Thursday night the second round of the preliminary sections of the Schenectady Championship was played. The event has some of the regulars playing and some new faces for Schenectady. Patrick Chi is not defending his title this year, and Philip Sells is the only Expert in the event. New faces for Schenectady are Akhil Kamma of the Albany Club and Carlos Varela from the RPI team. Returning after a couple of years off is Jeff Capitummino.
Today we have a game where the young Dilip Aaron had chances against the Expert Sells. I can say the chances were deserved. They came about not so much through Dilip’s efforts, rather they were created by too routine treatment of the position by Mr. Sells. Unfortunately for Aaron he did not spot his opportunity. Sells then proceeded to rack-up the point in workmanlike fashion.
Sells, Philip - Aaron, Dilip [B01]
SCC Prelim A, Schenectady, NY, 21.10.2011
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5
Last year in the Preliminaries Dilip tried 5..., Bg5; an equally good alternative. He got his Queen completely out of play in the later middle game eventually losing a tense fight.
6.Qe2 e6 7.d3 c6 8.Bd2 Qc7 9.0–0–0 Bd6
The game has arrived at a normal looking but not quite standard position. I was not able to find an example in a two million game database. White has avoided pushing the d-pawn to the fourth rank reducing tension in the position, and Black has not gotten all his pieces into the fray yet nor has he castled. White counts on this retarded state of development for Black to allow him to beat off the obvious pawn storm on the Q-side.
10.h3!?,..
Anticipating K-side castling by Black, maybe. Making his own pawn storm is a worthy intention, but Black makes close contact first delaying White’s plans.. Probably best is 10 Ne4, then 10..., Bxe4 11 dxe4 Nbd7 12 Rhe1 Ne5 13 Nxe5 Bxe5 14 g3 0-0-0 15 f4 Bd4; when White has some central space and the two Bishops, while Black is well organized for defense. The grant of time given by White allows Black to come to grips right away.
10..., b5 11.Bb3 a5
I like this operation Black trys. He has set the stage to rip open the defenses in front of the White King. It is not necessarily correct, but it is dynamic.
12.a4,..
White could seek complications with 12 g4?!, but after something like 12..., Bg6 13 Nh4 a4 14 Bxe6 fxe6 15 Nxg6 hxg6 16 g5 Nh5 17 Qxe6+ Kd8 18 Qxg6, things are unclear; Black has a piece and White has two pawns and the position requires careful examination. The text certainly looks to be best.
12..., Bb4?
It may be the calculations needed to make sense of the position were more than Dilip was ready to deal with, or he became impatient with the problems. In the line where White plays d2-d3 and puts his Queen on e2, there is always hanging the threat of a piece sacrifice at e6. While making a judgment about when to pull the trigger on the sacrifice is a challenge for White, Black also has to consider it at every turn. This kind of persistent problem can become so annoying a player just goes for something out of left field. Such is the text move. It is surprising but not particularly pertinent to the position on the board. Castling right now is probably good: 12..., 0-0 13 axb5 a4 14 Ba2 a3 15 b3 Rc8 16 Nd4 Bb4; and the Black forces are have closed with the defenders of the White King while White is some moves away from reaching a similar state on the other side of the board.
13.Nd4 Bxc3 14.Bxc3 Bg6?
Necessary is 14..., b4. By removing the Bishop from the defense of e6 the stage is set for troubles.
15.axb5?!,..
The move played in the game holds on to a solid advantage, but the natural and thematic 15 Nxe6!, offers so much more. After 15..., fxe6 16 Qxe6+, and all Black’s answers are hopeless. The point of the formation White adopted, Bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal, Queen on e2, with a Knight coming to d4 or g5, is the piece sac at e6. Why a skillful player passes that by is hard to explain. Mr. Sells may have become focused on Aaron’s building attack and forgot about his own possibilities.
15..., c5?
With 15..., 0-0; Black could have avoided bigger problems.
16.Nf3?,..
Neither side seems to see the danger around e6. Here White could have played 16 Nxe6 fxe6 17 Qxe6+ Qe7 18 Qc8+ Qd8 19 Rhe1+, and so forth as it easy to see White picks up a decisive material advantage. Curious that both players so undervalued the sacrifice at e6. After the text Black is still worse but he can play on.
16..., a4 17.Bc4?!,..
Once more Mr. Sells opts for a little instead of a lot. 17 Bxe6, brings home the point soon after 17..., fxe6 18 Qxe6+ Kf8 19 Bxf6 Qf4+ 20 Kb1 gxf6 21 Qc8+ Kg7 22 Qb7+ Nd7 23 Qxd7+ Bf7 24 Rhe1 Rhd8 25 Qg4+
17..., 0–0 18.Ne5 Nd5 19.Bd2?,..
