Chess Addict

Dubious moves, Mistakes, Blunders

2009-03-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

The following game is an example of how many mistakes and blunders I can make in a game.

rajesh51(1642)-dottydiver(1743)

Opening:Scotch opening

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4
The scotch opening.
I took up this opening recently. It is a very good practical choice because many players at my level have favourite lines prepared against ruy lopez. I don't want to play 20 moves from theory to get a slght edge.

3....exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5
One of the main lines.
4....Nf6 is an alternative, which leads to very theoretical battle.
5. Be3 Qf6 6. c3 Ne7 7. Bc4 Ne5 8. Bb3 Qg6 9. O-O Qxe4?
This is a trap in the trap in the opening.
Unfortunately, I didn't know the refutation at that time.
So I played 10. Nd2 ?!

I saw the refuation recently in chesscafe opening lanes by gary lane. The main line goes 10.Nb5! Qc6 11. Bxc5 Qxc5 12. Qd4! Qxd4 13. cxd4 N5c6 14. Nxc7+ Kd8 15. Nxa8 Nxd4 16. Bd3 Nd5 17. Nc3 Nb4 18. Rfd1 b6 19. Be4 Nbc6 20. Nb5! 1–0 Regina Pokorna-Catarina Leite World Junior Championships, Menorca 1996

10.... Qg6 11. Bc2 Qa6 12. Nf3 Nc4 13. Bc1 d5 14. Re1 Qb6
Black is wasting too much time moving same pieces in the opening.
15. b3! Na3 16. b4! Bxd4 17. Ba4 Kf8 18. Nxd4 Nc4
I was more than happy with my position now and wanted to finsh the game quickly.
19. Qe2?!
Even though this move is logical. I didn't think about what black wil play in reply.
19....Qf6
If only I thought for 2 seconds before making 19.Qe2, I would have made 19.Bg5 stopping this move. Even now I have the advantage. Disaster struck later.

20. Bf4 c6 21. Nf3 Bg4 22. Ne5!
This move is played after careful calculation.
22.... Be6
There are other moves, which are more or less equal to this move objectively.
23. Bg3 Nf5 24. Nxc4 Nxg3 25. fxg3!
Generally It's better to take towards the center, but here open f-file can be used by white to attack black king.
25.... dxc4 26. Rf1
Using the f-file immediately Qe7 27. Re1
Threatening Qxe6
27.... Kg8 28. Rf2 Re8 29. b5
Black's pieces are passive. So it's good time to start active play.
29.... Qc5 30. bxc6 bxc6 31. Qf3 Rf8 32. Qxc6 Qxc6 33. Bxc6 Rb8
Material is equal. But black's rook on h8 is not developed and it takes a lot of time to develop this piece. So white must use this time to win a pawn or two.

34. Re5 h5 35. Ra5 Rb6 36. Bf3 a6 37. Bf3xh5 Rh6
White is a pawn up.
38. Be2 Kf8 39. Rc5?
39.Ra4 is better, white can win a second pawn with this. I was thinking of Rc5 from move 36. So I played it without any thinking/calculation.
39.... Ke7 40. Bxc4?? Kd6
Disaster struck. I blundered in a winning position and I have to fight for a draw.
41. Rf5 Rb1 42. Kf2 Bxf5 43. Rxf5 Rxh2 44. Rxf7 Rb2 45. Ke3 Rhxg2 46. Rxg7 Rb22 47. Kd4 Rd2 48. Ke3 Rd1 49. Rg6 Kc5 50. Bxa6 Rxc3 51. Ke2 Rg1 52. Rg5 Kd4 53. Kf2 Rh1 54. Rg4 Kc5 55. Kg2 Ra1 56. Ra4 Rc2 57. Kf3 Raxa2 58. Rxa2 Rxa2 59. Ba6 b7 1/2-1/2
I was fortunate to make a draw after the blunder on move 40.

Kamsky-Topalov match

2009-02-14T23:59:00.000-08:00

After a lot of controversies, the long-awaited candidates match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky is set to begin in Sofia, Bulgaria on 17th february. The winner of this eight game match will get the opportunity to take on Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship.

Topalov:

He is the favourite to win the match. His opening preparation is second to only legendary Gary Kasparov. He is also in top form after winning in Bilbao masters, Pearl Spring Chess Tournament last year. He is also presently world No.1 in FIDE rankings. His team consists of Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov, Spanish GM Franzisco Vallejo and the Dutch GM Erwin L’Ami. He also has home advantage. But it can also work against him as he said in a recnet interview.

Kamsky:

Kamsky is a great fighter. His openings are not at the peak of the present theory. But what he lacks in openings he compensates in his excellent middlegame and endgame play. On his journey to this match he defeated players like Peter Svidler, Alexei Shirov in mini matches at world cup, 2007. His style also suits match play because he plays solid openings and can convert small advantages with excellent positional play. But winning against Topalov is a tough task, even for a positional genius like Kamsky.

