Schenectady Update

Another Thursday and it’s chess, chess and more chess at the Schenectady Club. Well, we didn’t have quite as much chess as we desired, a couple of games had to be postponed, still it was a good number of games. My game with Barnes in the Consolation Swiss was put off to next week because of a schedule conflict, and Bobby Rotter’s game with Michael Mockler was delayed due to recent sad events. There was talk of Mr. Rotter dropping out. At the last word, through the good offices of Mr. Mockler and Bill Townsend, Bobby Rotter will continue to play. We in the club all hope so, Bobby creates interesting chess.

What happened this week to surprise and delight us? The plot thickened in the Championship Finals when Dean Howard thought long and deep about a piece sacrifice against Phillip Sells. The sacrifice may not have been sound, but it certainly was pretty. This time victory went to he who dares and Dean won the game. The result is Sells and Mockler are tied at 2-1. Dean Howard has the highest score recorded so far, 2 ½ 1 ½ since he played one more game than Sells and Mockler. It is always problematical making a statement about who is leading when unequal numbers of rounds are played. I lean towards counting lost points and see Phillip Sells and Michael Mockler at the top of the leader board.

In the other Finals game, Patrick Chi got on the winning path with a neat win from John Phillips. Patrick’s successive losses to Sells and Howard did not seem to have any lasting effect on our young tiger. He met John’s Benko with GM Har-Zvi’s prescription for White; get in a4, hold c4 and drop a Knight on b5. After that Mr. Chi began to probe on the K-side threatening to open the h-file. Mr. Phillips was not liking his position too much and thought to get counter-play with the standard …., e7-e6; move to break down White’s Pd5 bastion. A short sharp tactical melee let the White Queen get a bead on the Black King ending things quickly.

In the Consolation Swiss drama was more muted. Alan Le Cours won his game with Lee Battes in a QGA transposition. Lee got to a position where he was at some small disadvantage, nothing too serious but not entirely comfortable. There he miscalculated, played a standard QGA move; 15 …, c5; and the ensuing combination gave Le Cours a winning position. An interesting game in a rare kind of QGA.

Other results in Consolation were; David Connors won from Jeff Capitummino in King’s Indian Attack in 23 moves, Ray Alguire defeated Richard Chu, Cory Northrup won from Mike Stanley and Chen Qu won from George Dipre.

Next week will be a bye round in the Consolation Swiss to permit catching up on postponed games. In round robin events postponed games can be played off as convenient without pairing problems. Not so in a Swiss System tourney. Swiss pairings depend on like scores playing each other, and postponements have to be completed before the next round can be paired correctly.

Now to a game:

SCC Ch Finals 09-10
Date: 3/24/2010
White: Howard, D
Black: Sells, P

1. e4 c5
2. c3 Nf6
3. e5 Nd5
4. d4 cxd4
5. Nf3 ….
Much more common is 5 cxd4. We can find a good number of top flight GM’s, including Kasparov, who have played the position after 5 cxd4.

5.… e6
6. Bc4 …..
Some pretty good IM’s such as Motwani of Scotland and Lilac of England have used this move.

6.…. Nb6
The move 6.…, dxc3; did not work very well for GM Bellon, in Thessloniki, 1988. He took the c-pawn and then the b-pawn winding up a net two pawns to the good. Bellon’s pawns structure was full of weaknesses and his development lagging. The defects allowed his opponent to snag the Exchange, then one by one the weak pawns fell. Bellon lost in 44 moves. There are a few examples in the databases of players going greedy gobbling the offered pawns. Just about all end in wins for White.

Here the GM’s (Renet, Fillippov, Conquest, etc.) playing the Black side have, for the most part, used 6..., Nb6; 7 Bb3, d6; to arrive at a playable middle game. In this game Black develops a Knight to c6 before pushing the pawn to d6. This doesn’t change the general feel of the position much, if at all.

7. Bb3 Nc6
8. O-O d6
9. cxd4 Qc7
10. Nc3 a6
11. Bf4 ….
With some small transpositions in move order we reached a position mentioned in the literature of the Alapin Sicilian. According to the pundits and my computer the position favors White. By how much is open to debate. I don’t know how much of the play so far by both sides was home preparation or if they worked out details out over the board. Dean had used thirty minutes of his clock to reach this point in the game. Phillip used considerably more. Judging by time consumed, I would say Dean had some recollection of the line of play and Phillip less so.

11.… Bd7!?
An innovation? Usual according to the writers about the opening is 11..., d5.

