Hello world.

Hello world. I have played my first chess game in a few days. I have been playing Scrabble but felt like a little chess action. It was a good game, but looking at it with Rybka's analysis just makes me a little depressed. I don't really feel like saying anything about this... I don't think I'm mentally ready to come back to playing chess as often yet.

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.03.27"]
[Round "?"]
[White "MrGambitMan"]
[Black "waparker"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1266"]
[BlackElo "1200"]
[ECO "B23"]
[TimeControl "600"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 g6 3. Bc4 Bg7 4. Nf3 d6 5. d3 Nf6 6. Bg5 Nc6 7. Nb5? (7. O-O O-O 8. Qd2 ) a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bb3 Bg4 10. O-O Nd4 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. Bd5 Rc8? (12. ... Rb8 13. c3 Nxf3+ 14. gxf3 Bh5 ) 13. Bb7 Rc7 14. Bxa6 Bxf3 15. Bxb5+? Kf8? (15. ... Nxb5 16. gxf3 Nxa3 17. bxa3 ) 16. gxf3 e6 17. c3 Nxb5 18. Nxb5 Rb7 19. a4 Be5 20. Qd2 Qh4! 21. f4? Qg4+ (21. ... Bxf4 22. f3 ) 22. Kh1 Qf3+ 23. Kg1 Bxf4 24. Qd1?? (24. Re1) Qh3 25. Qg4? (25. Re1 Bxh2+ 26. Kh1 Bg3+ 27. Kg1 Qh2+ 28. Kf1 Qxf2# ) Qxh2# {MrGambitMan checkmated} 0-1

Practice with Combinations

I'm going to try something new this time. I'm going to look at some random positions from this book Combinations: The Heart of Chess by Irving Chernev which is a really, really old book - from 1960. I'm going to utilize my newly learned Javascript trick from last post, so under each position will be my proposed line and on the right will be the solution from the book. So let's get started and see where it takes us.

White to move. Gereben-Troianescu 1951
1q3r1k/1br1bpnp/pp2p1p1/2n1Q1P1/2PN1PBP/1PN5/PB6/3RR1K1 w - - 0 1

Show/hide my solution.

I have a feeling there is something more here. 1. Nxe6 {threatening checkmate} Nxe6 2. Nd5 {uncovering the bishop to threaten mate on g7 and attacks the rook} f6 {attacks the queen to save both the rook and mate 3. Qxc7 Qxc7 4. Nxc7 Nxc7 5. Rd7 Bd8 6. Bxf6 Bxf6 7. gxf6 Rxf6 {can't allow gxf7+ picking up the rook} 8. Rxc7 and white has a dominating position and is up the exchange.

Note: Rybka analysis reveals Nxe6 as a mistake that loses a 4 pawn advantage; suggests 2 ... Bxd5 as the newly placed knight on e6 is guarding the mate, so 2 ... f6 would not be played.

Show/hide the book's solution.

1. Nd5! {Attacks the rook and cannot be taken as it threatens 2. Qxg7+! Kxg7 3. Nf5+ Kg8 4. Nh6#} 1 ... Rfc8 2. Nxe6 {threatens mate on g7} Nxe6 {the one that's not pinned, of course} 3. Bxe6 {renews the threat} Bc5+ 4. Kh2 fxe6 {covers g7 with the rook on c7} 5. Nxc7 Rxc7 6. Rd7! {Gangs up on the pinned rook and blocks its control of g7. Looks like black is forced to give up his queen e.g. Rybka: 6 ... Bf8 7. Rxc7 Qxc7 8. Qxc7} 1-0

Ok. Maybe I should try an easier one. I will flip to the chapter called "Simple and Pleasing".

White to move. Tarrasch-Amateur 1919
1R6/2p5/Rnk1p3/1pppP3/1P6/2P5/2K5/7r w - - 0 1

Show/hide my solution.

OK. This one is easy. 1. bxc5 {attacks the knight} Kxc5 2. Raxb6 cxb6 3. Rc8#

Show/hide the book's solution.

1. bxc5 Kxc5 2. Raxb6 cxb6 3. Rc8# Woohoo! Irving was right, that was simple and pleasing.

Note: Rybka gives the line 1. bxc5 Kxc5 2. Raxb6 c6 as cxb6 leads to mate. Here black is down a whole rook and will ultimately lose.

Aside: Funny Honda commercial involving chess.

A trap in the Veresov attack

Not the most wonderful game, but demonstrates a trap in the Veresov attack which sprung up tonight. I was basically improvising my opening in a blitz game, which centers around playing the freeing e4 early in the queen's pawn game at the expense of hampering the c pawn from expansion. See this excellent Youtube video by Matt Pullin for another line in the Veresov where black can go wrong very easily. Play began 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 {The Veresov} g6?! {Doesn't prevent e4} 3. e4 d5 {Too late. The e-pawn is already there.} 4. e5 Ne4 5. Ne2?!