Match Preview:

Players will play 8 games. If there is a tie, there will be a tie break at the end. 8 games in a match is a rarity in a world championship cycle. If a player gets an advantage early in the match, it's tough to neutralize it. Topalov is a clear favourite. But one cannot expect kamsky going down without fighting. 8 gamesmay laso favour him. Whoever wins, the match will be exciting and the winner will play Anand later for world championship.

schedule:

February 16 - 17.00 CET - Official opening
February 17 - 14.00 CET - Topalov - Kamsky
February 18 - 14.00 CET - Kamsky - Topalov
February 19 - Rest Day
February 20 - 14.00 CET - Topalov - Kamsky
February 21 - 14.00 CET Kamsky - Topalov
February 22 - Rest Day
February 23 - 14.00 CET Topalov - Kamsky
February 24 - 14.00 CET Kamsky - Topalov
February 25 - Rest Day
February 26 - 14.00 CET Topalov - Kamsky
February 27 - 14.00 CET Kamsky - Topalov
February 28 - Tie breaks

My recent success against pirc defence

2009-01-24T23:32:00.000-08:00

I agree.
The game is not well-handled by black. It's just another one-sided game.

Refuting King's Gambit!!

2009-01-23T00:50:00.000-08:00

In early days, King's gambit was used to drag the black monarch into the middle of the board for a swift execution. As time went by defences were found for black against most of these lines. Nowadays white is employing positional lines and trying for a better endgame.

After losing two games with black to this opening, I decided to refute the opening.
The line I chose is 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5!
This is very simple and strong move. Also most white players are unprepared for this variation. Generally play continues 3.Nf3 d6. Here white can play 4.Nc3, 4.Bc4 or ambitious 4.c3 trying to build broad pawn centre with 5.d4.

Here is a sample game in 4.Nc3/Bc4 line.
7.Na4 is white's most testing move.

4.c3 can be countered with 4....Bb6!?
5.d4?! is not the best move.
Here is a sample game.

Instead black can play 5.Na3 which leads to a comfortable game for black.

Tribute to Fischer - The Sicilian Vespers

2009-01-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

It's almost a year since Bobby fischer passed away.
As a tribute to the best player of all-time (arguably) I present here an inspiring story from his childhood - "The Sicilian Vespers" courtesy:chessbase

The Sicilian Vespers

By Aleksander Pasternjak

It is the final round of the Portoroz Interzonal in 1958, in which the six finalists for the Candidates tournament to find a challenger to Mikhail Botvinnik's world championship title will be chosen. The youngest participant is just fifteen years old and is playing against one of the tournament leaders. Robert James Fischer has black against Svetozar Gligoric, twenty years his senior and an experienced world-class GM.

Svetozar Gligoric – Robert Fischer [B98]
Portoroz Interzonal Portoroz (21), 1958

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 h6 9.Bh4 g5!?

Gligoric stares at the lad in amazement. Bobby Fischer has just played a daring idea of Herman Pilnik in the Sicilian Najdorf. It is not just a surprise to his opponent, it has the entire playing hall stunned. Fischer has gone for the notorious "Sicilian Vespers".

The boy is covering his eyes with his long, bony fingers. He is calm, his gaze is steady, the eyes occasionally dart across the chessboard. Even at this early age Fischer is considered a great expert in the Sicilian Defence. His Yugoslav opponent is baffled: is the lad trying to trick him with some new analysis, or is he simply desperate?

Gligoric vs Fischer at the Interzonal in 1958 in Portoroz

This famous encounter between Gligoric and Fischer actually began three years earlier. Fischer was using a line that had suffered an extraordinary fate at the Interzonal in Gothenburg 1955. The Argentinean players, Miguel Najdorf, Oscar Panno and German Pilnik had based their preparation for this tournament on the Najdorf Variation, but Paul Keres had defeated Panno with a novelty in the first part of the tournament, refuting their entire strategy of the South American team.

The Argentineans were in panic. But on a free day the temperamental Pilnik had come up with the 9...g5 improvement that seemed to give them a powerful weapon against Keres' new move. The Argentinean team and their helper spent 24 hours analysing every aspect of the devilishly clever Pilnik idea. In the end the great Najdorf made the decision: we play 9...g5.

This led to the "total chess war" in Gothenburg. Argentina was the second-strongest chess nation after the Soviet Union, and in round 14 chance would have it that the three top players had black against the leading Russians Efim Geller, Boris Spassky and Paul Keres.

About half an hour into the round the Argentinean plan struck like lightening out of a clear sky. Almost simultaneously the three GMs played the fateful move 9...g5, and the Soviet "analysis engine" came to a grinding halt.

