Written by Himangshu Saikia on 5 October 2007
Cloudy Day, nothing to do in the lab, a perfect setting for an online chess game. After winning nearly ten odd games, it was getting a bit boring.. Why can’t instant chess fare upto the likes of ICC?? Or even IECC for that matter. Well winning does seem good anyways. Just then when I was slacking down as usual, there came this player out of nowhere, and thrashed me in a French Tarrasch with black, and if that wasn’t enough to dampen my spirits I barely managed to draw the next game playing the Slav with black (not to mention my opponent lost on time control and I had insufficient material to mate..*sigh*) By now I had assumed that my worthy opponent (who IS strong by all means! not that I’m exaggerating, and not because he beat me! C’mon lotsa people in IITG have beaten me isn’t it? ;)) was gonna search for a new opponent, he offered me another game instead. I took the opportunity gladly and having another chance to break his French, I resorted to a different variation this time and won with a well thought out sacrificial combination in the middle game. I lost the next game playing the Slav again(my queen pawn needs work) and won the fifth because of a blunder by my opponent. Eventually, a nice 2.5 - 2.5 scoreline ended the day.
By far the best game of the afternoon was the third one which I am going to annotate now. Here is how everything went..
[White “laughing_buddha”]
[Black “Fumiripits”]
[Event “InstantChess”]
[ECO C05 French Tarrasch Botvinnik Variation]
[Date “2007.7.05”]
[Round “3”]
[Result “1-0”]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7
In the first game I went down playing 5. Nf3 but that was more so because of terrible play later.. back to the game.
5.f4 g5
Taking the pawn will give rise to an equal position but the result is unclear, the idea is to keep the postion as dynamic as possible.
6.Ndf3 gxf4 7.Bxf4 c5 8.c3 Nc6 9.Bd3 Qb6 10.Ne2
Initially just after playing 10.Ne2, I realised it was a blunder, which leads to the loss of a pawn, but then there maybe a chance to equalize after castling, hope floats!
10...Qxb2 11.O-O Qb6 12.Qc2
Concentrating attack on the h7 pawn, but it is easier said than done.
12... c4 13.Bxh7
I don’t know why Fumiripits played that move, it released the tension and left me with no choice, however he hopes to trap the white light-squared bishop with clever play. Anyways the material is even now.
13... Bg7 14.Ng5
The a1-h8 diagonal is blocked, but the bishop has little choice, Ng5 hopes to make the white queen quit its defending job and move to a better square. But its hardly useful, there aren’t many better squares around.
14... Nf8 15.Bg3
The point of Bg3 is two-fold, first it sets up the attack on the weak f7 pawn and also strengthens the king’s fort, the h4 square seemed more important than it first appeared!
15... Qd8?? 16.Nxf7!
I don’t see any point of Qd8 here, but other moves do not achieve much.
16... Qe7 17.Nxh8 Bxh8 18.Bg6+ Kd8 19.Nf4 Bd7 20.Bh5 Kc7 21.Rab1 Nh7 22.Ng6 Qg5 23.Qb2
Setting up a mating trap.
23... b6 24.Nf4 Bg7 25.Bf7
Black averts damage for now, Bf7 atacks the base of the pawn chain, which is the cornerstone of the black defence in the French.
25... Qe7 26.Qe2 Ng5
The position is clear. White pieces are active and set on well placed locations. Black pieces are defending behind the pawn chain. The three pronged pawn chain is the only thing coming in the way of white’s attack, morever white is a pawn and an exchange up. The situation demands a sacrifice.
27.Nxd5+!!
27... exd5 28.Bxd5 Ne6 29.Qxc4 Rh8
The pawn chain has dissapeared and white’s attack is at it’s menacing best
30.Bxc6 Bxc6 31.d5 Qc5+ 32.Qxc5 bxc5 33.dxe6 1-0
Black resigns.
Originally published at http://milspeak.wordpress.com.