Edward Davies - Dominic Tunks
Rapid 30 0 , 10.01.2007
1.e4 d6 2.Nf3 I adopted a king's indian attack setup, having started researching it at the time and knowing it was playable against the pirc. In retrospect, Nc3 would have benefitted me more in terms of a possible transposition into a closed sicilian, which is quite likely against a pirc. Nf3 is less flexible in the case of a closed sicilian transposition, but on the other hand it speeds up kingside castling possibilities and is can accompany other moves than just a robotic king's indian attack setup, such as a d4 push. To reach the main lines here, d4 would be the usual move. [2.Nc3; 2.d4] 2...Nf6 A rare move, perhaps because an f5 push is built up to in some lines. [2...c5 is naturally the most common accoring to Fritz due to it being a mainline sicilian. However I am not sure if a pirc player would choose the sicilian and is more likely to continue with 'pirc moves'. This move is the reason I was unwise to play 2.Nf3 and not 2.Nc3.; 2...e5 This is the next most popular move, which is somewhat surprising to me as it is the generally admonished Philidor's defence.; 2...g6; 2...Nc6 is the more common knight move for black. e.g.: 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bg4 5.Be3] 3.d3 As I mentioned, I decided to try the KIA. There are no games in the Fritz 10 opening book with this position so we are in a rare position already. [I could still have tried to tranpose into a closed sicilian with 3.Nc3 which is a decent move here 3...c5 (3...g6 4.d4 Main lines of pirc.) ] 3...Nc6 4.g3 It is a quite weak to robotically begin a KIA setup here. [A good move is 4.Nc3 Bg4 and Fritz recommends: 5.d4] 4...Bg4 This may not be the most critical reply to white's relatively poor opening play. [4...e5 This may be the real reason g3 is quite poor. Positionally, the fianchettoed bishop on g2 will have it's long diagonal totally block with the black pawn bolstered on e5.] 5.Bg2 Qd7 This lokos like a good and logical plan, also flexible in allowing queenside castling immediately if wanted. 6.Be3 Bh3 Fritz assesses that this makes the position equal again, instead of slightly better for black. [F1: 6...d5 e.g. 7.h3 Bh5 8.e5 (8.exd5 Nxd5 9.0–0 Nxe3 10.fxe3 0–0–0 Things don't look great for white. In this case it's probably better to be a pawn down with some compensation than just in a worse position with material balance.) 8...Bxf3 9.Qxf3 Nxe5 10.Qe2 d4 11.Bd2 white probably does not have full compensation for the pawn.] 7.Bxh3 Qxh3 This is objectively no problem for white. I felt a bit uncomfortable though. Fritz prefers Nc3, as do I looking at the game now, as it prepares castling Queenside just like the queen move, though it is probably less potentially problematic to commit the knight. 8.Qe2 Qe2 isn't a bad move though. One reason I have realised that it may be weaker than Nc3 is the d5 square control of Nc3, or rather the protection again the d5 push that comes. [8.Nc3] 8...d5 Good move. 9.Nbd2 h6?! This looks odd to me. Perhaps the g5 square was the main part of Dominic's decision to play this, however I don't think Ng5 was top of my list of priorities here. [F1: 9...e5 10.0–0–0 0–0–0 (10...d4 11.Bg5 Nd7 12.Nb3 Quite an interesting pawn structure.) 11.d4] 10.0–0–0 [F1: 10.Nd4 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 0–0–0 12.e5!? Nd7 13.Nb3] 10...e5? A definite mistake according to Fritz. [F1: 10...0–0–0 e.g. 11.Nb3 e5 12.exd5 Nxd5 13.c3 (13.Bd2 avoiding trade of bishop is not very good accoring to Fritz 13...Bd6) ] 11.exd5 correct 11...Nxd5 12.Nc4 Here I missed a chance. [12.Nxe5! The tactical sequence is fairly complicated and leads to a positional evaluation of the resulting position. 