The tension in the playing hall was tremendous. Three demo boards showed identical positions, and while the Russians sat there in deepest thought Miguel Najdorf wandered around the hall, merrily asking people what they thought of his position. One of them was Svetozar Gligoric, who was writing chess columns in Gothenburg.

On the boards the sharpest tactician amongst the Russian players, Efim Geller, was the first to play. After 30 minutes he played a three-move combination, sacrificing a knight, offering a bishop and then playing a quiet bishop move: 10.fxg5 Nfd7 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.Qh5+ Kf8 13.Bb5 Ne5 14.Bg3. Spassky and Keres took almost an hour to find the same moves, which marked the end of the Argentinean dream. All three games were lost by Najdorf, Panno and Pilnik in very similar fashion.

That is the story of the "Sicilian Vespers", the tale of a variation that had appeared like a comet and gone down in a blaze. Who would ever dare to play the line again? The answer: a fifteen-year-old, and in a decisive game, one of the most important in his career!

Fischer arriving in Portoroz

Fischer knew that Gligoric had witnessed the events in Gothenburg, and that he knew all the analysis the Soviets had come up with. In fact earlier in the year he had actually asked Gligoric innocently about the variation. It was the last thing the Yugoslav could have expected, to see the move 9...g5 played by his last-round opponent against him.

In secret Fischer had been working very hard on the Pilnik line, spending many hours unravelling its secrets, even studying the Russian language bulletins from the tournaments in Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk in search of new ideas. In the day before his game against Gligoric he ordered breakfast, lunch and dinner in his hotel room, going over the material he had produced in his Brooklyn laboratory, agonising over the decision whether to play the line in this decisive game or not.

10.fxg5 Nfd7 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.Qh5+ Kf8 13.Bb5 Rh7!N

At the board in Portoroz Gligoric slowly began to realise that he had run into the firestorm of home preparation. The psychological advantage was entirely on Fischer's side. After the 13th move the young man got up for the first time and wandered around the hall. He was on familiar terrain and could spend some time looking at the other games. Gligoric on the other hand sat there, bent over the board, deep in thought. Behind him stood Mikhail Tal with sparkling eyes, obviously enjoying the complications he could see in this dramatic position.

Chess is like a symphony. The first phase of this piece was a furioso, leading to a quiet second movement, a positional struggle between two very different personalities. Fischer's 13th move blocked the path to White's mating attack, the rook on h7 held the tattered black position together with unusual tactical plans. But most importantly it forced his opponent to use all his energy solving problems which the lad from the USA had worked out up to move 30 at home.

But it was not without risk. Take a look at the standings before the final (21st) round:

Fischer's main rivals had easier tasks: David Bronstein had to play Rodolfo Cardosso, a Philippine IM who had lost five games in a row in this tournament. Fridrik Olafsson faced IM Boris de Greiff from Columbia, the second-last in the table. Ludek Pachman and Laszlo Szabo had Raul Sanguineti and Oscar Panno, both without any further ambitions in this tournament.

In the previous 20th round Fischer had almost lost his place in the Candidates. Playing white against Cardosso he ran into some home preparation and, after taking a poisoned pawn on b7, found himself into a hopeless position. But with incredible determination Fischer managed to find all the right moves and, in a filigree 62-move effort he beat Cardosso to retain his chances for the Candidates.

Now in the last round Fischer had to play for a win against one of the top players of the tournament (and the world), and he had to do it with the black pieces. Svetozar Gligoric had won four of his last five games and was in the form of his life.

14.Qg6 Rf7 15.Qxh6+ Kg8 16.Qg6+ Rg7 17.Qxe6+ Kh8 18.Bxd7 Nxd7 19.0-0-0 Ne5 20.Qd5 Bg4 21.Rdf1 Bxg5+ 22.Bxg5 Qxg5+ 23.Kb1

At some stage Gligoric proposes a draw, which Fischer rejects, forcing the Yugoslav GM to play on with three pawns for a piece. Fischer is determined to win the game and maintains his positional advantage, even though Gligoric plays some very clever defensive moves.

23...Qe7 24.Qd2 Be6 25.g3 Rd8 26.Rf4 Qg5 27.Qf2 Kg8 28.Rd1 Rf7 29.b3 Qe7 30.Qd4 Ng6 31.Rxf7 Qxf7 32.Qe3

The tension has reached its highest point, Bobby Fischer is twitching in anticipation. But at this dramatic moment he sees a tragedy taking place on an adjacent board. David Bronstein, who had not dropped a single game so far in this tournament (or in two previous Interzonals) has a completely lost position in his game to Cardoso.

