MCC Summer Solstice Swiss (Round 4 and Summary)

I haven't had enough time this month to annotate all of my games from the June MCC tournament. For now we'll go with a brief summary of each round and then my annotations for the final round. You can find all four games in online replay form at http://njord.org/~steve/mychess/mcc0607.htm.

In round 1 I played a QGD against James Jaillet (1086). I got myself in trouble and lost a pawn early, but got it back late. My opponent was in serious time trouble leading up to the 40 move time control, and fortunately missed it when I offered him mate in 2 and mate in 3 on consecutive moves. While I was busy ignoring his mate threats I managed to get a winning attack (go figure). He flagged on move 39 in a lost position. I'm pretty unhappy about missing the mate threats, but my play was not so bad for my first serious game in 3 months.

Round 2 was a bishop's opening against Danny Angermeier (1133). A pretty straightforward game which can be summed up as: Bishop's Opening => KGD => pawn storm => win. At the end I threw in a defensive move before starting the final attack, but it turned out to be totally unnecessary and actually would have let him avoid mate. He didn't find the one saving move and the win was easy from that point.

In Round 3 I had black against Dan Lang (1553). I played the Scandinavian, but decided to give the older Qxd5 line a try. I find that I get rather sterile positions when I play Nf6. The opening went well and it all fell apart when I miscalculated on a series of moves I thought were forcing and I dropped a knight. This game could have been much more interesting than it was. I was pretty happy with the more dynamic middlegame I got out of Qxd5 and will probably continue to play that variation.

Round 4 is below, with detailed comments. It was a Closed Sicilian against Robert Matthews (1417) and another win. I'll let the game and comments below speak for themselves.

Overall, +2 for the tournament, a 4 way tie for 3rd place and my rating moves up to 1435. (It dropped to 1408 after the Eastern Class Championships). I look forward to next week and the start of the July tournament.

Steve Wollkind (1408)    --    Robert J Matthews (1417)
MCC Summer Solstice Swiss (2007)  (4)   Natick, MA
2007.06.26     1-0     B26c

1.	e4	c5
2.	Nc3

Ah, the closed sicilian, my old friend. I've met c5 7 times since adopting the closed and after this game I'm +5 =1 -1 with it. The only loss coming against Joshua Haunstrup who was rated 700 points higher than I was at the time the game was played. All in all, I've stopped fearing the sicilian.

2.	...	g6
3.	g3	Nc6
4.	Bg2	Bg7
5.	d3	d6
6.	Be3 (D)

With the idea of Qd2 and eventually trading off the dark squared bishop and weakening black's kingside.

6.	...	Nf6
7.	h3

When the knight comes to f6 in the Be3 closed sicilian, h3 is required to prevent the annoying Ng4 which interrupts white's plan and threatens to trade off the bishop.

7.

...

Nd4

Officially out of book for me, at this point. Emms' Attacking with e4 (my white rep sourcebook) gives e5 and O-O as the primary moves for black here.

( 7...e5 8.Nge2 O-O 9.O-O )

( 7...O-O 8.f4 Rb8 9.Nf3 )

8.

Nce2 (D)

I spent a while thinking about whether Qd2, continuing my closed sicilian plan, or trying to kick out the knight would be better. I decided to kick the knight. I do end up a bit cramped on the kingside after c3 removes a square for the knight on e2. I think next time I reach this position I'll try Qd2.

( 8.Qd2 )

8.	...	Qb6
9.	c3	Nc6
10.	Qd2

Protecting the pawn and getting ready for a later Bh6.

10.	...	O-O
11.	b4 (D)

Perhaps a bit overzealous. The immediate Bh6 fails to Bxh6 Qxh6 Qxb2. I felt that b4 would give me a good chance to blow up the center a little and get an open file to work with. I think that O-O-O might have been an interesting way to protect the pawn.

( 11.O-O-O )

11.

...

Nd7

b4 made c3 somewhat weak, so black repositions his knight to hit c3 with the bishop and pin the pawn to the rook.

12.

bxc5

dxc5

( 12...Nxc5 13.d4 Qb2 )

13.

