Win against Ivan - Original opening play or simply a bluff that worked ?

Roychoudhury,Souvik (1961) - Wijetunga,Ivan (1823) [D00]

Waukesha Championship Waukesha (5.3), 16.04.2008

Click here to play over the game

1.d4 c6 2.e3 Wanted to play somehing different so that Ivan can not use his slav experience against me and has to play a middlegame position not known before. 2...d5 3.Bd3 Nf6 4.Nd2 Diagram

The night before, I watched the Bill Pascall video on playing creatively in your game where he played 1.d4 d5 2.a3 and won later as his opponent could not solve the new types of position. I wanted to try the same rule here. 4...Bg4 5.f3 Bh5 6.Ne2 Well an original position indeed. You may call it provocative but I felt I have better middle game chance than my opponent and chess is after all a fun sports. It does feel good to play new things (especially if you win !). 6...e6 Diagram

I was expcting Nbd7-e5 when I planned to play c4 7.Nf4 Bg6 8.Nxg6 hxg6 A critical moment. I got two bishops but black now has open h-file for his rook. I like knight more. So recently I am forcing myself to play the bishop games more and watching a lot of videos/games to make better use of two bishops. I felt its a good chance for me here. 9.Qe2 May be c4 was better 9...Bd6 10.f4 Modern chess is more of concrete variation than general theory. I watched a Topalov vs Kramnik game where Topa had dark square bishop but he still played e3-f4-g4/g5 etc with all pawns on dark square. Here black is objectively better as his pawns ar in the light square and Bishop is of dark square. But I have good center control and two bishops. The computer did prefer whiete here. 10...Nbd7 11.Nf3!? I think c4 might be better. 11...c5 12.c3 c4 13.Bc2 I somewhat liked this position though it may seem black is doing alright. White is cramped but has a lot if venom in teh coiled spring. 13...b5 14.Ng5! Diagram

Idea is to play e4 and after dxe, capture with the knight. 14...Nh7 I saw the mobve and felt the best. However black could play Qe7 and have a solid position. I think Ivan was thinking he had advantage. 15.Nxh7 Rxh7 16.e4! I get the break, my dark square bishop is back in the game. 16...Nb6!? Qh4+-Qh5 keeps the balance. 17.a4! Diagram

I love this move. For the first time in the game, I have advantage. Black was playing well, but I kept on posing the new issues and eventually get the return. White is threatening the a5. The odd looking Qe2 move played earlier is showing the strength - pinning the King and attackign eh c4 pawn. 17...bxa4 [17...Nxa4 18.exd5+-] 18.exd5 Nxd5 19.Bxa4+ The position has opened up for my bishops and his king is caught in the center. 19...Kf8 20.0-0 [20.Qxc4 Nxf4 21.g3 Nd5 22.0-0 Rxh2 23.Qd3+/-] 20...Qh4 21.g3 Qh5 22.Qxh5 Rxh5 23.Bc6 The a7 pawn is now lost. 23...Rc8 24.Bxd5 Rxd5 [24...exd5 I was actually thinking Ivan will play this line. 25.Rxa7 Re8 26.h4+/- (Initially I didn't see the idea on how to stop the Re8-Re2 and wa splanninjg h4 but then planned to the Bd2-Re1 idea missing that after Re1 he can play Rhh2! May be when the position would come I could see it and stop the blunder ! 26.Bd2 Re2 27.Re1 Rhxh2-/+) ] 25.Rxa7 Rb5 26.Kg2 Rc7?! Not sure exchanging the rooks was a good idea. 27.Rxc7 Bxc7 Okay, we reached a same color bishop where all my pawns are on the same color of my bishop. The bishop has not moved yet and most part of the game was locked by e3-f4 chain. Its a poetic justice that this piece delivers the winning blow for white. 28.Kf3 Ke7 29.h4 Gaining space on the kingside and putting a pawn on h5 and freeing my bishop was the idea. But I think simple King to c2, Bd2, Rb1 and b3 might be easier. 29...Bb6 30.Re1 Kd6 31.g4 Bd8 32.Re5! Diagram

