A Further Report on the Saratoga Championship

Yesterday, Sunday the 29th, had four games played in round 11. George Dipre lost to me in our usual tactical melee. George sacrificed a piece for a pawn early on and got good pressure for it. Later with a chance to get back another pawn in a little combination, he played the wrong move order losing more material. This was shortly followed by hanging his Queen and resignation. I like Mr. DiPre’s fearlessness and innovation in the opening. He has lines worked out striving for unbalanced positions putting his opponents on their own very early in games. In our game he achieved a lot. It was unfortunate for George his tactical alertness failed him just as he was about to obtain a reasonable game.

My game ended early. Gordon Magat defeated Peter Sparagna even more quickly. Their game ended before I even had a chance to see what was going on. If either of these players want to forward the game score, I will put it on this site.

As I said in the previous post, the big game for the night was Feinberg - Taylor. Old age and a busy holiday weekend caused me to have leave for home before the finish. However, it was possible to copy the moves up to a point. Here is the fragment I have:

[Event "Saratoga Championship"]
[Site "Saratoga Springs, NY"]
[Date "11-29-2009"]
[White "Feinberg, J"]
[Black "Taylor, S"]

1. c4 e6
2. Nf3 d5
3. g3 Nf6
4. Bg2 c5
5. O-O Nc6
There a great many games in the databases between titled players with these moves. White won 828, drew 514 and lost 658.

6. b3 ….
This move was something of a favorite of Bent Larsen in the 1980’s. There are six or seven examples in the databases.

6.… Be7
7. e3 O-O
8. Bb2 Re8
9. Qe2 Bf8
Alternatively here Black could try 9..., d4; which opens up the center after, 10 exd4; cxd4; 11 d3, Bd6; 12 Nxd4, Nxd4; 13 Bxd4, Bxg3; 14 hxg3, Qxd4; 15 Nd2, e5; and the game is headed towards the classic opposite side pawn majority endgame struggle. It’s possible Taylor was concerned that Feinberg might be able to make something out of his strong Bishop and the long diagonal. Or, he could have been concerned about the possible alternative in this line 15 Na3, e5; 16 Nb5, Qd8; 17 c5, and while things are not terribly messy, it is difficult to say who is better here. Whatever is the case, Steve chooses to keep things tense in the center. Given the crucial nature of this encounter for the determination of first place, I guess Steve wants to maintain some kind of winning chances.

10. d4 cxd4
11. exd4 Bd7
The other candidate here is 11..., dxc4; 12 bxc4, e5!?; offering a pawn to make targets out as many White pawns as possible. The White pieces are pretty well placed to cover the pawns, and a pawn is a pawn after all.

12. Nbd2 Rc8
13. Rac1 Qa5
14. Bc3!? ….
Jonathan offers up his a-pawn wanting to make something out chasing Black’s Queen to the K-side. The playable alternative is 14 a3, then 14..., Bxa3; is met by 15 Ra1, winning material. A more likely continuation is 14 a3, dxc4, 15 Nxc4, Qb5; 16 Nfd2, and Black has some pressure in a difficult IQP position.

14.… Qxa2
Taylor does not shrink from the challenge. There are several equally interesting candidates for Black: a) 14..., Qc7; putting off any dramatic change in the position, b) 14..., Qd8; is this just conceding a tempo?, or c) 14..., Qa6; attempting to use the loose situation of White’s Queen to maybe get something done towards weakening the White Q-side pawns. I prefer option c). Since both contestants know more chess than I do, it will be interesting to find out from them what they think about this option.

15. Ra1 Qc2
16. Rfc1 Qf5
17. Ne5 a6
Securing the extra pawn against a trade of Knights on c6. This could also be accomplished by 17..., Rc7. Either way the game seems to be just about level.

18. Ndf3 Nxe5
19. Nxe5 Bd6
20. Bd2 ….
Feinberg had 47 minutes remaining and Taylor 37 minutes. According to my computer the game is headed towards dead level and a likely draw. With neither player in real time trouble that result is probable. If I can interpret the computer’s conclusion, the Black’s potential distant passed pawn is offset by the good deployment of the White Rooks. We will see what happened and possibly the players thoughts as soon as I can get the information.

More later. With some luck we will see part or all of the Alguire - Battes game, a student versus coach clash. If I have some further luck, we will have diagrams with the comments.