaining few pieces. The correct approach from White then was to play the prophylactic move, 17.g3, which he failed to do and gave Black chances to take over. Here, White has another long term advantage. Extra material. Once again, a rush job is not the answer here, and this time, White does what he needs to do. Take the prophylactic approach of stopping any baloney by Black. The White Rook controls the open c-file. The Queen, which not the best piece to block with, is blocking the f-pawn from advancing and keeping many of the dark-squared diagonals closed, which is the only Bishop Black has, and White's Bishops cover all the entry points around the White King. White can gained full stability in the position, and now he will slowly release his pieces from their duties once they are safe to move, and work their way from a defensive role to an offensive role, eventually winning the game.

31...Bf6 32.b3

No reason to be giving Black anything here.

32...Be5 33.Bh3

So with control of the c-file and White's pawns covering the squares that Black could even remotely think about getting to anytime soon, the Bishop has no need to cover Queenside light squares. From h3, it is more active, still protects g2, and is protected by the White Queen, and so it is the first piece to take on a more active role.

33...a5 34.Be6+

Seeing no need to cover g2, as the Queen does it as well, the Bishop has been relinquished of all defensive duties and now plays a purely offensive role.

34...Kh8 35.Bf5 Qf6 36.Rc7

With the Queen now confined to dark squares and knocked off the g-file, there is no reason for the Rook to sit back. Do note though that this Rook will remain on the c-file for the time being, keeping Black from entering via the only open file. But there is no reason for the Rook to sit back on the back rank any more.

36...a4 37.Qh3

Here, White releases the Black f-pawn, but he doesn't have time to advance it to open up his pieces as there are direct threats on the Black King.

37...h6 38.Bh4 g5

The only move that doesn't immediately drop the Queen, but it fatally opens up the Black King.

39.Bf2 Kg8 40.Be6+ Kh8 41.Qf5

Here is one more thing that many people get hung up on. Is 41.Qf5 the absolute best move on the board? Not at all! But the thing is, when your advantage is this dominant, once you see a winning idea, just go with it. Don't waste time looking for the quickest or prettiest way to win. This is chess, not gymnastics. There are no style points!

That said, just to point out the stylish way to win. White has 41.Qh5! axb4 42.axb4 Ra8 43.Ra7!! Rf8 (43...Rxa7 44.Qe8+ followed by 45.Qg8 is mate) 44.Bf5 Kg8 45.Bg6 Rc8 46.Qxh6 Rc1+ 47.Kg2 f3+ 48.Kh3 g4+ 49.Kxg4 and White wins. Sure, this is all flashy and cool, but do you really want to have to find 43.Ra7 to buy time before the Black Rook comes in with him having to wait for Bg6 by White before he can enter via the c-file, and then have to calculate that the White King can survive on g4 where all Black can do to delay mate is give up another minor piece with a Queen check? Personally, I would rather take the simple road and save the energy for the other four rounds.

The move played in the game forces the Queens off, avoids any problems to White's King, and he can play with his extra piece in peace!

41...Qxf5 42.Bxf5 axb3 43.axb3 f3

So Black thinks he can try to mate the White King by controlling g2 and h2 with his pawn and Bishop? Get rid of the only piece that can back rank the White King!

44.Rc8!

Again, maybe not the flashiest way to win, but the simplest!

44...Rxc8 45.Bxc8 h5

The only move that preserves the f3-pawn. Anything else would be answered by 46.Bg4 and the f3-pawn drops.

46.Bd7 Kg7

If 46...b4, trying to hold the b-pawn, then 47.Be8 h4 48.Bh5 and it's all over.

47.Bxb5 g4 48.Bd7 Kg6 49.b4

Simple chess! Black has no immediate threats on the Kingside, and the pawn on d6 is actually to Black's detriment as it blocks the Bishop from controlling the promotion square.

49...Kg5 50.b5 Bc3

Too little, too late. Stopping the b-pawn is going to cost Black his other Bishop.

51.b6 Ba5 52.b7 Bc7 53.Ba7 h4 54.b8=Q Bxb8 55.Bxb8

There is no threat by Black on the Kingside. Any advancement of the f-pawn will be answered by Bb5, and if the g-pawn advances, trying to put two pawns on the sixth rank, then just a simple Kg1 move by White and even if Black somehow got the King in to aid the pawns, which he can't, White could even give up one of the two Bishops to eliminate the pawns if he had to. Black can safely resign, and he does two moves later.

55...h3 56.Bxd6 f2 57.Bb5 1-0


So I won the first round against the top seed in the tournament. It was a bit topsy-turvy, but the main theme of this lesson is clearly prophylaxis. In these Maroczy Bind type positions, typically any advantage that White gets is going to be purely positional, while Black's chances lie in tactical opportunities, as we saw from moves 17 to 23. Had White played the prophylactic move, 17.g3, the advantage would be his. He should have been in no rush to attack the Queenside as Black would have virtually nothing on the Kingside after the simple move.

After dodging that bullet, and winning the piece, notice how White, while he could have won with flash, took a more prophylactic approach to the remainder of the game. He controlled the only open file. He blocked Black from getting his pawns, and especially the f-pawn, off the color complex of his Bishop and hence made the Bishop for the most part immobile, and only after he stablized the position did he slowly start to shift from defense to offense, and yet still made his first focus be to prevent any counterplay by Black. Once he pushed Black back to a completely passive role, White is winning in virtually any way he chooses, and while he could have gone through the headaches to win in a flashy style, notice that White instead took the simple road to victory, and often times, while not beautiful, that is the easiest and safest way to victory as there is far less room to blunder. Had playing flashy not meant that my King was going to be running wild in the open, I might have gone that route, but King safety was my top priority because outside of pulling off a trick mate, there was absolutely no way that Black was surviving the game. A valuable lesson to many of you out there that don't believe in the Tortoise and Hare fable. Slow and steady wins the race!


That does it for this article. Next time, we will look at Round 2 of the Atlanta Class Championship, which will actually feature the same opening, only this time, Black will decide to play for the endgame, and so while the opening is the same, the game itself will be vastly different. Until next time, good luck in your games.

The French Connection: Volume 26

Hello and welcome to the twenty-sixth edition of The French Connection. In this one, we are going to look at a line in the Closed Tarrasch, a line that hasn't been featured much in my columns, mainly because I still to this day view the Tarrasch as nothing more than a draw attempt by White, and because I find 3...c5 to be the automatic equalizer for Black. That said, I occasionally will play the Closed Tarrasch, and did so here as I was playing someone that I have played numerous times before, and was looking to change it up on him. That said, while I do see 3...c5 as Black's strongest response to the benign 3.Nd2, I'm here to show you that Black has very little, if anything, to be afraid of with 3...Nf6, and we will be discussing a little Closed Tarrasch theory.

The other reason I am featuring this game is to talk about a topic that French players must always be on the lookout for, as the Colle System and the French Defense are the two most frequent cases where this tactic can be found, in both cases against the Black King. It is a well-known tactic known as the Greek Gift Sacrifice. The Greek Gift Sacrifice is a sacrifice of the Bishop on h7 against the castled King (h2 if Black is executing it), usually followed by the Knight going to g5 followed by the Queen coming in on d3 or h5. We will talk in more detail about this when we get to the position in the game.

So without further ado, let's see what we have here.