This last move seems to be motivated by the wish to retain the Bishop pair. The game move gives up just about all of the advantage White has held for some time. Mr. Sells works very hard at the board. Up to this point the has used one hour more than Mr. Aaron on the clock so we can’t blame haste for any slips. Here White could nail down a permanent advantage with 19 Bxd5 exd5 20 Nxg6 hxg6 21 Qe5, when the mate threat forces off the Queens, after which the Bishop at e5 is much stronger than is the Knight. Coupled with the extra pawn, this leads to a won ending. Play could then go on; 21..., Qxe5 22 Bxe5 Nd7 23 Bd6 Rfe8 24 Rhe1 c4 25 Rxe8+ Rxe8 26 dxc4 dxc4 27 Rd4, when the Black Q-side pawns are vulnerable in the extreme.
19..., a3 20.bxa3 Rxa3 21.Kb2 Ra8 22.Rhe1 Nd7 23.Nc6!?,..
An aggressive choice. Somewhat more sober but not necessarily better is 23 Nxg6. At this moment White was down to 5 ½ minutes on the clock. Black had well over one hour remaining. Sobriety has its pluses in time trouble.
23..., N7b6 24.Ra1?,..
A most natural move. It is a mistake that should be costly. Correct is 24 Qe5, offering the Queen trade. As later in the game, if the Queens come off Black is worse.
24..., Ne7?
Dilip misses his golden opportunity. With the move 24..., Nxc4+; Black obtains an advantage. Granted it requires a fairly long and complicated calculation, but much of it is forced easing the burden of the task. Play continues; 25 dxc4 Qxc6! 26 bxc6 Rhb8+ 27 Bb4! (the only way to fight on) 27..., Rxb4+ 28 Kc1 Rxa8+ 29 Kd2 Ra2 30 Rc1 Nb6; when White will have to find tough moves such as 31 Ke1, avoid the worst. The position has a lesson worth knowing; when you embark on a sacrificial line as Black did in this game - he gave up a pawn on the Q-side - very frequently the justification is only found in further sacrifices. Also frequent is what happens if you can’t find the sacrificial continuation; the game turns against you. After the game move Black is in serious trouble. Another motivator for Black is the time situation. Jerking the game out of normal channels makes finding the proper answers when the clock is running towards its final minutes even more trying.
25.Qe5 Qxe5+ 26.Nxe5 Nf5
With the Queens off the potential for some tactical surprise is much reduced. Black should have avoided this exchange. Now the passed b-pawn looms large for White. Sells takes control of the game, and while it takes many moves with less than four minutes on the clock, Mr. Sells demonstrates once more his skill at fast play.
27.Ba5 Nxc4+ 28.dxc4 Nd4 29.Nxg6 hxg6 30.Re5 Rfc8 31.Ra3 f6 32.Re1 Rcb8 33.Rea1 Rb7 34.Bd2 Rab8 35.Be3 e5 36.Ra6,..
Making things simpler with 36 Ra8, might have lessened the task. White, however, was down to about 49 seconds here, and it is more important he plays what he sees rather than what he can find if he had the time.
36..., Kh7 37.c3 Nxb5
Despairing at the task in front of him, Dilip seeks relief with a sacrifice. It is too late. More stubborn but not objectively better is 37..., Nf5; then 38 Bxc5 Rc8 39 Rb6, etc. The only virtue of the line is it might cause Sells to have to think a bit.
38.cxb5 Rxb5+ 39.Kc1 Rb3 40.Bd2 Rd8 41.Kc2,..
White has spied out a safe haven on c4 for his King that keeps him well guarded by any tactics Black’s Rooks may try.
41..., Rdb8 42.Rc6 R3b5 43.Be3 Rb2+ 44.Kd3 f5 45.Bxc5 e4+ 46.Kc4 1–0
The game continued for several more moves with White’s clock hanging at nine seconds. Mr. Sells did not need more than the five second delay to find the path to victory. I like Dilip’s idea of ripping up the Q-side to obtain counter-play. In this game Sells gave his young opponent chances to turn the tables. If Aaron studies this game carefully and internalizes the lessons available, he will much more dangerous to the Experts in the club.
in the future.
After play finished Thursday the standings were:
Section A
1-3 Zack Calderone 2 - 0
1-3 Philip Sells 2 - 0
1-3 Carlos Varela 2 - 0
4-5 Dilip Aaron 0 - 2
4-5 Cory Northrup 0 - 2
6-7 Mike Stanley 0 - 1
6-7 J. Capitummino 0 - 1
In Section A next Thursday the most interesting match-up is the game between Dilip Aaron and Zack Calderone, the established scholastic star versus a rising challenger.
Section B
1-2 Akhil Kamma 2 - 0
1-2 John Phillips 2 - 0
3 Alan Le Cours 1 - 1
4 Herman Calderone ½ - ½
5 Richard Chu ½ - 1 ½
6 David Connors 0 - 1
7 Matt Clough 0 - 2
In Section B the game of interest is the clash of the two leaders, Phillips and Kamma. Although unrated, Kamma has demonstrated some talent in casual and speed games at the Albany Club. On the other hand, Phillips has qualified several times for the SCC Title Finals and is well experienced in the local chess wars. Will we see the emergence of a new title threat? Stay tuned.
More soon.
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