Just as a little background information on the situation, The Potomac Open, and many other weekend chess tournaments in the state of Maryland, uses a concept that I actually think is better than any concept ever used in tournaments in North Carolina or any other state. You get paid by the score, not by what place you finish. Now organizers might be wondering how they make sure they don't lose their shirt. What happens if there are many draws and the number of people that qualify for a prize sky-rockets with there being a lot of draws? Well, low and behold, every draw saves the director more money. The concept is simple. For the Open, Under 2300, and Under 2100, you pay for anybody that scored at least 3 points. For those Under 1900 and lower sections, you pay for 3 1/2 or more. The higher the section, the higher the prize money for higher scores because so few of them will happen. For example, I can't give exact amounts as I paid very little attention to the bottom sections, but I think a perfect score in the Under 1250 and Under 1000 only paid something like $1000 and $500 respectively (but had a slightly lower entry fee), figuring perfection will happen since there are so few draws in the bottom sections. Also, if there are no perfect scores, you add a nominal amount to all of those that finish in the top scoring group to split. Here's how it worked for the Under 2100 section, which was the section I was in:
5 - $1500, 4.5 - $700, 4 - $350, 3.5 - $150, 3 - $40, If no 5 then add $200 to top score and split, so if 3 people get 4.5 and there is no 5, each gets $766.66.
So take two players that have 4 going into the final round. If it is decisive, one gets $1500, the other $350, that's $1850. If they draw, and they are the only 4.5's, then they get $800 each for $1600. If two players have 3 going into the final round, and one wins, the winner gets $350 and the loser gets $40 ($390 total between the two players), while if they draw, each gets $150 ($300 between the two players). The Under 2300 had slightly higher prizes, which I believe were $1500, $700, $350, $150, and $50 if memory serves me right, with $250 added to the top spot if nobody got 5. That's because the higher the section, the higher the number of draws. Lower sections you needed 3 1/2 to get paid at all because they have fewer draws. This came with an entry fee of $109 if you paid early, and I believe it was $130 if you paid at the door, and an $80 re-entry for non-FIDE sections (U1900 and below) which forced a 1/2 point bye as they did not offer two different round 1's, round 1 was Friday Night (this also benefits the director as all re-entries are capped at the second prize on the list, and same goes for anybody that takes the offered half-point bye), but don't quote me on that one. I encourage all organizers to give this format a try (you can check tournament adds in Maryland as examples) as it has many advantages:
- Excluding hotel costs, it's a virtually guaranteed profit. Ok, sure, if only two people show up, you will lose money if one wins it 5 to 0, but any realistic number and you will come out ahead. For example, The Potomac Open saw 250 players, and the Under 2100 section saw 38 players that each paid a MINIMUM of $109, and the payout was $900 for a single 4.5, two 4's for $700, five 3.5's for $750, and 6 3's for $240, totaling $2590 in payout for a section that took in $4142 minimum, and I doubt everyone registered early. Actually, I seem to recall it was 25 players that registered early in the section, so you can do the math.
- In a tournament with a based on, like $15,000 based on 300, you still have to give out $7500 even if only 43 people show up. Here, the fewer the people, the fewer the high scores, the less money you give out!
- Lastly, you don't get large groups of people standing around, and then a long line of people waiting for money. When giving out place prizes, you could have a 7-way tie for first place, and six of those seven are waiting on the last one to finish their game for over an hour! Here, you get your score, you get your check, and if you want to hang around, you can, but you can also head on home if you wanted to! Benefits both players and directors.
So with all of that said, both my opponent and I had a score of 3 going into the final round. So the winner of this game gets $350, the loser gets $40, and if we draw, we get $150 each. I had White in this game, and what we are about to see is that when neither player has much of a clue what they are doing in the opening, some very weird positions crop up, even in a benign opening like the Exchange Slav. We are about to see White's King go on a very long walk after a few errors by White in the late opening, and we will be seeing a missed opportunity by Black that will hopefully teach you to make sure that you look at all possibilities and not just knee-jerk because a piece is under attack. Lastly, I always emphasize how critical it is to know your endgames, and we will see White pull off a draw because of this. So get ready and hold on tight as what initially will appear to be a smooth ride is going to be a very bumpy road ahead!
