The Fabulous 10s: Learning Tactics via ICC Blitz

Here are three very interesting 5 minute games I contested recently on ICC.

Use them as tactical training devices.

Game 1.

Impitoyable (Unforgiven) vs Aries2  Game/5  Keres Attack

Here’s more information about the Frenchman Impitoyable from his ICC finger notes:

Information about Impitoyable (Last disconnected Sun Jun 19 2011 15:10):

              rating [need] win  loss  draw total   best
Wild            2206  [1]   645   143    31   819   2301 (03-Jan-2011)
Loser’s         2037  [4]  1360   529    55  1944   2232 (10-Jul-2008)
Bughouse        1915  [6]    23    15     0    38   2011 (30-Nov-2006)
Crazyhouse      2244  [6]   863   307     0  1170   2307 (16-Feb-2008)
Bullet          2516  [8]  1229   543    83  1855   2706 (27-May-2008)
Blitz           3091  [8]   750   459   133  1342   3175 (29-Sep-2009)
Standard        2657  [6]   184    29    12   225   2682 (19-Nov-2010)
5-minute        2614       1237   445   181  1863   2726 (14-Oct-2009)
1-minute        2570  [8]  1493   945   121  2559   2570 (27-Jun-2010)
15-minute       2475         89     5     2    96   2475 (19-Jun-2011)
3-minute        2356        433   183    56   672   2519 (17-Apr-2011)
45-minute       1692  [4]     1     0     0     1                      
Chess960        2093        457   130    31   618   2213 (14-Jul-2010)

 1: “Impitoyable” : french title for the film “Unforgiven”, by and with C.
  Eastwood (and G. Hackman, R. Harris, M. Freeman …) ; but “impitoyable”
  means rather “pityless” or “mercyless” ; I will nevertheless accept takebacks
  for obvious mouseslips and ask for them … only in that case of course.
 2: International Master since 1996 ; maths teacher since 2001.
 3: Can you queen your f-pawn as early as move 18 playing black ? See my
  liblist, game Index 4 !
 4: You may improve your play in knights endings by analysing my defeat versus
  Vidocq, game numbre 16.
 5: You don’t get a chance each day to play as Morphy did at the Sevilla Opera.
  Egor Geroev-2 had this chance, see my  lybrary game number 18 (after 15 …
  Qxb5 16 Nc7+! ; Rxc7 17 Rd8 it’s exactly the same mate !)

He has a very good score against me overall.  I was looking to improve my statistics by following an obscure recommendation of Kasparov and Nikitin versus the popular Keres Attack.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. g4 Nc6 7. g5 Nd7 8. Be3 Be7 9. h4 O-O 10. Qd2

Often times white likes to put his queen out on the aggressive h5 square.  Then, black can follow the same plan as in the game!

10…Nxd4  Part of a sequence that gives black freedom of movement.

11. Qxd4 e5 12. Qd1 Nb6!?

The interesting proposal of Kasparov and Nikitin from an ancient book on the Scheveningen.   White can opt to eat this horse with Be3xb6 to gain control of d5 but that move is definitely not on most attacking players’ radar screens.  They just want to give mate.

13. g6?!  This has to be too soon.

13…hxg6 14. h5 g5 15. Qf3 g4 16. Qg3 Be6 17. O-O-O Rc8 18. Be2 Rxc3! 19. bxc3

Black to play. Who's winning?

19…d5 20. Bxg4 Ba3+ 21. Kd2 Nc4+ 22. Ke2 Nxe3 23. fxe3 Qc8 24. Rhg1 Qxc3 25. Bxe6 Qxc2+ 26. Rd2 Qc4+ 27. Kd1 Qa4+ 28. Rc2 {Black resigns} 1-0

Why do I award black’s 18th move an exclamation point and then go on to lose in short order?  That’s the puzzle for you – identify the beautiful missed black win!  Immediately after the game I had the feeling I had blown a promising position but I didn’t know how promising until I checked with Rybka 4.  Embarrassing, black was totally winning!

Game 2

Let’s follow this embarrassing blown win with another embarrassing blown win, shall we?  This time we are dominating and crushing Logofet.

Some more information about Logofet:

Information about Logofet (Last disconnected Sun Jun 19 2011 12:08):

              rating [need] win  loss  draw total   best
Crazyhouse      1798  [6]     0     2     0     2                      
Bullet          2252  [8]   155   203    30   388   2433 (30-Jan-2006)
Blitz           2749       1404  1703   342  3449   3022 (21-Mar-2008)
Standard        2637  [6]     4     2     0     6                      
5-minute        2588       2563  1459   410  4432   2624 (30-Mar-2009)
1-minute        2250       4538  3640   525  8703   2508 (21-Aug-2009)
15-minute       1953  [4]     3     0     0     3                      
3-minute        1873  [8]     1     0     0     1         

I seem to remember that Logofet is GM Alex Lenderman.  Let’s see the game.

