Repulsing a 'Greek gift'

by Jonathan Speelman
8/4/2019 – "Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can" is a phrase by Ralph Waldo Emerson that GM Speelman's correspondent attached to his Agony game submission this week. Jon offers three instructive annotated games for your review. | 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 #103

This week's games are by Jason Kay who is currently working on a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and writes: “Next semester I'll be teaching a course about human nature. Besides philosophy and chess, I am passionate about photography, charity work, and environmental issues.”

He also sent me this inspiring quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Jason kindly sent me three games after I asked for them while streaming at twitch.tv/jonspeelman. They are rapidplay internet games and all three bring up interesting questions.

We start with two fairly clean wins while the most interesting is a Queen's Pawn game with Bf4 in which he allowed a Greek gift sacrifice which he was to repulse. All notes are mine.

 
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1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 c5 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.e4 d4 5.Ne2 Bg4 6.Ng3 e5 7.f5 Nf6 8.d3 Be7 9.Be2 0-0 10.0-0 b5
In a King's Indian reversed, White is already committed to f5 so he needs to try to get in g4-g5. The white squared bishop is useless in this regard, so it would make sense to keep it with Ne1. 11.h3 11.Ne1 Bxe2 12.Qxe2 Qb6 13.Nh1 was my first thought but actually Nh5 is clearly better. 13.Nh5! c4 14.Nxf6+ Bxf6 15.Qh5 White has a real attack here and Black is slow on the queenside. This suggests that maybe Qb6 was wrong since on d8 she helps to stop g4-g5. 13...c4 14.Nf2 When White is ready to start rolling. 11...Bxf3 12.Bxf3 c4 13.Bg5 And this is a bad idea because the exchange of dark squared bishops helps Black. Qc7 14.b3 cxb3?! There was no obvious need to release the tension yet. 14...h6 15.Bd2 Rfc8 16.Nh5 Qd8 looks like a fairkly natural sequence where I like Black who should eventually be able to cause White serious harm on the queenside. 15.cxb3 Nb4 16.Bxf6 It's odd to give up the black squares like this. Even if White manages to double Black's f-pawns, he won't necessarily get a real attack. 16.a3 would have forced the knight to retreat since Nc2 17.Rc1 Rfc8 18.Rf2 loses. 16...Bxf6 17.Nh5? 17.a3 Nc6 17...Bg5 This bishop is now a monster and unless he can somehow engineer an attack, White is losing. 18.Bg4 18.f6 g6 19.Bg4 Qc3 19...gxh5?! May or may not be good but in principle as Black you just need to keep control and so Qc3 is much more sensible. 18...Nc2 18...f6 19.Ng3 Rfc8 19.Rb1 19.f6 would have given Black a chance to go wrong with the obvious g6. He should play Ne3 first. Ne3! 19...g6 20.Rc1 would fight on though after Rfc8 21.Bxc8 Rxc8 22.Qg4 h6 Black is certainly better. 20.Qf3 20.Qe2 g6 21.Rfc1 Qd6 22.Bf3 Bxf6 with complete control. 20...g6 21.Rfc1 Qd6 19...Ne3 20.Qe2 Nxf1 I'd be a bit sad to cash in such a magniuficent knight but Jason was quite right to do so. 21.Rxf1 f6 with the white attack stymied and an easy reroute in via the c-file, Black is winning. 22.Ng3 a5 23.Nh1 a4 24.b4 Qc3 25.g3 Qxb4 26.h4 Be3+ 27.Kg2 Rfc8 28.h5 h6 29.Nf2 Qd2 30.Rd1 Qxe2 31.Bxe2 Rc2
32.Kf1 Rxa2 33.Ng4 Bg5 34.Nh2 b4 35.Nf3 b3 36.Nxg5 hxg5 37.g4 Rc2 38.Kf2 b2 39.Rb1 a3 40.Kf3 a2 41.h6 axb1Q The most interesting part of this game was the battle in the early middlegame between White's desire to create a kingside attack and Black's to open hostilities on the queenside. White got it wrong, ending up with no prospect of a serious attack due to the black sqaure blockage and Jason was then able to cash in on the queenside at his leisure. 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
tebetian1726ForeverBetter15000–12019A03Rated Rapid game
ForeverBetter1937lonebilal18181–02019A35
chaimnimsky1637ForeverBetter19370–12019D02Casual Rapid game

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The Baffling 2.b3 Sicilian

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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