tournament report: HCC Classical Thursday, April-May 2022 - Round #4

Round 4 saw some interesting games, with almost every one including missed opportunities by one (often both) players. This is part of the fun of the game, at least at our club level.

E3Engineer vs. jpmunz: 1/2 - 1/2
As is fitting, our top board paired our top two seeds. A quiet game ensued (literally the "Quiet Variation" of the Slav Defense to the Queen's Gambit), and there was not a deviation from book until after White's 14th move. After several exchanges, the following position occurred, with White to move:

Let's evaluate who is better here and what plans should be for each side. We're transitioning into an endgame, and there aren't may open lines, so king safety is not a concern. The pawn structure favors White, due to Black having 2 pawn chains to White's 1, plus doubled g-pawns. Each side has use of 1 half-open file, with a rook already on it, threatening a weak pawn that is singly-protected and tying down a major piece in defense: White can defend the h-pawn with the king without creating additional weaknesses, whereas Black would need to defend the a-pawn with a6, creating dark-square weaknesses. In terms of minor pieces, White has two bishops vs. Black's two knights. White is clearly better - Stockfish says almost 2.5 pawns better - primarily because of the two bishops. This is a long-term advantage that gets amplified if rooks and/or pawns are exchanged, and when lines get opened.

White's plan here should be to avoid exchanging either bishop and open up lines by advancing and exchanging pawns on the queenside (creating threats on the queenside and potentially to Black's king), while concurrently keeping the knights out of any long-term outposts. When the lines have been opened, use both rooks with the King protecting the h-pawn.

Black's plan is to lock up the pawn structure if possible without exchanges so White's bishops are constrained, trade knights for bishops, and try to get a knight on e4 or f5, via a maneuver starting with ...Nc8.

White's candidate moves here would be c4 (to exchange the c-pawn for Black's d-pawn, improving control of the center or creating an IQP that Black would need to defend), or Kf2 / Kf3 (to allow the king to defend the h-pawn from g3, freeing up the rook). The most forcing move is c4! White, however, chose Bc1 (to respond to ...Nc8 with Ba3), preventing the knight from accessing d6->e4, but not from getting to f5 via e7. After a couple more moves, White had the move here:

Here White made a positional error and traded the bishop for the knight on e7, giving up the two bishops advantage. Several moves later, instead of advancing with c4, White prepared e4, allowing for an exchange of pawns that simplified the centre into a symmetrical structure and relieved the pressure on Black. After White's 26th, move, Stockfish has the following position as equal:

In retrospect, White would have been better served to work on opening the position immediately with 19. c4!. Here are some sample variations.

After 37 moves we were down to an even K + 6P vs. K + 6P endgame, with few options for either side to infiltrate. Both sides need to be REALLY careful though, as White has some options with h5 and Black has some with ...b5. In the chat room, there was some discussion of 38. h5!?, but it loses as shown in these variations, as Black can stop White's progress and push forward with ...b5.

Actually, in the prior position White is hanging on by a thread and must get the King back toward the queenside pawns immediately. White understood this, and a few moves later there was a chance to clarify the position in the center:

Here White exchanged on c5 and the game was drawn a few moves later. However, 41. d5!! wins. At first, it appears here that Black can just shuffle the king between d6 and d7, but White now has the ability to maneuver the king from d3->c2->b2->a3->a4.

Even though Black has blocked White's access to b5 for now, White wins by advancing the passed pawn on d5 as shown in the above variation.

Why did White, who had been playing exceptionally well, suddenly have a decrease in move quality for a bit, missing 19. c4!, choosing to give up the bishop pair, and keeping the queenside pawns locked up? Only the player knows, but I'll make an observation that is instructive even if it is not applicable to this situation. White had a long-term advantage against a much higher-rated player but had no immediate forcing way to turn the position into a win. This causes stress because the player thinks "I have a chance to beat this much higher rated person!!" and then starts to look at how to WIN. But chess is not about finding the WIN, it is about finding the BEST MOVE each time you get to move. The win is just the result of the consistent focus on finding the best move. Black, on the other hand, despite being down significantly, just kept playing really good moves and hoping White wouldn't play ones that were quite as good. This worked against me last week, and it worked again this week. Interestingly, once the advantage was gone, White started playing much better again.

BigData1969 vs. danieljames-dj: 1-0
In this Torre Attack, Black deviated from book on move 7, locking the pawn structure a bit on the queenside.

Let's assess what this move does and how White should respond. Black's only plan now can be to advance the b-pawn and open lines on the queenside. White can try a few different approaches - either an e4 push to attack in the center, or b3 to immediately challenge the Black c-pawn and create weaknesses on the queenside to attack (probably the best plan), or a4 as propholaxis against the queenside advance. Simply completing development with Be2 and castling is also an option. With a lead in development, White chose the more forcing e4 and then followed with e5, gaining space in the center.