Tuesday Night Action 57, Round 1
W: Vishnu Vanapalli (2122)
B: Patrick McCartney (2018)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6

This is a well-known position in the Closed Tarrasch. Sure there are early deviations, like White can play 5.f4, or Black can play an early 7...Qb6, but this position will occur in probably 90% of Closed Tarrasch games. While White plays the main response here, I'm about to show you why I don't play the Closed Tarrasch often. White has a sideline here, namely 9.Nf4!?. This line, in theory, isn't supposed to cause Black any issues if he knows it, but there are numerous places where Black needs to know the precise move or else he is worse, he won't be able to castle, and really only one spot that he can even think about deviating. The whole idea of why this line is ok for Black is the big pawn center he achieves, but after 9...Nxd4 10.Qh5+ Ke7 11.exf6+! (This should be played first before grabbing the exchange) Nxf6 12.Ng6+ hxg6 (12...Kd7 13.Ne5+! and 12...Ke8 13.Qh4! are both significantly worse for Black) 13.Qxh8 Kf7 (Another critical move - all other moves are significantly worse for Black) 14.Qh4 e5 15.Nf3 and here is the only spot where I think Black actually has a choice:

1. The main line is 15...Nxf3+ 16.gxf3 Bf5 17.Bxf5 gxf5 18.Bg5 and this is supposed to be equal, but again, Black has to find a lot of moves just to hold on. After 18...Qa5+ 19.Kf1, the move 19...g6 is a critical move to find. After 20.Bxf6 Qa6+ 21.Kg2 Qxf6 22.Qa4 (White has no interest in trading Queens here) Qc6 23.Qb3 Bh6 (Another move that must be found by Black) 24.Rad1 Rd8 25.Rd3 Kf6 (Another critical move for Black) 26.Rc3 Qd7 27.Qc2 d4 and only now can one safely say that Black is ok. In the game Miroshnichenko - Firman, Alushta 2002, the game finish with White giving perpetual check after 28.Rc7 Qd5 29.Rh7 Bg7 30.h4 Qg8 31.Qc7 Re8 32.Rc1 Qxh7 33.Qd6+ Re6 34.Qd8+ Re7 35.Qd6+ Re6 36.Qd8+ with a draw.
2. The one sideline option for Black, and probably the line I would be inclined to play if faced with this, is 15...e4 16.Nxd4 Bb4+ 17.Kf1 (17.Bd2 Bxd2+ 18.Kxd2 exd3 19.Kxd3 Qb6! 20.b3 Bf5+ 21.Nxf5 Qa6+ 22.Kc2 Rc8+ 23.Kb2 Qe2+ 24.Ka3 Rc6! and White can't avoid the perpetual) exd3 18.Bg5 Qb6 19.Bxf6 Qxf6 20.Qxf6 gxf6 and the unopposed Bishop pair, extra Pawn, and slightly better King now that the Queens are gone should compensate for being the exchange down.

This just feels like a lot of theory to know just to survive. In correspondence chess, this is a non-issue, but over the board, I would prefer to avoid this headache. Here is a prime example where the best move theoretically may be different than the best move in a practical manner. The move played in the game is the "main line", but I find 9.Nf4 to cause far more unnecessary headaches for Black than the main line, and this is the main reason why I advocate 3...c5 more than 3...Nf6. I think that the above analysis proves that I make no claim that Black is ever worse in the 9.Nf4 line of the Closed Tarrasch, just that it leads to too many headaches and sleepless nights for Black. In the grand scheme of things, I fully agree with Evgeny Sveshnikov's assessment that 3.Nd2 is vastly inferior for White compared to 3.Nc3 or 3.e5, but that doesn't mean Black task to prove it is simple, unlike in the Exchange Variation where White gets nothing after a very simple defense by Black. It's this extra necessary theoretical knowledge that gives Tarrasch supporters the false sense of security that they can actually achieve something substantial with this line.

Going back to the position after 8...f6 (first diagram) ...

9.exf6 Nxf6 10.O-O Bd7 11.Nf3

Here Black has a decision to make.

11...Qc7

The other main options are 11...O-O and 11...Qb6. After 11...O-O, the move 12.Bf4, trading off Black's good Bishop, is known to give White a slight advantage, but Black should still have enough to hold the position together after 12...Bxf4 13.Nxf4 Ne4 and there are a number of options for White here, but they shouldn't be too big of an issue for Black, and many French books will show you what to do here. The main downside to 11...O-O is that while it is solid, Black's winning chances are minimal. The biggest issue with 11...Qb6, while it does continue to pressure d4, is that the Queen is somewhat misplaced after either 12.Nc3 or 12.b3, both of which lead to a very strong score for White. Part of the problem is, even in the 12.Nc3 lines, the White Bishop is not tied down to the defense of the b-pawn as Black can almost never take it anyway. With the Knight able to go to b5, there are problems with threats of the Queen getting trapped and loose pieces, such as the Bishop on d6, hanging. Therefore, White can invite Black to take the b2-pawn, which is usually poisonous. Black, of course, doesn't have to take the Pawn, but then the Queen on b6 can get in the way of the other pieces along with the b-pawn.

With the move played in the game, Black's idea is to delay White's ability to trade off dark-squared Bishops for as long as possible, but he does have to make sure that he remains active. If Black starts playing passive moves, White will trade off the Bishops and then dominate the e5-square, and Black will end up with a miserable game.

12.h3

I don't like this move for White. It feels extremely slow and artificial, and is only White's 4th most popular move here. To me, there are two moves that are far superior to the move played in the game, and one that is actually inferior, amongst the three more popular moves by White:

1. The main line for White, and in my opinion, White's best move as well, is 12.Bg5. The idea is simple. White wants to contest the Bishop on d6 and trade off dark-squared Bishops, but since 12.Bf4 has been eliminated by Black's 11th move, White is intending to go Bc1-g5-h4-g3 to contest the Bishop. Black usually follows up with 12...O-O, and after 13.Rc1, Black has four main options. He can play a conservative game with 13...a6 or 13...Bd7, looking to simply complete development, or he can play one of the active Knight moves, which is what I would advocate. I think it is a matter of taste whether you would prefer 13...Ng4 14.h3 (14.Ng3 Qb6!) Rxf3! 15.hxg4 Rf7 or 13...Nh5 14.Bh4 and now Black can decide between 14...Rxf3 15.gxf3 Bxh2+ 16.Bh1 Bd6, 14...g6 15.Qd2 Rxf3 16.gxf3 Bxh2+ 17.Kg2 Bf4 18.Nxf4 Nxf4+ 19.Kh1, or simply taking a more positional approach with 14...g6 15.Qd2 a6, stopping Bb5 by White. In the last line, the critical thing is to fight for e5. Black may never advance ...e5, but he can't allow a White piece to settle on e5, especially a Knight. Which line Black plays is a matter of taste, but he should be ok in each of the options displayed.
2. With the Queen on c7 instead of b6, hence protecting the Bishop, 12.Nc3 doesn't have the sting it has in the 11...Qb6 line, and I don't think this is a very good line for White at all. Black can stop all activity for White with 12...a6, and then proceed as normal after 13.Bg5 O-O 14.Bh4 Nh5 15.Re1 g6 16.Rc1 Bf4 17.Rc2 Qg7 et cetera. This points out another key defensive idea in the 11...Qc7 line that is not available to Black in the 11...Qb6 line. This idea of advancing the g-pawn to g6 and moving the Queen to g7 is a common defensive mechanism for Black. The Queen continues to eye e5 like it does from c7, but also gives more support to the Black King. Black should have no issues what-so-ever in this line.
3. The other alternative for White is 12.g3, which I think is really his only other legitimate try aside from 12.Bg5. The idea again is to contest the Bishop on d6. After 12...O-O 13.Bf4, I like the exchange sac idea for Black. After 13...Ng4 14.Rc1 Bxf4 15.Nxf4 Rxf4 16.gxf4 Qxf4 17.Be2 Nf6, Black has sufficient compensation for the slight material investment.

