Tuesday Chess
Good morning, Tuesday! Yesterday saw the half-way point of the tournament, with round 5. Just 4 rounds to go! Things are heating up. Top seed Jobava went down in flames against the Indian GM Mhamal Anurag, rated some 200 points lower than the Georgian superstar, who now stands at 3.5 points.
gm Anurag – gm Jobava Portugal Open rd.5 (1-0)
As for my own game, I won an instructive ending against the Ukraine IM Borsos, putting me at 4 points. I present the game with some notes. Enjoy!
gm Spraggett,K – im Borsos,BPortugal Open rd 5
1.c4 b6 2.d4 e6 3.a3 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Nf3 Ne7 6.e4 d5 7.cxd5 exd5
8.exd5 O-O 9.Bc4 Nd7 10.O-O Nf6 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bxf6 Bxf6 13.Qb3
Nf5 14.Rad1 a6 15.a4 Nd6 16.Ne5 Bb7 17.Rfe1 Re8 18.Bd3 Bg7 19.g3
Re7 20.Re3 Qf8 21.Rde1 ( 21.Bxg6 fxg6 22.Nxg6 Rxe3 23.Nxf8 Rxc3
24.Qxc3 Bxf8 25.Qxc7 ) Rae8 22.f4 Bc8 23.Qd1 Nf5 24.Bxf5 Bxf5
25.Qd2 Kh7 26.Kg2 f6 27.Nc4 Rxe3 28.Nxe3 Qe7 29.Re2 Be4+ 30.Kf2
Qd7 31.Nc4 Bf5 32.Rxe8 Qxe8 33.Qe2 Qd8 34.Ne3 Bc8
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>My opponent sacrificed a pawn in the opening and I held on to it, even though the pawn itself held very little importance. In the position that has now arisen we have an interesting struggle between Queen and 2 Knights versus Queen and 2 Bishops. Black plans to play f5 to activate his Bishop on g7.</strong></span></div>
} 35.f5!{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Not just preventing Black’s plan, but trying to impose the two Knights over the two Bishops. It is well known that Knights are superior to Bishops in closed positions. Worse still, Black has no counterplay.</strong></span></div>
} gxf5{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Not an easy decision to take, as White now gains the f4 square for his Knight, but it is difficult to suggest better. Closing with g5 would allow the Queen to infiltrate on the Kingside with serious threats.</strong></span></div>
}
( 35...g5$5 36.Qh5! Qe7 ( 36...Bd7 37.d6! cxd6 38.Qf7! Be8
39.Qb7 a5 40.g4 Kh8 41.Nc4 {and Black’s position disintegrates} ) 37.Qg6+ Kh8 38.d6! cxd6
39.Ned5 Qf8 40.Ne4) 36.Qc2!{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Hitting f5 and ‘observing’ c7. In superior positions of this nature, it is important to use multiple attacks, or attacking multiple squares, to tie down the enemy to a passive defence.</strong></span></div>
} Qd7 ( 36...Kg6 37.Ne2! ) 37.Ne2!{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="border: ffffff solid; color: 000000; background-color: ffffff; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Knights need squares. Bishops need diagonals. So clearly White dominates the play.</strong></span></div>
}
Bf8$5 ( 37...h5$6 38.Nf4 Bh6 39.Ne6! Bxe3+ 40.Kxe3 Qxd5 41.Qxc7+ Bd7
42.Qxd7+ Qxd7 43.Nf8+ ) 38.Nf4{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>White intends to play his Knight to e6 and then capture on f5. Then with all of his pieces taking up advanced positions, real attacking chances will appear.</strong></span></div>
} Qf7 39.Nxf5{
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} Kg8 40.Qe4{
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} Bxf5
( 40...h5 41.Ne6 ) 41.Qxf5 Bd6{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;"><strong>Black is doing the best he can, but now he does not have the Bishop pair. White now increases the pressure and begins to prepare for a transition to a Queenless ending. Black seems unable to prevent this for very long.</strong></span></div>
} 42.Nh5 Be7{
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} 43.Kf3!{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>White plans to advance his King to e4 before exchanging Queens with Qe6. Capablanca always advised to take your time in winning positions, slowly improving things and depriving any and all counterplay.</strong></span></div>
} b5 {Black is quickly running out of useful moves.} 44.axb5 axb5
45.g4{
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} Qh7{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Losing patience, but understandable. No body likes to suffer in vain.</strong></span></div>
} 46.Ke4 Qxf5+ 47.Kxf5 Kf7{
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} 48.h3!{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Instructive. As zugzwang approaches White removes this pawn from a dark square and keeps a tempo in reserve (h4) when he should need it. The Black King can not move without allowing the White King to advance.</strong></span></div>
} b4 49.b3!{Not allowing any desperate tricks with b3 and Ba3} Bd8{
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} 50.d6!{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="border: ffffff solid; color: 000000; background-color: ffffff; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Finally White’s ‘useless’ pawn on d5 serves well to further Black’s problems. White has a clear winning plan in mind.</strong></span></div>
} cxd6
51.d5{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Any endgame connoisseur would recognize the ‘Good Knight / Bad Bishop’ theme. Helping White even more is the fact that all of Black’s pawns are split and on the same colour as his Bishop, reducing the Bishop’s role to caretaker.</strong></span></div>
} Be7 52.Nf4 Bd8 53.Nd3! Ba5{
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} 54.h4{
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<div class="custom_attn_box" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Zugzwang! No matter what Black does he will soon lose a pawn. Resigning is now the most reasonable move, but Black decides to play on ‘for the spectators’.</strong></span></div>
} h5 ( 54...Ke7 55.Kg6 )
( 54...Kg7 55.Ke6 Kg6 56.Nf4+ Kg7 57.Kxd6 ) 55.gxh5 Kg7 56.h6+
Kxh6 57.Kxf6 Kh5 58.Ke6 Kxh4 59.Kxd6 Kg3 60.Kc5{
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} 1-0
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