The position is balanced here, but Black made an error by moving the knight to the undefended h5 square. So White, after exchanging their bad bishop for Black's good one, stranded the knight with g3!

White now has a solid advantage due to the better bishop and Black's stranded knight that will need to be rerouted. A few moves later, White chose an odd continuation and played Qc2 instead of simply castling.

This is another good psychological point. White (your author) likes to attack the kingside with pieces and isn't very comfortable with locked pawn chain structures. The position, however, doesn't call for a piece attack on the King. It calls for castling and pushing the kingside pawns to create pressure, trading something off to open a line, and then moving in with pieces. Or it calls for still trying to undermine the queenside advance by playing b3. Those aren't my favorite type of plans though, so instead I made a bad move with the idea of a cheap future tactic started by Nxg6. It's a bit of nonsense and doesn't work. White also here was fancifully thinking of another sacrifice - Bxc4 followed by Nxc4 and then planting the knight on d6. This also doesn't work, as Black has many defenses and can use the long diagonal for the bishop. So instead of a simple good move improving my position, like castling, which could be played quickly because Black has very few forcing moves to worry about, I wasted a lot of my clock time and made a subpar move. The position dictates the proper type of play. If you try to enforce your preferred style on a position that doesn't call for that type of play, you make bad moves.

After some fumbling moves by White, Black here made a positional error and closed the queenside without opening any files. Better was either to take on b4 or keep the tension.

White now has all the play and should just castle, slowly reorganize the minor pieces, and start pushing the kingside pawns. However, White decided to castle queenside instead to "attack better", which was a mistake. One move later, White blundered in the following position by playing Ng2:

Can you find Black's winning reply? Scroll down when ready...

Black gets two pawns for a knight, but they are both passed pawns, plus White cannot both move the Queen and defend the bishop, and the closed queenside around the White king is suddenly going to open.

This happened because White got complacent and didn't think there were any tactical opportunities because the position was locked up. No matter what the position, always assess any new forcing moves your opponent has at their disposal after they move, to see if there are any new threats.

As White here, I knew I was completely busted. So what to do? Find good (maybe not the best) moves that COMPLICATE the position when you are busted, and make your opponent go through the stress of finding the best way to finish you off. They might not find the best moves, and you might survive.

I knew from my loss when I had JP busted last week that finishing off a determined opponent isn't easy in a complicated position. The next few moves for White are all about trying to stay alive and then trap the Black knight. White made the best moves here, but White also didn't have many options to choose from. Black could have played stronger moves, but there were many options to look at, so they were harder to find. When the dust settled, we had this position.

White has to be pleased here. Despite being down 2 pawns, White has the better minor piece (Black's bishop is horrible), plus White can centralize the queen. Much better than getting squished rapidly, which seemed a possibility a few moves ago! Black is still much better though, so White again tries to complicate things, culminating in an unsound but complicated temporary knight sacrifice that resulted in this position.

Black consolidates easily here with ...Bxe6 (the Black bishop and queen combine to destroy the undefended White king, along with Rc4 and then the advance of the d-pawn), or with O-O, but both of those moves were complicated to make. Black chose ...Ke7 to protect the rook on h8, and a few moves later White found g4! which makes the position equal, as Black cannot take the pawn.

After ...Qe6, Rhe1, in an equal position, Black had a mouse slip and lost. Stockfish's suggested perpetual check finish is rather entertaining though.

sourbaum vs. FaveAgba: 1-0
In the Byrne Variation of the Pirc Defense, both sides chose to not play e5 when first available, but White corrected that one move later and then followed with e6 in the position below, creating some permanent weaknesses in Black's king position. As good as e6 was, there was a rather nice, hard-to-find intermezzo that would make e6 even stronger. Can you find the killer move for White here?

Answer:

Be4!, forcing ...Rb8, makes e6 more powerful because both the bishop and the queen can now attack. See the very nice variation here.

White built a nice advantage, slowly improving the positions of the their pieces and targeting the weak squares around Black's broken king position:

White had gotten into some time trouble here though, with only 4 minutes left on the clock, and created some position imbalance for a slight material advantage, trading a rook and bishop for Black's queen. A few moves later, Black missed a chance to complicate the game:

Instead, a few moves later, in even more time pressure, White found the excellent Qb6!, infiltrating Black's position and bringing home the full point a few moves later.

perryand1971 - denisbouchard: 0-1
This was an unusual Albin Countergambit (is there any other kind?) in which neither player focused on attacking the other's advance pawn for awhile.

