Jon Speelman's Agony Column #9

by ChessBase
7/6/2016 – In last week's "Agony Column" Jon Speelman showed two games that were rather positional, and steeped in the importance of pawn structure and colour complexes. This week he gives a hint how Black might get active play after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 and presents two games that have positional aspects but are rather more violent and feature two vicious attacks with nice tactics.
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Agony Column #9

This weeks pair of games are by Chris Farmer, who is from Pennsylvania. Aged 38, he was briefly an amateur boxer, has ridden real bulls without sustaining serious injury and declares himself a "TOTAL Chess junkie" with 145 rated games since August!

He reads a lot of chess books and has recently been studying Genrikh Kasparyan's Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies, Lev Psakhis' Advanced Chess Tactics ("love it"), John Watson's Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy ("lots of new ideas to absorb but I figured it would be more fun than My System) and The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal.

Chris Farmer at a recent tournament in New Jersey

We start with the "Agony" in which Chris was the victim of a vicious kingside attack though its roots admittedly were positional, being based on his lack of control of the crucial e5 square. 

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1.e41,170,31954%2421---
1.d4949,86755%2434---
1.Nf3282,62856%2440---
1.c4182,73156%2442---
1.g319,74556%2427---
1.b314,34754%2427---
1.f45,91748%2377---
1.Nc33,81651%2384---
1.b41,75948%2379---
1.a31,22254%2404---
1.e31,07349%2409---
1.d395550%2378---
1.g466646%2361---
1.h444953%2374---
1.c343551%2426---
1.h328356%2419---
1.a411460%2465---
1.f39346%2435---
1.Nh39066%2505---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5 In his original email Chris wrote: I have really struggled getting active play versus 1.d4 and 2.Nf3. Any suggestions for Black to get a more dynamic game against this opening set-up? This is a set up which is very common at club level - and indeed at the moment at the very top as well with many queen's pawn games in which White plays a very early Bf4. These systems are less effective when Black has played ...g6 but of course he has to choose between e6 and g6 first before White commits himself to Bf4/Bg5. Already committed to e6, Michael Adams played a very nice game against Sergey Karjakin in Wijk aan Zee this year in which he managed to get control of e4. It appears separately below. h6 4.Bf4 c5 5.e3 Nc6 6.c3 Be7 7.Bd3 d5 8.Nbd2 0-0 9.0-0
9...cxd4!? This helps White by opening the e file so that it's easier to maintain control of e5 but he could have justified the decision next move If Black wants to play 9...Bd6 then iit was much better immediately when if 10.Ne5 Qc7 11.Ndf3 Nd7 is fine for Black 9...b6 was also possible of course 10.exd4 Bd6? 10...Nh5 11.Be5 is much more challenging than 11.Be3 Bd6 and Black has control of e5 11...f6!? 11...Nxe5 12.Nxe5 Nf4 13.Bb1 12.Bg3 Nxg3 12...Qb6 13.Nh4 Nxg3 14.hxg3 Qxb2 13.hxg3 e5 14.c4 Bg4 Black is loose on the white squares but fighting hard 11.Bxd6 Qxd6 12.Re1 This is already distinctly unpleasant for Black since White has the enormously simple plan of planting a knight on e5 and then attacking. a6 12...Nd7 13.Qe2 White will get in Ne5 anyway Re8 14.Ne5 Ncxe5 15.dxe5 Qb6 16.Nf3 Nc5 17.Bc2 and White will put the knight on d4 with a nice edge. 13.a4 Not bad but not necessary since ...b5 won't achieve much for Black. Re8 14.Ne5 Nd7 15.f4
15...Ndxe5? This gives White a ready made attack but for example 15...Nf8 16.Qh5 Re7 17.Re3 is also very dangerous 16.fxe5 Qf8 17.Rf1 Ne7 18.Qf3 Bd7 19.Rf2 Nc6 The knight needs to be nearer the king but it must be lost anyway. 20.Raf1 Re7 21.g4
21...g5? Panic but White has a massive attack anyway and Black no play at all. 22.Qh3 Qg7 23.Rf6 Na5 24.Rxh6 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Ashrey,M-Farmer,C-1–02016A46

 

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These are just my brief annotations at the time chucking in a few allegedly salient "variations" in conjunction with an engine. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Nf3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Nbd2 Bd6 7.Bg3 0-0 8.Bd3 b6 9.Ne5 Bb7 10.f4 Ne7 11.Qf3 Nf5 12.Bf2 Be7!
The crucial point is that Adams was in time to get control of e4 after which Karjakin was always going to struggle to attack. 13.g4 Nd6 14.g5 Nfe4 15.0-0-0 c4 16.Bc2 16.Bxe4 dxe4 17.Qg4 16...b5 17.Qh3 b4 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Be1 Bd5 20.Rg1 20.cxb4 Qc7 21.Rg1 c3 22.Bxc3 Nb5 23.Be1 Bxa2 20...b3 20...bxc3 21.Bxc3 Nb5 22.Kd2 Nxc3 23.bxc3 Qa5 24.Nd7 20...Qa5 21.cxb4 Qxa2 22.Bc3 Nb5 23.Nd7 Nxc3 24.Nf6+ Bxf6 25.gxf6 Ne2+ 26.Kd2 Nxg1 27.Rxg1 c3+ 28.bxc3 Rfc8 29.Rxg7+ Kf8 30.Qxh7 21.axb3 cxb3 22.Bb1 f5 23.gxf6 Bxf6 24.Rg4 24.Qg2 Qc7 25.h4 a5 24.Bf2 Qc7 25.Rg2 a5 24.Ng4 Qc7 25.Qg2 a5 24...Nf5 25.Kd2 Qa5 26.Ke2 Bxe5 27.dxe5 27.fxe5 Qa1 28.Bd2 Qxb2 29.Rxe4 Bxe4 30.Bxe4 Rac8 31.Bxf5 Rxf5 32.e4 Rff8 33.Qxe6+ Kh8 34.Rf1 Qc2-+ 27...Rad8 28.Kf2 Qa1 29.Bd2 Bc4 30.Qh5
30.Qh5 Qxb2 31.Ke1 Rxd2 32.Rxd2 Qxb1+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Karjakin,S-Adams,M-0–12016D0278th Tata Steel GpA

 

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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Chen,A-Farmer,C-0–12009B75New Jersey

About the author

Jon was born in 1956 and became a professional player in 1977 after graduating from Worcester College Oxford where he read mathematics. He became an IM in 1977 a GM in 1980 and was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980-2006. Three times British Champion he played twice in the Candidates reaching the semi-final (of what was then a knockout series of matches) in 1989 when he lost 4.5 - 3.5 to Jan Timman. He's twice been a second at the world championship for Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995. He's written for the Observer (weekly) since 1993 and The Independent since 1998. With its closure (going online, but without Jon on board) he's expanding online activity and is also now offering online tuition. He likes puzzles especially (cryptic) crosswords and killer sudokus. If you'd like to contact Jon, then please write to jonathan@speelman.demon.co.uk

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