A premature peace

by Jonathan Speelman
7/7/2019 – Jon starts the second half of the year with an Agony column submission from a Palestinian chess coach from Bethlehem. | Send in your own games! Jon can always use more material from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!
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Speelman's Agony #101

This week's game is by Fadi Qassis a Palestinian chess coach from Bethlehem who writes:

Chess is something I'm addicted to (LOL). I've been a club player and a chess coach since 2011. All of my students are 5-14 years old. I teach at schools and at social centers. I love the game and I love what I do, dealing with kids is tough and needs to be learned for years and you never finish, I'm still learning up till now.

An organizer of local tournaments, Fadi started playing in a club in 2004 and was 7th in the Palestinian Open championship in Yakun 2016. He sent me just a single game, but he certainly ran the full gamut of emotions during it, gaining an advantage which later became a winning ending but then agreeing a draw in a won position — about the worst thing that can happen in a game apart from resigning when you're winning.

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 2...e6 3.b3 3.b3 This is quite often played after 2...e6 but here with Black able to block the long diagonal in one move rather than in two after ...e7-e6-e5, b3 is less common. d6 4.Bb2 e5 5.g3 5.Bb5 is the main move. If White can get in d4 in time then he may stand well but he's a long way from achieving this. Nf6 6.Qe2 5...Bg4 I don't think I'd be developing the bishop on g4 though of course it's perfectly playable. 5...g6 6.Bg2 Bg7 7.0-0 Nge7 looks fairly normal when Black may play for ...f5 in a couple of moves' time. 8.d3 0-0 9.Nbd2 f5 6.Bg2 Be7 7.d3 Nf6 8.Nbd2 0-0 9.h3 Bh5
The bishop feels slightly offside here though of course if White does play for d4 it may spring into life. 10.0-0 h6 11.c3 Nh7 12.Qe1 Ng5 13.Nxg5 Bxg5 14.Nf3 Be7 15.Qe3 Bg6 16.d4 cxd4 17.cxd4 Bf6 17...Qb6 18.Rad1 Bf6 was a decent idea. White really doesn't want to move the d-pawn and allow an exchange on e3 which maims his pawns. 18.Rfd1 18.d5 was interesting. Nb4 19.Rfc1 a5 19...Be7 20.a3 Na6 21.b4 f5 22.exf5 Bxf5 23.h4 to prevent ...Bg5. White will then play Nf3-d2-e4 with what looks like edge to me though my software disagrees. One thing is that the bishop really isn't great on b2 while the pawn is on e5. If you could get Ne4 and Be3 then that looks better but it's obviously not practicable here. 18...Qe7 18...Qb6 looks better. 19.dxe5 19.d5 was also possible now and perhaps a bit better than the previous move since Black will soon want to move the f6 bishop to get in ...f5 and the queen on e7 blocks it. 19...dxe5 20.Rd2 Rfd8 21.Rad1 Rxd2 22.Rxd2 Rd8 23.Rd5
The opening has worked out quite well for Fadi and it feels rather uncomfortable for Black though the calm 23...Nd4? 23...Rd7 24.Qd2 Rc7 25.Ne1 isn't too bad. Instead Black either tries to bail out or panics according to your point of view. The resultant endgame may well be defensible but certainly isn't fun. 24.Nxd4 exd4 25.Bxd4 Rxd5 26.exd5 Qxe3 27.Bxe3
I also wondered about 27.fxe3 Bxd4 28.exd4 Kf8 29.d6 Ke8 29...b6? 30.Bc6 leaves the d6 pawn unassailable. 29...b5? 30.b4 30.Bxb7 Kd7 This is also good for White and possibly better than what Black could have achieved after Bxe3 with best defence. But you'd be very tempted in a game to have a clear extra pawn as Fadi did. 27...b6 27...Bb1! was better to counterattack. 28.a4 28.Bxa7 Bxa2 29.d6 Bxb3 30.Bxb7 Ba4 31.Bb6 Kf8 28...b6 29.Bf1 Be4 30.Bc4 Kf8 31.a5 bxa5 32.Bxa7 Be7 and Black has very decent drawing chances. 33.Bb8 Bb4 34.d6 Bc6 28.Bf1 28.Bf4! threatened to use the d-pawn at once. Bf5 28...Kf8 29.Bb8 a6 30.d6 Bf5 31.Bc6 g5 so as to answer Bc7 with Be5 32.Kg2 Be5 33.Kf3 33.d7?? Bxd7 33...h5 34.Ke3 g4 35.hxg4 hxg4 36.a4 f6 This should be reasonably easy e.g.: 37.Bc7 Kf7 38.Bb7 Bc2 39.Bd5+ Ke8 39...Kf8 40.Be6 Bd1 41.Kd2 Bf3 42.b4 40.Be6 Kf8 41.Bxg4 Bxb3 42.f4 and wins. 29.Bb8 a6 30.g4 Bd7 31.Bd6 Black can't get at White's queenside pawns and with the king unable to blockade the d-pawn is in real trouble. 28...Be5 29.f4 Bd6 30.Bd4 f6 31.Kf2 Bb1 32.a4 Kf7 33.Ke3
