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Sharjah Masters (16.05.2024)
Analysis by Sam Shankland.
I had some health problems starting in mid 2022. I was in denial about them for way too long, thinking that I could keep playing and that I couldn't possibly take time off during the most important years of my career. Obviously, this was a huge mistake, and I dropped like a stone over the course of the next year and a half. When I finally came to my senses and took some time off after the Grand Swiss, I was down to 2674, and I could not even look at my FIDE card without feeling a strong urge to vomit. Thankfully, in the coming months, I managed to get myself back into playing shape. I had an underwhelming performance at the American Cup, but I really showed my old strength again in the Sharjah Masters, where I tied for first place, scoring my first tournament victory in 3 years. I certainly hope I can keep it up! The first game that really inspired me to have more confidence was my third round win over Aditya Mittal.
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 I am 32 years old. I have been playing chess for 22 years, and for 15 years professionally. In all of this time, I have never once played the proper King's Indian in a rated game. Fundamentally, I do not believe in the opening. My score with White against it is very good, and anyone who studies it knows that the computer always says White is better in every line. But one of the things I realized that was hurting my play was that I was not very good at knowing when to ignore the computer. This is something I used to be very good at, back when engines were far from perfect, I could find better moves than what the machine would give in certain kinds of positions. In today's day and age, engines do not make objective mistakes. The only misevaluations they ever give is that they can't understand the practical difficulty of a line for a human to face. In that regard, I thought it would be a good exercise for me to prepare a King's Indian repertoire, the ultimate "ignore the computer" opening, and see how it worked for me. As it turns out, it worked wonders!
4...0–0!
It was physically hard for me to make this move. Of course I had planned to do so, well before the tournament even started, but when you play enough Grunfelds, muscle memory can be powerful! It took some effort and concentration not to push d7–d5.
5.e4 Aditya did not even pause when playing this move, clearly believing in his opening work. I was a bit surprised how confident he was when I just played something I never had before in my entire career, but I do admire the faith he has in his analysis.
5...d6 6.Be2 e5 7.0–0 Bg4!?
This is a trendy move these days. The point is to try to force White to push d4–d5 without losing too much time, and as such, Black can make a credible case that c4–c5 won't come too easily.
7...Nc6 Of course, this is the main move. It leads to wild and interesting positions, but I don't really like them for Black. The sharp nature of the position makes ignoring the computer a much more dangerous proposition. 8.d5 Now, Black's knight is under attack, and he is not in time for a7–a5. 8...Ne7 9.b4! White immediately grabs space on the queenside, and he will execute the c4–c5 break without much trouble. Black's queenside is a lost cause and he must look for direct counterplay, but as far as I can tell, White is having more fun here. The move I played is a bit safer, if also a bit less feisty.
8.d5 8.Be3 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 exd4 10.Bxd4 Nc6 is known to be fine for Black.
8...a5!
Now we see the point of Bg4. Since I did not need to spend the move after d4–d5 moving the c6–knight, I have a free tempo to play a7–a5, seriously slowing down White's queenside expansion and fighting for the dark squares.
9.h3 This move ensures that I must part with my bishop, as retreating would allow c4–c5.
9.Be3 I would think putting the bishop on e3 and then the knight on either e1 or d2 next should be more in the spirit of the Mar del Plata variation. That being said, Black does not need to exchange off his light squared bishop here. After 9...Na6 10.Nd2 Bd7! Black was able to safely retreat back to d7 without allowing for c4–c5. White is surely better here objectively, but in human practice, it looked playable enough to me.
9...Bxf3 9...Bd7? While ideally I would not take on f3, here, Black does not have a choice. 10.c5!
10.Bxf3 Nbd7 11.Rb1 h5 12.Bg5 Qe8
All of this was still my preparation, and Aditya was still playing very fast. The next move was the first he spent any time on, but it was not much.
13.a3 Nh7! 14.Be3 Bf6!
White cannot prevent Black from exchanging the dark squared bishops.
