The Long and Winding Road to Mastery - 11 |
| Written by Administrator | ||||||||||||||||
| Friday, 19 August 2011 | ||||||||||||||||
 Candidate master Peter Zhdanov's column at Pogonina.com
After two painful defeats in rounds 6 and 7 it became obvious that I am not in contention for 1st place. During the weekend I was even toying with the idea of dropping out from the tournament, but then decided that Im not a quitter & will fight till the end.
Round 8. My opponent was an animated boy with a conditional rating of just 1745. In such cases one shouldnt relax prematurely, or play as fast as the kid does. His Scandinavian came as a surprise to me, but I still got a considerable advantage out of the opening.
 White to move
Having planned in advance to strike on c7, I played Nc7 just a few seconds after I saw my opponents move Na6. Of course, White wins a pawn and has some positional advantage too, but much better is 13.Bg5! Qe8 14.Rhe1 Be6 15.Nd4 Kh8 16.Nf6 Qc8 17.Nxe6 fxe6 18.Bxe6 Qb8 19.Nd7+- and Black should resign. As the classics instructed us: If you see a good move, look for a better one.
 White to move
White is winning after a simple exchange combination that exploits the passiveness of Blacks pieces:
21.Bxf7! Rxf7 22.Nxf7 Kxf7 23.Qd5+ Ne6
 White to move
The most natural moves are Rhe1 and Rhf1. The first is probably objectively stronger, the second is also winning. If Rhf1 then Black should play Qf5, and after retreating the queen White has a commanding advantage. However, young chess players tend to dislike offering queen trades, so the game proceeded in the following manner:
24...Kg7? 25.f5 Nc7 26.Qc4 Na6 27.fxg6 Qxg6 28.Qd4+ Kh7 29.Rf6 Qg7 30.Qe4+ Bf5 31.Qxf5+ Kh8 32.Qxh5+ Kg8 33.Rg6 Nb4 34.Rxg7+ Kxg7 35.Qg4+ Kf7 36.Rd7+ 10
So, before the final round I had 4.5 points out of 8. My minimum goal was to at least not lose to candidate master Borisovsky (2138). Otherwise I could find myself below the 2000 threshold. Frankly speaking, I was expecting him to prepare something nasty against my Dragon just like everyone in this tournament did. Nonetheless, my opponent decided to stay loyal to 1.d4, and a Gruenfeld occurred.
 Black to move
Im ashamed to confess that this typical move for White (Rb1) wasnt reviewed by me during preparation. A standard and well-known to me reply in such cases is 0-0. Black sacrifices a pawn and completes development, getting a good compensation. E.g.
[9...00 10.Rxb7 (10.Be2 Bd5 11.00 Nd7 12.Nd2 Nb6 13.Qc2 f5 14.a4 a5=) 10...Bd5 11.Rb4 (11.Rb1 c5 12.Qa4 Qd7 13.Qxd7 Nxd7 14.Bxe7 Rab8 15.Rd1 Rfe8 16.Bd6 Rb2 17.Rd2 Rb7 18.Be2 cxd4 19.cxd4 c3 20.Rd1 Nf6=/+) 11...c5 12.Rxc4 Bxc4 13.Bxc4 cxd4 14.cxd4 Qa5+ 15.Nd2 e5 16.Be7 Rc8 17.00 Qc7 18.Qf3 Nc6 19.Bxf7+ Kh8 20.Bd5 exd4 with compensation]
Instead I made a somewhat absurd move Qc8 probably a result of the confusion caused in my mind by Rb1. Now its hard to castle without losing the e7-pawn (not a big deal when playing the Gruenfeld, but still).
 White to move
White obviously has the upper hand and should proceed along the lines of 13.Bxc4 Bxc4 14.Nxc4 Nb6 15.Qb3 +/=
Yet my opponent chose a dubious way of exploiting his advantage and started marching with the pawns - 13.e4?! Nb6 14.d5?! Bf7 and Black has suddenly equalized.
 Black to move
White has just played 17.Qb3, overlooking Blacks reply 17b5. The position is still equal, but now Black has the initiative.
 Black to move
The game could have continued approximately like this: 26...a5 27.f4 a4 28.Bxa4 Rxd5 29.Rxd5 Bxd5 30.Bb3 Bxb3 31.axb3 Bh6 32.Bg3 Kf7 33.Kf2 Ke6 34.Ke2 Kd5=
Meanwhile, I became over-optimistic and though that I will get my king to d6 and win the pawn on d5. After playing Kf8 and Whites reply, I reconsidered the position and understood that its too early for a royal walk in the center. The cold-blooded Kg8 made my opponent laugh out loud.
 Black to move
Here I played 32a4, evaluating the position as a draw and setting up a final trap:
33.Bxe7?? axb3 34.Bxc5 (34.d6 bxa2 35.d7 Bd4+! (35...Rd5?? 36.d8Q+ Rxd8 37.Rxd8+ Be8 38.Rxe8+ Kf7 39.Ra8 a1Q+ 40.Rxa1 Bxa1=) 36.Kh1 Rd5+) 34...bxa2 35.d6 Be6!+ (35...a1Q?? 36.Rxa1 Bxa1 37.d7 Bf6 38.Bb6=
Viktor didnt fall for the trap and offered me a draw in the following position:
 Black to move
After about 15 seconds of due diligence I agreed.
Conclusions:
1) Unless you are a pro who needs to win a prize, dont you ever take part in tournaments where the average rating is below yours, and the field consists mainly of underrated juniors. The instructive value of doing so is relatively small, while you will probably lose rating. Of course, this advice may not suit everyone as by far not all the cities hold plenty of strong events. Travelling from one tournament to another is also not an option available to everyone. Anyway, hope you see what my idea was.
2) One should be flexible in terms of opening choice and have at least two systems against main lines of ones opponents. Otherwise you may end up in a situation when you both cant fix your opening prep, and have nothing else to play, thus strongly damaging your chances for success.
3) Most of my goals for the tournament were associated with psychology. I am more or less satisfied with the results in this field, and have now identified purely chess-related weaknesses that I should address to do well at the next competition.
Episode 1: It has begun! Episode 2: Epic fail Episode 3: Moscow IM-norm tournament: analysis Episode 4: Moscow IM-norm tournament: analysis-2 Episode 5: Moscow IM-norm tournament: analysis-3 Episode 6: World Chess-Poker Championship: analysis-1 Episode 7: World Chess-Poker Championship: analysis-2 Episode 8: Comeback in Saratov-1 Episode 9: Comeback in Saratov-2 Episode 10: Comeback in Saratov-3 
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