33...Ke7? A blunder after which White can either force the exchange of light-squared bishops or leave the enemy bishop horribly offside on a2. 33...Bc2 34.Bc4 Ke7 was correct. 34.Bd3 Ba2 35.Bc4? 35.Bc2! 35...Bb1 36.a5 36.Bd3! 36...Bc5 36...bxa5 37.Bxa7 Bc2 37.axb6 axb6 38.Bd3 Ba2 39.Bc2! 39.Bxc5+!? would have forced matters facourably though it does feel antipositional to improve Black's pawns. The point is that after bxc5 40.Bc2 Kd6 loses the bishop and c4 leads to what should be a lost single bishop ending. c4! 40...Kd6 41.Kd3 Kxd5 42.Kc3 simply wins. The best Black can do is to give up the bishop for the b-pawn and get his king in, but the white bishop can defend the kingside pretty easily e.g.: Bxb3 42...c4 43.b4 is worse 43.Kxb3 Kd4 44.Bg6 Ke3 45.h4 Kf3 46.f5 Kxg3 47.h5 41.b4 c3 42.Kd4 Kd6 43.Kxc3 Bxd5 44.Kd4 39...Kd6 40.Kd3 Ba3 40...Kxd5 41.Bxc5 bxc5 42.Kc3 41.Ke4 b5 42.Ba1 Bb4 43.g4 Bd2 44.Bd4 Bc1 45.Bc3 Ba3
46.Kf5 Quite good enough, but it would be better technique to advance the h-pawn first. 46.h4 Bc5 46...Bc1 47.Bb4+ Kd7 48.h5 47.h5 Ba3 48.g5 fxg5 49.fxg5 hxg5 50.Bxg7 etc 46...Kxd5 47.Kg6 Bc1 48.Kxg7 Impatient 48.f5 was simpler. 48...Bxf4 49.Kxf6 Bg5+ 50.Kf5 Bc1 51.Bf6 51.h4 and h5 first followed by Kg6 and only then Bc3xh6 would have decided without any sort of race 51...Bd2 52.h4 Kc5 53.g5 hxg5 54.hxg5 54.Bxg5 was also winning 54...Kb4 54...Bxg5 fails to 55.Bxg5 Kb4 56.Bd2+! Ka3 57.b4 55.g6 Bh6
56.Be7+? 56.Ke6 Bxb3+ 57.Bxb3 Kxb3 58.Bg5 Bg7 59.Kf7 Bc3 60.Bf6 wins 56...Kc3 57.Bd1 Bxb3 57...Kd2! since the bishop must move and after Bxb3 Black will be able to reach one bishop vs two at the very worst. 58.Bxb3
Here Fadi agreed a draw presumably after counting out the variation Ke6-f7 followed by Bf8. When I saw the result, I wondered for an instant if it was drawn myself. But even if you didn't immediately see the win, there would be no reason to agree a draw here as White, since the very worst that can happen is a dead drawn queen ending. In fact White is winning easily. A horrible end to a game in which Fadi played the opeing rather conservatively but got a decent position and later the advantage. He stumbled near the end, but so did his opponent, and he very nearly wrapped it up before losing his way again at the very end. 58.Bxb3 Kxb3 59.Bg5 59.Ke6 Ka4 60.Bg5! 60.Kf7? b4 61.Bf8 Bxf8 62.Kxf8 b3= 60...Bxg5 61.g7 Bd2 62.g8Q b4 63.Kd5 is of course utterly hopeless. I wondered whether Black would have any chances with a b-pawn and bishop if the pawn was further advanced and the king further away but when I lazily asked a tablebase even Ka3,b3,Bc3 vs Kh7,Qg8 with Black to move is lost after 1. ..b2 2 Qg6 Ka2 3 Qa6+ though by then Qa6+ is apparently the only move so it is close by then. 59...Bg7 60.Ke6 b4 61.Kf7 Bc3 62.Bf6 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Qassis,F1750Albzour,A1856½–½2018B50Palestinian Team Championship

Make life difficult for the Sicilian! 2.b3 is a thoroughly venomous but still solid kind of "Anti-Sicilian". No matter what setup black chooses, the bishop on b2 will always be unpleasant for him.

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Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

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