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My opponent is a moderate level player, with a solid rating level. Although I am stronger still in rating, he should still prove to be a difficult challenge. In this game, chess understanding is very important. It is clearly showing the idea that a successful plan leads to a automatic win, if your opponent does not have a superior understanding. The position is "equal" when the computers look at it, but once the right plan is composed, they change their minds at once. This is actually typical. By the way, after this successful tournament, I will have a new rating, so I'll wait to see what it is. I do know the performance rating was well over 2150, likely 2200. |
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1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 g6 3. f4 Bg7 4. Nf3 e6
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What a strange opening setup against the grand prix. A weakening of d6 without the dark squared bishop on f8. I believe it is a mistake. |
  2 comments
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5. e5 Nc6
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6.Ne4 would be great for white, but the following white move is a book idea, which the computer thinks is rather terrible, and white only has a slight edge. Of course we shouldn't trust the computers in these early openings always- but In this case if I had to choose again, I would play 6.Ne4. |
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6. Bb5 d5
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Of course, the e4 square is necessary to cover. |
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7. Bxc6+ bxc6 8. O-O
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White has completed his development more or less. Normally I would not think about a plan in my games, but just make the best moves one by one. But in this situation there are not any specific correct moves, but many. The structure is favoring me, and if we think move by move(a strategic point) we will be in time trouble. Better to first take a larger amount of time, then play quickly the rest of the game. |
3 comments
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8... Ba6 9. d3
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Using my coach'e planning method, we normally want to play in the center. But its closed. We should not play on the kingside because it is also blocked off, with no real target. On the queenside, black has weak pawn on c5. Therefore, we should attack there, at the pawn. With the queen, we don't know what it should do. Perhaps after the other pieces move, it can go onto f2-at least it will be flexible right now. Our c3 knight goes to a4, and Ba3. The c4 advance needs to be made impossible by playing the move of b3 and c4, to fix the weaknesses. The f3 knights will later go to d2, to prevent ...d4. Our rooks can wait. We should exchange nothing at the moment, although an endgame suits us better, as the bishops are useless. |
1 comment
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9... Rb8 10. b3 Nh6
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We are going along with our plan, while black's moves have nothing in common. He obviously does not know what to do. Usually that is fine in most positions, where we can just make seperate principled moves without such worry that they will be bad. But here, it is dangerous. |
2 comments
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11. Na4
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By the way, many people in chess have said the ideas of the opponent are equal to yours. Although true :(, this doesn't help you in a real game. In a real game, you need to treat your (human) opponent's plan as inferior to yours. The masters always strive to go with their ideas at all costs. When one player accepts that the opponent is equal or better than him in terms of ideas, he usually cannot win. Even if unsound, a master always goes with his plan in a straightforward manner. Planning and attack are really the same-The masters I communicate with refer to them as the same in a casual manner. If you cannot attack, you cannot make a plan really. In that case, you just need to improve pieces, and create a weakness. Against weaker players, and even colleagues, the masters always care about their own ideas above all. |
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11... Bf8 12. c4
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Just a few moves ago, a computer would think the position is "=", or just slight edge to white. Now, after white did a correct plan and attacked a target, he is getting great advantage automatically. It is typical. |
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12... dxc4 13. dxc4
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The structure has changed-but the targets remain. |
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13... Nf5 14. Qxd8+
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Queens off favor white. |
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14... Rxd8 15. Ba3
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Black is losing a pawn already, and his bishops remain almost useless. A bishop'ss activity fluctuates by far the most among the pieces-Sometimes it is almost equal to a rook, while sometimes it faces it's own pawns. |
1 comment
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15... Nd4 16. Rf2
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White is not afraid of black's "initiative" since he has only 2 offensive pieces. Trade those off, and we are pretty much winning. Also, this is the usual situation in the endgame positions. In endgames, permanent advantages seem to gain value, and temporary ones lose value. That is just from my games usually. |
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16... Nxf3+
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Black trades... now he is left with a losing position-he has gotten 2 useless bishops(the light squared one is very ineffective), and will even be down material. The endgame, analyzed heavily by the computer, is not played perfectly, but the decisive advantage always remains with me. |
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17. Rxf3 Bc8 18. Bxc5 a6
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Black is saving his pawn, but now his c8 bishop is a total prisoner. |
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19. Kf1 Bxc5 20. Nxc5 Ke7 21. Ne4
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White wants to get his knight to d6-Not the most accurate idea, but it is fine. This will help white build pressure on the file. |
1 comment
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21... Rd4
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Black correctly gets his rook into the white position before it is impossible. |
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22. Nd6 f6 23. Ke2 Bd7
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Here I had a dilemna between the moves 24.b4 and 24.Ke3. If you do a calculation of these, certainly you may be leaning towards the move 24.b4. However, it would be close, and the right idea would be hard. According to the strategy of chess, we should just do the piece move. Unfortunately, I fell into the trap of caring about less important ideas- like my pawn majority, and not allowing ...c5. As you see, even one single move in which you think too much about useless things can hurt your decisions. Fortunately for me, the move was enough to keep my big advantage at that level, and I don't make mistakes of this nature too much. I was not really in a time trouble here at all. |
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24. b4 g5 25. g3
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I think it is the best move and the only one which is good. |
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25... gxf4 26. gxf4 Be8
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Black is relying on tricks to get back into the game. |
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27. Ke3 fxe5 28. fxe5 Rg4
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28...Rh4, more active since it attacks the pawn was a bit better-not much difference though. Now that I have more or less stabilized my pawns, I can get on with the plan of pushing the passed pawns. It is really simple actually- If the opponent does not have an immediate threat, just push the pawn first and think later. This also helps in time trouble, if you get into it. |
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