A tense battle

10/29/2010

After four rounds I have 3.5 / 4. My most recent game was a very hard, tense fight that really typifies Lasker's conception of chess as a struggle. Please see the SCID export here! or you can use the ChessFlash version below. This game felt like a huge battle.

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6 Comments

Aziridine

10/31/2010 07:56:45 am

Bravo! I like games where I have no idea what's going on :)

katar

11/1/2010 11:24:30 am

Thanks again Aziridine!
I appreciate your comments. I even find myself visiting other chess blogs while hoping to find your insightful comments there. :)

Linuxguy link

11/1/2010 11:33:05 am

Katar, great game/draw!

I enjoyed seeing the Tchigorin defense(?) - would think it takes guts to play that against a strong opponent!

Complex game, but here is my take on it. ...Nf3+, I would have been tempted to play ...Ng4 so fast that I may have missed this check OTB. Surprisingly, the king wasn't so weak on e2 as it turned out. Later, I thought you had Nc4, but didn't realize that he has Rd4, when you have to protect the Nh4 with ...g5 for =.

After ...Nf3+ this game was very "you" as I don't think most class players could have handled the tactical complexities as well as you did, amazing draw.

Near the end, it seemed like he choked with Rf2, perhaps it was nervousness from time-pressure, spectators, etc. After that, I thought you did an incredible job of keeping him on the ropes, and likewise him for defending and finding a drawing line out of it.

Going back to the ...Nf3+ move, which looked "spooky" to me, meaning either real good or bad.

Instead,...Ng4 seems to me to be a strong alternative. What does White do? h4 would just about rule out castling. Bd3 perhaps, and then you could counter with ...h5, threatening h4. White almost has to play BxNg6, but then you have play along the f-file.

If White plays h3, you can gain a stranglehold on f5 with Nh6 and Ng6e7 where White might want to take on Bxf5 right away before you get in ...g6 as well.

I guess what I am saying is that it would appear that White's unusual kingside could have been attacked more methodically, although you did do that in a way, and quite well up until avoiding ...Nc4 it appears.

Nice effort. The SCID printout is rather nice as well. :-)

Aziridine

11/1/2010 06:43:59 pm

Gee, thanks! - but I'm afraid I didn't say anything insightful this time. I can only admire how ambitiously and inventively both sides played. I'm glad somebody like you finds the time to play chess... too bad I can't these days.

katar

11/2/2010 02:58:23 am

Thanks again for the comments!

Linux, the Chigorin is simply my primary defense to 1.d4 since 2006, so not a lot of "guts" factored into this decision. :)

I hadn't considered Nh6 since it looks like a funny square to me. I think Nf3+ (tempo) then Nh4 is OK, but I need to follow up with Ng6-e7. It might be useful to influence g2 and f3 in the meantime.

This was sudden death, G/90, which may help explain the level of play. I believe my opponent thought he could just play some noncommittal move (44.Rf2?) and worsen my massive time trouble. But i played 44...g3 instantly since i was planning my responses to his candidate moves in advance. I did not consider 44.Kc2! though, which would have been curtains. We didn't do a postmortem (just 30 seconds of chat) so i wonder if he even considered it.

Linuxguy

11/2/2010 03:33:53 am

Kc2 looked like an obvious hold move. If I hadn't been looking how to sac a piece there and was simply making moves that held the position together, like he was, then Kc2 should have been a move that one finds at blitz pace.

I guess you are right that perhaps he was playing to your clock rather than the board, I hadn't considered that!

If it turns out you can't break through, then his king begins to look useful (tempo-wise) on e2.

My first reaction was to look for knight sacs for two center pawns such as Rxe3 followed by Nxe3(fork), then Nxf1, but that it is too caveman-like because it also assumes that White has castled and Black is probably then just losing. So, I changed the plan for a more refined one.

Ah, I hadn't noticed that Nge7 provides the g6 square as a retreat for your other knight. You should have plenty of time as his Bh3, instead of Bg2, looks offside there.

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A tense battle

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