{"id":2697,"date":"2014-01-03T23:15:36","date_gmt":"2014-01-04T07:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2014-01-06T08:46:47","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T16:46:47","slug":"dont-overlook-the-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=2697","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Overlook the Penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"

After three rounds of the Bay Area International, I have one loss and two draws. The loss was against John Bryant in round 1, not too surprising as he is over 2400 FIDE. The two draws were against masters in the 2200 range, Leon Piasetski and Hayk Manvelyan. In the game against Manvelyan I definitely had some winning chances, with a pawn-up endgame, but it was one of those positions where playing to win would also give me a real chance of losing, and I finally decided not to take the risk.<\/p>\n

The main news so far in the tournament is that the #1 seed, Shimanov, withdrew before the tournament. That’s sort of a bummer, but there are still lots of strong players here. Already in round three we had grandmasters playing against grandmasters. I think there were only five people who started 2-0, and I know that two of them drew in round three. The other games were still going. It looked as if GM Bartlomeij Macieja had Josh Friedel in trouble on board one, so Macieja may be your leader after three rounds. But of course there is still a very long way to go.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of highlights from rounds one and two.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Position after 1. Ne5. Black to move.<\/p><\/div>\n

FEN: 2rq1rk1\/1b3pb1\/pp1Ppnpp\/4N3\/PP6\/2N1Q2P\/4BPP1\/2RR2K1 b – – 0 1<\/p>\n

This was a game from round one between Tigran Ishkhanov (White) and Sam Shankland (Black). White had the upper hand for a while, but his last move, 1. Ne5?, was a serious mistake. Can you see how Shankland took advantage of it?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a little more space in case you want to think about it.<\/p>\n

Shankland smashed the White position with 1. \u2026 Rxc3!<\/strong> I don\u2019t care how many times you see them, exchange sacs on c3 never grow old! It\u2019s quite surprising to me that Ishkhanov simply walked into this \u2013 but then, lots of things look surprising in hindsight.<\/p>\n

I asked Sam whether he spent very long calculating this move. \u201cNo, it was mostly intuitive,\u201d he said. However, he does out-calculate his opponent in the sequel.<\/p>\n

2. Qxc3 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, 2. Rxc3 would give back the exchange without solving any of the problems.<\/p>\n

2. \u2026 Nd5 3. Qg3?! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

But here, according to Sam, 3. Rxd5! had to be played.<\/p>\n

3. \u2026 Qxd6 4. Nc4 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think 4. f4 looks very good after 4. \u2026 g5.<\/p>\n

4. \u2026 Qxg3 5. hg \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sam was tempted to take on b4, but instead decides to create more weaknesses in White\u2019s camp. It\u2019s very instructive how he does not rush to win back his material in this position, but keeps on turning up the pressure.<\/p>\n

5. \u2026 Nc3<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you were analyzing the position on move 1, I think that this is the point where you would stop and say that Black has more than enough compensation for the exchange.<\/p>\n

6. Rd2? \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Losing! Sam said that 6. Re1 was forced, and then after 6. \u2026 Bd4+ 7. Kf1 (or 7. Kh2 Bf2!) 7. \u2026 Ne4! Suddenly threatens mate on g3! 8. Red1 Nxg3+ 9. Ke1 looks forced. Here Sam said he would have played 9. \u2026 Nxe2 10. Kxe3 e5, and I completely agree with him. In my opinion (and I\u2019m not the only one), two bishops are worth about 6.5 pawns, while rook and knight are worth about 7.5. So here, where Black has two extra pawns, he is essentially a pawn up. For some reason the computer prefers 9. \u2026 e5 right away instead of 9. \u2026 Nxe2. This may be right \u2013 the knight is a great piece, so there\u2019s no hurry to exchange it \u2013 but I think I\u2019ll go with Sam\u2019s intuition here instead of the computer.<\/p>\n

In any event, Sam now finished up the game in impressive style.<\/p>\n

6. \u2026 Rc8!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pin on the c-file is murderous, even though technically speaking it doesn\u2019t even exist yet.<\/p>\n

7. Bf1 \u2026<\/strong> (diagram)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Position after 7. Bf1. Black to move.<\/p><\/div>\n

