(189) Grochowski,Robin (1750) - Roychoudhury,Souvik (1984) [C04]
SWCC ICICLE Swiss Hales Corner (Round 2), 10-Jan-2008
1.e4 e6 I had a lot og games in Sicilian dragon with Robin. Now I am trying to play other openings also to get wider chess experience and understanding.
2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6
Called Guimard variation as pointed out by Robin in the previous blog comments 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nd7 6.c3 f6
This is a key position to explain the idea of the variation. White has played Nd2 blocking his bishop. If knight moves to (say) b3, it will be much inferior placed than Nc3 if white wants to play the exchange variation type of position later on with e4xd5. If not what he will do with the e4 pawn ? It is attacked by d5 pawn and Nf6. If white plays Bd3, black will play Nb4. So the only option is to play e5. Then Black will play f6 and attack the front of the chain. When he played Nc6, blocking the c7 pawn, he has abandoned his idea to play c5 attacking the base of the chain. But he saved a tempo and that he can use now to play e5. Later on c7 pawn can be used to support the d5 pawn with c6. This is the idea for Guimard. 7.exf6 Qxf6 Key move. Black plays Qf6 to increase his control on e5. Nd7 also supports later e5. This is different from 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nd7 variation 8.Nb3 Wanted to develop the bishop on c1 but a direct Bd3/Be2 was better (I think) 8...Bd6 Keep on building pressure on e5 square. The bishop may also be useful later on for a kingside attack. 9.Bg5 Developing with tempo but I was happy to see this move. This forces black to play Qf7 which protects the d5 pawn and allows black to play e5 now. Otherwise black had to play Nb6 to defend it and the knight might have been wrongly placed. Qf7 could allow Ng5. 9...Qf7 10.Be2 0-0 11.0-0 e5
Black has equalized. All major chess programs agree in their assessment (0.00). 12.dxe5 I was not sure with which knight I should recapture on e5. Nd7-e5 was natural as that frees the c8 bishop. But I was not sure of the future of Nc6 if white doesn't take on e5. 12...Ncxe5 Now I can play c6 to support the d5 and can playNd7-f6 to go for kingside attack. 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Nd4 Very good move by Robin ! The knight on d4, as I realized later on, was an extremely strong piece. It was covering all white squares in my position and I had to look for a lot of tactics going forward. 14...c6!? Wanted to play safely but now I think it was not necessary. I was thinking I would get some attack on kingside. But a better idea was to use the queenside majority and try to make a passed pawn there with c5-d4 etc supported by Bd7-c6. White has 3-2 majority in kingside but with so many pieces on board he can not dare to move his g & f panws. Bc6 can also be used for kingside attack. 15.Bh4!? Shredder marks it as a bad move sjhowing =+ 0.34 for black after this move but I felt its an interesting idea. This is usual in Tarrasch French but I missed it here. 15...Bd7 16.Rc1!? I didn't see this candidate move with the idea of opening the g8-a2 diagonal where my queen and king are present. Good idea by Robin. Its different that both Rybka and Shredder now shows good advantage for black. Over the board this type of moves (which changes the course of the game) are difficult to face. 16...Be8?! Bad move. see the variation for alternative. I had lot of holes in my position and must look for exchanging the bishop which will damage the pawn structure. Also this makes the h3-c8 diagonal very weak for black. [16...Ng6 17.Bg3 Bf4!
Missed this move. I was thinking I had to take on g3 and then he takes fg opening the f-file and with Be8 was preparing a feeling square for the queen. If white takes on f4, The knight queen combination supported by the Bd7 and Rf8 will be dangerous for white. 18.Ra1 c5 19.Nf3 Bf5 Black gets the initiative. White is passive here. Well, may be an expert of master would have seen all these. I am not yet there !] 17.Bg3
Won't believe but I was actually planning to play Qc7 here. That was the idea for the Bd7-e8 move. Almost played it. Then sudddenly realized Ne6 forks queen and Rook. Saved a clear loss ! Upto this I think I used only 10 mins on clock compared to 45 mins by Robin and was in pseudo feeling that I have an advantage. I actually underestimated the strength of the Nd4. 17...Qd7? Outright blunder ! I was very shaky at this point and was fearing following variation. Was lucky Robin didn't play it. Rd8 or may be Bd7 back or Qf6 might have been better. 18.Re1?! [18.f4!
