Annotated Game

Lassila,T. - N.N (D46 Queen's Gambit Declined)

1.d4 d5
2.c4 e6
3.Nc3 Bb4

A relatively little seen attempt to mix a Nimzo-Indian flavor into the QGD. Instead of preserving his pawn structure with 4.cxd5 exd5 5.a3, White should just actively develop with 4.e3. Because a3 comes with tempo on the bishop, it can be easily followed by b4 taking space and preparing to play the dark-squared bishop to b2 to enforce the break e4 at the correct moment. It turns out Black's bishop is better placed on e7.

4.e3 c6

4...Nf6 looks less committal.

5.Nf3 Nd7
6.Bd3 Ngf6

A variation of the Semi-Slav has been reached by transposition.

7.O-O O-O
8.Qc2 a6

8...dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Bd3 Bb7 11.Ne5! h6 12.f4 is unpleasant for Black.

9.b3 g6

The QB-battery succeeds in making Black loosen his king's defenses. 9...dxc4 10.bxc4 b6 11.Rb1 would give White the advantage.

10.Bb2 dxc4
11.Bxc4 b5
12.Bd3 Nb6?!

Leaving the defense of the e5 and c5 squares, Black's central position is slowly eroding.

13.Ne5 Bb7
14.Ne4 Nxe4
15.Bxe4 Nd5

Position after 15...Nd5

The exchanges do not reduce White's plus. The offered pawn on c6 could be safely taken as 16.Nxc6 Bxc6 17.Qxc6 Rc8 18.Qxa6 Bc3 19.Bxc3 Nxc3 20.Bf3! and there is no 20...Ra8 ruining things.

16.a3 Bd6

Taking the pawn was never my intention, but to conduct a kingside attack. For that purpose the knight is a valuable piece that must be kept for possible sacrifices into the enemy king's position.

17.Nf3 Rc8
18.h4!? Qf6

Here, Black could try for counterplay with 18...c5 19.dxc5 Bxc5 when White's attack is temporarily stopped. The placement of the queen looks strange, but Black's defensive idea is to block Pd4 from advancing at all costs. The biggest drawback to this move is that it prevents any counterplay based on c5.

19.h5 a5

The logical continuation. Black's counterplay is too slow, he should have played c5 at once but that is now impossible due to the queen on f6.

20.g3 Ba8
21.Kg2 Rfe8

Now White must be careful of tricks involving Bxg3 fxg3?? Nxe3+.

22.Rh1 Bb7

Black is simply waiting for the inevitable attack to materialize, but his opportunity for counterplay came and went.

23.hxg6 fxg6
24.Rh3 Re7
25.Rah1 Rcc7

Position after 25...Rcc7

At last it looks like Black has mobilized his defenses. Unfortunately, White has reached the end of his buildup and will now begin with a stock demolition sacrifice.

26.Bxg6! Qxg6

The other possibility was 26...hxg6 27.e4 Rh7 28.e5 Rxh3 29.exf6 Rxg3+ 30.Kf1 Ne3+ 31.fxe3 Rxf3+, which doesn't look promising either.

27.Qxg6+ hxg6
28.Rh8+ Kf7?

A critical mistake. Forced was 28...Kg7 as 29.e4 Nf6 30.e5 Bxe5 31.Nxe5 wins back the material with a strong attack, but at least Black can dream of holding. The rest is simple demolition.

29.Ng5+ Kf6
30.Ne4+ Kf5
31.Nxd6+ Kf6
32.e4 Nb6

Of course the knight is very much pinned, but the game was lost anyway.

33.e5+ 1-0

The prettiest way to end things is 33...Kg5 34.Bc1+ Kg4 35.f3#.

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Solution to previous Problem Of The Day:

1. Rb7+ Kd6 (1...Kc8 2. Rxa7+ Kb8 3. Qb7#) 2. Rxd7+! Rxd7 (2...Kxd7 3. Qxc6# / 2...Kc5 3. Ba3# / 2...Ke5 3. Qe2#) 3. Qxc6+ Ke5 4. Qe6# (Lassila - N.N., 2005).

