{"id":3095,"date":"2014-09-04T14:19:16","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T22:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=3095"},"modified":"2014-09-04T14:20:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T22:20:08","slug":"six-games-six-positions-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=3095","title":{"rendered":"Six Games, Six Positions (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually when I write about games I have recently played, I show you most or all of the game and have several diagrams along the way. This time I’m going to do something different. I played six games in my tournament from last weekend, and I’m going to show you one<\/em> position from each game. I have not yet done thorough, definitive analyses of any of them, so I would welcome input. As long as the Comments button continues to not work, please feel free to send comments to me at qxpch (at) yahoo (dot) com.<\/p>\n

\"round<\/a>FEN: r1b1r1k1\/1pp2pB1\/2nq2p1\/p2p2Pn\/7Q\/1P1PP2P\/P1N1B3\/R3NRK1 b – – 0 19<\/p>\n

Position after 19. Bxg7. Black to play.<\/em><\/p>\n

In my first-round game against Praveen Narayanan, I had White and played Bird’s Opening (1. f4). Michael (fpawn) Aigner would be pleased! In this position I have just taken on g7 and Praveen has to decide which way to take back. I thought that the answer was obvious, but Praveen surprised me by taking the other way.<\/p>\n

19. … Kxg7??<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s a good lesson here that I often forget — your opponent may have completely different ideas about the position than you do. I thought that 19. … Nxg7 was automatic, with the knight heading for a nice outpost on f5. It’s true that there is a problem with this move: it allows 20. Rf6. The rook is annoying on f6, it can’t be driven away easily, and it sets up long-term threats of advancing a pawn to h5 and then putting the g6 pawn under severe pressure.<\/p>\n

That being said, White’s position is by no means automatically better after 20. Rf6. There’s always the potential that it could get trapped by … Nf5. Although I would rather be White in this position, it’s still a game.<\/p>\n

However, Praveen’s 19. … Kg7 just loses material. It was based on a misconception: after 20. Bxh5<\/strong> he played 20. … Rh8<\/strong>, which he thought would pin the bishop and win it, giving him great attacking chances on the h-file. But he missed two consecutive zwischenzugs<\/em>: 21. Qf2!<\/strong> (threatening mate on f7) Ne5 22. Qf6+! Qxf6 23. gf+<\/strong>. Actually I guess that’s three zwischenzugs<\/em>, the key point being that I recaptured on f6 with check. He moved his king away (23. … Kh6<\/strong>) and that gave me time to rescue the bishop (24. Bg4<\/strong>) and I remained a piece up. The rest was just mop-up.<\/p>\n

This was more a game that Praveen lost than a game I won, but that’s kind of what you hope for when you’re paired against a lower-rated opponent in round one. The tournament was off to a good start for me.<\/p>\n

\"round<\/a>FEN: r2q1rk1\/p4pbp\/2n3p1\/1p6\/2ppPP2\/P1P2Q1P\/BP1B2P1\/R4RK1 b – – 0 18<\/p>\n

Position after 18. c3. Black to move.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another round, another Bird! This time my opponent was Christopher Pan, I was Black, and the opening was my favorite Bird Variation of the Ruy Lopez. He has just played 18. c3, a move I didn’t quite understand, and now I have an interesting decision: to push on to d3 or to take on c3?<\/p>\n

I am by no means sure that I made the best decision, but it definitely set the tone for the rest of the game. If this were a blitz game, I would probably play 18. … d3 without hesitation. Who can resist the idea of locking up the light-squared bishop forever?<\/p>\n

However, with a longer time to think about it, I changed my mind. There were several reasons. First, if I push to d3 I have committed myself to a very static pawn structure. The queenside pawns could become targets, and if White should ever eliminate the c-pawn, the pawn at d3 will be dead, too. So capturing on c3 is a lower-risk move.<\/p>\n

There are other points in favor of 18. … dc. A key one is that it opens up the d-file for my rooks. It also opens the long diagonal. If White should recapture on c3 with a pawn (not right away of course, but perhaps after a trade of bishops) he will have big weaknesses to defend.<\/p>\n

Now, to some extent White can oppose all of these ideas. He can get his bishop on c3 to oppose my dark-squared bishop. He can move his rooks to d1 to oppose my rooks. What is likely to ensue is a bunch of trades. But the most important, and subtlest, point is that these trades are not neutral<\/em>. They are distinctly in my favor, because they leave me with a powerful queen and knight against White’s queen and very ineffective bishop.<\/p>\n

