Reno Redux — Round 6

And now, back to chess. However, the blog stats make me wonder whether I should post off topic more often. My blog got more than 200 hits on the day that my post about Jorge Cham’s detention went up — even though I had no information to offer other than what was already in Cham’s cartoon. That was the most hits in any one day since I started keeping track. (Admittedly, I only started keeping track a couple of months ago).

But the purpose of a chess blog isn’t to get a lot of hits, right? The purpose is to talk about chess. Right? Hello? Anybody there?

Okay, I know that some of you were looking forward to seeing my last round game in Reno, against Jake Kleiman. I’m not going to write about the whole game here because I want to save some of the good parts for my ChessLecture, which I will record on Monday. However, if you want a sneak peek at the PGN, you can download it here.

So, somehow or other (see the PGN if you want to know how) we got to the position below:

Diagram 1.

I’m White and Kleiman is Black. Although I’m two pawns down, Black is in a world of trouble. He can’t castle, now or ever, because his king has already been to e7 and back. He has a huge hole on d6, and his f7 pawn is under attack. (I have just played 19. N3g5.) Just as a tactical warm-up, here’s a question for you: What happens if Black defends the pawn with 19. … Rf8?

Instead, Kleiman played 19. … f6 20. ef gf, probably hoping for 21. Nxf6+ Nxf6 22. Rxf6 Qxg5, when Black wins a piece — although I strongly suspect that White is still winning after 23. Rxe6+.

However, there was no need to work this all out, because White had a much better move. Remember the “move order trick” — if Move A followed by Move B has a flaw (in this case, the hanging knight on g5), try playing Move B followed by Move A. So I played 21. Rxf6!, when of course the rook can’t be taken because of 21. … Nxf6? 22. Nxf6+ forking the king and queen.

He played 21. … h6, still hoping to chase the knight back, but I cheerfully continued the attack with 22. Nxe6 Qe5, reaching the position in Diagram 2.

Diagram 2. White to play and win.

It almost looks as if White has messed up, because all of those knights and rooks are kind of floating in midair, and they can’t all be defended at once. But that doesn’t matter. If you solved Diagram 1 correctly, you probably had no trouble finding the key move here, as well:

23. Rf8+!

The point of this move is that if Black plays the seemingly harmless trade of rooks, 23. … Rxf8+ 24. Qxf8+ Kd7, then 25. N4c5 is checkmate! I could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw this possibility (when I was deciding what to do on my 22nd move). It’s a very non-standard checkmate pattern that just materialized out of the clear blue sky. So instead Kleiman played 23. … Kd7 24. N4c5+ Ke7 25. Nd3+ Qd6 and now I faced my last real decision of the game. (Diagram 3)

Diagram 3. Is Black merely dead, or really most sincerely dead?

The decision here is whether to simply go for the win of an exchange with 26. Qxd6+ Kxd6 27. Rxh8 cd 28. Rxh6, when of course White should be winning the endgame, or whether to go for something a little more drastic. I had plenty of time left, so I spent five or ten minutes checking and rechecking my analysis, and then I played:

26. Rf7+!

The exclamation point is for savagery and unadulterated barbarity, because of course the civilized 26. Qxd6+ would win as well.

26. … Kxe6 27. Rae1+ …

Jesse Kraai would be happy, because I have brought my last piece into the attack.

27. … Kxf7 28. Qxd6 cd

Technically, Black has won material (a rook and two knights for a queen), but what really matters is the material in the field of battle. There, White has a queen and a rook that are only opposed by Black’s knight on d5, which is rather like opposing a steamroller with a BB gun. Black cannot avoid mate for long.

29. Rf1+ Kg7

The alternative was 29. … Ke8 30. Qe5+, when White will win the h8 rook with check.

30. Qe5+ Kg8 31. Qe6+ resigns

It’s mate next move.

By the way, the answer to the quiz on Diagram 1 was: If Black plays 19. … Rf8, then White answers 20. Nxe6!, when 20. … fe would run into 21. Qxf8+. This was a sort of precursor of the invasion on f8 that actually happened in the game, and probably this first combination helped me visualize the later combination.

Although this game was a bit of a massacre, that’s actually one thing that I like about it. Specifically, White’s choice on move 26 was an important one, even though from an objective point of view either choice is completely acceptable. I see lots of games by novice to intermediate players where one player has an absolutely crushing attack, but instead of pushing the attack through to its conclusion, he or she will settle for winning a little bit of material and trading into the endgame. The trouble with this is that it lets the opponent get back on his feet, and sometimes the previously winning player will actually give up a draw or even lose the ensuing endgame.

Just remember, checkmating your opponent is always better than going into an exchange-up endgame!