Potomac Open, Round 5
W: Patrick McCartney (2050)
B: Stephen Jablon (1980)
Slav Defense, Exchange Variation
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.d4 Nc6 6.Bf4 Nh5
The five main responses for Black are 6...Bf5, 6...e6, 6...a6, 6...Ne4, and 6...Qb6. The move played in the game is off the beaten track. It is not bad, and results in equality if White plays 7.Be5 or the move played in the game, but White can get a nagging advantage in this line if he goes along the other diagonal as 7.Bd2 (White can also attempt 7.Bg5 first to get an improved version by getting Black to play 7...h6 and then go 8.Bd2, but Black should then head back to a normal Exchange Slav with 8...Nf6 9.Bf4 but with the pawn on h6) 7...g6 8.e3 Bg7 9.Be2 O-O 10.O-O e6 11.Rc1 Bd7 12.Na4 b6 13.Ba6 Qe8 14.b3 with a slight advantage for White.
7.Bg3 Nxg3 8.hxg3 Bg4
Normal here is 8...g6 with an equal game. The problem with the move played is the same problem as playing ...Bf5 too early in the normal Slav without taking on c4 first, where White can then attack d5 and b7 at the same time, but it turns out it's something else that White misses that would give him the advantage here, and will show why 8...g6 should be preferred.
9.Ne5
The other option is 9.Qb3 where 9...Qd7?! 10.Ne5 Nxe5 11.dxe5 d4 12.Rd1 f6 13.f3 Be6 14.Qa3 fxe5 15.e3 hands the advantage to White while 9...Bxf3 10.gxf3 (10.Qxb7 Nxd4 11.exf3 e6 12.O-O-O Bc5 13.Na4 Rb8 14.Qa6 Bb6 15.Nxb6 Rxb6 16.Qd3 Nb5 is also equal) 10...Nxd4 11.Qa4+ Nc6 12.O-O-O Rc8 13.Rxd5 Qb6 14.e3 e6 15.Rb5 Qc7 maintains equality.
9...Nxe5 10.dxe5 d4
Now comes the moment of truth.
11.Qa4+
Not as strong is 11.Rh4 dxc3 (11...h5? 12.Qa4+ Qd7 13.Qxd7+ Kxd7 14.Rd1 g5 15.Rxd4+ Ke8 16.Rh1 and White has a big advantage) 12.Rxg4 Qa5 13.Qa4+ Qxa4 14.Rxa4 cxb2 15.Rb1 Rc8 16.Kd1 e6 17.Rxb2 Bc5 18.e3 and the game is equal.
11...Qd7 12.Qxd7+?
White hands the advantage right over to Black. Correct is 12.e3 Qxa4 13.Nxa4 Bd7 14.Nc5 dxe3 15.Nxd7 exf2+ 16.Kxf2 Kxd7 17.Rh4 e6 18.Rc4 with advantage to White. Black is so far behind in development that the extra pawn doesn't help. Black can't even contest the c-file as 18...Rc8?? 19.Rd1+ wins the Rook!
12...Bxd7 13.Nd1?
13.Ne4 is the lesser evil, keeping Black's advantage to a minimum.
13...e6
Now White is in major trouble. Seeing that nothing works here for White, he tries to play the most confusing line, but this should lead to a winning position for Black via not using a King Hunt to make the King, but rather to lead to a fatal position that should net Black a piece.
14.Kd2
White sees that the other moves don't work anyway, and so he tries walking the King out. The immediate threat was 14...Bb4+, winning a piece. 14.a3 Bc5 makes it impossible for White to develop his pieces while 14.e3 doesn't work because of 14...Bb4+ 15.Ke2 dxe3 16.Nxe3 Bb5+ 17.Kf3 Bc6+ and no matter where White goes, 18...Rd8 is coming next and White is in serious trouble while 14.f3 fails to 14...Bb4+ 15.Kf2 Rc8 and White is once again in serious trouble.
