{"id":5853,"date":"2019-05-20T12:11:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T20:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5853"},"modified":"2019-05-20T12:24:35","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T20:24:35","slug":"more-anniversaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5853","title":{"rendered":"More Anniversaries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday I celebrated another anniversary, and a pretty big\none this time: the thirtieth anniversary of my wedding! Kay has been my rudder\nand my guiding light for all this time. She claims to be pretty satisfied with\nme too, although I\u2019m not sure how much to believe her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because this is a chess blog, I have to somehow celebrate\nthis occasion by showing you a chess game. One of the smartest things that Kay\ndid during our courtship was to tell me that she would never play chess with\nme. The only time I\u2019ve ever seen her play a game of chess was against one of my\nnephews, when he was five years old. She won, and she was pretty pleased with\nherself!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we have no record of that game, so I\u2019ve decided to show you my first chess game after getting married. It happened sooner than you might think. We delayed our honeymoon for a couple weeks, for various practical reasons like the end of the school year. That year (1989), I was playing a weekly game at lunchtime against Greg Samsa, a two-time (1981 and 1982) champion of North Carolina. It was a great training experience, one that I think was directly responsible for my winning my first tournament after moving to Ohio later that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me say a little bit about Greg. He was a two-time\nchampion and I was a two-time champion (1985 and 1987), but that\u2019s where the\nsimilarities end. To put it simply, he was a way better player than me. The\nratings said so (he was around 2300, I was around 2200), but the difference was\nbigger than that. He was a very Capablanca-like player. The game just came\neasily to him. He once told me why he never got into time trouble: \u201cThere\u2019s\njust not that much to think about in chess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you believe it?! Not that much to think about?! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My style was completely the opposite. My only hope against\nhim was to play for obscure complications and hope that my concrete calculation\nmight compensate for his better understanding of the game. It didn\u2019t work very\noften. I never beat him in a rated tournament game. But in our training matches\nthat year I did score a win every now and then, and it just so happened that\nthe week after my wedding was one of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg could have won many more state championships, but during those years his job or his family commitments or both prevented him from traveling. The only tournaments he played in were one-day tournaments in the Triangle (Durham\/Raleigh\/Chapel Hill) area. For that reason I always felt that my two championships came with an asterisk, meaning best player in North Carolina not named Greg Samsa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana Mackenzie \u2013 Greg\nSamsa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 23, 1989<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game\/45<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. d4 g6 2. e4 Bg7 3.\nc4 d6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Bg5 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Averbakh Variation was my favorite in those days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. \u2026 Nc6 7. d5 Ne5 8.\nQd2 c6 9. f4?! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought this looked like a better version of the Four\nPawns Attack, with fewer weaknesses. But it\u2019s just the sort of position that\nGreg loves. He does not mind giving his opponent more space, trusting that his\nmore flexible pieces will turn the opponent\u2019s aggressiveness against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. \u2026 Ned7 10. dc? \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was hoping to get some pressure on the d-file and weaken Black\u2019s queenside pawns. But the move cannot be recommended (in spite of the result of this game) because it helps Black develop. Better would be 10. Nh3 Nc5 11. Nf2 etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. \u2026 bc 11. Bf3 Ba6<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to provoke b3, which leaves me very weak on the dark squares. But the bishop ends up being rather poorly posted on a6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. b3 h6 13. Bh5 e5!?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 13. \u2026 e5. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r2q1rk1\/p2n1pb1\/b1pp1npp\/4p3\/2P1PP1B\/1PN2B2\/P2Q2PP\/R3K1NR w KQ – 0 14<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the bear awakens from hibernation! As I\u2019ve said, Greg typically\nbides his time until the opponent has made enough mistakes, and then he\nstrikes. This move is a sure sign that he thinks I have weakened my position\ntoo much with 12. b3, and now he is going to blow the position open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this was arguably just a bit premature. Black\u2019s position\nnow has weaknesses, too \u2013 d6, c6, a6, the pinned knight on f6, a potentially\npinned knight on d7 \u2013 and so White is (as Greg himself might have said), \u201cnot\nwithout counterplay.\u201d An alternative was 13. \u2026 Qa5 immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. Qxd6! