Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
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.
[Event "New Jersey"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.09.27"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Chen, A."]
[Black "Farmer, C."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B75"]
[Annotator "Jonathan"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2009.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2015.07.13"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 Nc6 8. Qd2
Bd7 9. O-O-O h5 {Chris wrote: I picked up the delayed castling idea from
Andrew Martin's Starting Out: The Sicilian Dragon.} 10. Be2 Ne5 11. g3 Rc8 12.
h3 Nc4 13. Bxc4 Rxc4 14. g4 h4 15. Nde2 Qa5 {[#]} 16. g5 $2 {This helps Black}
(16. Kb1 Be6 17. Bd4 {is more ambitious and must be at least a bit better for
White} (17. Nd5 $5 {is simpler and "safer" in the short run at least} Qxd2 18.
Rxd2 a6 19. Nb6 Rc6 {and White has some space and h4 needs looking after but
Black has the two bishops which could become the dominant factor if White
played weakly.})) 16... Nh5 17. Bf2 Ng3 $1 18. Bxg3 hxg3 19. h4 b5 20. Kb1 Be6
{[#]} 21. a3 $2 {givng Black a target} (21. Nd5 Qxd2 22. Rxd2 g2 23. Rh2 {
is nevertheless clearly better for Black especially if he finds} Rd4 24. Rxd4
Bxd4 25. Rxg2 Rxh4) 21... O-O (21... b4 $1 {was more forcing and "stronger" in
theory though very hard to calculate with confidence in practice.} 22. Nd5 (22.
Na2 Bxb2 $1 23. axb4 Rxb4 $1) 22... Bxd5 23. Qxd5 Qa6 $1 {not at all an easy
move to foresee} 24. axb4 g2 25. Rhg1 Rxb4 26. c3 Qxe2 $1 27. Qc6+ (27. Qa8+
Kd7 28. Qxa7+ Kc6 $1) 27... Kd8 28. Rxd6+ exd6 29. Qxd6+ Kc8 30. Qc5+ Kb7 31.
Qxb4+ Ka8 {and Black should win}) 22. Rdg1 Rfc8 23. Rxg3 Rxc3 24. Nxc3 Rxc3 {
[#]} 25. Kc1 Qa4 (25... b4 $1 {was an easy win} 26. bxc3 Bxc3 27. Qe3 bxa3 {
is completely over}) 26. bxc3 Qxa3+ 27. Kd1 Bxc3 28. Qg2 $2 (28. Qe3 {was
necessary to retain Qc1 as a defence though Black is winning if he realises
that he has complete control and can often simply advance the a pawn} Qa1+ 29.
Qc1 Qa2 30. Rhg1 {to protect the rook since if} (30. h5 Bb2 31. Qe3 Qb1+) (30.
Rgh3 b4 31. f4 Bg4+) 30... b4 31. Qe3 {else b3} (31. f4 b3) 31... Bc4 32. f4 (
32. h5 Qa1+ 33. Qc1 Qa6 34. Qe3 Be2+ 35. Qxe2 Qa1#) 32... a5 33. f5 a4 34. fxg6
fxg6 35. e5 a3 {[#] and the a-pawn decides matters}) ({not} 28. Qc1 $2 Bb2)
28... Qa1+ 29. Ke2 Bc4+ 30. Ke3 Bd4+ 31. Kd2 Bc3+ 32. Ke3 Qa3 $1 {and the king
is defenseless} 33. f4 Be1+ 34. Kd4 Qc5# {[#] Checkmate} 0-1
|
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 |
|