14...Bb4+ 15.Kd3 Bc5 16.e3 Bb5+ 17.Ke4 Bc6+ 18.Kf4 f6 19.Rc1
Do you see the winning line for Black?
19...Bb6
Don't worry, Black didn't see it either! Actually, the move played still is winning, but Black has a stronger move here that leads to a clear cut victory if White doesn't give Black the material for free. 19...fxe5+! wins a pawn as White must play 20.Kg4, and only then should Black move the Bishop.
Let's take a look and see what happens if White were to play 20.Kxe5. Black should ignore the threat of the Bishop and play 20...O-O!! After 21.Rxc5 Rf5+ 22.Kxd4 (22.Kxe6 is going to get the White King mated) 22...Rd8+ 23.Kc4 and now Black can get an adventageous middlegame, but a winning endgame is better!
A) The adventagous middlegame arises after 23...b5+ 24.Kb5 a5+ 25.Kxa5 Rxc5, but after 26.Nc3, while 26...Re5 is clearly better for Black, I don't see a clear cut path to victory for Black.
B) Best here is the line I saw in the game while Black was thinking about his 19th move. 23...Rxc5+ 24.Kxc5 Rxd1 and now, because of the pawns on g2 and g3 along with the Bishop on c6, White will never be able to lift the g-pawns to move the Bishop to g2, and so his Bishop is in a fatal pin. Black threatens 25...a6 and 26...Bb5, winning an exchange and the game. Therefore, White is forced to play 25.b3, intending to answer 25...a6 with 26.a4, keeping the Bishop off of b5. However, after 25.b3, Black has 25...Rc1+ 26.Kb4 (26.Kd6 Kf7 27.a4 a5 28.f3 Bd5 is also winning for Black) 26...b6 27.a4 a5+ 28.Ka3 Re1! and now Black's idea of Bc6-b7-a6 can't be stopped. Black's winning!
20.exf6 O-O 21.Bd3?
White can show more resistance with 21.exd4
21...e5+?
But here we go. As a result of White's Bishop move, Black had another clear cut win, but with the complications of the position, Black misses it. Another reason why I say 19...fxe5+ is better. A clear cut winning endgame leaves less room for error than a superior, though complicated, middlegame position. Here though, Black wins with 21...Rxf6+ 22.Kg4 Bxg2 and Black wins due to a fork and a removal of the guard. 23.Rh4 Bf3+ 24.Kh3 g5 gets the Rook trapped while other moves lead to 23...Bf3+ 24.Kg5 Bd8 with a fatal discovery and mate to come.
22.Kg4 Bd7+ 23.Kf3 Rxf6+ 24.Ke2
Now White escapes. From here on out, we are going to see White putting up some stiff resistance. White still realizes that he is slightly worse, and should play for the draw unless Black blunders outright, but he has gotten off the hook due to Black's inferior play the from moves 19 through 22.
24...Bf5 25.Bxf5 Rxf5 26.Rh4 Rd8 27.exd4 exd4 28.Kd3 Re5 29.Rh1 Rde8
30.b4?!
This was White's one error in the endgame, but it didn't end up costing him. White can get a draw via 30.Rc2 Re1 31.Rxe1 Rxe1 32.Rc1 Rg1 33.b4 Kf7 34.a4 Ke6 35.a5 Bd8 36.Kxd4 Be7 37.Kc4 h5 38.b5 Rxg2 39.Rc3 g5 40.Re3+ Kd7 41.Rd3+ Ke6 42.Re3+ Kf7 43.Rf3+ Kg6 44.Kd5 Rg1 45.Ne3 and White should have no problems holding the position. Note that here, the Knight was not in a fatal pin, unlike the Bishop on f1 in the 19...fxe5+ 20.Kxe5 line, because Black's Bishop is of the wrong color to attack the Knight.