12...Nxe5 13.Bd4 f6 14.f4 Nxf4 15.gxf4 0–0–0 16.Bxe5 fxe5 17.fxe5 Fritz says that white has a 1.25 advantage here, which is a little tough for me to understand. White definitely has a slight lead in development, but black isn't far behind. And although white has a passed pawn in the middle, it surely won't be easy to cause a lot of trouble with it, and in black's favour is the 2 to 1 pawn majority on the kingside, which I always assumed was very good for black. I have no doubt that Fritz considers white's passed pawn the most significant factor in the position, and that white can cause such havoc with this in the middlegame that black's possible future endgame advantage of a pawn majority will be irrelevant. I'll give an example line given by Fritz. 17...Qe6 18.Nb3 Be7 19.d4 Rhe8 20.Rhe1 focussing solely on the passed pawn 20...g5 already pushing forward its queenside pawns 21.Qb5 c6 22.Qa4 Kb8 23.Rf1 Qh3 24.Rh1 g4 25.Kb1 Rf8 26.Qc4 Rd5 27.Rdf1 Rf3 28.Rxf3 Qxf3 29.Qf1 a5 30.a4 Qe4 31.Qe1 Qxe1+ 32.Rxe1 Rd8 33.Rf1 b6 34.Rf7 Bg5 35.c3 FIGURE B] 12...Qe6 13.Bd2 Nb6 14.Nfxe5 Nxc4 15.dxc4 Nxe5 16.Bf4? Sadly this basically loses the game. The game was still level with 15..Rhe1, but I didn't play correctly in the complex situation. [16.Rhe1 Figure A 16...Bd6 17.f4 0–0–0 (black can't move the knight, e.g: 17...Nc6 18.Qd3) 18.fxe5 Be7 19.Be3 Rxd1+ 20.Rxd1 Qxe5 21.Rd5 Qe6 22.Qf2 Re8 the position looks balanced, although black's pawn structures offer better chances in an endgame than white's.] 16...Nd7 The best move according to Fritz. 17.Qf3 Avoiding an exchange of queens. However, this is an inferior move according to Fritz. [F1: 17.Qxe6+ fxe6 18.Rhe1 0–0–0 19.Rxe6 Bc5 20.Rg6 Rh7 21.f3 Nf8 22.Rg4 Ne6 23.Bd2 Black has to use some technique; it is not exactly the most trivial technical win, but he should none the less have no troubles.] 17...0–0–0 18.Rhe1 Qxc4 Probably overlooking the following threatening tactics. [F1: 18...Qf6 This move takes any sting out of white's threats. 19.Rxd7 Rxd7 20.Re8+ Rd8 21.Qg4+ Kb8 e.g. 22.Be5 Rxe8 23.Bxf6 gxf6 24.c3 Re1+ 25.Kc2 (25.Kd2?! Ra1) 25...Be7 26.Qg7 Re2+!? 27.Kd1 Re8 28.Qxf7 (obviously not 28.Kxe2?? Bf8+) 28...Bd8 Figure C. Fritz gives 2.2 pawns to black in this position; i.e. a technical win. It may take some converting against a tenacious opponent though, so it would be interesting to analyse this endgame.] 19.Rxd7 Dominic didn't look too happy when I played this. It doesn't objectively amount to anything for white, but maybe it gives black a bit of a scare to have his king march out in front of his pawns. 19...Kxd7 [The point being: 19...Rxd7? 20.Re8+ Rd8 21.Qg4+ Qe6 (21...Kb8 22.Rxd8#) 22.Rxe6 fxe6 23.Qxe6+ Kb8 Figure D. This is another endgame position where Fritz gives black a 2 pawn advantage, but which looks like it may take some doing.] 20.Qg4+ I liked the fact that this forced black's king in further forwards, and thought I may get some sort of chance, (this was near the end of a rapid game without much time on either clock, and willing my opponent to play fast.) Objectively there are no good moves for white at this point. 20...Kc6 That's about all white has to say. There are no more resources. The final moves went: 21.b3 Qc3 22.Re6+ fxe6 23.Qxe6+ Bd6 24.Qe4+ Kb6 25.Be3+ Bc5 26.Qe6+ Rd6 0–1
No comments:
Post a Comment