12...O-O 13.Be3 Nh5

I like this move for Black here. It illustrates one of the major problems with advancing the h-pawn too early. When you advance a Rook pawn one square, it weakens the square that is a Knight's move away from that pawn. So here, the move h3 weakens the f4-square, mainly because it is hard to dislodge something like a Knight as then the h3-pawn hangs, and even if a different piece resides on f4, it weakens h3 and other squares around the King. With the pawn still on h2, a move like g3 is not difficult to execute. The same goes for the other Rook pawns, where a3 weakens c4, ...a6 weakens c5 for Black, and ...h6 weakens f5 for Black.

Therefore, these moves should only be made when there is a necessary reason for them. For example, in the Ruy Lopez (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O), the move 9.h3 is necessary because White wants to play d4 without the Knight on f3, a major supporter of the d4-push, being pinned by the Bishop, and so the h3-push there prevents the pin.

But here, I see no good reason for the move, and the only other game I could find with 13...Nh5 was Savinel - Hodot, France 1998, which was a game that Black won via 14.Nc3 Bf4 15.Ng5 g6 16.Nb5 Qe7 17.Nf3 Bd7 18.a3 a6 19.Nc3 Rf7 20.Qd2 Raf8 21.Rae1 Qf6 22.Ne2 g5 23.Bxf4 gxf4 24.Kh2 Kh8 25.Rg1 Qh6 26.Ne5 Nxe5 27.dxe5 Rg7 28.Nd4 Rfg8 29.f3 Rg5 30.b4 Qg7 31.b5 Rxe5 32.Nb3 Rxe1 33.Rxe1 e5 34.Qb2 Qg3+ and White Resigned.

Black should also be ok after something like 14.Nc3 a6 15.Rc1 Nf4 16.Bb1 g6 17.h4 Qg7 18.g3 Nh5.

But in the game, we are going to see White try a completely different idea on the basis that the Knight moved away from f6.

14.Nc3 a6

15.Bxh7+?

White goes for what is known as the Greek Gift Sacrifice. This is a sacrifice of the Bishop on h7 against the castled King with the idea of a quick mating attack on the Black King. In general terms, it is typically thought that for this to work, White needs at minimum two of the following five items to be going his way (though that isn't always enough, as is the case here), and three is almost always decisive:

• A Dark-Squared Bishop on the c1-h6 diagonal to discourage ...Kh6 by Black.
• A second Knight that can reach e4 or f4.
• A Rook that can get to an open e-file or a semi-open f- or h-file.
• A secure pawn on e5
• A pawn on h4 that is backed up by a Rook on h1

Now there are other factors, like whether or not a Black Rook is stuck on f8 to guard f7, or if the Black Queen is on e7 blocking the King's escape (particularly in cases where White does not have the secure pawn on e5, along with other minor factors that are very specific to each position, but those five mentioned are really the big five, and the combination that most frequently leads to success is the first and fourth ones, the Dark-Squared Bishop and the secure pawn on e5 as the f6-square can be a vital escape square for the King, and so if the King can't ever go to f6 and it can't ever go to h6, it's often a dead duck on either the g6- or g8-square.

In this scenario, White does have two of the five bullets, but it's not the best combination. He has the Dark-Squared Bishop, and the c3-Knight that can get to e4. As it turns out, with correct play from both sides, this version of the Greek Gift Sacrifice should end in a win for Black, and so therefore, if White should probably try the 15.Rc1 line mentioned near the end of the note to Black's 13th move above.

15...Kxh7 16.Ng5+ Kg6

Clearly the only defense for Black in this scenario as going backwards to g8 hangs the Knight on h5, and even though Black can prevent mate by pushing his g-pawn, his King is too exposed and he has lost too much material to survive.

17.h4

The correct move for White. After 17.Qd3+ Kf6 18.Qh7 Nf4 19.h4 Bd7 20.g3, the move 20...Rh8 is only enough to draw after 21.Nce4+ dxe4 22.Nxe4+ Kf7 23.Ng5+ Kf6 24.Ne4+ with a perpetual, but Black can rain on White's parade with 20...Rae8!!, threatening 21...Rh8 now that the Black King can walk his way to d8.

17...Rh8

The correct move by Black as all other moves lead to problems after White's next move.

18.Qg4

But after Black's last move, this move doesn't work. Slower moves like 18.Rc1 Bd7! are also no good for White.

The move that creates the greatest challenge for Black is 18.g3, but even here, if Black can get through the extreme complications, he should come out on top after 18...Bd7 19.Qd3+ Kf6 20.Rae1 Rae8 21.Bc1 Nf4 22.Bxf4 (22.gxf4 Rxh4 -+) Bxf4 23.Qf3 Nxd4 24.Qg4 Nf5 25.Rxe6+ Bxe6 26.Nxe6 Kxe6 27.Qg6+ Kd7 28.Qxf5+ Kd8 29.Nxd5 Qe5 30.Qd3 Bxg3 31.fxg3 Kc8 32.Qc4+ Kb8 33.Qf4 Re6 34.Kg2 Rd8 35.Qxe5+ Rxe5 36.Nf4 and Black can now spend the next hour playing through this won endgame as it's not a cakewalk, and so the odds that White resigns any time soon is slim. Black is going to need half a bottle of migraine pills and a really good night's sleep after this, but theoretically speaking, Black's still winning.

The move in the game reduced Black's pain from a severe migraine to maybe a dull ache.

18...Kf6??

And now Black plays the wrong move. The correct move is 18...Nf6 (Black can flick in the check first if he wants with 18...Bh2+ 19.Kh1, but either way, the Knight move needs to come next) and the White Queen can't stay on the g-file, and there are no tactics either. For example, 19.Nxe6+ Nxg4 20.Nxc7 Bxc7 simply drops another piece for a pawn, and simply going back with something like 19.Qd1 just lets Black consolidate. This is where the importance of 17...Rh8 comes into play. Without that move, White has the resource of 19.h5+, which would be winning for White, but with the Rook on h8, this move doesn't work either.

19.Qf3+

White has full compensation for the piece after 19.Rfe1, leading to problems on e6. With the game move, the best White can do is escape with a draw.

19...Ke7 20.Nxd5+??

This was last call for the draw for White. He had to harass the Rook with 20.Nf7 Rh7 21.Ng5 Rh8 22.Nf7 and a perpetual unless Black tries 20...Rf8, but then 21.Qxh5 Rxf7 22.Bg5+ Ke8 23.Rae1 Ne7 24.Bxe7 Bxe7 25.Re3 when both 25...b5 and 25...Qd6 are answered with 26.Rf3 with dynamic equality.