30...Re2 31.a4 a5?
Here is where Black missed his chance to take advantage of White's error on move 30. After 31...Ra2! 32.a5 Ra3+ 33.Kc2 Re2+ 34.Kb1 Rb3+ 35.Ka1 Bd8 36.Rc8 Re8 37.Rh5 Rf8 38.Rb5 b6 39.axb6 axb6 40.f3 Rd3 41.Nf2 Rd2 42.Rd5 Be7 43.Rxf8+ Kxf8 44.Ne4 Rxg2 45.Rxd4 Re2, it is Black who has the advantage because he has both the better minor piece, and the better King - White's is stuck on the back rank.
32.bxa5 Bxa5 33.Rc2 Rxc2 34.Kxc2 Re2+ 35.Kd3 Rd2+ 36.Kc4 Bb6 37.Rf1 Rc2+ 38.Kb3 d3 39.Nb2 Bd4
Now having been let off the hook, how does White defend?
40.Nc4!
Of course, the pawn is poisoned as 40.Nxd3?? Rc3+ drops a piece. Instead, White is heading for a drawn minor piece endgame. The first thing to always keep in mind is various drawing tricks. This is why it is so crucial to study your endgames. Many times, being down a pawn means having to use one of those mechanisms. You need to know Philidor's Draw (against any pawn), the Short Side Defense (against Bishop pawns), and the Passive Defense (against Knight pawns), along with Lucena's position to see what you need to avoid or what you want to achieve if you are the player with the pawn in Rook and Pawn vs Rook endgames, and another, which gets put to use in this game, is the concept of the wrong color Bishop and Rook Pawn idea, which despite being up a piece and a pawn, if the King can get to the corner where the pawn wants to promote, there is nothing that the player with the extra Bishop and Pawn can do. Of course, if he has the right colored Bishop, which is the Bishop on the color complex that matches the color of the promotion square, then it's a win for the player with the Bishop and the Pawn.
Here in this game, we see that Black's Bishop is on the dark squares. h1 is a light square. It doesn't matter if the promotion square matches the Bishop's color or not if it's not a Rook pawn. Any of the 6 central pawns and a Bishop versus nothing is a win for the Bishop and Pawn, but with the h-pawn promoting on the opposite color of the Bishop, White is looking at eliminating the Rooks, and if he can get rid of Black's b-pawn, then he will gladly sacrifice the Knight for the g-pawn if the King can get to the corner in time. Some calculation here and we will see that White is able to achieve that in this game.
40...Bxf2
The other move, 40...Rxf2, leads to a drawn minor piece ending after 41.Rxf2 Bxf2 and here White can play 42.g4 or flick in 42.Nd6 b6 and then play 43.g4 and the endgame is drawn. The d-pawn is going nowhere. The move played in the game gives Black connected passers on the Kingside, but it also gives White a passed pawn on the Queenside, which is just enough to distract Black.
41.Rd1 Bxg3 42.Rxd3 Rxg2 43.Rd8+ Kf7 44.Rd7+ Kf6 45.Rxb7 Rg1 46.Rb6+ Kf5 47.a5 Rb1+ 48.Kc2 Rxb6 49.Nxb6 Bf2
Computers are not very good at endgames, and hence why they need tablebases. A computer will claim that Black is winning after 49...Bc7, but that is not so. White can ignore the capture of the Knight until the King gets into the box. Then it will move to c4, guarding the pawn, and Black will need to use both pieces to collect the pawn, at which point White will be able to use the Knight to harass the Black pawns, and at worst sacrifice itself for the g-pawn. After 49...Bc7, White has 50.Kd2 Ke6 51.Nc4 Kd7 52.Ke3 Kc8 53.Kf3 Kb7 54.Kg4 Ka6 55.Nd2 and now everything draws. For example, 55...Bd8 56.Kh5 Bf6 57.Nb3 g6+ 58.Kh6 Be7 59.Nd4 g5 60.Kxh7 g4 61.Nf5 Bd6 62.Kg6 is a draw as is 55...Kxa5 56.Nb3+ Kb4 57.Nd4 g6 (57...h6 58.Nf5 Be5 59.Nxg7! Bxg7 60.Kf3 and White gets to the corner with the classic Wrong-Color Bishop and Rook Pawn scenario) 58.Ne6 Bd6 59.Kg5 Be7+ 60.Kh6 and Black has no way to win it.