I spent good amount of time on this move, this moves anothert pawn to dark square but I was right in my plan. 32...Rd5 I didn't see this candidate move....not sure why. I was thinking if he move his rook, I will play Rc5 and get the c4 pawn for the h4 pawn and the win with the queenside passers. [32...Rxe5 33.fxe5+ Kd5 34.Bg5!! f6 (34...Bxg5 35.hxg5+- Black is in Zugzwang and must move his king back when white will play Ke4-d5 and win easily.) 35.exf6 gxf6 36.Be3 f5 37.g5 e5 38.h5 e4+ 39.Kg3+-] 33.h5?! [33.g5! was better] 33...gxh5 34.gxh5 Bf6 35.Rxd5+ Kxd5 Diagram

I was planning the b3 followed by Ke3-c4 idea but was not sure what is the best piece set up for that. So played some random moves while thinking. 36.Bd2 Be7 37.Be1 Bf6 38.Bg3 Be7 39.Ke3 f5 40.Be1 Bd8 41.Kf3 Kc6 42.Ke3 Kd5 43.Kf3 Kc6 44.Bf2 Kd5 45.Bg3 Be7 46.Ke3 Bd8 47.Be1 Be7 48.Bf2 Bd8 49.b3 Diagram

49...cxb3 50.Kd3 Ba5 51.Bh4! Diagram

Well this bishop is now a real powerhouse 51...Kd6 Funny thing is that Rybka can not see the strength of the Bf6 move at this point.. It evaluates this only as equal. White is clearly winning here which is immediately found by Shredder. [51...Kc6 In his excellent Blog site, Ivan mentioned this is drawing. However, what I feel is it is just an interesting position where with accurate play black may hold. However, in many lines it is very easy to go wrong for black. I can't guarantee I could hold this position against a player like Santarious with less than 1 min on my clock. 52.c4 (52.Bf6 gxf6 53.h6 e5 54.fxe5 fxe5 55.h7 e4+ 56.Kc4 b2 57.h8Q b1Q) 52...Bb4 53.c5 Kd7 (53...b2 54.Kc2 Bc3 55.Bf6 gxf6 56.h6 Bxd4 57.h7 Kxc5 White is winning here with +- 5.00 evaluation. It would have been fun to play this position.; 53...Kb5 54.Be7! Wins in all lines) 54.Bf6 gxf6 55.h6 e5 56.h7 e4+ 57.Kc4 b2 58.h8Q b1Q White has at least a perpetual and is safe inspite of being a pawn down. But with less than a minutes on the clock, black has to be careful. 59.Qg7+ Kd8 (59...Kc6 60.d5#; 59...Ke6 60.d5#) 60.Qxf6+ Kc7 Not an easy move to play as it allows Qb6 getting the piece back.(60...Ke8 61.Qe5+ Kd8 (61...Kf7 62.Qxf5++/-) 62.Qb8+ Kd7 63.Qb7+ Ke6 (63...Ke8 64.Qxb4 White pushes the black king to last rank and then takes the bishop back.) 64.d5+ (64.Qb6+ Kf7 65.Qxb4 Qd3+ 66.Kd5 e3 67.Qb7+) 64...Kf6 65.Qc6+ Kf7 66.Qe6+ Kg7 67.Qe7+ Kg8 68.Qg5+ Kh8 69.Qd8+ Kh7 70.Qe7+ Kg8 (70...Kh8 71.Qf8+ Kh7 72.Qxf5++/-) ) ] 52.Bf6 Diagram

52...b2 53.Kc2 b1Q+? [53...Bxc3 This is what I was expecting and informed Informed Ivan on our way back (we went in the same car). I saw teh d5 vreak but was not sure whethert it wins. 54.Bxg7 Ke7 55.h6 Kf7 56.Be5 Kg6 57.d5! Diagram

57...Bxe5 58.fxe5 exd5 59.e6+- Diagram

One pawn queens ! Quality not quantity is what matters !] 54.Kxb1 gxf6 55.h6 Bxc3 56.h7 Bxd4 57.h8Q e5 58.Qxf6+ Kd5 59.Qxf5 Kd6 60.Qg6+ Kd5 61.f5 e4 62.f6?! [62.Qe6+ Kc5 63.Qxe4 is easier] 62...e3 63.f7 e2 64.Qg3 Bc5 65.Qf3+ Kc4 66.Qxe2+ It was a good game. I wish to spend more time on the same color bishop ending and try to see whwther it is win for white in all variations ! 1-0