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I admire the way I played in those days. Nowadays I would have looked at White\u2019s knight on c3 and rook at a1, just floating in space, and I would have been too afraid to make such a move. But really this move is good for me. Although White may still have a disadvantage (the computer says so), Black is going to have to prove it tactically. In a complicated, tactical position, I would have a fighting chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. \u2026 ef 15. O-O-O! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what makes it all possible. White gets out of the\npossible two-way pins on his knight, frees the e1 square for his bishop, and\nincreases his control over the d-file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15. \u2026 Qa5 16. Be1 \u2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Greg\u2019s Capablanca-like style works against him. He plays a calm positional move when the time was right to channel Alekhine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 16. Be1. Black to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r4rk1\/p2n1pb1\/b1pQ1npp\/q7\/2P1Pp2\/1PN2B2\/P5PP\/2KRB1NR b – – 0 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. \u2026 Rfd8?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An absolutely natural-looking move, because Black wants to contest\nthe d-file and turn up the heat on White\u2019s queen. But it\u2019s just too slow. Chess\nis about the initiative, and the way to keep the initiative in Black\u2019s hands was\nto play 16. \u2026 Nxe4!? Now 17. Nxe4? would lose to Qa3+ 18. Kc2 Qb2+ 19. Kd3 Ne5 is\nalmost mate. (White has to give up his queen.) Instead, 17. Bxe4 Bxc3 leads to\na wild mess, but one has to like Black\u2019s chances a little bit better because\nWhite\u2019s king is more exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. Na4! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

White seizes the initiative and never gives it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. \u2026 Qe5 18. Bc3 Qxd6 19. Rxd6 Rac8 20. Ne2 Ne8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allows White to win material, but it\u2019s hard to think of a decent alternative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 20. \u2026 Ne8. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: 2rrn1k1\/p2n1pb1\/b1pR2pp\/8\/N1P1Pp2\/1PB2B2\/P3N1PP\/2K4R w – – 0 21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21. Rxd7! Rxd7 22. Bxg7 Kxg7 23. Nc5 Re7 24. Nxa6 Nf6?!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly passive. The obvious move is 24. \u2026 c5,\nthreatening to trap White\u2019s knight. Greg must have seen that I could play 25. e5!,\ndenying his rooks the squares they need to attack the knight. After 25. \u2026 Rxe5\nthe computer recommends 26. Kc2! with the idea of Nc1-d3, both attacking the\nc-pawn and chasing the rook away from its defense. Even so, Black should have\ntried this, because White was forced to find some not-obvious moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25. Nc5 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now White\u2019s pieces dominate the board. Black\u2019s only hope is\nthat White will mess up in time pressure, because I was now down to less than 5\nminutes for the rest of the game. However, this time I managed to keep alert\ntactically in spite of the time trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25. \u2026 g5 26. Nd4 Re5 27. Nf5+ Kg6 28. Nd3 Re6 29. h4 Rd8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 29. \u2026 Rd8. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: 3r4\/p4p2\/2p1rnkp\/5Np1\/2P1Pp1P\/1P1N1B2\/P5P1\/2K4R w – – 0 30<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30. hg! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

White has many ways to win, of course, but I thought that this was a neat twist. 29. \u2026 Rxd3 runs into 30. gf, and 29. \u2026 hg runs into 30. Rh6 mate! The variation that Greg chooses leads to a massive liquidation, after which White has an easily winning R+P endgame. I really like how smoothly this game went from move 17 on. It\u2019s as if I was still living a charmed life after my wedding, and nothing I did on the chess board could go wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30. \u2026 Nxe4 31. Nxf4+\nKxf5 32. Nxe3 fe 33. Bxe4+ Kxe4 34. gh Rh8 35. h7 Kf4 36. Rh3<\/strong> and Black resigned<\/strong> a few moves later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, marriage will do wonderful things for your\nchess! For one week, at least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I celebrated another anniversary, and a pretty big one this time: the thirtieth anniversary of my wedding! Kay has been my rudder and my guiding light for all this time. She claims to be pretty satisfied with me too, although I\u2019m not sure how much to believe her. Because this is a chess blog, […]<\/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":[11,9,25,171],"tags":[2863,1592,274,4352,745,358,4356,424,588,4353],"class_list":["post-5853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","category-openings","category-people","category-ruminations","tag-charmed","tag-greg-samsa","tag-initiative","tag-kay-mackenzie","tag-kings-indian-defense","tag-north-carolina","tag-space","tag-state-champion","tag-weaknesses","tag-wedding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853","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=5853"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5861,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853\/revisions\/5861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}