15.g3 Since h3–h4 could come next, it's now or never for Bf6–g5. Obviously, I chose now.
15...Bg5 16.Bxg5 Nxg5 17.Bg2 I had this exact position on my laptop before the game. I knew what the machine's evaluation was... and I did not care. I could not for the life of me understand why White would be better. He has a bad bishop, he does not have much potential to ever get the c4–c5 advance in, Black's kingside is reasonably mobile, Black has no weaknesses... If the computer says White is better, in a higher chess sense, he surely is. Maybe someone smarter than me can explain why, but I decided that this was one of the positions where I could comfortably and confidently ignore the engine's warnings.
17...Qe7
18.f4? Case in point, White makes an immediate strategic error.
18.h4! This was absolutely necessary. Otherwise, I would have played h5–h4 myself. 18...Nh7 19.Bh3 Black looks fine to me. I can be solid with a move like Ngf6, or I could even consider being a bit more hostile with Ndf6, Kh8, Rg8, and g5.
18...Nh7 19.f5
I don't think the pawn on f5 helps White. Black clearly is not getting mated, and this is weakening the dark squares around White's king. Furthermore, the tension between the g6 and f5–pawns means the kingside may open some day- this is not exactly what White is looking for.
19...Kh8 I thought stacking my rooks on g7 and g8 would be a menacing setup for White to deal with.
20.Kh2 Rg8 21.Qd2 This move came as a bit of a surprise to me. I did not think White should have allowed a5–a4.
21...a4 22.Nb5 Ndf6 22...Nc5 The knight looks nice here, but it actually does not do much and I had my sights set on the kingside. Furthermore, it allows White to push f5–f6, which I had no interest in doing. 23.f6! The pawn is immune from capture: 23...Nxf6? 24.Rxf6 Qxf6 25.Qh6#
23.c5?!
It is easy to condemn this move, but I barely considered anything else for him. What can White ever do? Wait for me to stack the rooks on the g-file, organize a kingside attack, and hope he doesn't get mated? Stockfish thinks that is the prudent course of action and that the position is equal, but in human terms, this is not something people want to do.
23...dxc5! I had a couple of other tempting options, but ultimately I found the best move.
23...Qd7 I considered this one seriously as well, gaining a tempo on the knight and hoping to play dxc5 next. Then, I would be able to meet d5–d6 with c7–c6, keeping the position closed. But I could not find a way to bust the piece sacrifice. 24.cxd6! (24.Qb4? This does not save the material. 24...dxc5! 25.Qxc5? Ra5!–+) 24...Qxb5 25.dxc7 Intuitively, I felt like I should be able to clean up White's pawns here with some combination of Qd7, Rgc8, Ra6, Ne8, and remain a piece up. But when I calculated concrete variations, I could not make it work, and correctly rejected this line. Indeed, White is in good shape here.; 23...gxf5 I found this one tempting as well. Following 24.cxd6 cxd6 25.Rxf5 Rg6 I thought White's position looked very dangerous. Rag8 is coming next, I will be ready for Ng5, even Qf8–h6 or g7, and meanwhile, the d6–pawn is safe. Still, I felt taking the pawn was simpler.
24.d6 cxd6 25.Qxd6 Rge8!
I was not averse to a queen trade, but I wanted it to come on my terms. A rook on e7 would be a good defensive piece in case White wanted to bring the knight to d6.
26.Rfd1 Ra6! Expelling the active queen.
27.Qd2 27.Qxe7 Rxe7 The ending looked very unpromising for White to me, but he can offer some resistance. One nice trick I noticed is that 28.Rbc1 is well met with 28...Rd7!
27...Kg7 28.Rbc1 Rc8!
This not only overprotects the c5–pawn, but it also prepares to bring the rook to c6. Nd6 will no longer be a concern, and I might even be ready for a rook to b6 next, kicking away the knight and getting ready to swing the rook to d6, and eventually d4.
29.Rc4 Rcc6! 30.Qc3? This felt a bit aimless, but what else could White do? At least now he prevents the threat of Rcb6.