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 b6 3. Nc3 Bb7 4. e4 d6 5. d4 cxd4 6. Nxd4 Nf6 7. Bd3 e6 8.
O-O Be7 9. Qe2 Nbd7 10. b3 O-O 11. Bb2

I love this attacking set up vs. the Hedgehog.  GM Nunn extolled its virtues way back in the early 1980s in a Philips & Drew tournament book.

I always show campers a forced win I missed vs GM Yudasin as well as a one-sided win over Teddy Coleman in the exact same line.  White’s pieces are all supremely active and pointed at black’s king.

Nc5 12. Bc2 Rc8 13. Rad1 Qc7 14. f4 a6 15. Rf3! g6 16. Rh3 Rfe8

It’s time to act and roll up Logofet.

17. e5! dxe5 18. fxe5 Nfd7 19. b4! Qxe5

19...Qxe5 Black's last gasp, or is it?

A forced sacrifice.  Dismal, but true.   Now I go nuts and hand my hand on a silver platter.

20. bxc5 Bxc5 21. Qxe5 Nxe5 22. Ne4 Nxc4 23. Nf6+ Kf8 24. Ba1 Red8 25. Rf1 Rxd4 26.
Bxd4 Bxd4+ 27. Kh1 Bxf6 28. Rxf6 Kg7 29. Rf2 Bd5 {White forfeits on time}
0-1

Challenge for the readers – point out the several wins I missed.  As a bonus, point out the easiest and most crushing of all the missed wins.

Game 3

Lest we get the impression I am always blowing winning positions, here is one where a nice tactic emerged and I also got the point.

FM Drunkenight – IM Aries2   Benoni

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 g6 4. d4 Bg7 5. e4 O-O 6. Be2 c5 7. O-O Bg4 8. d5 a6 9. Be3 Nbd7 10. Nd2 Bxe2 11. Qxe2 Qc7 12. Kh1 Rae8 13. f4 e6

This basic setup with a-rook on e8 I got from some obscure Spassky games dating back to the 1960s.

14. Rae1 exd5 15. exd5 Qb6 16. b3 Qb4 17. Ncb1 Ne4 18. Qd3 Ndf6 19. f5 Nxd2 20. Bxd2 Qb6 21. Nc3 Ng4 22. Ne4 Qd8 23. Bg5

Time to Strike

23…Rxe4!  A comprehensive refutation of white’s pin operation.

24. Bxd8 Rxe1 25. Bh4 Ne5!

Coup de Grace

This was a very pleasing move to play at the end of the combination!  A very unusual overloading where white’s queen cannot stay in touch with the rook.  Of course, White can resign now.  He played on, since it is blitz.

26. Rxe1 Nxd3 27. Re7 gxf5 28. Rxb7 Nc1 29. Rb6 Nxa2 30. Rxd6 Nb4 31. Rd7 Be5 32. Be7 Rc8 33. d6 Nc6 34. Rb7 Nxe7 35. dxe7 Re8 36. Ra7 Kg7 37. Rxa6 Rxe7 38. Rc6 Bd4 39. g3 Rb7 40. Kg2 Rxb3 41. Kh3 Rc3 42. Rc7 Rxc4 43. Rd7 Bf6 44. Rd6 Rd4
45. Rc6 c4 46. Rc7 Re4 47. Rc8 c3 48. Rc6 Re2 49. Rc5 c2 50. Rc4 Bb2
{White resigns}
0-1

Good times!  Well in Game 3.  Not in Games 1 or 2.

Shindig Chess

On June 14, an online tournament was held.  These GM players won in a five-round game/15 event:

Robert Hess 4.5

Giorgi Kacheishvili 4.5

Alex Lenderman4.5

Baadur Jobava 4.5

Bartosz Socko  4.5

There were 15 players in all.  I don’t know how the pairings were done, but guess how many of the winners I played?  1?  2?   No  3?  4?  No.

