The long and winding road to mastery-3 |
| Written by Peter Zhdanov | ||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, 31 July 2010 | ||||||||||||||||
 Candidate master Peter Zhdanov's column at Pogonina.com Last week I have been sharing impressions from participating in an IM-norm tournament for the first time in my life. No more story-telling, time to get to the chess part. Below you will find some of the critical positions from rounds 1-5 of the tournament. They should be failry instructive for players ranging from club to IM-level. First try to come up with the solution yourself, and then review the commentary.  Zhdanov (2049) - FM Ashiev (2257) 11.? How should White reach to 10...h6? In the game White played 11.Be3 and Black has no problems whatsoever. However, 11.Bh4 is more precise. The bishop remains a pain in the neck for Black, and if he tries to chase it away by 11...g5 then 12.Ng5! hg (the natural move) 13.Bg5 Qe7 (13...Kg7 14.f4 Qe8 15.fe Nh7 16.Qh5 Qe5 17.Bh6 Kg8 18.Qe5 de 19.Rf3 Re8 20.Rg3 Kh8 21.Bg7 Kg8 22.Be5 Kf8 23.Bc7+/-) 14.Qe1 Qe6 15.f4 ef 16.Qh4 Ne8 17.Be7 f6 18.Bf8 Kf8 19.Qf4 Ke7 20.c4+/- a better try for Black is 12...Ne4! 13.Nf3 Ng5 14.Bg5 hg 15.Qd2 g4 Bg4 16.Nh2+/=  Zhdanov (2049) - FM Ashiev (2257) 16.? What should White do? I played a rather dubious move 16.Qd2?! which seems scary (e.g. prepares a sac on h6), but has no real threats behind it. A much better way of treating the position was to save the bishop: 16.Bd2 f6 17.Rb1 Nb6 (17...c5 18.c4 Nb4 19.d4 a5 20.a3 Nd3 21.Re3 e4 22.d5 f5 23.Bc3+/-) 18.Bb4 c5 19.Bd2 Qe6 20.Nh4 Rfb8 21.Qh5 with an attack  Zhdanov (2049) - FM Ashiev (2257) 30.? What is the evaluation of the position? How should White proceed? My opponent was in a severe time trouble by this time, while I had plenty of time. I rather carelessly checked the board for immediate threats and decided to put pressure on him by playing 30.Rb8?!. Alas, in the position on the diagram Black is better, so White should bring the queen back into the game and closer to the White king: 30.Qc3 Rh1 31.Kg3 Kh7 32.Qf3!? and Black is just a tiny bit better. After 30.Rb8?! Kh7 I played a horrible move - 31.Rc8?? he quickly followed by 31...Rh1 32.Kg3 f5 (I expected this move) 33.ef Qf5 34.Re4 Qc8 I went red as a tomato and understood that I have blundered one of my rooks! Inexplicable, the game was soon over.  Zhdanov (2049) - Simonian (2314) 22.? What is the evaluation and how should White proceed? I didn't get much out of the opening in the Sveshnikov, so here the Black's two bishops compensate for the weakness of the d6-pawn and White's strong knight. The position is equal. I played 22.Ne7 here, but simplifying the position and giving up the great knight for a rather passive bishop was not that good. Better is 22.Rd2 or 22.Rd3 preparing Rfd1. White should not be afraid of double pawns, e.g. 22.Rd2 Bf5 23.ef d5 24.Rfd1 d4 25.cd Bg5 26.Rc2 ed 27.Bd3 and White is doing fine.  Zhdanov (2049) - Simonian (2314) 45.? What is the evaluation and how should White proceed? Black obtained a slightly better position in the middlegame, but White kept defending rather well. Here the correct move is 45.e5 (putting the pawn on a dark square) Qa5 46.Rd4. The position is a draw. In the game, being tired of defending passively, I decided to counter-attack: 45.g4?! (with idea of Rg2, g5, etc.). This is too aggressive and creates many weaknesses in White's camp: the bishop is no longer protected, the king gets denuded, etc. One should be more realisitic about his chances.  Zhdanov (2049) - Simonian (2314) 68.? How should White play? My opponent, once again, was in a serious time trouble. I also started playing quickly and missed a chance to finish the game quickly: 68.Ra2 Bf1 (only reasonable attempt to complicate things) 69.Kf2 Bh3 70.Ra8 Qh2 71.Ke3 Ra8 72.Qa8 Kh7 73.Qd5= I blundered terrible: 68.Rb2?? Bf1! 69.Kf1 Qf3 70.Rf2 Qh1 71.Ke2 Re4 72.Kd3 Re3 0-1 This mistake has to do with proper nutrition and physical shape. Playing over 4 hours in a row in a terrible heat, feeling tired and hungy, I just couldn' control my head anymore.  Paravyan (2097) - Zhdanov (2049) How does Black reply to 13.Ba7? My opponent also plays the Dragon, but he was not familiar with the popular sideline I employed in this game. He decided to play 13.e5 and simplify into a favorable endgame for Black. However, let's train your tactical vision and sense of initiative. How does Black respond to 13.Ba7? The correct way of dealing with pawn-grabbers is 13.Ba7 b4! 14.Nd5 Nd5 15.ed Qa5 16.Bd4 Rc2! 17.Bc2 (17.Qc2 Rc8 18.Qc8 Bc8 19.Rhe1 Bf5 20.Re7 Bd4 21.Rd4 Qc5 22.Rc4 Qg1 23.Bd1 Qg2 with a balanced position, I prefer Black though). Qa2 18.Qe3 Rc8 19.Kd2 Rc2! 20.Kc2 Qc4 21.Kd2 Bd4 22.Qe7 Bf5 23.Ke1 Bb2 24.Qe2 Bc3 25.Kf2 Bd4= Nice, isn't it?  Paravyan (2097) - Zhdanov (2049) 22...? My mistake was quite typical: when my opponent opted for an unknown ending (to him) which favors me, I felt relieved and started thinking about outplaying him. Thus, when he chose an unfamiliar continuation, I did not give it proper consideration and rushed to "win on the spot". That often leads to silly mistakes, so one should have respect for any move by the opponent. Here Black's advantage is gone and he has to play either Be8 (very ugly!) or Bd7. The point is that after 22...Bd7 23.Ne4 Kg7 White can't go for the pawn with Nd6 due to Bf4! I played 22...Bd5?? without much thought, expecting to play a bishop vs knight endgame with pawns on two sides, which is usually better for Black. But after 23.Nd5 f5 he shocked me by 24.Nc3. This simple move wins a pawn and the game! Actually, even 24.Nc7 wins, but I failed to realize it otb. Very dramatic loss with just a few moves made after home prep. Days to FM: 716 Episode 1: It has begun! Episode 2: Epic fail 
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