Magistral Casino Barcelona
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
Round 6 seemed to be all about winning and losing! Every game was decisive and both leaders (Seirawan and I) lost and were joined by De La Riva and Smirin. The tournament is completely wide open and anyone can win still….Smirin and De La Riva have played an extra game each and so have just 2 games left. Seirawan and I have 3 games left. Two of my last games are against Smirin and Seirawan!
gm Oscar De La Riva is also a well known chess author and chess organizer (Andorra)
My game with Oscar featured me spoil a very strong position just before the first time control, when I walked into every trick that was to be found in the position. Even so, there was no reason to lose. For that I had still to make one more unforced mistake:
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 42nd MOVE:
gm SPRAGGETT
gm DE LA RIVA
My original intention was to play 42…Qe6! with a perfectly defensible position. INSTEAD, I played 42…Kh8? after some thought, believing it to be the same thing after White takes my Bishop and I play 43…Qe6. While Oscar was thinking about his reply (his 43rd move) I suddenly saw the very strong 43.Qc5! which forces my pieces to the wrong squares. Sure enough, White played it…
43.Qc5! Rfe8 44.Qc3-ch! R4-e5 45.Re1! and Black can not save himself
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A HORSEMAN COMETH…
Smirin is playing some of his best chess in years. Even so, yesterday was not one of his better games. Playing a somewhat fishy line against Yasser’s Caro Kan, it looked to me that Yasser was the only one having fun :
gm SEIRAWAN
gm SMIRIN
I am not sure there would be many takers of the White side if you gave this position to 100 gms and asked them which side they would prefer to play. In particular, what is the Knight doing on h3? I think that only a tactical genius like Smirin could make this work….HERE Yasser was fighting for the advantage:
14…e5! 15. Nxe5 Bd6! 16. Ng6! (Only move)
Here Yasser could play the simple 16…Re8 17.Qd2 Bxf4 18.Ngf4 with a good game for the pawn. Afterwards Seirawan thought that he needed to play 18…a6 (to stop Bb5) and then follow up with …Ne5 when the White’s pieces still have to untangle themselves. Houdini, however, opted for the immediate 18…Ne5!? and after 19.Bb5 Nc6! with a small edge (Black’s pawn sacrifice is similar to some of the pawn sacs in the Sicilian defence.)
Yasser thought that his move was the same thing….
16…Bxf4 17.Nhxf4! The first surprise…
Smirin wanted to avoid the previous note! Now Yasser should simply take the Knight and after 18.Ne6 play 18…Qa5 with an unclear game (I still prefer Black!). HOWEVER, wanting to punish Smirin for his opening play, Yasser blundered in one move, completely overlooking Smirin’s threat:
17…Re8?? 18.Nd5!!
KHIGHT-MARES!! Smirin’s Knights have come alive and suddenly Black is dead lost. Amongst other things, Nd5-e7 check is threatened. Yasser tried to hold on, but as Tal once wrote of his loss to Bobby Fischer in Bled 1961: ”You can not fight against Einstein’s theory!”
A one move blunder, throwing away a wonderful position