The long and winding road to victory-7 |
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| Monday, 30 August 2010 | ||||||||||||||||
 Candidate master Peter Zhdanov's column at Pogonina.com Back to the last two games of the rapid match vs candidate master Evgeny Sidorovsky. Game 3 illustrates my playing style rather well, let's take a look (try to answer the questions yourself before seeing my comments):  Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153) White to move What move will White play? How should Black fight back? The obvious continuation (played in the game) is 16.f6 ripping open the Black kingside. The best reaction for Black was probably 16...g6 17.Qh3 h5 18.Bh6 Ne5+/- White will be up an exchange, but the position is closed, and Black has some compensation. Another idea was 16...Ne5 and after the complicated 17.Qh5 Qe6 18.fg Rfe8 19.Rf4 Qg6 20.Qh4 Re6 21.Ref1 Qg7 22.Bf6 Rf6 23.Rf6 Kh8+/- White has an exchange for a pawn and seems to be attacking, but Black isn't dead lost at least. In the game the natural 16...Nf6? 17.Bf6 gf was played  Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153) White to move On move 16 some chess engines don't see the correct move in this position until they reach a considerable depth. Now it's much easier to spot. Can you? Of course, 18.Qf6?? leads to nowhere after 18...Qe5. The correct move is 18.Qh5! winning  Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153) White to move Obviously, White has a decisive attack here. What is the correct way to finish Black off? In the game I played carelessly: 20.Ref1?? (thinking that White is winning easily). However, after 20...Kh8 White is far from securing the whole point. The right move was 20.Re3, e.g. 20...Qa1 21.Bf1 Rfe8 22.Qh6 and Black is getting mated.  Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153) White to move Instead of playing 20...Kh8! my opponent blundered in return with 20...Bc8?? Can you find the decisive cheapo for White now? 21.e5! wins on the spot, of course. Evgeny has overlooked this shot and was under the illusion that he simply has extra material. Now Black has to give up the queen.  Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153) White to move The position is resignable for Black, but Evgeny decided to play on. What is the most efficient way to wrap up the game here? I thought I played a smart move - 23.ef. It is winning easily, but an even quicker path to victory was 23.Qf5 Rfe8 24.Qf6 Re5 25.Qf7 Kh8 26.Qf6 Kg8 27.h3 Rae8 28.Rf3 Re1 29.Kh2 and Black is getting mated. So, in game 4 I had to play for a win with Black to tie the chess part of our competition.  Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049) Black to move How should Black deal with 7.Ne5? Chop the knight, obviously! The e5-knight is too strong to tolerate it, while the creatures on d7 and f6 are restraining each other. However, for some reason I played the solid 7...c6.  Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049) Black to move After some friendly chat during the game Black found himself in trouble. The pawns on b7 and f7 are hanging, what can be done about it? The best option is 15...Nd7! 16.Qb7 c5 17.dc Nc5 18.Qg2 Nd3 19.Be3 h6 20.Nf3 Qe4 21.Bd4 Bd4 22.c2 Rab8 23.b3 Rbc8= with compensation for the pawn. However, if I could play at this level, I would have been a GM by now. My choice was associated with a trap. My opponent fell into it, btw! 15...Ng4?!  Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049) White to move White won a pawn, but the knight is hanging. What is the right way to handle this situation? 18.Qc6! fg 19.fg Qh3 20.gh Qg3 21.Qg2 Qg2 22.Kg2 Bf6+/- and White has an extra pawn and a better position. Evgeny gave a nice-looking check instead: 18.Qb3? e6 19.Rf2 fg 20.fg Qh3 21.gh Qg3 22.Kf1 Qh3 23.Kg1 Bh6 and Black has no problems at all.  Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049) Black to move How can Black try to press for a win here? After 25...Qg5! 26.Kh2 Qh4 27.Kg1 Rab8 Black has attacking ideas such as Rb5 or e5. White should hold it with perfect defense, but this is still better than 25...Qe3 (pretty much settling for a draw).  Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049) White to move How should White defend? Any chances to play for a win? 28.Rgf2 (played in the game) or 28.Kh1 are good enough for a draw. After 28.Kh2?! Rf8 White is in some trouble and 28.Rff2?? loses to Rf8 29.Qa6 (29.Qc6 Qe1 30.Kh2 Rf2 31.Qa8 Rf8! incredible 32.Qa7 Rf5 33.Qa8 Kg7 34.Qb7 Kh6 and White is helpless) Rf2 30.Rf2 Rf8 31.Qe2 Qf2 32.Rf2 Rf2 33.Kf2 h5-+ with a won pawn ending for Black. In the poker heads-up match I managed to win the first round (my opponent has collected most of the dead pots, but lost the key hands). In round 2 I was on the verge of winning the title: sensing weakness in Evgeny's all-in, all I had to do was call it. Alas, I had only a small pair on a board with lots of overcards and draws, so I thought that he must be thinking he's behind while he's not. In fact, he had complete air. After that critical hand I had no real chances for a come-back, so Evgeny evened the score in poker and took the unofficial World Chess-Poker title (2.5-1.5; 1-1), while I became the runner-up. Days to FM: 686 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 
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 30 August 2010 ) | ||||||||||||||||
Will have a look at the second game more later. Thanks again!
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