20...exd5

A sacrificed piece for an extra pawn and a massive attack against a stripped King is often more than enough, but here, Black has two pieces for two pawns, and this is just too much for White to be able to cope with. He lacks the fire power, and whenever necessary, Black can return a piece back to White, hopefully for a pawn, and with a bunch of stuff traded off, White won't have the compensation for the missing piece like he did at various points in the middle game.

In fact, it's the White King that gets mated 13 moves later.

21.Rfe1 Nf6 22.Bf4+ Kf8

The correct retreating square for the Black King.

23.Be5 Nxe5

Black gets to trade another set of pieces and yet win one of his pawns back? Of course Black is willing to comply!

24.dxe5 Bxe5 25.Rad1 Bg4 26.Qd3

Of course, White has no interest in the tricky trade as 26.Qxg4 Nxg4 27.Ne6+ Kg8 28.Nxc7 Bxc7 just trades off more material. Sure White can grab the d-pawn, but he's down 2 pieces and completely lost with less material on the board.

26...Rd8

Of course, taking the Rook on d1 drops the Queen to a royal fork.

27.Rc1 Qd6 28.f3 Bh2+ 29.Kf1 Bd7

Re-routing the Bishop to the lethal b5-square.

30.Qg6 Bb5+ 31.Kf2

This leads to an instant mate, but even after 31.Re2 Bxe2+ 32.Kxe2 Re8+ followed by 33...Qd7, Black eliminates the cheapo mate and is completely winning.

31...Qg3+

31...Ng4+, moving the Knight first and mating with the Queen, is a move faster, but this works just as well. If you see a forced mate, there is no reason to go around searching for quicker mates. This was the first one I saw, and so this is what I played. Plus, the mate with the Knight is cuter!

32.Ke2 Qf4+ 33.Kf2 Ng4# 0-1


Except for move 18, a well-played defense by Black. This game illustrates a couple of important points. First of all, if you are looking to play the Closed Tarrasch, the analysis given on 9.Nf4 is critical for you to know because this is one of those lines where if Black doesn't know all the moves, he will get blasted in short order. But the other thing it does is illustrates that when an abnormality happens, like the Greek Gift Sacrifice, you can throw all general concepts, especially that of material count, out the window, and the topic of mating attacks comes into play instead. We saw here that White only had two of the five items on the checklist, which if they are the right two, it is often enough, but White probably had the worst combination of the two, and needed something extra to go with it that he didn't have. While this particular line was not a case where the Greek Gift sacrifice should work, notice that it takes extreme levels of accuracy in defense, especially if White plays all the right moves (See the note to White's 18th move). It should not be that hard to see the correct move on move 18 as calculation should be enough to realize that 19.Nxe6 doesn't work, and if the White pieces are driven away, especially the Queen, then consolidation of Black's position should be simple, and he would maintain the extra piece, and be winning easily. That said, you probably need to analyze the line given in the notes to White's 18th move thoroughly if you are going to play the 13...Nh5 line here. White shouldn't be going for the Greek Gift Sacrifice in this case, but in case he does, it's better to be prepared for it than not.


That concludes this edition of the French Connection. Until next time, good luck in all of your French games, whether Black or White!

Game Analysis: South Carolina Championship, Round 4

In this article we are going to cover the fourth round of the South Carolina Championship. In this game, we are going to see a large quantity of "small factors" that, put together, equate to a very lopsided game. These small factors are very much the items that separate the level of understanding of a B-player and an Expert, which is what White and Black were in this game, respectively. These factors include recognizing transpositions in the opening, chess psychology, pawn structure, knowing which pieces to trade and when, and endgame evaluation. Keep those items in mind when looking at this one.


South Carolina Championship, Round 4
W: Vignesh Sekar (1787)
B: Patrick McCartney (2018)
Closed Sicilian

1.e4 e6

What? Now wait a minute here! I thought you said this was a Closed Sicilian? This looks more like a French! Why aren't we looking at the 26th edition of The French Connection?

2.Nc3 c5

And there's your answer! While I am a die hard fan of the French, I do typically transpose to a Sicilian if White develops either of the Knights on move two. The reason is simple. While the French has been my main weapon for over 20 years, I have played the Sicilian on and off over the course of the years, and contrary to popular belief, the French and Sicilian are actually closely related, and while the French might appear to be this slow, closed, positional opening, it's actually Black's other aggressive idea against e4, and if you've seen some of the McCutcheon and Winawer games that I've published, it can sometimes even get crazier than any Sicilian line.

That said, there are two lines of the French that, while not particularly good for White from a theoretical standpoint, I find extremely annoying. The first is called the Jackal. It arises from the move order 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.d4 c5 6.Bg5. Note that White can invert moves 2 and 3 as well. Now you can argue that this line can also come from the Classical move order, namely 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 and now instead of White's two main options, 5.f4 and 5.Nce2, White can play 5.Nf3 and transpose into this line. However, I already know at least three people that are a big fan of this line, and against each of them I would play the Winawer, and I know a couple of others that if they were to read this would proceed to do the same themselves, and otherwise, some out-of-towner could get this against me once, but wouldn't get it again. I know the ideas against this line, but I just find it all around annoying. I would rather face the Exchange Variation than this, something not many fans of the French would typically say, but I would. Remember that "annoying" and "bad" are not the same thing, and so this is not a line to be afraid of by any stretch of the imagination.

The other line I like to avoid, again not due to any theoretical benefit for White, but rather another line that I just find outright annoying, is the Wing Gambit. Like the Sicilian Defense, the French has it's version, and I think the Wing Gambit against the French is a little more sound than the Wing Gambit against the Sicilian. It goes as follows: 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e5 c5 4.b4, the idea being to deflect the c-pawn away from the pressure on d4, and only after Black takes on b4 does White think about playing d4.

However, what I do, by playing c5, is directly transpose into a Sicilian Defense. This also should send a message to all White players that play Anti-Sicilian and Anti-French lines. Your repertoire needs to mesh. For example, After 1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 or 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3, you might get players like me that play 2...c5. Therefore, if you are one that plays, say, the Grand Prix attack against the Sicilian, and the Wing Gambit against the French, you could be in for a rude awakening after 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 (I'm going to show Black up by playing the Wing Gambit that he probably doesn't know) 2...c5! (WHAT? I thought you were playing the French! Now look at what you've done to me! I can't play my Grand Prix Attack, and the Closed Sicilian with an early Nf3 is rediculous!). The same can be said for someone that plays the Alapin against the Sicilian, and decides to go for the Two Knights Variation against the French, but plays 2.Nc3 first. After 1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 c5, there is no Alapin! Of course, in either case, White can still play the Open Sicilian, even after 2.Nc3. For example, 1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 is a Taimanov Sicilian (the line I would play) while 1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 a6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 is a Kan Sicilian with 5.Nc3 (but notice it eliminates the 5.c4 or 5.Bd3 line - if you play those, you have to play 2.Nf3 instead of 2.Nc3).

One last note about the inter-connectivity between the Sicilian and the French, if you play the Alapin Sicilian (or "c3-Sicilian"), then after 1.e4 c5 2.c3, Black has 2...e6 as an option, and after 3.d4 d5, White has a decision to make. He can take on d5 on move 4, which leads to typical IQP lines of the French, or 4.e5, which is a direct transposition to the Advance French, so you can also go in the other direction, from Sicilian to French, in some cases.