18...Ng6 (18...Nc4 19.Bg4 Qe7 20.Re1 Qf6 21.b3 Nb6 22.Ne6 Rf7 23.Qc2 With a lot of attack. ) 19.Bg4 Qe7 20.Re1 Qf6 21.Re6 Qd8 22.f5 Strong attack. May be winning over the board. suddenly all the white pieces come to life and black becomes passive. Lucky I am that nothing like this happened. ] 18...Bf7 19.Bxe5? I was so happy to see this !! It saved the game for me. 19...Bxe5 20.Bg4 Now the e6 is covered, Bg4 has no big threat. 20...Qc7 21.Nf3 The question was whether to play Bd6 aspiring kingside attack or Bf6 with a strong black diagonal. Settled for teh later as with so less pieces on board, kingside attack was not much likely. The black bishop can put a lot of pressure of white's kingside. I know from dragon experience. 21...Bf6 22.Be6 Liquidating. 22...Bxe6 Could have played Re8 keeping control on e-file but was worried about Bf7 Kf7 variation when white can check with Ng5+, Qh5. Felt little unclear. The move played was not worse. 23.Rxe6 Rae8 Can allow the control on e-file. Had to contest. 24.Qe2 Qd7 25.Re1 Rxe6 26.Qxe6+ Qxe6 27.Rxe6 Re6 attacks the c6 pawn and was preventing me to play b5. I was planning to attack the white's queenside pawns in black square. 27...Kf7 28.Re2 Was confused how to play ! Exchange rooks and then play g6-Bg7-Bh6 and then Bc1 ? Takes a lot of time. Need to discuss this with a strong player. 28...a5 wanted to play a4-a3 softening the queenside. 29.a4 Now what ? b5 isolates the d5 pawn which is too risky in king endgame. was thinking Rb8-b5 with the idea of capturing with rook and attack b2 and then continue with a4-a5 threat. 29...Rd8 30.Kf1 d4!? When I played this I felt it makes it dead drawn but now I see Rybka is showing slight advantage for black. The key is black has not weakened his kingside pawns. White needs to play g4-g5, f4-f5-f6 to generate a passer. 31.cxd4 Bxd4 At this position I was worried of Rd2 exchanging the Rooks. 32.Nxd4 [32.Rd2 Bf6 33.Rxd8 Bxd8 34.Ke2 Slight advantage to black but draw is the likely outcome] 32...Rxd4 I was very happy here. Felt I have advantage in the game at last ! 33.b3 Was considering three candidate moves. Rd1 exchanging rooks, b5 attacking the a4 pawn and if he exchanges, get a winning position (however not sure of Rc2 type of counter attacks) and Rb4. Seems the last was the best practical try. 33...Rd1+ 34.Re1 Rxe1+ 35.Kxe1 Ke6 Here I felt my advanced King and no weakness on kingside should win the game for me. Once saw a game of Kasparov where he won similar ending taking advantage of his advanced king. 36.Kd2 Ke5 37.Kc3?
This is the one I mentioned as blunder in my blog. Rybka assess the position after Ke4 as -+1.21. This move was played with the idea (I guess b4) and I believed in that with out calculating. Do not know with 20 mins on my clock I didn't play the natural Ke4 !!!! 37...b5? I ruined my only chance in the game ! after b5, I'll not be able to play the c5-c4 idea as b5 hangs. [37...Ke4
38.Kc4 (38.b4? axb4+ 39.Kxb4 Kd4 c6 pawn queens.) 38...b6 39.Kc3 (39.h3 h6 40.h4 h5) 39...b5 40.h4 h5 41.Kc2 bxa4 42.bxa4 Kd4 43.f3 c5 44.Kd2 c4 45.g4 g6 46.gxh5 gxh5 47.f4 (47.Ke2 c3 Wins for black) 47...Ke4 48.Kc3 Kxf4 49.Kxc4 Kg4 50.Kb5 Kxh4 51.Kxa5 Kg5 52.Kb6 h4 53.a5 h3 54.a6 h2 55.a7 h1Q 56.Kc7 Qa8 Black loses by just one tempo] 38.Kd3 Kd5 39.h4 Ke5 40.Ke3 h5 41.f3?