I played all the winner!  Every round, I was playing one of the above-mentioned guys!  A world record?  Never before seen in tournament play?  I think so!  Instead of dwelling on my bad result, here’s a great blitz game I played:

IM Aries2 – GM Baadur Jobava (GEO)

Mark	Baadur
1	♘f3	♞f6
2	♙c4	♟g6
3	♘c3	♝g7
4	♙e4	♟d6
5	♙d4	♚0-0
6	♗e2	♞a6
7	♔0-0	♟e5
8	♖e1	♟c6
9	♖b1	♞c7
10	♙d5	♟cxd5
11	♙cxd5	♞h5
12	♙g3	♟f5
13	♘d2	♞f6
14	♙f3	♟h5
15	♙a4	♟h4
16	♘c4	♟hxg3
17	♙hxg3	♞h5
18	♔g2	♞e8
19	♖h1	♟f4
20	♙g4	♞g3
21	♖h3	♞f6
22	♖xg3	♟fxg3
23	♔xg3	♞e8
24	♗e3	♜f7
25	♕g1	♝f6
26	♗xa7	♜xa7
27	♕xa7	♟b5
28	♕xf7+	♚xf7
29	♘xb5	♝g5
30	♖h1	♚g7
31	♙b4	♝a6
32	♘ba3	♝xc4
33	♘xc4	♞f6
34	♙b5	♞d7
35	♙a5	♞c5
36	♙a6	♛b8
37	♖a1	♞b3
38	♙a7	♛h8
39	♙a8Q	♝f4+
40	♔f2	♛h4+
41	♔f1	♛h1+
42	♔f2	♞xa1
43	♘xd6	♛h2+
44	♔f1	♛h3+
45	♔f2	♛h2+
46	♔f1	♛h1+
47	♔f2	♛h2+
48	♔f1	♛h3+
49	♔f2	♛g3+
50	♔f1	♛h3+
51	♔f2	♛g3+
52	♔f1	♛h3+
	Time Remaining: 00:46	Time Remaining: 00:04

Draw  (this is the way Shindig outputted the game and emailed it to me).

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The Fabulous 00s: USCL Week 4 OOTW

USCL Week 4 Opening of the Week

Molner (NJ) – Herman (NY) Sicilian Najdorf  Bg5 AND Bc4 Combo Platter

It’s always funny when an ersatz pioneer “wings it” in a sharp opening, essentially making things up to confuse.    It didn’t work out in Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs Ludwig (DAL) in a prior week, but this time around white has better luck.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Nbd7 8.Bc4 A strange two bishop combo platter to see if white can confuse.  It is a good try  in this crazy USCL time limit!

Lunch Combo Platter

8…Nc5

Not the cleanest solution but perfectly OK. First of all, 8…b5? 9. Bxe6 is bad.  How do we know?  Because Polugaevsky himself lost to Tseitlin once in 1971 starting from here; the sacrifice is strong.  8…b5? is too much provocation.  Black’s game move is fine.  However, in Najdorfs, do as Gelfand does! 8….Qb6! and after 9. Bb3 Be7 white has zero, as has been proven in a bunch of games.  After 10. f5, lurching forward, both 10…Nc5  (Ljubojevic-Gheorghiu, Palma 1972) and 10…e5 are fine for black.  Going back, after 8…Qb6! 9. Bxf6 Nxf6 10. Bb3 black is fine, Beliavsky-Gelfand Linares 1994.  He played 10…e5 eventually drawing but had 10..Be7 (more normal) as well.  Finally, 8…Qb6! 9. Qd2? Qxb2 10. Rb1 Qxa3 is just a really bad Poisoned Pawn line for white.  It wasn’t poisoned. 🙂

9.e5 h6 10.Bh4 g5? This is the culprit.  Too much junior energy.  The simple 10…dxe5! 11. dxe5 g5 leaves white with zero after 12. Bf2 Nfe4 or 12. exf6 gxh4 13. O-O h3!.

11.fxg5 Nfe4? A sharp position cannot stand two blunders in a row.  The positional problem is 11…dxe5 12. Nf3! with a significant white edge.  BUT black had to play this as his move just goes down the drain.

12.Qh5 And white is winning.   But one more cool moment coming up.

12…hxg5 13.Qxh8 gxh4 14.Nxe4 Nxe4 15.exd6? Here the shot 15. Bxe6!! demolishes black in short order and may have won Molner GOTW.

15…Nxd6? 15…Qxd6 and white is only somewhat better, nothing decisive.

16.Be2 Qg5 17.Nf3 Qa5+ 18.c3 Bd7 19.Qxh4 Nf5 20.Qg5 Qb6 21.Ne5 Qxb2 22.0-0 Qxe2 23.Rae1 Qb5 24.Qf6 Bc5+ 25.Kh1 Nd6 26.Qh8+ Ke7 27.Qf6+ Ke8 28.Qh8+ Ke7 29.Qxa8 Be8 30.Qb8 Qa5 31.Rd1 Ba3 32.Rxd6 Bxd6 33.Qxd6+ Black resigns 1-0

In Other Matters: A Nonsensical Sveshnikov Makes an Appearance

Arizona lost narrowly AGAIN 1.5  – 2.5, this time versus the Baltimore Kingfishers.  The match was very tightly contested.

