Here is a game from one of the lower boards of the match. It came to my attention when Charles Eson and I went over the last few moves of the game at the Albany Area Chess Club. Charles did not have the game score at hand, and he tried to reconstruct the position from memory. The discussion was interesting and educational; interesting because of a couple of points that came to light from what Eson remembered of the position as compared to the actual game position, and educational because observing how he re-created the position on the board at the club and his perception of the critical points of the game.
Dipre, George - Eson, Charles [B59]
Albany - Schenectady Match SCC, 09.02.2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb3,..
Not a particularly sparkling choice. The natural positional continuation is 5 Bb5+, and if 5..., Bd7 6 Bxd7 getting rid of Black’s better Bishop. If Black plays instead 5..., Nd7; his development will be slower than in the game.
5..., Nf6 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.Be2 Be7 8.0–0 Be6 9.f4,..
Black is playing to get in the advance .., d6-d5; achieving equality. The game move is best way to make that unpalatable for Black.
9..., Bxb3?
This is not a sensible move. Better is 9..., Qb6+ 10 Kh1 exf4; or 9..., exf4; straight away putting aside concerns about the weakness of the backward d6-pawn on an open file. Bronstein wrote about how to use such a pawn in his masterpiece on the Zurich Inter-zonal of 1953, in the Averbakh - Gilgoric game where Black demonstrated the dangling the d6-pawn can be effectively defended by threats on other parts of the board letting Black get all his forces well mobilized. The Averbakh - Gligoric game was a KID, but the ideas apply in this sort of Sicilian also.
Black has been playing to break with .., d6-d5. It is not quite possible to do so just yet safely; 9..., d5?! 10 f5 Bc8 11 exd5 Nb4 12 Bg5 13 Nxd5 Nxd5 14 Bb5+, Bd7 15 Qxd5 Qb6+ 16 Nd4 Qxd4+ 17 Qxd4 exd4 18 Bxe7 Bxb5; and notwithstanding the Bishops of opposite color, Black has a difficult game. His King is stranded in the center and the d-pawn is hard to defend. So, why trade a well placed Bishop for a Knight on b3 that has no immediate prospects? It seems to be another example of a club level player not being willing to face ongoing tension in a position.
10.axb3 0–0 11.f5 a6 12.Be3 b5 13.Qe1 Qc8 14.Bf3 Nb4 15.Qf2 Qb7 16.Rfd1,..
Putting the other Rook on the d-file is more in tune with the needs of the position. If there is a solid reason for the advance of the f-pawn to f5, it has to be the idea of advancing the K-side White pawns at some point. That suggests d1 and f1 are the right posts for the Rooks.
16..., Rfd8 17.Bb6 Rd7 18.Ba5?,..
Why not the logical 18 Rd2, and doubling on the d-file? White may have miss-calculated the line; 18.Rd2 d5; forgetting how powerful the Bf3 is, or he could not make up his mind about where he wanted to double the Rooks, the a-file, or the d-file. Whatever is the case, this move and the next give Black the advantage.
18..., Nc6 19.Nd5 Nxd5 20.exd5 Nxa5 21.Rxa5 Bf6?
Missing completely a wonderful opportunity. Winning quickly is 21..., Bd8; when the threat of 22..., Bb6; pinning the White Queen over his King requires White to give up the Ra5.
22.Kh1,..
White has seen the threat and takes precautions. The upshot of the recent maneuvers by White is the pressure on d6 is masked by the pawn on d5, that is not good for White. Black could now shift his Bishop to active duty on b6, or make some threats down the c-file by playing 22.., Rc7.
22..., Re7?
Black is swimming. The text obstructs the Bf6 and puts the Rook on the least active square available. I suspect Mr. Eson ran out of ideas thinking “I’ll pass” and see what my opponent intends. That is very dangerous. One technique to use when the idea-well runs dry is list in your mind every legal move that is on the board before making a choice. GM Jacob Aagaard suggests this as useful when you are in a quandary and also as technique to steady your nerves in positions of great tension.
23.Be4 Ree8 24.b4 Bd8
Black found the right idea but too late. White now has a route open along the 3d rank to the K-side for his Rook. Since Black does not have the best resources for the defense of his King on the board, and his available resources are not well placed for K-side defense, danger looms.
25.Ra3 Bb6
This move drives the White Queen to where she wants to go. It can’t be criticized too much if Black has accurately assessed the position.
26.Qh4 f6 27.Rh3 h6 28.Qg4 Kf8 29.Qg6 Qc7
A move that leads me to think Black has not evaluated the position accurately. Better is 29..., a5; taking the opportunity to open the a-file. White really needs a dark squared Bishop, or a Knight to sacrifice at h6 or f6 to have real zing in the attack he has built. Nevertheless White has the initiative. Accepting he does not have the right force to break through directly on the K-side, White could shift focus here and play 30 Rc3 Qe7 31 Rc6 Bc7 32 Ra1, then if Black panics and plays 32..., a5?!; when White has the sophisticated line: 33 Qh7 Ra7 34 bxa5 Rxa5 35 Rxa5 Bxa5 36 Bf3!, threatening 37 Bh5. In this way White could have used the initiative and the principle of two weaknesses (the Black Q-side pawns and the squares around the Black King) to obtain a near winning advantage.
