Speelman's Agony: Big battles

by Jonathan Speelman
12/15/2019 – This week's games are from an expert-rated club player who sent GM JON SPEELMAN a pair of annotated games for a Grandmasterly review. | Send in your own games! Jon welcomes submissions 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!
Always wanted to play like a World Champion? Search no further! With Magnus Carlsen using the Sveshnikov variation as his weapon of choice in the World Championship match against Fabiano Caruana, this DVD could not be better timed.

Agony & Ecstasy #112

This week's pair of games are by “arhitrav” who sent them to me after watching my stream.

He said that he would prefer to remain anonymous since he hasn't got the permission of his opponents to publish them and writes:

I am 23 years old and I have been playing chess for around 10 years, and I'm rated around 2050. The games were played in 5-round tournaments.

The first game was against my club colleague who is younger than me and quite talented, he will probably be stronger than me in a couple of years, so I really wanted to beat him while I still can. They game was a roller-coaster, I was nearly winning followed by completely lost followed by winning again. In general, I was happy with how the game went (I went to a lost position due to time trouble which is almost an acceptable excuse), but the most important thing is the result 1-0.

The second game I sent, the agony game, was played in the third round, and since it's a 5 round tournament it's a crucial game, I needed at least a draw to achieve a good results in the end. Unfortunately I failed, even thought I had a winning move which I missed as you will see in the game.

Both games are big battles and I've added my own notes as JS to a number which Arhitrav himself sent.

 
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1.c4 This was the third round of a 5 round tournament, and I was on 1/2 which meant I really needed to score a win if I wanted to achieve a good result. e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.e3 Nf6 4.d4 JS A bit unusual here because of Black's reply. 4.a3 is most common to control b4 in some lines and followed by 4.Nf3 4...exd4 5.exd4 d5 JS This is akin to an exchange French and perfectly playable for White. 6.c5!? Be7 6...a6!? JS would preserve the c6 knight and so pressure against d4. 7.Bb5 0-0 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.Nf3 Bg4 10.h3 Bxf3 10...Bh5!? JS is more testing for White though g4 seems just about okay in theory at least. 11.g4 Bg6 12.Ne5 Ne4 13.Nxe4 Bxe4 13...dxe4 14.Nxc6 Qe8 15.Nxe7+ Qxe7 16.Bf4 JS looks at least a bit scary for White though of course he doea have an extra pawn. 14.0-0 Bf6 11.Qxf3 Ne4
I thought the opening went fine and I have good prospects on the kingside JS Yes, while the queenside is a bit weak, Black is very active and can play either on the e-file or against d4. 12.Ne2 12.Nxe4 dxe4 13.Qxe4 Bxc5 14.0-0 Bxd4 JS is at least equal for Black. 12...Rb8 JS I'm not sure that this is a good idea since the pressure on the b-file is easily neutralised and it encourages Qa6 later. Perhaps he should be keeping ...a5 as a possibility so as to make it much harder for White to attack. The a5 pawn could then be fixed and become a target but Black might well get serious activity while White was annexing it. 13.0-0 Bf6 14.Rb1 Re8 15.Qd3 The computer keeps suggesting Bg5 which crossed my mind during the game but felt very anti-positional JS Yes, it was suggesting Bg5 to me too which does prepare to take a potential defender away from d4, I suppose. Qd7 16.Be3 Ng5 The idea is to bring the knight to e6 and eventually via g6 to f5. I considered Qf5 with the idea Ng3 but I wanted to keep queens on the board. 17.b4 I wasn't sure if I should have stopped this with ...a5, when my pawn looks quite weak. g6 18.a4 Ne6
19.Nc3 I was happy not to see 19.Qa6 after which I thought I was near losing since Ng7 b5 cxb5 Qxf6 is what I had missed. JS In fact, after 19.Qa6 Ng7 20.b5 Nf5 21.bxc6 Qe7 Black should be okay. 19...Re7 20.b5 Rbe8 21.Na2 Ng7 22.bxc6 22.Nb4 JS would put mote pressure on the queenside though after Re4! 23.Nxc6 23.bxc6 Qe6 24.Qb3 Rd8 23...Nf5 Black gets decent counterplay 22...Qxc6 23.Nb4 Qd7 23...Qa8 24.c6 24.Qb5! Nf5 25.c6 Qd8 26.Nxd5 Re4 JS and now my first thought was Nxf6+ folowed by d5 but the engine rightly prefers Bf4 27.Bf4! 27.Nxf6+ Qxf6 28.d5 Nxe3 29.fxe3 Qd6 27...Nxd4 27...Rxf4 28.Nxf4 Nxd4 Black is active enough for a blitz game but probably not slower ones. 28.Bxc7 Nxb5 29.Bxd8 Bxd8 30.axb5+- 24...Qd6 25.Qb5 Rd8 26.Rfc1 Ne6 I missevaluated the position after 27... Nf5 Rc5 Nxe3 fxe3 Rxe3 Rxd5 Qg3 Rxd8 Bxd8, so I went with this stupid move. JS Indeed 26...Nf5 27.Rc5 Nxe3 28.fxe3 Rxe3 29.Rxd5 Qg3 30.Rxd8+ Bxd8 is good for Black because he has a serious attack. E.g.: 31.Nd5 Re4 32.Rf1 Kg7 33.Qc4 Bh4 34.Nc3 Rf4 35.Rxf4 Qxf4 36.Ne2 Qf2+ 37.Kh1 Qf1+ 38.Kh2 Be7! and wins. 27.Qd3 Ree8 28.Na6 Nf4 29.Qd2 I expected this and I thought 29...Re4 will give me some interesting prospects on the kingside. Re4?! This shouldn't work, but it was Arhitrav's plan and the refutation is very far from obvious. 30.Nc5 Rxd4 31.Bxd4 Bxd4 32.Nb7 32.Nd7! JS was correct since if Nxh3+ 33.Kf1 Qh2 34.Qxd4 wins 32...Nxh3+ 33.Kf1?! JS Too optimistic. 33.gxh3 Qg3+ 34.Kf1 Qxh3+ 35.Kg1 and Black has at least a draw and can also try for more with Qg4+ 36.Kf1 Re8!? 37.Rb3 Re4 33...Qh2 34.Nxd8
I don't remember what exactly I misscalculated in this line, but up until now I thought I was winning after 34...Qg1. Understanding that I'm instead completely lost, I fell into agony and played Qg1 anyway. Had my mental state been different I would have likely spotted that 34...Nf4 is in fact winning. 34.gxh3 Re8 JS Of course with the knight on b7 arther than d7 if 34.Qxd4 Re8 closes the mating net. 34...Qg1+? 34...Nf4! JS is indeed winning. A big shame for Arhitrav but as he says, when you've missed soemthing, it's very hard to stabilise yourself., 35.Ke2 Qxf2+ 36.Kd3 Nf4+ 37.Kc2 Ne2 38.Re1 Qg3 39.Rxe2 A sad end for Arhitrav to a very messy game in which he (slightly unsoundly) built up a winning attack but then panicked after missing something and lost quickly when one calm accurate move (34...Nf4!) would have been winning for him. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
My opponent-Arhitrav-1–02019C01
Arhitrav-Club colleague-1–02019C41

Click or tap any game in the list to switch

The aim of these Dvd's is to build a repertoire after 1.c4 and 2.g3 for White. The first DVD includes the systems 1...e5, the Dutch and Indian setups. The second DVD includes the systems with 1...c5, 1...c6 and 1...e6.

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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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