I was very surprised to read a passage on the Baltimore blog, “Now, as the match began, the players clearly made adjustments for the shorter (60/30) time control as they moved quickly through their openings, especially FM Shinsaku Uesugi, who had specifically prepared much of the Sveshnikov line he played on Board 4. He appeared quite calm and strolled about observing the other three games until about 24. Nb6. He had the worse position until NM Leo Martinez played 37. h4? instead of h3!”

This might make sense if we didn’t have access to the game score.  But what actually happened is that Uesugi played a  completely losing move on move 16.  Jansa showed us why in 1996 (see postscript).

In the opening, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.c3 Bg7 12.exf5 Bxf5 13.Nc2 0-0 14.Nce3 Be6 15.Bd3 f5 16.0-0 f4?? Oh, dear. 16…e4 is the main line for a good reason.

Prep Suicide Bluff

White found the right response with  17.Qh5! and yes, he is now officially winning.

17…Rf7 (forced) 18.Bxh7+ (sadly, 18. Qxh7+ and Bg6 next is also completely winning with similar lines) 18…Kf8 19.Bf5 and yes, White played fine and this is winning (although 19. Bg6 ALSO winning is more to my taste than the game 19. Bf5, as it allows less – I refer you to the Postscript for a completely crushing Jansa victory that should have wound up in the textbooks?   Everything was fine until the possible 3-fold repetition came up on moves 22 and 23.  It’s hard in a team event to know what to do – white is lower rated going in, and a draw in the abstract seems really good and IS good, for our team.  But white’s position is so good!  Our fourth board spaced out at this juncture for many minutes, not really looking at the board, just well…spacing out. Robby, our third board, and I noticed this and we each started praying independently he would repeat. The tough thing was none of boards 1, 2, or 3 were clear at all at this specific juncture. -it was still the early going  In the USCL time limit nothing is “winning” unless a player is likely to have a firm handle on all the tactics (see Benjamin-Kacheishvili, NJ vs NY Week 4, for an example of time pressure ruining a well played effort by white). But our 4th board in the end did not repeat, and it was pretty much a given considering his mental state he wouldn’t sense all the tactics and tricks coming up.  He wasn’t focused at all on his board. That’s exactly what happened; he missed a pretty simple tactic a few moves later and lost (by this time having very little time, since he spent a lot of time during the big space-out).    So in a twisted sense the Uesugi high-level bluff (‘prepping’ a losing move?!?) paid off big-time for Baltimore since it put our fourth board into deep orbit when the possible repetition came up.

Postscript: The Jansa Solution

The solution to the “Uesugi Problem” aka “Uesugi Bluff” was shown to us in 1996 by veteran GM Vlastimil Jansa.  In this game, Jansa shows fantastic tactical foresight.  Here is what happened in Jansa-Salai Hungarian League 1996.  I would assume this is in Sveshnikov handbooks, but readers…?

18. Bxh7+ Kf8 19. Bg6! Raa7 (nothing better) 20. Bf5!! A fantastic switch.  Why lure the rook to a7 you ask?  You’ll see!  20…Rxf5 21. Nxf5 Bxd5 22. Rfd1! Bf7 23. Qh7 Bg8 24. Qg6 and white win in short order as black collapses (that was the game continuation).  But if black follows the “Uesugi keep the white knights dangling plan” and plays 18. Bxh7+ Kf8 19. Bg6! Raa7 20. Bf5!! Qe8, then white shows the brilliance of his 19th move.  He plays 21. Bxe6 Qxe6 22. Qg4 and look!  Black can’t follow Martinez-Uesugi with 22…Qh6 due to 23. Qc8+ and mate!  Wow!  If 22…Qe8, for example, 23. Nc2 and white is winning.  What a nuance! So white just has a pawn up and all the light squares in an ending.

In case you are wondering, for completeness we have to look at one other defense, one that Salai avoided for good reason in the 1996  Jansa game.  18. Bxh7+ Kf8 19. Bg6 fxe3 20. fxe3 Raa7 loses to the nice domination  21. Bxf7 Rxf7 22. Rxf7+ Bxf7 23. Rf1 Qd7 24. Qg6 Nd8 25. b4 Ne6 26. Qg4 Qe8 (26…Ke8 27. Qxg7!! wins)  27. h4 and black is in total zugzwang

By the way for amusement here are the 16…f4?? USCL player’s ICC finger notes.  Joel Benjamin opined that he simply got confused because …f4 is perfectly playable in the Bd3-c2 retreat line (but not in the Martinez move order).

Uesugi-BAL has not played any rated games yet.

1: If you play 1.e4, I will play c5
2: If you play 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3, I will play Nc6
3: If you play 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4, I will play cxd4
4: If you play 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4, I will play Nf6
5: If you play 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3, I will play e5
6: If you play 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5, I will
play d6
7: I do not lie, be prepared