{"id":5974,"date":"2019-11-08T12:42:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T20:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5974"},"modified":"2019-11-08T13:07:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T21:07:29","slug":"return-to-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5974","title":{"rendered":"Return to Action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m back! Not only back to writing my blog, but back to actually\nplaying tournament chess. Last night I played my first tournament game in 10\nmonths, at the Kolty Chess Club Championship in Campbell, California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not exactly sure why it\u2019s taken me so long to try out\nthe Kolty Club. Yes, it\u2019s a 45-minute drive, but that\u2019s much better than San\nFrancisco, which is a 1\u00bd to 2-hour drive. And I know lots of people at the\nclub, thanks to Mike Splane\u2019s chess parties. (In fact, Mike is the top seed at\nthe Kolty championship, which he has won many times before.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So anyway, there I was last night, playing on a basketball\ncourt. It made me think that we could play a hybrid form of chess. Maybe for\neach time you capture a piece, you have to make a basketball shot to see if the\ncapture will \u201cstick\u201d \u2013 a layup for a pawn, a jump shot for a bishop, knight or\nrook, a three-pointer if you want to capture the queen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But no, we were playing real chess and my opponent was a\n1595-rated player named Gregory Rousso. Although on paper this should be a\nmismatch (my rating is 2140 at the moment), there were plenty of reasons to be\ncautious. My rustiness, plus the fact that he had already beaten a 2000 player\nin the first round (while I took a half-point bye), meant that I wasn\u2019t taking\nanything for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 11. \u2026 e6. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: rn1q1rk1\/3b1pbp\/3ppnp1\/1pp5\/p3PP1Q\/N1PP1N2\/PP1BB1PP\/R4RK1 w – – 0 12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We arrived in a Grand Prix Sicilian by transposition from the Pirc, and here was the position after he made what I thought was his first error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has just played 11. \u2026 e6?!, which after the game he explained was intended to prevent me from playing f4-f5 at some point. But when I saw this move, I immediately felt suspicious. The number one problem with it is the way that it weakens the dark squares, f6 and d6. It also reduces the scope of the light-squared bishop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I toyed with the idea of immediately striking at the dark squares with 12. e5, but it seemed premature to me. After 12. \u2026 Nd5 I either have to consent to a queen trade or I have to lose a tempo to avoid the trade. I felt that my kingside attacking chances were too good to voluntarily blunt them by trading queens. Instead, I remembered the advice about “inviting everyone to the party,” and decided to bring my queen rook into the game with 12. Rae1 Qb6 13. Bd1<\/strong>. Here my opponent played a somewhat mysterious move, 13. \u2026 Na6<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course 13. \u2026 Nc6 looks more natural, but there is a\nproblem which I think scared my opponent away from it: 14. e5 Nd5 15. c4! The\nweakness of the b5-pawn is the problem. If 15. \u2026 bc 16. Nxc4 White\u2019s knight\narrives in its ideal position. Otherwise, if 15. \u2026 Ndb4 16. cb, Black doesn\u2019t\neven have a really good place for his c6 knight to go to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This points to a problem with Black\u2019s whole setup. He\u2019s\nbuilt up for this massive queenside assault, but he doesn\u2019t have any real\ntargets and his piece coordination is poor. The bishop at d7 is where the\nknight wants to be. If the knight goes to c6 it gets in the way of the bishop,\nas we just saw. So it goes to a6 instead, but on that square it is very far\nfrom the action in the center and on the kingside. To me, this justified proceeding\nwith the central break I had eschewed two moves earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. e5! Nd5 15. Ng5! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important move, gaining a tempo with the threat of Qxh7\nmate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15. \u2026 h6<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not 15. \u2026 h5?? 16. Bxh5! with a crushing attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. Ne4 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking aim at the two weakened squares, d6 and f6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. \u2026 c4+?!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as I can tell, this spite check made no short-term\ndifference in the position. Long-term, though, it makes any potential endgames\neven easier for me to play, because Black\u2019s pawns are frozen on the color of\nhis bishop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. d4 de 18. fe \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 18. fe. Black to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r4rk1\/3b1pb1\/nq2p1pp\/1p1nP3\/p1pPN2Q\/N1P5\/PP1B2PP\/3BRRK1 b – – 0 18<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here Black plays a move that loses without even putting up a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18. \u2026 Qd8?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For better or for worse, I think that Black had to at least try 18. \u2026 Bxe5. After 19. Bxh6, Black unfortunately cannot move his rook because 19. \u2026 Rfd8? would be met by 20. Qf2!, which simultaneously breaks the pin on the d-pawn and threatens f7. So he would have to play 19. \u2026 Bg7, and now I think a really cool idea would be 20. Nf6+ Nxf6 21. Rxf6! Qd8 22. Bxg7 Kxg7 23. R1f1 Nc7 24. Qf4! when Black cannot hold the f-pawn (if 24. \u2026 Qe7 25. Qxc7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19. Nf6+ Nxf6 20. ef Nc7 21. Bxh6 Ne8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are lots of ways to win here. One idea I considered was 22. Bg5, with an easy win because his bishop is now hanging, and after 22. \u2026 Bh8 23. Rf3 a catastrophe awaits Black on the h-file. However, I thought that the following combination was more stylish \u2013 a pseudo-queen sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 21. \u2026 Ne8. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r2qnrk1\/3b1pb1\/4pPpB\/1p6\/p1pP3Q\/N1P5\/PP4PP\/3BRRK1 w – – 0 22<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22. fg Qxh4 23. gfQ+ \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I needed three hands to make this move \u2013 one to take his\nrook off the board, another to move my pawn to f8 and then take it off the\nboard, and a third to retrieve my recently captured queen and put it on f8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

23. \u2026 Kh7 24. Rf7+ resigns<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like this game because it points out several good features\nof the Grand Prix Sicilian. First, the fact that White often has two possible\nbreaks \u2013 f5 and e5. This flexibility makes it harder for Black to defend.\nSecond, the fact that Black is tempted into committing all of his forces to the\nqueenside, where there are no high-value targets, while White has his sights\nset on the Black king. Finally, when Black decides to play \u2026 e6, the weakness\nof the f6 square is often fatal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m back! Not only back to writing my blog, but back to actually playing tournament chess. Last night I played my first tournament game in 10 months, at the Kolty Chess Club Championship in Campbell, California. I\u2019m not exactly sure why it\u2019s taken me so long to try out the Kolty Club. Yes, it\u2019s a […]<\/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":[37,1363,16,12],"tags":[4409,1346,4406,3474,1924,1638,981,4410,4408,975,4411],"class_list":["post-5974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chess-clubs","category-current-news","category-positions","category-tournaments","tag-dark-square-weaknesses","tag-grand-prix-sicilian","tag-gregory-rousso","tag-invite-everyone-to-the-party","tag-kolty-chess-club","tag-mike-splane","tag-patience","tag-poor-piece-coordination","tag-pseudo-queen-sac","tag-stylish","tag-two-things-at-once"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5974","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=5974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5980,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5974\/revisions\/5980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}