12. Rc1 ….
White could have made the first truly aggressive change to the position with 12 Ne4, hitting hard at d6. Then 12..., d5; 13 Nd6+, Bxd6; 14 exd6, Qd8; and White has secured the Bishop pair. Black will find it not easy to lift the lone pawn on d6. After 12 Ne4, the game is beginning to favor White more than a little. The text was perhaps Dean beginning to conjure up his grand idea. It would be interesting to hear what Mr. Howard thought about 12 Ne4, etc. An insight into Dean Howard’s chess thinking may be had by comparing the two possibilities; the text and its complicated, rather long, unsound and difficult to evaluate combination, and the shorter sequence beginning 12 Ne4, that can drop a pawn for the two Bishop advantage. I suspect Dean and I share the idea we can have success at the chess board if we make the game as difficult as possible for both sides because we are willing to put up with prolonged tension and many opponents are not.

12.… d5
13. a4 ….
For this move and the next Dean used over sixty minutes of clock time! While watching I could not fathom why.

13.… Qb8
Sells had played the opening slowly and apparently carefully as is his wont. However, the last few moves really began to highlight just how much time was flying. When he completed putting the Queen on b8, there were just thirty-three minutes of his time left for the rest of the game.

14. a5 …..
The logical continuation, maybe? I was still at sea. Even though the advance of the a-pawn to the fourth rank was not particularly cogent, White had done no lasting harm. The further advance to the fifth tosses a whole pawn in the pot and should have cued me something more was coming.

14.… Nxa5
15. Bxd5?! …..
And this is the result of a great deal of thought. My initial reaction was Dean must have found something bad in his set up and decided to risk everything on a roll of the dice. Trying hard I was not able to find what the supposed flaw might be. Phillip took many minutes to make a choice here. When he took the decision he was under ten minutes remaining. So, on one front Dean’s wager had paid off already with a 40 minute to ten minute time edge.

Most of the rest of the games had wrapped up by now and I was able to stay nearby the Howard - Sells table. Waiting for the next move gave plenty of time to work out the basis for this sacrifice. There are several advantages White accrues from giving up the Bishop; he prevents the Black King from castling leaving him wandering in the center, White’s lead in development, present before the “sac”, remains, and the open c & e-files are readily available to the White Rooks. For those general pluses White has invested a whole Bishop and a pawn. Is it worth it? According to the computer, no. The electronic beastie sees Black ahead by about 2 ½ pawns. The often quoted dictum of World Champion Tal applies here: “Minutes of play is not the same as hours of analysis.” As a decision made in the practical world of actual play, the decision to sacrifice has some justification.

Another interesting aspect of Dean’s bold adventure came up while writing this piece. If the Bxd5 move has practical merit, was the advance of the a-pawn preceding it necessary? The sacrifice on d5 could have been played without the pawn being given up on a5. It is possible that Dean was concerned that if Black’s Nc6 is not distracted to a5, Black could have returned the sacrificed piece by capturing on d4 with the Nc6 to emerge a solid pawn to the good and much less complexity in the position.

15.…. exd5
After long thought, Phillip takes the cleric. The alternative, 15..., Bc6; 16 Bxc6, just gives White a solid advantage in development with the initiative firmly in hand. That much is clear, so what was Sells mulling over? Probably the long think was to work out the details of handling the heavy pressure Dean bought with his material. On most of the occasions when Phillip invests a big chunk of time at a critical point in a game, he is rewarded with sufficient insight into the position to play very, very quickly through the remainder of the game. This time it didn’t quite go that way.

16. e6 Qxf4
17. exd7+ Kd8
Not taking the pawn on d7 doesn’t really help Black that much in riding out the White initiative. The material in Black’s pocket should be enough to do so, but Phillip’s clock now had just 6:24 on it. Dean’s time remaining was 41 minutes.

18. Ne5 Bd6
19. g3 Qf5
20. Re1 Bxe5
21. Rxe5 Qxd7
22. Qf3 Nc6
23. Rh5 …..
White wants just a moment respite to capture the pawn on d5 even at the cost of exchanging a minor piece in the belief the reduction of material will be offset by better access to the Black King.

23.… Nxd4
Black retains the his considerable advantage with this move, but removing even a small obstacle from lines pointing at the Black King helps White. Safer is 23..., Nb4; over protecting d5. Time: Sells - 1:32, Howard 12:00. I think Dean recognized his sacrifice was not correct. He used a lot of time trying to find anything that improved the activity of his pieces. Now there is a glimmer of something dangerous to Black on the c-file.

24. Qd1 g6??
The risk taking is rewarded. Phillip had just seconds left on his clock and he likely had not picked up on the dangers in the position. It is not the obvious recovering of material on d4 and h8 that is most important.

25. Qxd4 gxh5
26. Qxh8+ Kc7
27. Nb5#
Checkmate is the painful point.

A very entertaining performance by both players. More games later this weekend.