Another blunder. In fact both Robin and I saw the idea but we missed a few moves. Later cardenas also showed the same but all of us missed the winning path. Simple Kd3 draws. 41...Kd5 ? [41...bxa4! 42.bxa4 c5! 43.Kd3 Kf4 44.Kc4 Kg3 45.Kb5
I saw this position during analysis and felt white do not need to take the c5 pawn and can play Ka5. But black can play c4 taking the tempo back. 45...c4 (45...Kxg2? 46.Kxa5 White wins) 46.Kxc4 Kxh4 (46...Kxg2 47.Kb5 Draws) 47.Kb5 Kg3 48.Kxa5 Kxg2 49.Kb6 h4 50.a5 h3 51.a6 h2 52.a7 h1Q 53.a8Q Qh6+ 54.Kc7 Qf4+ 55.Kd7 Qxf3
Is this a winning ending for black or white gets the perpetual ?] 42.Kd3 Kc5 43.Kc3 Kd5 44.Kd3 Ke5 45.Ke3 Again could have played bxa but didn't see all these. I wish I could calculate little better and take this game longer.......... 1/2-1/2
8 comments:
Good analysis of our game. I did look at 18.f4 and almost played it. Then rejected it thinking the pawn might get weak later, and also was not sure about opening up my king position.
The point of 8.Nb3 was to open up my c1 bishop.
I thought 9.Bg5 was a good developing move with tempo.
12.dxe5 - though this was forced. Allowing black to play e4 looked too much like inviting large attack on my kingside.
After 14.Nd4 I was expecting c5 from black. My plan was f4 followed by Nb5 or just Nb5.
Instead of 15.Bh4, I did look at f4 here. However, I was seeing too many ghosts with the f pawn getting weak and the opening of my kingside.
Instead of 16.Bg3, I did look at Bh5, which I believed forced g6 (weaking blacks kingside pawns), then returning the bishop to e2. That would probably allow black's queen rook to develop though. I was not sure if weaking black's kingside pawns was worth losing a developing move for black, so I did not play it.
16...Be8 - I could not figure out why black played this. I am glad Souvik explained.
I again looked at f4 and c4 for my 17th move. Again, seeing too many ghosts. Though I would prepare c4 with 17.Rc1.
18. Again, thinking f4, but -- you know, boo!:)
I realize 19.Bxe5 was bad after I played it. I thought I saw something in the position that was not there.
I was not sure where black was going to put the bishop after 21.Nf3. I analyzed Bf6 (his move), Bd6 and Bf4. I actually though Bf4 was black's best.
22.Be6 to get rid of black's bishop pair.
25. Instead of 25.Re1, I did look at bring the other rook back to e3, but was not sure. I was getting short on time.
28.Re2 - I thought the game was about equal.
28...A5 - felt I had to play 29.a4 as I did not want to allow 30...a4 by black.
If black had played 29...Rb8, I was going to play 30.g4.
Instead of 32.Nxd4, I thought about possibly keeping the minor pieces on the board by just playing b3. However, being short on time, I thought it would be easier to just go into the rook endgame.
41. f3 - I do not see this as a blunder. I will look at it further.
Great game, Souvik! May we have many more!
Thanks Robin....it was a good game indeed.
Jim,
Can you suggest a good book/source for this ending, specially things like drawing zone etc.
Fundemental Chess Endings by Mueller will cover all of your ending questions.
Ashish Vaja
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