After 1...c5, White is OK (part i)

A curious phenomenon in the world of class players is the common fear of the Sicilian Defense. It seems many players if not afraid of 1...c5 are at least uncomfortable with it. The reasons given are usually:

1. Afraid of opponents preparation (the notorious bookworms)


2. Open Sicilian too complicated to understand


3. Wild tactics unsuitable to my style


4. Tried everything, nothing has worked

Point number one is usually more imaginary than real. Are there class players who have memorized dozens of lines in the Najdorf? Yes, there probably are. I've long ago stopped wondering at the lengths some people will go to avoid doing anything that requires them to think for their own if they can get away with mind-numbingly dull chugging like memorizing lines out of a book. Or maybe they've studied all of Garry Kasparov's games and picked up the lines as a side-effect. The question is: Is it useful at the club level? The answer is: No.

For one, any of these theoretical lines are easily avoided. If you're not comfortable playing against the common Najdorf or Dragon (another bookworm specialty) lines, just avoid them. Play 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ and get a perfectly good game. Secondly, even if the popular Sicilian lines give Black theoretical chances, it is unlikely a class player really understands all the subtleties of the defense. If you deviate early, before the situation gets critical maybe your opponent will get lost and forget what he was supposed to do in the first place - play chess, not recite opening lines!

For the second point, I can definitely sympathize. My own score against the Sicilian wasn't that hot. I did try the English Attack, but to be honest I got some pretty ugly defeats because of not having a feel for the two-edged attacking positions. It was probably a combination of not having enough attacking skill and not being familiar with the basic strategic goals from the white side. For a while I just avoided playing 1.e4 against anyone whom I knew to respond with the Sicilian - which suited me fine as Queen's Pawn openings are my main openings with White.

But at some point I figured I was afraid of a bunch of hot air. Looking at these people's ratings, they weren't any better than I was. I wasn't playing against Garry - so why was I afraid of their opening? What if I played something tricky but for which there is almost no literature? Would they really be able to handle the opening as well as the more popular lines? With that I then adopted the Wing Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.b4!?), an old gambit which is nowadays considered almost refuted but with good ideas that can still be employed in other variations. Theory scoffs at my choice, but I think my score with it was close to 80% while for a long time my score with the Open Sicilians was a fat 0%. Also, in casual skittles games it is murderous.

This brings us to the often discussed topic of anti-Sicilians. These are usually characterized by not being either Open Sicilians or Closed Sicilians. Almost every Sicilian player faces them regularly and many White players have their own pet anti-Sicilians. Asking around usually produces the concensus that they can be "OK", but that Black has nothing to worry about. The truth, or just collective cognitive dissonance? This is actually the main point of my thesis that White players mustn't fear the Sicilian. You can play normal developing moves aiming to keep the advantage in development without entering wild complications and still get a good game.

An often heard objection to anti-Sicilians is that they're too slow, quiet, give Black an easy game, all that jazz. Also, closed position are hard to play for class players. Contrary to what many people are erroneously taught in second-rate chess instructions books, it is not necessary to play 1.e4 e5 to achieve an open tactical game. To end the first part I present a game where two Georgian GMs start off in a slow variation that seems to offer Black no particular difficulties. In fact, the difficulties start early on and by move 20 Black is already lost! If such a quiet development scheme can wreck havoc against a GM, why would it not work against your average class player?

Gelashvili - Gagunashvili, Batumi 2001:

1. e4 c5
2. b3 d6
3. Bb2 Nf6
4. Bb5+ Bd7
5. Bxd7+ Nbxd7
6. d3 e5
7. Ne2 d5
8. exd5 Nxd5
9. O-O Be7
10. Nbc3 Nxc3
11. Nxc3 O-O
12. Nd5 Bd6
13. Qf3 Re8
14. Rae1 Re6

Position after 14...Re6

This looks like a bad chapter on overprotection from My System. All of Black's pieces are huddled behind his pawns accomplishing nothing while White already aims at the black king.