50.Kd3 Ke6 51.Nc4 Kd5 52.a6 Kc6 53.Ke2 Ba7 54.Ne5+ Kb5 55.Nf7 Kxa6 56.Ng5 Kb5
Or 56...h6 57.Ne6 g6 58.Kf3 Kb5 59.Kg4 Be3 60.Nf8 g5 61.Ne6 Kc4 62.Kh5 Kd5 63.Nd8 Ke5 64.Nf7+ Kf4 65.Nxh6 with a draw. However, now, after surrendering the h-pawn, the Bishop and g-pawn versus the Knight is a dead draw given how the Kings are situated.
57.Nxh7 Kc4 58.Kf3 Kd5 59.Ng5 Ke5 60.Kg4 Bc5 61.Nf3+ Kf6 62.Nh4 Be3 63.Nf5 1/2-1/2
And so both players walked out with $150 for a 3 1/2 score.
There are a number of things that can be picked up from this game:
- Understanding the Opening is more critical than memorizing lines. Black played an offbeat move on move 6, and Had White understood what he was doing early on, he would not have found himself in the predicament that he was in. The Queen trade was terrible, and moving the Knight to d1 the following move was even worse. I have stated this time and time again in my articles on the French Defense, and specifically go through this in the 9th edition of the French Connection published back in the early summer. This game illustrates what happens when you don't know what you are doing. White got very lucky this game to walk out of it alive!
- When your opponent shoots his King out into the wind, the most important thing is not to let the King run away. Black's sequence of moves from moves 19 through 22 allowed White to achieve his escape.
- Pay very close attention to details. The pin of the Bishop to the Rook illustrated in the 19...fxe5+ 20.Kxe5 line is fatal to White, but the pin of the Knight to the Rook that results from 30.Rc2 is not because Black's Bishop is the wrong color in that case. Generalizing with ideas like "The Bishop is better than the Knight on an open board with Pawns on both sides" might work for a sheer beginner, but once you get out of that beginner phase, while the general concepts may work more times than not, them alone are insufficient for success, and attention must always be paid to minute details in every position.
- Make sure you know and learn every drawing pattern in your endgames. Wrong Color Bishop and Rook Pawn, all of the Rook and Pawn versus Rook scenarios, Pawnless Endgames, like when King and Rook versus King and Bishop is a win for the Rook and when it's a draw, the fact that Rook and Knight versus Rook or Rook and Bishop vs Rook are almost always drawn, or various fortresses, like Queen versus Rook and Pawn or Queen versus Bishop and Knight, where the Bishop goes to g7 and the Knight to e5 with the King near the corner. Same pattern would apply in the other three corners of the board. If you know all the drawing patterns, you no longer need to calculate things to the end. You can simply calculate to the endgame, and then trust your endgame knowledge after that to take over. In the game played, I am not looking at how to stop two pawns and a Bishop. I am looking at how to get rid of the g-pawn, and if I have to give up the Knight for it, I will because then I have a common drawing pattern. Being familiar with these simplifies your task tremendously, especially when you are the side defending. It is also critical to know these from the winning side so that you know what you must avoid allowing your opponent to do!
So that concludes the coverage of the Summer Tour in July. A month later, in mid-August, I had three games in the NC Open that all featured Bishop endings, and having just said how critical it is to know your endgames, that's what will be coming next - an article on Bishop Endings. Endgame fans, stay tuned!
Until then, good luck in all of your games!
No comments:
Post a Comment