So those of you that play the White side of various Sicilians, Anti-Sicilians, the French Advance, and Anti-French lines, you will need to make sure that your repertoire accounts for these move order tricks.

3.f4 a6 4.Nf3 b5 5.d3 Bb7 6.g3

So what we have here is a direct transposition into a line of the Grand Prix attack which normally would arrive via 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 a6 (a typical response from a Najdorf or Kan player where 2...Nc6 could be bad news for them after 3.Nf3 intending 4.d4) 3.f4 b5 4.Nf3 Bb7 5.d3 e6 and now 6.g3, recognizing that the Bishop has nowhere better to go after Black's early Queenside expansion, and once Bb5 is impossible, White's best move is to transpose to a Closed Sicilian, and that is how we got here.

Now here is a part of the game that you can't see from this Website. It is recognizing psychology. We are talking a Class B player here. Most Class B players do not understand the concept of bluffing. In many ways, chess psychology is like reading poker faces. White here is a young kid, assisted in getting ready by one of his parents, and has a rating below 1800. Compare this to say, Dominique Myers, a player at the Charlotte Chess Center that is over 2100 and is known for bending the rules of chess strategy and is specifically looking for the trickiest lines possible that don't just outright lose, trying to play head games with his opponent. When Dominique takes extra time to make a move early on in the game, it's a total bluff. He understands the position. He knows what he's doing, and he's playing head games with his opponent. You can also tell sometimes in his demeanor. This was a young child just under Class A level that is working on his game, and probably does not even factor things like psychology when playing. So when I tell you that he played the first move very quickly, and then took 3 minutes to play 2.Nc3, with the facial reactions that he was showing, you could tell he was not very comfortable facing the French, and that it was probably not his favorite opening to face. After my 2...c5, he instantaneously played 3.f4 and 4.Nf3, like you could tell that the Grand Prix attack against the Sicilian was likely his norm, but when faced with an early ...b5 and ...Bb7, he was back to being at a loss. He spent 3 minutes realizing that 5.d3 was probably the only realistic way to guard e4, knowing that 5...Bb7 was coming. Sure you can play moves like Qe2, but the pieces end up not being well placed, and so he realized that 5.d3 was pretty much a must, and then he spent another 6 minutes on 6.g3, finally realizing he had nothing better.

Now, did I do a full blown interview after the game? Absolutely not, and my assessments above may or may not be totally correct, but as you are playing the game, you can usually get at least some idea of your opponent's situation by his antics, demeanor, facial reaction (do they look confused?), etc. Someone that knows what they are doing and are trying to trick you will often have a grin on their face. A person from the North Carolina mountains by the name of Neal Harris does this a lot, and he, like Dominique Myers, is always out looking for tricks. This kid looked confused at this point, and when you see the next 25 moves or so, you will see why as White will end up in a dead lost endgame right around that time after making numerous "small errors". None of it is outright blundering. White doesn't lose any material until he is completely busted positionally, but you will be able to see in the moves in the game that my assessment of him being somewhat lost psychologically was indeed correct.

6...Nf6 7.Bg2 d6 8.O-O Be7

White's last two moves were fairly simple because they were absolutely "normal". Sure there might be times that you play g3 and don't follow it up with a fianchetto of the Bishop, but more often than not, that's the case, and what's unusual about castling? Nothing! But now is when we are going to start seeing White's issues.

9.h3

I don't like this move at all for White. What does it achieve? If White wants to try to storm the Kingside, then get to the chase with 9.f5. Black is ok after this by playing 9...exf5 10.Nh4 fxe4 11.Nf5 O-O 12.Nxe4 Bxe4 13.dxe4 Ra7. White has the initiative, but he also has the weaker pawns and is down a pawn. All endgames should win for Black, but the question is going to be getting there.

The other option is to go for more traditional Closed Sicilian ideas with 9.Qe2 intending Nd1 and Be3.

But 9.h3 is extremely slow and achieves very little. Clearly White's idea is Kingside Expansion, but there is no reason to wait and build up if that is what you are looking to do. The early f5 ideas are fairly common in the Closed and Grand Prix lines of the Sicilian.

9...Nc6 10.g4 Qc7

Notice that Black just continues to develop his pieces while White continues to advance pawns in a very slow and methodical way. Also note that this idea by White would probably be far more relevant if Black had done two things that are often seen in normal lines of the Closed Sicilian, but not this one. In the normal lines of the Closed Sicilian where Black plays ...c5, ...Nc6, ...d6, and fianchettos his Kingside, he typically castles fairly early to the Kingside. With the g-pawn advanced, creating a hook with f5 or h5, and the King committed to the Kingside, the Pawn storm makes more sense, but here, what stops Black from going Queenside after all of this? Actually, in the game, we will see the Black King remain in the center. White's next move makes no sense at all.

11.b3

So White now plans to fianchetto his Queen's Bishop? This goes against White's whole plan in more ways than 1. The move that makes the most sense at this moment is 11.g5, chasing the Knight away and continuing Kingside expansion. By playing 11.b3, White has weakened his dark squares on the Queenside, has advanced a pawn on the side in which he is weaker, which is almost never good as it gives the opponent, who will likely be attacking on that side, more to chew on. Black now sees weak dark squares, a hook for the a-pawn (or c-pawn, but the a-pawn is more likely here), and with the advancement of the pawn, contact can occur faster. Notice how Black has kept all three of his Kingside pawns on their original squares, making White take more time to advance further and further before creating a clash.

11...Nd4 12.Bb2

White should consider 12.Nxd4 here, when after 12...cxd4, White can harass the d4-pawn, enticing ...e5 out of Black, which creates tension with the f-pawn, and White can open the f-file at this leisure as Black can't really prevent the idea. For this reason, 11...Nd4 may not have been Black's best move.

12...Nd7 13.Ne2

Now we see a few trades are going to start happening. It starts with Black trading a set of Knights. Which minor pieces would Black love to eliminate? Well, looking at the two Knights that White has, taking either one is with check, and so there is no worry about in-between moves by White. The Knight on e2 blocks the contact between the Knight on f3 and the Queen, and so if Black takes the more active Knight on f3, White will be forced to take with the Bishop or the Rook. But then what else does Black want to trade off? Well, there is no reason to trade off the other set of Knights, and he can take it or leave it when it comes to trading off the Light-Squared Bishops, but if Black can get rid of White's Dark-Squared Bishop, it will leave White with all kinds of holes on the dark squares, particularly on the Queenside. Therefore, Black starts by taking the correct Knight.

13...Nxf3+ 14.Rxf3

I think the lesser evil was to take with the Bishop. With the Rook on f3, pushing the e-pawn isn't even an option, and Black can easily eliminate the Dark-Squared Bishops.

14...Bf6 15.Bxf6 Nxf6

Thus far, White has done everything that Black has wanted him to do. Black has done nothing special, and has done little more than maintain balance, but everything that Black has done so far has been logical. Sometimes, the most logical move isn't the best move, but more often than not, you won't get killed that way. White, on the other hand, has already made a few illogical moves, and yet, he can maintain equality with a sensible move here. What do you think White should play here?

16.c4?