Suddenly the tension is gone, Fischer has a sure place in the Candidates. In the above position he accepts the draw and leaves the tournament hall beaming and proud. When asked by journalists about his greatest achievement in Portoroz he says "overtaking the great David Bronstein!" And his goal in life: "To fight for the world championship title against Mikhail Botvinnik."

Which Opening to Play?

2009-01-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

This is the question I asked myself over and over from the start of my chess career. In the process I tried every opening (Well, almost every opening). Now, My opening repertoire is fixed.

There are several criteria for selecting an opening. The following questions should be asked before selecting openings.

Q1. Do you prefer endgames or complicated middle games?

The answer to this question will give some opening choices to choose from.
You may like both middle games and endgames alike, then the choice is subjective.

If you like endgames, you may like ruy lopez exchange variation, scotch opening with white and berlin defense, benko gambit with black.

Q2. Do you want to play for a win or a draw with black?

At club level everyone wants to play for a win whether they're white or black.
Percentage of draws is very minimal at our level. So why learn so much theory with black just to get a drawn position. There is no point learning openings like petroff, caro-kann at club level.

P.S.: Here the distinction should be drawn between equal position and drawn position.

Q3. Do you want to learn theory or avoid it?

This is a very important question.

I don't have any problem in memorizing long tricky variations. But if i know my opponent is a die hard sicilian dragon, I try to play Moscow variation, which is more positional.
It's almost imposible to avoid theory these days. Even Tromposky has a huge theory with many books devoted to it. But many of your opponents may not have enough time to learn all openings.
So those who want to avoid theory colle is a good opening choice as white, scandanavian, czech benoni as black. Even 1.b3 is a good opening choice, but you may need to transpose into english opening in some lines.

Q4. Can you defend accurately in difficult positions? Do you prefer attacking chances or positional pressure?

Answer to this final question will almost deside your opening choice.
If you play an opening like sicilian najdorf, every move is critical. One wrong move may prove fatal. Those who are not comfartable with such a scenario may prefer main line ruy lopez with black.

Alekhine defence is a great choice those who want to learn theory and good tacticians because most white players don't know how to handle resulting positions. They weaken their positions dramatically trying to get space advantage.

Those who want to get attacking positions against 1.d4 may like King's indian or grunfeld. Nimzo indian and Queen's gambit declined are great choice for positional players. How to handle IQP (Isolated queen pawn) positions is a must for QGD players.

King's Indian The Classical: 7...Nbd7

2009-01-16T04:52:00.000-08:00

Recently chesspublishing had a fresh look at the line, 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 0-0 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nbd7

No one is employing this line in recent times.
Those who want to avoid long theoretical battles are using more flexible 7.... Na6.
This move (Nbd7) was used by Tal to avoid exchange of queens.
I often use this line in internet blitz with great success.
After 8 Be3 Re8!?, Black can meet 9 d5 with 9...Nh5!

Here is the game presented in chesspublishing site

8 Re1 is a solid move

Here is an illustrative game played on my birthday last year :)

I hope to play this ordhodox variation in serious games.
Will post my analysis after I play some games in the line.

2008 Highlights

2009-01-15T22:26:00.000-08:00

Last year saw some great tournaments at the highest level.

Most notable is Anand's win against kramnik in a match.

Here is a game from their match in Bonn.
Anand used a novelty, prepared by his second (kasimdzhanov), in semi-slav in two black games in a row and won both games.

2008 also saw some great performances from Topalov.
He won the Bilbao masters (4 wins, 5 draws and a loss), Pearl Spring Chess Tournament in Nanjing, China (4 wins, 6 draws).
He also finished the year as world number ONE.

My first annotated game

2009-01-15T11:22:00.000-08:00

rajesh51-cimbler
sicilian, alapin

1. e4 c5 2. c3
c3 sicilian is my main weapon against sicilian.
2.... Nc6 3. Nf3 e6?! 3.... Nf6 is better.
4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 d5 6. e5 Bb4 7. Nc3 Nge7 8. Be2 h6?!
Unnecessary weakening of king side. White has extra space there
9. O-O O-O? walking right into white's extra space
10. g4!? with the idea of g5 10.... a6
11. h4 preparing g5

11.... f6! only way to create counter play is to attack e5-pawn
12. g5 hxg5 13. hxg5 f5?? Closing the center, only where black has counterplay 13....fxe5 is the only way to get any counterplay
14. Nh4 g6 15. Kg2 Ba5 16. Rh1 Kg7 17. Nf3 Rh8 18. Rh6! Bd7
19. Bf4 b5 20. Qd3 preparing Rah1 20.... Bb6
21. Rah1 Qc7 22. Bf1 Re8 23. Ne2 Nd8
24. Qa3 threatening the knight on e7 24.... a5?? Blunder
25. Rxh8
1-0
Black resigned in view of
25....Rxh8 26.Qxe7+

This game is available here

You can watch my games here