30.Qh7 Qf7
The best move. If Black gets ambitious with 30..., Qc4?; White has a long winded and winning attack beginning 31 Rg3 Ra7 32 Qh8+ Ke7 33 Qxg7+ Kd8 34 Qxf6+ Kd7 because 34..., Kc7/c8; allows the immediate 35 Rc3, pinning the Queen. When the Black King goes to d7, the White Queen and Rook will range along the 6th and 7th ranks sowing destruction and ruin on the Black position leaving no time for Black to safely capture the Be4.
31.Rg3 Rec8 32.c3 Rc4 33.Bf3 Rh4?!
After avoiding several tactical dangers and arriving at an equal position, Black becomes overly ambitious. I can not see how this sortie with a Rook and a Bishop is going to improve his position. Better 33..., Qg8 34 Qg6 Qf7; repeating the position and making a draw, or 33..., a5; opening the a-file when both sides will have to be very careful, but Black looks to be getting his nose in front.
34.Rg6 Bf2?
A bad mistake. Necessary is 34..., Qg8; White then could be tempted to go for broke with 35 Rxf6+, which is met by 35..., gxf6 36 Qb7 Re8 37 Qxb6 Qg3! 38 Qxd6+ Kf7 39 Kg1 Qxh2+ and Black is winning although certainly he would have to be watchfully careful of tricks. After the game move White can get back on top with 35 Rf1.
35.Rd2?,..
This move with same intention fails to do the job.
35..., e4?
Better 35..., Be3; and the Black Bishop has just enough free squares to avoid the White Rook’s attempt to capture the cleric. The game move gives away a pawn for no good purpose. Worse is that the tactical tricks White has in hand remain potent.
36.Rxf2 exf3 37.Rxf3 Re4 38.h3 Ra7?
Required is 38..., Qg8; to force off the Queens. After the text the best Black can hope for is an endgame with poor chances to hold.
39.Rfg3 Qg8?
This should lose the game.
40.Qxh6?,..
I guess both sides were short of time the last several moves. White misses 40 Rxf6+ Rf7 41 Rxf7+ Kxf7 41 Qg6 + Kf8 42 f6, winning. If you think Black has other moves in the sequence cited, look again. Other than the spite check on e1, all alternatives lose quickly and the check just delays things for one move. The move played leaves White with a substantial advantage, but makes one wonder if George is seeing things clearly in time pressure.
40..., Re1+ 41.Kh2 Ree7?
Charles is having the same problem. This move does nothing to prevent 42 Rxf6+ Ke8 43 Rxd6, and White has too many pawns for Black to even consider 43..., gxh6 44 Rxg8+ Kf7 45 Rgg6. Better is 41..., Rf7; when things look bleak for Black, but where there is life there is hope, and the clock is running.
42.Qf4 Qxd5 43.Rxf6+?,..
White has been forced to move quickly by rapidly disappearing time. The move played is utterly wrong, but it shows the right ideas were in the player’s mind. That has been the case for both sides throughout the game. White could have brought home the point with 43 Qh4, then if Black plays 43..., Qf7 44 Qh8+ Qg8 45 Rxf7+ Rxf7 46 Qh4, and now all roads lead to a White victory. Black can not stand for any sequence that trades off the Queens and Rooks - the extra White pawns on the K-side are unstoppable. White could have used that fact to win more material or mate the Black King. The game move drops a whole Rook without gaining even a short lived initiative.
42..., gxf6 44.Qh6+ Ke8 45.Re3 Qf7 46.Rxe7+ Rxe7 47.Qd2 d5 48.Qf4, and White lost on time.
Recalling Charles working to reconstruct the position from about move 40 and his comments during the effort enlighten me in several ways; first, it appeared he did not realize that many critical errors happened earlier, most particularly the two-move sequence on move 21 (21.., Bd8; instead of 21.., Bf6;) that were as important as the final positions. Secondly, Eson had questions about the position but had not sat down to investigate the position even two weeks after the event. And, thirdly, he was unclear about just what the position was in fact.
What can be learned from these observations?
First, an almost absolute requirement to achieve improvement in chess skill is analysis of your games. For us non-professionals, time is not always available for study, but two weeks is a very long time to let a game where you have questions to linger. The sooner you put a game you don’t quite understand under examination the better will be your progress.
Second, less successful players have trouble recalling positions, more successful players do so with less effort and fewer mistakes. The most recent experience I have had with this phenomenon was working with GM Ronen Har-Zvi. Time after time the GM astounded me by recalling games he played fifteen or twenty years before, and other associated GM games when we’d come across a related position in analysis. Was this just the difference in talent between a GM and the rest of us? Perhaps, yes, but does this not tell the more average player that working on fixing in our memory critical positions is an important skill? To that end, it is useful to at crucial points in a chess game to use a couple of minutes to memorize the board position. That is; don’t think about; moves, threats, imbalances, hopes or chess fantasy, focus on the location of pieces enough so that you can recall the position at will. Jacob Aagaard sees this as a vital technique to improve calculation skill.
Tonight the NYS Championship begins for those of us playing the four day schedule. I may not get games other than my own for the blog. This tournament always is a struggle for me, more than one per day poops me out. I hope to see you there.
More in a day or two.
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