FEN: 2r3k1\/1b3pb1\/pp2p1pp\/8\/PPN5\/2n3PP\/3R2P1\/2R2BK1 b – – 0 7<\/p>\n

Maybe Ishkhanov thought that this would save the piece. But Black keeps on piling up the threats.<\/p>\n

7. \u2026 b5!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would have been very, very tempted to take that a-pawn, when I think Black is much better. But Sam\u2019s move is like an arrow heading towards its target.<\/p>\n

8. ab ab 9. Rd7 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

If 9. Nd6 Ne2+ (I love this move\u2014three of Black\u2019s pieces are en prise, one of them two different ways, but he comes out ahead in all lines) White is out of luck after either 10. Bxe2 Rxc1+ or 10. Rxe2 Rxc1 11. Nxb7 Bd4+! Followed by 12. \u2026 Rxf1. How did you like the way the desperado knight deflected White\u2019s rook away from the defense of d4?<\/p>\n

9. \u2026 Bd5 10. Rxc3 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

White finally gives back the exchange, but it won\u2019t save him.<\/p>\n

10. \u2026 Bxc3 11. Nd6 Bd4+ 12. Kh2 Rc1 13. Bxb5 Bg1+<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the way that Black\u2019s attack keeps on going, even with only three pieces left. That\u2019s still enough to mate.<\/p>\n

14. Kh1 Bf2+!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t even think of taking that b-pawn with 14. \u2026 Bc5+ and \u2026 15. \u2026 Bxb4. We\u2019re playing for mate.<\/p>\n

15. Kh2 Rg1 White resigns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The threat (indefensible) is \u2026 Rxg2+ followed by \u2026 Rg1+ and \u2026 Rh1 mate. Awesome! Just once I\u2019d like my pieces to coordinate as beautifully as Sam\u2019s did in this game.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t get to do as much spectating in round two because my game went longer. However, I did see one interesting endgame (the last game in the round to finish). Rayan Taghizadeh, a young expert, was playing Black against International Master Victor Shen. (diagram)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Position after 1. Kg6. Black to move.<\/p><\/div>\n

FEN: 7k\/6p1\/4P1K1\/3Q4\/7P\/4q1P1\/8\/8 b – – 0 1<\/p>\n

In this position, Rayan played the natural 1. \u2026 Qxg3+? 2. Kf7 Qf4+ 3. Ke8 Qa4+ 4. Kd8! Qxh4+ 5. e7 Qf6?<\/strong> (5. \u2026 Kh7 would at least make White work for the victory) 6. Kd7 Black resigns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019ve seen how the game did end, can you tell me what Taghizadeh should have played in the initial position?<\/p>\n

The answer is 1. \u2026 Qxe6+!! with an immediate draw. White has to play 2. Qxe6, and it\u2019s stalemate!<\/p>\n

Obviously both players overlooked this resource. I have a story that explains why this sort of “out-of-the-blue” move is so hard to see when you’re in the heat of battle. Last summer I watched a show on TV called \u201cBrain Games,\u201d in which one episode was about the way that focusing on one spot can cause you to be oblivious to things going on around you. They demonstrated this by having some spectators watch a card trick. Meanwhile, in the background, a guy walked by in a penguin costume. After the card trick was over, they asked the spectators, \u201cDid any of you notice a penguin walking around?\u201d None of the spectators had, and they were shocked when they saw the tape and saw this six-foot penguin walking around just a few feet away!<\/p>\n

The moral of this story is: Don\u2019t overlook the penguins!<\/p>\n

1\/6: Corrected a couple of typos. Thanks for pointing them out, Mike.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After three rounds of the Bay Area International, I have one loss and two draws. The loss was against John Bryant in round 1, not too surprising as he is over 2400 FIDE. The two draws were against masters in the 2200 range, Leon Piasetski and Hayk Manvelyan. In the game against Manvelyan I definitely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1363,11,16,12],"tags":[2743,1032,2036,533,768,2245,2074],"class_list":["post-2697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-news","category-games","category-positions","category-tournaments","tag-bay-area-international","tag-exchange-sacrifice","tag-rayan-taghizadeh","tag-sam-shankland","tag-stalemate","tag-tigran-ishkhanov","tag-victor-shen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2711,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions\/2711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}