And yet, White makes another illogical move. Other than possibly the argument of the Rook on a1, which is waiting for the Queen to move first before it swings to the center or Kingside, the Knight on e2 is clearly White's worst placed piece, and it should be moved, and the correct move here is 16.Ng3, continuing his attack on the Kingside. Instead, the move 16.c4 makes no sense at all. What is White trying to do? Prevent ...c4 by Black? Even if it does that, it is expansion on the side in which he is weak. He is advancing the pawn to yet another light-square. The only thing worse than having all your pawns on light squares with the light-squared Bishops remaining is to have advanced pawns all on light squares. Ultimately, this game is going to reach an endgame where it is the Queenside that kills White. He will be forced to defend over there and Black will have a free hand at White's then weakened and advanced Kingside Pawns. With pieces on the board, advancing the pawns can be a strength as it can suffocate the opponent and your pieces come in for the kill. Reaching an endgame often makes advanced pawns that are not passed weak more often than strong. So White, rather than preventing Black from advancing on the Queenside and looking to trade down in the next 10 moves or so, should be getting his pieces to the Kingside and continuing his attack on the side where he has the space.

16...bxc4 17.bxc4 Bc6 18.f5 e5

One last chance for White. What should White play here?

19.Rf2?

White played this move and offered a draw, clearly not understanding what he should be doing in the position. Even if computers claim the position is equal, remember that equal and drawn are not the same thing, and White has shown nothing yet to this point that makes any indication that he understands what he is doing. Again, this was the opportunity to continue his Kingside attack with 19.g5, gaining a tempo on the Knight. Now, retreating the Rook and looking to swing the heavy pieces to the b-file to trade them all off clearly shows that White has no interest in his own attack, and merely fears anything Black might do down that b-file as the Queenside is mainly his. White should not be afraid of this, and needs to keep the initiative.

During the middlegame, you need to make the assessment of whether to attack quickly, or slow and methodically. Typically, this can be figured out by answering two questions:

1. If we were to trade this down to an endgame, which scenarios, if any, would I be better?
2. Does my opponent have counterplay?

Let's think about this. Endgames. Who would endgames favor? White's pieces are disco-ordinated. Black simply needs to move his King to connect the Rooks. They can get to the b-file quickly. Therefore, any heavy piece ending is likely to favor Black. Black's pawns are all on dark squares. White's are all on light. Each side has a light-squared Bishop. Any ending for White that features a light-squared Bishop for himself is bad. A same color Bishop ending would be bad enough, but even worse would be a Black Knight against White's Light-Squared Bishop. In fact, this is probably the worst case scenario of all for White when it comes to an endgame. Keep this in mind as you are about to see exactly which endgame arises in this game in a matter of less than 15 moves from now! A Knight endgame might be satisfactory for White, but is the extra spaces needed to maneuver if each side has only one piece? No! If anything, it could weaken the pawns as they are easier for the opposing Knight to reach. Maybe White's best case scenario if an endgame were to arise would be a Knight for him against Black's Bishop.

All of that said, look at White's space on the Kingside, especially after the aforementioned 19.g5. With more space, you want to keep pieces on the board. You don't want an endgame. So it is fairly safe to conclude that it is Black, not White, that wants an endgame.

Now to the second question. Does his opponent, Black in this case, have counterplay? The answer is yes. He can castle or lift the King, bring the Rooks to the b-file, and attack down the b-file. So therefore, White's play needs to be fast. If Black was bottled up and didn't have any counterplay, then White could take his sweet time improving every piece, getting them all, including the King, to their ideal squares, before going for the kill, but White does not have that luxury here, and so the lack of desire to trade down combined with the need to act fast goes to show why 19.g5 is clearly the best move here.

19...h6!

And now Black puts a stop to that!

20.Ng3

Too little, too late. Now that the pawns are immobile, where is the Knight going? h5? Black can trade Knights, completely wrecking White's pawns, advance ...f6 to allow the Queen to cover Black's only weakness on the board, the g7-pawn, and get the other Rook out, possibly by even castling this late in the game. All of that is nonsense for White, and so this Knight move can be virtually ignored, and with no reaction necessary from Black, he continues on the Queenside.

20...Rb8 21.Rb1 Ke7

Black connects the Rooks, and with White's 19.Rf2 move earlier combined with 21.Rb1 Black senses that White is looking to trade down the heavy pieces along the b-file, and that he has no interest in dealing with Black's counterplay down that file since he has done nothing earlier to show any desire to attack Black on the Kingside. Therefore, rather than castling, Black prepares for the endgame by placing his King in the center rather than off to the side. If White doesn't trade off the heavy pieces, the locking of the pawns on move 18 provides the Black King enough safety to remain in the center of the board.

22.Rfb2 Rxb2 23.Rxb2 Rb8 24.Rxb8 Qxb8 25.Qb3

White even wants the Queens off!

25...Qb4!

And Black agrees! But only on his own terms. Remember earlier how I said that the Queenside would be White's downfall? Black wants White to take on b4, giving Black a 2-on-1 majority on the Queenside, the side away from the Kings.

26.Kf2

White had to play 26.Qc2 or 26.Qd1. Now the Queen trade can't be avoided, and it will be forced in Black's desired way of doing it!

26...Ba4!

Forcing White to take Black's Queen!

27.Qxb4 cxb4 28.Ne2 Nd7 29.Ke3 Bd1

30.Nc1

The correct move by White, despite the fact that he is already losing. As mentioned earlier, the last thing in the world that White wants is a Good Knight vs Bad Bishop scenario where White is the one with the Bishop. Therefore, the game move puts up the most resistance.

30...a5 31.Kd2 Ba4 32.Nb3??

We literally just got done saying that a Good Knight versus Bad Bishop is the last thing White ever wants, and now this? White needed to try something else, like 32.h4 or 32.d4 or 32.Bf3.

32...Bxb3 33.axb3 Nc5

The blockade is complete. White's pawns are stuck on the same color square as his Bishop, and the only way to open any lines for the Bishop is desperation sacrifices of his pawns. Meanwhile, White will be busy having to cover b3 while Black has that nice open dark-squared g1-a7 diagonal to walk his King down. White is completely busted.

34.Kc2 f6 35.Bf1 Kd7 36.h4 Kc6 37.Kb2 Nd7 38.Bg2 Kc5 39.Kc2 Kd4 40.Bf3

If 40.Kd2, to try to keep the Black King out of e3, then simply 40...Nc5, attacking both the b- and d-pawns.

40...Nc5 41.Be2 Ke3 42.Bf1 Kf2

42...Kf3 also works, but doing it this way, every King move comes with a gain of tempo, allowing absolutely nothing for White.

43.Bh3 Kg3 44.Bf1 Kxg4 45.Be2+ Kxh4 46.Bd1 Kg5 47.Kd2 h5 48.Ke3 h4 49.d4 exd4+ 50.Kxd4 Kf4 51.Kd5 h3 0-1

White threw in the towel as there is no stopping the h-pawn and it's much faster than anything White has in the center.


