{"id":5887,"date":"2019-06-09T19:07:51","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T03:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5887"},"modified":"2019-06-09T19:08:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T03:08:03","slug":"how-to-win-without-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5887","title":{"rendered":"How to Win without Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The second week of the PRO Summer Chess League went a whole\nlot better for me, and a whole lot worse for the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick refresher: the summer league is an offshoot of the main (winter) league. One big difference is that fans can participate and score points for their favorite team. Each match consists of two parts: a team match in which fans of one team play two games against fans of another (as many fans as want to play); and a 4-man elimination tournament in which each team is represented by a single \u201cpro\u201d player (most likely a GM or IM). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week the San Francisco Mechanics got off to a pretty good start, beating the San Diego Surfers in the fan match, 20-12, while Daniel Naroditsky, our pro, placed second in the elimination tournament. This week we were paired against the Chengdu Pandas, and had a complete wipeout. We lost 34\u00bd – 19\u00bd in the fan match and finished fourth in the pro elimination tournament. We are not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet, but we will definitely have to beat St. Louis next week and get some good breaks to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After my disaster last week, I was paired against a 1600 player named \u201cattackchesskid.\u201d In the first game I won a rook and was cruising to victory, but then managed to hang a rook in the only way possible. Disgusted and frustrated, I bailed out to a draw by repetition (which fortunately was there for the taking). I couldn\u2019t believe that I couldn\u2019t even win a game with an extra rook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the circumstances, I was ecstatic to win my second game almost without thinking. The whole game lasted less than three minutes. I played a trap in the Center Counter Defense that I discovered a few years ago. It\u2019s what Roman Dzindzichashvili calls a \u201cgood trap,\u201d i.e., one in which you don\u2019t make any dubious moves to set the trap. In this trap, you just play normal moves in an unusual order. If your opponent doesn\u2019t fall into the trap, you can go into normal variations; if he does, then you have a winning attack. This was my first chance to try it in a game that actually meant something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana Mackenzie \u2013\nattackchesskid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. e4 d5 2. ed Qxd5\n3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Nf3 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hallmark of the trap I’m going to show you is that White delays the \u201cnormal\u201d 4. d4 for several moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. \u2026 Nf6 5. Bc4 Bf5\n6. O-O e6 7. Re1 c6?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 7. \u2026 c6. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: rn2kb1r\/pp3ppp\/2p1pn2\/q4b2\/2B5\/2N2N2\/PPPP1PPP\/R1BQR1K1 w kq – 0 8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great thing about this trap is that it absolutely does not look as if White is setting a trap. It just looks as if he is developing pieces and has gotten a little bit confused about the move order. I would expect the trap to be especially effective in speed chess or against \u201cbooked-up\u201d players who prefer to play memorized moves \u2013 in other words, exactly the situation in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the normal book lines, 7. \u2026 c6 is the move Black\ntypically plays. However, there is absolutely no reason for Black to play it here.\nBest is 7. \u2026 Nbd7, to prevent Re5. Then White has a choice between 8. d4, transposing\ninto the normal variation, or 8. d3, which would force the players to think for\nthemselves. I would have played 8. d3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Re5! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seizing the opportunity created when Black played his\nmemorized move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. \u2026 Qc7 9. Rxf5! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole point of the variation. White sacrifices the exchange\nin order to win the pawn on f7 and chase Black\u2019s king into the center of the\nboard. I have not done a thorough analysis, but the computer gives White at\nleast a 1-pawn advantage in all lines. From the practical point of view, the\nposition is much easier for White to play \u2013 as we see in this game, where Black\nblunders almost immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. \u2026 ef 10. Ng5 Ng4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 10. \u2026 Ng4. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: rn2kb1r\/ppq2ppp\/2p5\/5pN1\/2B3n1\/2N5\/PPPP1PPP\/R1BQ2K1 w kq – 0 11 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good, feisty move. I would expect nothing else from a player named \u201cattackchesskid.\u201d Obviously White would like to avoid playing a purely defensive move like 11. g3. So there are two checks that come into consideration, 11. Bxf7+ or 11. Qe2+. Which one would you play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. Bxf7+?! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wrong check! I was surprised to see that Rybka significantly prefers the other move, 11. Qe2+. After sacrificing an exchange, why would White want to let Black trade queens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two reasons. First, White would rather take on f7\nwith his knight than with his bishop. With the bishop on f7 and the knight on\ng5, both the knight and the bishop are vulnerable to attack, and the situation\nis rather precarious. The setup with the knight on f7 is much more stable. Also,\nthe knight on f7 threatens to win more material \u2013 the rook on h8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, after 11. Bxf7+ Ke7! 12. Qe2+ Qe5!, White is forced\nto trade queens anyway, and in a worse position than if he had played 11. Qe2+\nright away (because he has the bishop on f7 rather than the knight).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, best according to the computer is 11. Qe2+! A third point, which is quite crucial, is that White is completely winning after 11. \u2026 Be7? 12. Bxf7+ Kd7 13. Qd3+! \u00a0This funky little move wins the f5 pawn with check<\/em> followed by taking the knight on g4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Black instead answers 11. Qe2+! with Qe5, the followup is 12. Nxf7 Qxe2 13. Nxe2, when White has the \u201cright\u201d piece on f7. A typical line goes 13. \u2026 Rg8 14. Nd6+ Bxd6 15. Bxg8 Bxh2+ 16. Kh1 Nf6 17. Bxh7 Nxh7 18. Kxh2. (See diagram.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 18. Kh2 (analysis).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is a pretty amusing position! I\u2019ve never seen a game\nwhere White, after 18 moves, has not moved a single piece or pawn past the\nsecond rank! Nevertheless, the extra pawn, lack of weaknesses, and\nbishop-versus-knight advantage give White an excellent chance of winning the\nendgame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our game, Black chose the worst square to move his king\nto:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. \u2026 Kd8?? 12. Ne6+\nKd7 13. Nxc7 Kxc7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a queen for a rook White is easily winning. There was\njust one more odd thing that happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. d4 Bd6 15. h3 Nf6\n16. Bf4?? \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Augh! Mouse slip! One more thing I hate about online chess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. \u2026 Nbd7??<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What?! My guess is that Black played this as a \u201cpre-move,\u201d which\nmeans he couldn\u2019t take it back and capture the free piece that I offered him.\nYet another way in which online chess bears no resemblance to real chess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the game needs no comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. Bxd6+ Kxd6 18.\nQf3 g6 19. Qf4+ Ke7 20. Bb3 Rhe8 21. Re1+ Kf8 22. Qh6 mate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An imperfect game, but at least it finally gave me my first win in an active-chess game on chess.com after two terrible losses and a terrible draw. Now maybe I can relax a little bit next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second week of the PRO Summer Chess League went a whole lot better for me, and a whole lot worse for the team. Quick refresher: the summer league is an offshoot of the main (winter) league. One big difference is that fans can participate and score points for their favorite team. Each match consists […]<\/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":[37,1363,11,3669],"tags":[4366,4256,1032,88,4365,4272,2887,4367,2579,1140],"class_list":["post-5887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chess-clubs","category-current-news","category-games","category-pro-chess-league","tag-center-counter-defense","tag-chengdu-pandas","tag-exchange-sacrifice","tag-forks","tag-miniatures","tag-mouse-slip","tag-opening-traps","tag-pre-move","tag-roman-dzindzichashvili","tag-san-francisco-mechanics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887","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=5887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5892,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions\/5892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}