Bh6

Perhaps a bit early for this. My center is somewhat weak and the king can't castle that soon.

13.	...	Bxh6
14.	Qxh6	Nde5
15.	Qd2? (D)

I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out this move is a big mistake. It allows for the rather crushing Rd8, which seems to cost white a piece, at least.

15.

...

Be6??

Luckily my opponent didn't decide to play Rd8. He mentioned having thought about it after the game, but said he wanted to connect his rooks first. This turned out to be a major mistake.

( 15...Rd8 16.Nf4 Nxd3+ 17.Nxd3 Ne5 +- )

16.

f4

Nxd3+?!

I think this move is probably just plain bad, but I'll give it ?! for surprising me and making me endure a little pressure before I got the initiative back. Nd7 is almost certainly better. f5 gxf Qg5 looks scary, but has no real bite. After Kh8 white has no good follow up before Rg8 kicks the queen away and puts some uncomfortable pressure on g3.

17.	Qxd3	Rad8
18.	Qc2 (D)

I considered Qb1 here, trying to trade off queens, but I wasn't sure I liked the complications that would arise afterwards. Also, it's not clear that black will even bother to exchange, and after Qc7 white's Queen seems awkwardly placed.

( 18.Qb1 Qxb1+ ( 18...Qc7 ) 19.Rxb1 Bxa2 20.Rxb7 )

18.

...

Na5

Planning to bring the knight to c4, which should be obvious to me, and I guess it was. What I didn't consider were the threats that would arise from the knight being in that position. I was somewhat lucky to have the defensive resources that I did, I feel.

19.

Nf3

Simply trying to finish my development and have a hope of castling.

19.

...

Nc4 (D)

c4 is an excellent square for the knight, and probably a this is another drawback of my earlier b4. The immediate threat of Ne3 is somewhat annoying, and castling doesn't help since after O-O Ne3 forks the queen and rook.

20.

Kf2

This move looks a little odd, giving the king few retreat squares and setting up a future discovered check, but if that pawn moves forward then I have d4 for my knight. This also connects my rooks and prevents Ne3. I considered Qc1 but worried about a potential rook invasion on d3. I'm not sure that there are any real threats there, but it just looked annoying. Terrible reasoning for a chess player, but I'm not that good a chess player!

20.

...

Nd6

Perparing the discovered check. One other aspect of Kf2 that made it feel safe: I have at least one move to prepare for the discovery since the knight was blocking c4 at the time. c4 was an excellent post for black's knight, and after he pushes his pawn to that square he will open d4 for my knights and lose his own outpost. I believe white's game is much easier after this pawn push, even if it comes with a check.

21.	Rhd1	c4+
22.	Ned4

Willingly accepting the pin, but I think this is a fine post for the knight, and white has plenty of time to break the pin before black can threaten to win the pinned piece.

22.	...	f5
23.	Ng5	Nxe4+? (D)

I think my opponent may have missed that he doesn't have time to recapture on e4 with the pawn.

24.	Bxe4	fxe4
25.	Nxe6	Rxd4

The best move in a bad position. I'm forced to replace one pin with another, but the material advantage, even should the pinned piece fall, is crushing.

26.

Nxd4

e5 (D)

I had overlooked this continuation in my calculations. I missed the fact that my f pawn is pinned, along with my knight. With all the pins floating around, I feel lucky that I didn't get in serious trouble here. I missed the best continuation at this point, too.

27.

Qxe4

Figuring that black's two central pawns were a potential source of counterplay, I decided that it was ok to lose the knight in exchange for the pair of them. Better was Rab1 followed by Rb5 if black tried to hang on to the pin with Qc5.

( 27.Rab1 Qc5 28.Rb5 And the knight is saved. )

27.	...	Qb2+
28.	Qc2	Qb6

Black has accomplished nothing here aside from bringing about the same position as after his 26th move, only this time he is down a pawn. Also, this time around I saw the way to save the pinned piece!

29.

Rab1 (D)

29.

...

Qc7??

Oops.

30.

Ne6

Black resigned.

1-0 Diagrams generated using Steve Eddins' Chess Imager http://www.eddins.net/steve/chess/chessimager