There really is nothing special that Black did this game, and he didn't always play the best move either, but what we saw here is often what separates an expert from a B-player:

• Black had a firm grasp on all of the possible transpositions and didn't treat openings like mice in separated cubby holes with no interaction. Many openings can transpose into one another. The French and Sicilian are a prime example. Other common transposition scenarios include the 2...Nf6 Scandinavian and Caro-Kann Panov-Botvinnik Attack, the King's Indian Defense and Modern Benoni, the Nimzo-Indian Defense and Queen's Gambit Declined, the Petroff and Exchange French, and the Alekhine Chase Variation and c3-Sicilian, just to name a few. There are countless transpositional possibilities out there.
• While not a 100% reliable source, and like poker, you have to sense bluff, but often times, demeanor, pace of play, etc can often times indicate to you what your opponent's comfort level is in a position, and you can often sense if he knows what he's doing or not. Also, from various moves in the game, such as White's lack of aggression on the Kingside after starting what he did, showed Black that White clearly did not understand the position.
• What each side did with their pawns along with which pieces to trade off clearly indicated that Black had a much firmer grasp of what was going on than White. White proceeded to allow the worst nightmare scenario possible, giving Black the Knight and keeping the Bishop in a fairly closed position with all of White's pawns locked down on the same color square as his Bishop, virtually turning the White Bishop into a tall pawn.
• Also note that Black's play was nowhere near perfect, but a general understanding of basic concepts won him a fairly easy game. So the next time that you feel like you need to know every move of theory to the 30th move, consider the fact that unless you are facing a Grandmaster, that level of granular opening knowledge is unnecessary. Knowing the basics of opening concepts, understanding that transpositions are out there and that it's not a memorization test on a list of openings, knowing the basics of trading including what you should trade and what you shouldn't, and the basic concepts of pawn play and endgame play will get you a lot further than spending countless hours on rote memorization of openings.

This concludes what I will be covering from the South Carolina Championship. Coming up will be club games and coverage from the Atlanta Class Championship. Until then, good luck in your games.

Game Analysis: South Carolina Championship, Round 2

In Today's article, we are going to cover the 2nd round of the South Carolina Championship. This was the game played immediately before the game played in the endgame article published earlier this month. The game features a rare opening simply known as the Kingside Fianchetto, an opening defined based on White fianchettoing his Kingside and playing d4, but not c4. With both pawns advanced, you are in the territory of mainstream Queen pawn openings, like the Fianchetto King's Indian, Fianchetto Grunfeld, or Catalan, while advancing the c-pawn but not the d-pawn puts you in English/Reti Terrotory. Advancing the d-pawn but not the c-pawn can lead to some difficulty in White developing his pieces, particularly his Queenside pieces. The only sensible way to avoid moving the c-pawn is to fianchetto the dark-squared Bishop, as developing it classically to say, f4 or g5, playing the Knight to say, c3 (with the pawn still on c2), and then maybe advancing the Queen to d2 and the a1-Rook to d1 might get the pieces out, but White's position is severely cluttered and it becomes hard to maneuver the pieces with the lack of space. However, even after fianchettoing the dark-squared Bishop, where does everything else go? The Knight to d2? But then what about the heavy pieces which are now connected, but with nowhere to move then except across the back rank itself? For this reason, this opening can often be viewed as being very slow, and we will see a game where Black doesn't take advantage of this in the opening, allowing White to build an advantage until White errors and loses a Pawn, only to see Black counter with a blunder later on and White has a brief window of winning opportunities, but once he misses Black's trick shot, the game ends up a dead draw, so we'll have a lot cover in this game.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the featured game.


South Carolina Championship, Round 2
W: Leo Rabulan (2045)
B: Patrick McCartney (2018)
Kingside Fianchetto

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 O-O 5.O-O d6

Now the move 6.c4 would be a direct transposition to the Fianchetto King's Indian, but White plays a different move.

So here we have the starting position of what is probably deemed the "Main Line" of the Kingside Fianchetto, if such a "Main Line" exists. To understand the best way to respond to this opening requires understanding the main difference between the diagram position and the pawn going to c4 with the move 7.Nc3 coming. With c4 and Nc3, White has greater control over the central light squares, but here, White's passive idea of fianchettoing the dark-squared Bishop leads to a lack of control of e4 and d5, and should be the driver of how Black should follow up here.

6...c6

Against 6.c4, the move 6...c6, intending either 7...Qa5 or 7...Bf5, makes perfect sense. But here, it fails to take advantage of White playing an inferior 6th move. Black should be trying to take advantage of e4 lacking coverage for White. After 6...e5! 7.dxe5 (no other move makes sense here), there follows 7...dxe5 8.Bb2, and here, Black should answer with 8...e4!, when after the fairly forcing sequence 9.Qxd8 Rxd8 10.Ng5 Bf5 11.g4! Bxg4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Bxg7 Kxg7 14.Bxe4 Nc6, Black has a slight lead in development, but with accurate play, White can probably equalize, but no more.

7.Nbd2 Bf5 8.Bb2 Ne4 9.Nh4 Nxd2

This is the best move available to Black in this position, but it also shows the problem with the line Black played. In the normal fianchetto King's Indian with 6...c6 and 7...Bf5, Black will usually look to trade two sets of minor pieces off, alleviating the cramp. Here there is no cramp as White hasn't claimed territory, and his pieces are tripping over each other.

10.Qxd2 Be6 11.e4 d5 12.e5

And just like that, White has gone from a lack of space to a fairly significant space advantage after inferior play by Black. The next few moves don't change the assessment, and actually, White proceeds to even gain some space on the Queenside as well.

12...Qd7 13.Re1 Bh3 14.Bh1 e6 15.Ng2 Bxg2 16.Bxg2 a5 17.a4 Rc8 18.Bf1 Qd8 19.Rad1 Nd7 20.c4 Nb6

We are now at a critical point of the game. White has maintained his advantage thus far, but now needs to find the right move. What is the right move for White in this position?

21.Bc3?

White's idea is that he thinks he threatens the a5-pawn and is forcing Black to retreat the Knight. The correct move here is 21.c5! This forces the Black Knight back, and with the lack of space, it is very difficult for Black to maneuver and get all of his pieces to the Kingside. This gives White a local piece superiority on the Kingside, and so after 21.c5! Nd7 22.Qf4, White has a Kingside Attack.

21...Bf8?

Black gives White a second chance to play 22.c5. He was correct in ignoring the threat on a5, but the correct way to proceed is 21...dxc4!, eliminating White's c5 possibility. After 22.Bxc4 Nxc4 23.bxc4 b5 24.axb5 cxb5 25.cxb5 a4 26.Rb1 Rcb8, the position is equal. Note that 22.Bxa5 is no good because of 21...cxb3 23.Re3 b2 24.Rb3 Nc4 5. Bxd8 Nxd2 26.Rxd2 Rxd8 27.Rdxb2 Rxd4 28.f4 Rdxa4 29.Rxb7 g5 with a clear advantage for Black.

22.Ra1

Once again, 22.c5 was the answer. Now White's advantage is gone. Note that once again, 22.Bxa5 fails, this time to 22...Nxc4!! with a slight advantage to Black.

22...c5 23.dxc5 Bxc5 24.Red1 dxc4 25.Qf4?

White was forced to play a move like 25.Qe1. Now Black misses a winning idea.

25...Qe7?

Black missed it! 25...Nd5! and sudden Black is significantly better, if not winning.

26.bxc4 Qe8 27.h4 Nxa4 28.Be1 b6

It is now Black that can claim a slight advantage. White doesn't have enough for the missing pawn.