30.Nc3 This wins the pawn back... but at what cost? 30...Rd6! 31.Qc2 Rd4! White will take a4, but be left with a miserable structure.; 30.Qc2 Ra5! I noticed this nice point as well. The knight cannot be defended, it has to retreat, and b7–b5 is coming.
30...Nd7! Nice and simple. I take advantage of this square becoming available. c5 is now safe and the Rcb6 threat is renewed, Nb6 is in the air, and the other knight can come to f6.
31.Qd2 Nhf6 32.Bf1?
This hastened the defeat, but White's position was very difficult anyway.
32...Nb6! 33.Rc2 Nxe4 34.Qe2 Nf6 35.Bg2 e4
36.Nc3 Giving another pawn was not to be recommended, but White's position was far beyond salvation anyway.
36.fxg6 fxg6 37.Nc3 Re6! Thanks to the f5–pawn being exchanged, Black gets this square for his rook. I am 2 healthy pawns up, safe as can be, and totally winning.
36...gxf5 I was surprised Aditya kept playing here for as long as he did- this would not have been my instinct if I had the white pieces here. The rest requires no comment.
37.Rf1 Qe5 38.Qe3 Kg6 39.Rcf2 Nbd5 40.Qc1 Ne7 41.Ne2 Rab6 42.Nf4+ Kh7 43.Qc4 Kg7 44.Qxa4 h4
45.gxh4 Ng6 46.Kg1 Rxb2 47.Nh5+ Nxh5 48.Rxf5 Rxg2+ 49.Kxg2 Nxh4+ After the game was over, I felt genuinely confused. I had struggled so madly for the last 2 years, fighting through adversity at the board and away from it, working incredibly hard to try to keep my level, and still barely scoring any victories. Now, I just played an opening for the first time that I considered subpar my whole life, I won the easiest game I have in a very long time, with the black pieces, against an extremely strong up and coming young junior who is well known for his excellent preparation in the mainlines. I barely had to calculate a single variation, and it felt like the point just fell into my lap. I was immediately inspired, and I won with the King's Indian again just two days later against Muhammad Muradli, another incredibly strong young junior, and again, it was a very smooth game. I don't expect to play it that often in the future, but I definitely have to admit that I underestimated its potential!
0–1
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1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.g3 d4 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.0-0 Nh6
Felix Blohberger presents a repertoire idea against the Reti Opening, in which you can determine the game early on with two unusual knight moves: with 4...Nc6 and 5...Nh6 Black indicates that they want to see their advanced pawn firmly anchored on d4. This set-up poses some practical problems for White. Blohberger first analyses the continuations 6.d3 Nf5 7.Na3 and 6.e4 f6 7.d3 Nf7, which are not critical for Black. The critical variation goes like this: 6.e3 Nf5 7.e4 Ne7 8.e5! - a novelty and the only move that complicates Black's plan with 8...Ng6.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.c4 c6 9.Re1 Bf5
Mihail Marin analyses a line that Ian Nepomniachtchi likes to play with Black, including against Hikaru Nakamura in the 2024 Candidates Tournament: After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 he continued with 6...Bd6, followed by 7.0-0 0-0 8.c4 c6 9.Re1 Bf5 10.Qb3 Qd7. In his analysis of the game, Marin discusses the different ideas in this position that the Russian has already had to defend against, e.g. against Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave and others. "The Petroff Defence can be a very entertaining opening!"
The "Lucky bag" of this CBM Extra includes 36 detailed analyses.
Sam Shankland finished in a tie for first place at the Sharjah Masters in May this year. The young Iranian Bardiya Daneshvar was declared was declared the winner on tiebreak criteria. For Shankland, it still felt like a tournament victory - as he describes it in the detailed and entertaining analysis of his games against Aditya Mittal. It's "The brilliancy" of this issue!
The Update Service once again provides over 55,000 new games for your database!
The games from the Update Service are also included in the Mega Update Service 2024, which you can use with the ChessBase 16/17 programs (and a corresponding subscription).
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