15. g3 Nb8

15...Qa5 16. a4 Rae8 17. Re2 Qd8 would help White.

16. Qg4 Rg6
17. Qc4 Nc6
18. f4! exf4

After the f-file opens up Black's position is quickly overrun. No better is 18...e4 19. f5.

19. Nxf4 Rg4

Position after 19...Rg4

Black must have missed White's reply, but 19...Na5 20. Qe4 Bxf4 21. Qxf4 is not convincing either.

20. Ne6!! Qh4
21. Rxf7 Rxc4
22. Rxg7+ Kh8
23. bxc4 Qh3
24. Rg5+ Nd4
25. Nxd4 Be5
26. Rexe5 h6
27. Re7 hxg5
28. Ne6+ Kg8
29. Rg7+ 1-0

Black could have resigned earlier but perhaps he wanted to give his opponent the satisfaction of achieving a zwickmühle

Computers Still Quite Don't Get It

While following the French League game Shirov-Kramnik, the following position was reached after Black's 19th move:

Shirov-Kramnik 2005, White to move

It is an interesting position. Black has pushed his f-pawn aggressively and perhaps overextended a little, but the pawn is overprotected and there is no immediate counterplay. I fired up Crafty to see what it thought about the position. Imagine my surprise when the verdict after a few seconds of thinking was "about equal" (-0.03). But a closer look at the analysis window shows something else:



Crafty has analyzed the position up to 10 ply and decided it's a draw. Except for the small fact that White mates on move 27! Either the display window lags behind the actual analysis for some reason, or then it's a case of the well-known horizon effect. Basically if one side is down considerable material for no other compensation than a forced mate looming in 15 ply, the engine will crunch numbers for a minute before deciding that, yes, in fact one side has a forced mate. Thankfully letting Crafty run for longer produces more sensible results and the variation given is corrected, but it's still an interesting case of computers producing "credible rubbish". Closer inspection of the variation indicates it to be total guff, but I'm still mystified over why Crafty reports a mate but fails to score the line appropriately.

Incidentally, the game was agreed drawn in the position given. Maybe both players had analyzed this position at home with their engines and decided it's "just a draw (!?)".

Problem Of The Day

White to play and win

Solution to previous Problem Of The Day:

1. Nxd5! Nxd5 2. Qxg4+ Qg5 (2...Kh8 3. Ng6+) 3. Qe6+ Kh8 (3...Kg7 4. Rf7+ Rxf7 5. Qxf7+ Kh8 6. Qh7#) 4. Rf7! and Black must lose his queen to prevent Rh7#.

Problem Of The Day

White to play and win

Solution to previous Problem Of The Day:

1. Nf6! dxe5 (1...exf6? 2. exf6 and unstoppable mate follows after Qh6) 2.Nxe8+ Rxe8 3.Nxe5 f6 4.Nd3 e5 5.Rc1 Qb8 6.dxe5 fxe5 7.Rxe5 1-0 (Rubinstein-Selezniev, Triberg 1922).

Problem Of The Day

White to play and win

Solution to previous Problem Of The Day:

1. Bc4!:

1...dxc4 2. Rxd8 h6 3. Rxc8;
1...h6 2. Nxd5 cxd5 3. Rxd5 and mate follows;
1...Kf7 2. Nxd5 cxd5 3. Bxd5+ Qxd5 4. Qxd5+;
1...Be7 2. Nxd5 cxd5 3. Rxd5 and mate soon;
1...Qe7 2. Nxd5!! Qxe4 3. Ne7#!.

(Lassila-Needle, Espoo 2005)

Problem Of The Day

White to play and win

Solution to previous Problem Of The Day:

1. Rd7! Bf7 (1...Bxd7 2. Rxd7) 2. Qf6 Rf8 3. Rxf7 Rxf7 4. Rd8+ Qxd8+ 5. Qxd8+ with a winning position (Averbakh-Dittmann, Dresden 1956).