I have to say that I was pretty proud of this concept, and I think that the idea of taking stock of the possible trades in the position is something that has rubbed off on me from Mike Splane’s parties.<\/p>\n

Indeed, that’s exactly what occurred. After 18. … dc 19. Bxc3 Qb6+ 20. Kh1 Rad8 21. Rad1 Rxd1 22. Rxd1 Bxc3 23. Qxc3 Rd8 24. Rxd8+ Qxd8 25. Qc2 Qd4!<\/strong> I stood much better and went on to win easily. I really liked this game and may do a ChessLecture on it, perhaps in combination with my round six game in which I also exchanged to victory.<\/p>\n

Round three, however, is when things started to go sour. I was playing White against Ladia Jirasek.<\/p>\n

\"round<\/a>FEN: 4r3\/5nk1\/bq5p\/p4Q2\/1pP4N\/1P4P1\/P4N1P\/3R2K1 w – – 0 35<\/p>\n

Position after 34. … Kg7. White to move.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here I played what I think was my worst blunder of the tournament. Looking at the position now, I can’t believe I didn’t play 35. Rd7, which does allow Black a couple of spite checks but more importantly forces him to trade queens or get mated. Once the queens are off the board, I feel confident that my two-pawn advantage would be enough to win.<\/p>\n

Instead, I played the exceedingly hasty and impulsive move 35. c5??<\/strong>, which makes absolutely no sense. First, it opens up an important diagonal for Black’s bishop. Second, it chases Black’s queen to a square she wants to go to (c6). Third, Black will get very serious mating threats with moves like … Bb7 and … Ng5. (In fact, even if I manage to get queens off the board, those threats will persist.)\u00a0 Notice, also, that after 35. c5 Qc6 I now cannot play my best attacking move 36. Rd7 because now 36. … Re1+ is mate. What a difference! Finally, on c5 the pawn is no longer strong but is critically weak and will probably fall. All of these terrible consequences just for the sake of one little tempo.<\/p>\n

Why did I play such a bad move? Well, I was low on time, with about four minutes left for six moves. And I was just not doing what a chess player should do in every position, which is to stop and look at the options. Four minutes for six moves is scary, but it’s still enough time to take a breath. The important thing is not to get in the mentality of playing the first move you see, which is exactly the way I was thinking.<\/p>\n

After 35. c5?? Qc6 I continued 36. Qg4+<\/strong>, and Jirasek played 36. … Kh7<\/strong> and offered a draw. He was surprised when I accepted! But I think it was absolutely the right decision. If I attempt to win, I get into huge trouble in every variation. For example, if 37. Nf5 Ng5 38. Nd4 Qxc5 39. Qf5+ Qxf5 40. Nxf5 it looks as if I have gotten to an endgame, albeit at the cost of one of my two pawns. But I’m still a pawn up, right? I’m still winning? Wrong! After 40. … Nf3+ 41. Kg2 Ne1+ Black has at least a draw, and he might even be able to play for more.<\/p>\n

In fact, the only decent line I see for White is 37. Qf5+ Kg7 38. Qg4+, with a draw by repetition. So a draw is a “natural” result here, even if Jirasek hadn’t made the offer.<\/p>\n

Even aside from the chess factors, there were emotional factors. My time was now down to three minutes. I was by this point starting to grasp that 35. c5?? had been a colossal blunder. I had no faith left in my position; the rook and both knights are (or will soon be) completely tied down defending mate threats, and I didn’t see any plan that would get me out of the mess. For all these reasons, I accepted Jirasek’s offer with almost a sense of relief. Even if it meant catching some grief from other players later. “You agreed to a draw when you were two pawns up??? What???”<\/p>\n

That’s enough for this post. Next time, three more games and three more crucial positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Usually when I write about games I have recently played, I show you most or all of the game and have several diagrams along the way. This time I’m going to do something different. I played six games in my tournament from last weekend, and I’m going to show you one position from each game. […]<\/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":[17,11,16,12],"tags":[2965,792,2769,2966,1600,2233,2906,2125,2303,933,2964,699],"class_list":["post-3095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chess-lecture","category-games","category-positions","category-tournaments","tag-bird-opening","tag-bird-variation","tag-chess-party","tag-christopher-pan","tag-emotions","tag-impulse","tag-ladia-jirasek","tag-open-lines","tag-praveen-narayanan","tag-time-trouble","tag-trades","tag-zwischenzug"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3095","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=3095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3102,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3095\/revisions\/3102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}