What is the trap hidden in this move, and what must black play to avoid it?

Black must play f6 to create a secure square on g5 for his e4 knight, as it is trapped.

Click to show/hide solution.

I'm having alot of trouble with this stupid Blogspot. It wouldn't let Javascript work because it automatically inserts break tags every time I press return, even though I am in "Edit HTML" mode. So I learned how to turn off this "feature" and now the Javascript works. The only problem now is that all of my previous posts are completely screwed up because of the hidden break tags that are now gone. Anyway, back to the chess game.

My opponent didn't see this trap and so lost his knight next move after 5 ... Bg7? 6. f3! Ng5 7. Bxg5. Play then went on in a pretty standard fashion. I pushed to f4 to clear the f3 square for the king's knight and tried to develop my pieces to good squares. I missed the obvious 11. Bxd8 winning the queen, but still managed to win another piece. After 13. Bf6+ I had a huge bishop right in black's king position which is hard to dislodge. I pushed c3 to shore up my central pawn wedge and establish the light square bishop on the aggressive d3 square. And then there was 16... h6

What is white's move in this position?

The correct move is 17. Qh5! The queen cannot be taken because 17 ... gxh5 18. Bh7#.

Click to show/hide solution.

Of course the real game didn't make it to move seventeen as my opponent resigned after 16 ... h6 because he had to go. But it was a pretty good place to resign anyway because it is a forced mate! The game below contains two ending variations that could have occurred, but keep in mind that they did not occur. I was thinking about 17. Qg4 which is not immediately winning, so I need to work on recognizing ccombinations more still.

waparker_famousMortimer-2.pgn

Tournaments Galore

Happy March. It's supposed to snow 14 inches tonight. Here is a game from my Slav-themed tournament, which I am currently leading with a score of +10 -2 =0. This was a very fun game. Drew Parker_Carlo Benarrivo_2009_2_25_12_43.pgn Comments: 9. Be2 loses a pawn. Bd3 instead keeps the pawn. 12 ... f5 13. Ne5 The move f5 opened up the a2-g8 diagonal to black's king, weakens e6, and gives my Knight a outpost on e5 where he cannot be molested by black pawns. 14. Nc5. There is probably a better move, but the series of exchanges that follow do a few good things. It exchanges my knight on the rim for black's centralized knight, and establishes a blockade on the c6 pawn so black cannot open up the diagonal for use by his bishop. 18. Nxc6 Nxc5 19. Nxb4 Reestablishing material equality, and starts a pretty knight maneuver as he jumps round and round and lands back on his outpost on e5. 23. Rc7 Didn't want to passively defend the b2 pawn, instead we exchange weak pawns. 24 ... g5 Black isn't going to get anywhere with his kingside pawn majority as long as his e-pawn is blocked. 27. a4! The rook can't continue to defend the knight. The correct move for black is 27... Rb7 supported by the knight. 27... Nxa4? Leads to a forced win for white. At first, I thought it was a clever move as it offers the knight as a sacrificial lamb in order to take the e5 knight, but I found a much better move. 28. Rcc7! The fatal zwischenzug. Rxe5 fails to the mate in 3 (28... Rxe5 29. Rg7+ Kh8 30. Rh7+ Kg7 31. Rag7#, a familiar mating pattern.) 28 ...Rd8 gives the king some space to move, but my doubled rooks on the seventh will deliver the fatal blows. 29 ... Kf8 Raf7+ Ke8 Rg8# and the knight protects the rook on f7. Alternatively, 29 ... Kh8 30. Rxh7+ Kg8 31. Rag7+ Kf8 32. Rf7+ Kg8 (32 ... Ke8 Rh8#) 33. Rhg7+ Kh8 34. Ng6#, a very pretty mating combination. I just participated in a mamer tourney on FICS which was a 3-round 15 0 tournament. I was ranked 6th out of 8 players. In game one, I drew against a 1720 opponent, in game two I upset a 1737 opponent, and in game three I was slaughtered mercilessly by a 2168 opponent. Here is the second round game, which was a Benko gambit with 5. b6. I was worse for the majority of the game so I threw some pawns at his kingside and managed to open up a very nasty h-file attack after he blundered with 27. ... Bd4. Some themes from this game that I have learned about from watching videos on youtube: The rook on a3 to swing over to the kingside, controlling the b5 outpost, the Nf3-Nd2-Nc4 maneuver, restraining the advance of black's center pawns. But I was down a pawn the entire time so my position wasn't that great. waparker_illdf_2009_3_1_23_53 15 0 tourney.pgn