Eventually Black regained material equality and then went a pawn ahead, but with White having compensation due to a monster bishop pointed at Black's undeveloped queenside.

This position is relatively equal if White pushes the initiative on the queenside, but it requires care for White to equalize. For example, in a line like this:

In the game, White pursued a different attempt to win a pawn back and equalize, but letting the c-pawn fall was not the right decision.

A few moves later, down a pawn, with a knight vs. Black's bishop and pawns on both sides of the board, it was a rough rest of the game for White, and Black brought home the win in a very well-played game.

datasmith vs. jcss64: 1-0
This game was defined by the e5 and d5 squares, which shows just how hard it is to make the best decisions when faced with multiple ways of handling key central squares.

With David and Jacques playing, we would have been disappointed in any "boring" opening, and we happily got to see a King's Indian! Jacques made an interesting decision to combine ...e5 and ...Ne8, arriving at this position.

I think this is a little suspect, as Black cannot respond to exchanges on e5 with both the knight and pawn capturing, as the queen would be hanging on e5. White can get an advantage here with dxe5! as seen below.

White chose a different approach, Black pushed kingside pawns, and on move 12 an exchange on e5 finally happened.

Here Black recaptured with the pawn, but I think recapturing with the knight is stronger, as it provides support for a future ...g4, sets up future tactical opportunities based on ...Nxf3+, forces White to defend c4 after Black plays ...Be6, and keeps the long diagonal open and dominated by Black's dark-squared bishop. For example, the following potential line, which certainly isn't best play by either side, shows the tactical potential of ...Nxe5.

Back to the game, a few moves later White now had a choice of 3 recaptures on d5. White chose to take with the queen, which on the surface seems to make sense: the queen is centralized, and White has 2 major pieces on the open d-file. But cxd5! was a much stronger move, because of the weak pawn on c7:

Later in the game White made another exchange on d5 and captured with the c-pawn this time, then correctly piled up on the weak c7 pawn. However, White allowed the locking up of the queenside pawn chain, so their two bishops had no weaknesses to bite on. In the following position, imagine how much improved White's position would be with the a-pawns, b-pawns, or both sets of pawns removed.

With the center and queenside locked, Black was able to advance on the Kingside in typical KID fashion, when the following critical position was reached, with White in severe time trouble (2 minutes left to Black's 47).

Here Black played ...Kg7 very quickly, but ...f3! was crushing and demonstrates the attacking power of an advanced pawn. See variations below.

Black missed ...f3! and some other strong continuations in the next few moves, most likely by moving very quickly to pressure White. We need to ignore our opponent's time pressure! We have all likely made the same mistake Black made in this game - moving quickly to put pressure on your opponent when they are very low on time. If you play slowly while your opponent has to play at blitz speed, you have a huge advantage in accuracy. If you speed up too, you've given away the advantage of your extra time.

Later in the game, with White still under time pressure, exchanges took place and we reached a R + 4P ending that is even but looks anything but easily drawn!

A little while later, after both sides queening, we had a Q + 2P vs. Q + P endgame which is drawn with best play.

Both sides made all the right moves until Black unfortunately made a blunder in the following position, and then resigned the next move.

Quite an interesting battle that ended unfortunately (unless you are @datasmith).

SAUSJULIAN vs. rush_graysonX: 1-0
This was quite a battle! Black's unorthodox openings moves were met with calm development by White. There were opportunities for White to be more aggressive, but direct play led to a good advantage for White up until the 17th move:

Here White should have chosen a plan of advancing on the queenside to attack Black's king (a4, Nb5, etc.). Instead, White pushed in the center, and in the process exposed their King, and Black began attacking.

In the above position, White missed the sequence Qa6+! followed by Nb5. For several moves, both players missed this - White failing to execute it and Black failing to stop it. Every time it is your turn to move, consider all the possible checks you have and all the possible checks your opponent may have after you move.

Black was able to obtain a very strong position - up the exchange and attacking, but missed a mate in one in the following position, allowing White to claim the win. A very painful example of the need to always consider your checks and your opponent's checks.

Quite a round! Going into our 5th and final round on May 19th, here are our standings:

3.5 - jpmunz
3.0 - E3Engineer, BigData1969, sourbaum
2.5 - denisbouchard
2.0 - danieljames-dj, datasmith, sausjulian
1.5 - FaveAgba, perryand1971, jcss64, devbanana, hodjon
1.0 - markdrury, rush_graysonX, chavezo
0.5 - ahmad_raja, lythande
0.0 - meekysmeek, SabreRef

If pairings go as expected, we should see @jpmunz vs. @sourbaum on the top board. I can't wait to watch that and the other games!