29.h5 Be7 30.Be2 Nc5 31.Kg2 Rd8 32.Bc3 Rxd1 33.Rxd1 Rd8 34.Rh1 g5 35.Qe3 h6 36.Rb1 Qc6+ 37.Kh2 Na4 38.Be1

White's position is virtually frozen, and we will see him toggle his Bishops while Black's position continues to improve.

38...Nc5 39.Bf3 Qc7 40.Be2 Rd7 41.Bc3 Qd8 42.Be1 Kg7 43.Bc3 a4 44.Qf3 Nb3 45.c5 Bxc5 46.Bb5

And now we reach the critical position for Black. He is up two pawns, and so any forced exchanges of equal material benefits Black. Can you find the move that puts White away?

46...Nd4?!

This move is still winning for Black, but he makes matters far more complicated. It should be noted that at this point in time, White has 12 minutes and Black has 10 minutes for the rest of the game with a 30 second increment per move, and so time is becoming a problem for both players.

The instant win comes via 46...Nd2!, attacking not 1 major piece, but rather, two major pieces, virtually forcing trades. White has nothing better than 47.Qf6+ Kg8 48.Qxd8+ (48.Bxd2 Qxf6 49.exf6 Rxd2) Rxd8 49.Bxd2 Rxd2 50.Bxa4 Rxf2+ 51.Kh3 Re2 and Black's winning.

47.Qf6+ Kh7??

This, however, is a complete blunder and the position goes from winning to dead lost just like that! Correct was 47...Kg8! when both 48.Qxd8+ Rxd8 49.Bxa4 Ne2 50.Be1 Rd5 51.Kg2 Rxe5 and 48.Bxd7 Be7 49.Qxh6 Nf5 50.Qxe6 fxe6 51.Bxe6+ Kg7 52.Bxf5 a3 are winning for Black, despite the latter one featuring an equal material count, the problem being that the a-pawn will tie down White's pieces and Black can attack White's other weaknesses while the White pieces tend to stopping the a-pawn. Both of these lines are far more complicated than if Black had played 46...Nd2 instead of 46...Nd4, but at least Black would still be winning, unlike in the game.

48.Bxd7 Qxd7 49.Bxd4

This doesn't lose the advantage yet, but 49.Rd1 is stronger and wins on the spot. Black could resign immediately as 49...Nf3+ doesn't work because once White takes the Knight with the Queen, the Rook will be protected.

49...Bxd4 50.Rd1

This is still winning for White, but there is now room for error, and an error is exactly what White makes.

50...Bxe5 51.Qf3??

Far simpler is to go into the completely winning endgame after 51.Rxd7 Bxf6 52.Rxf7+ Bg7 53.Rb7 Kg8 (53...a3 54.Ra7!) 54.Rxb6 a3 55.Ra6 Bb2 56.Ra7 and Black's position is hopeless.

After the move played, the position is actually drawn!

51...Qc7 52.Qe4+ Kg7 53.Qxa4

Thus far, since White's blunder on move 51, Black has made all the correct moves to hold the draw. Here is the trickiest one. There are many moves that leave White with only a slight advantage, but only one move completely maintains the balance. Can you find it?

53...b5!!

A deflection tactic! 54.Qb3 can be answered by 54...Qc5 where Black's pieces are active and the material is technically equal, and the position itself is dead equal. Otherwise, it's all about seeing the trick when the White Queen fails to protect the Rook.

54.Qxb5 Bxg3+!!

The Bishop is poisoned!

55.Kg2

55.fxg3?? Qc2+ 56.Kh3 Qxd1 57.Qe5+ and Black avoids perpetual check by going 57...Kg8!, winning. Note that 58.Qb8+ would be answered by 58...Kh7 and White has no legitimate checks.

55...Qc2 56.Rf1

Once again, 56.Kxg3 loses to 56...Qxd1.

56...Qe4+ 57.f3

Or 57.Kxg3 Qf4+ 58.Kh3 Qh4+ 59.Kg2 Qg4+ with a draw by perpetual check.

57...Qf4 58.Qb2+ e5 59.Qe2

Or 59.Qc1 Kf6 with an equal position.

59...Bh4 60.Rg1 Qg3+ 61.Kf1

61.Kh1? loses to 61...Qh3+ 62.Qh2 Qxf3+ 63.Qg2 Qxh5 -+

61...Qh3+ 62.Qg2

This is forced as 62.Rg2?? allows 62...Bg3! and once the Bishop relocates from h4 to f4, Black's winning. Notice that after something like 63.Kg1 Bf4, White has no way to avoid dropping the h-pawn, and the Queen has absolutely no way to harass the Black King. Find a square to safely check the Black King from? It doesn't exist!

62...Qd7

And this move forces the draw! There may be other solutions for Black as well, such as 62...Qf5, but this was the one I saw. If White play 63.Ke2??, he loses after 63...Qb5+ and White has no way to avoid a series of checks leading to the Black Queen on c3 and White King on e2. Once that is achieved, Black can advance the pawns. For example, 64.Ke3 Qc5+ 65.Ke2 Qc2+ 66.Ke3 Qc3+ 67.Ke2 f5 is one way that this could happen.

Therefore, White is forced to stop Black's immediate mate threat by moving his Queen, and regardless of whether that is to e2 or c2 or b2 or any safe square on the second rank, Black will repeat with 63...Qh3+ and then go back to d7 if White blocks with the Queen. One final note is that 63.Qh2 loses to 63...Qd1+ 64.Kg2 Qe2+ 65.Kh1 Qxf3+ and we are back to the same losing position for White that results from 61.Kh1 above.

So given the threats and forced reactions to each of them, there is no way for White to avoid the perpetual check, and that is exactly how the game ends.

63.Qe2 Qh3+ 64.Qg2 Qd7 65.Qe2 Qh3+ 1/2-1/2


Wow! That was a hand full. Three things to note from this game:

• Understanding (NOT MEMORIZING) the opening is critical. Black failed to realize the weakness on e4, played inferior moves in the opening, and gave White what he wanted, and even allowed White to convert his space issue, which is the typical problem with the Kingside Fianchetto opening, into a space advantage!
• White's positional mistake at moves 21 and 22 should be noted. The Queenside would be completely shut down, and Black lacks the space to get all of his pieces into the defense on the Kingside, which leads to a local piece superiority for White on the Kingside since his space advantage makes it easy for White to get all of his pieces into play over there whereas Black will have trouble untangling. In all likelihood, Black will be unable to get one of the two Rooks into action quick enough, and White's attack on the Black King is going to be extremely difficult to defend.
• Black's tactical mistakes on moves 46 and 47 illustrate two critical concepts. First, when you see possibly a good move that attacks an opponent's piece of greater value, such as 46...Nd4 attacking the White Queen, look for a better move that attacks multiple pieces of greater value, even if the square is covered as long as you are looking to force trades. 46...Nd2 attacks the Rook as well as the Queen and forces a trade of pieces, which benefits Black in that case as he was up two pawns at that time. Black's 47th move is also critical as not all safe squares for the King are the same. White should have won after Black's placement of the King on h7 instead of g8 on move 47. Fortunate for Black, White blundered away the advantage four moves later, and Black was able to find the tricky draw after that.

This concludes the coverage of the second round of the South Carolina Championship. Next time, we will look at the fourth round. Till then, good luck in your games.