Speelman's Agony #69

by Jonathan Speelman
1/28/2018 – John turns his instructive gave to his own games this week, with two wins for Black, one for John and one for his opponent. Fancy Jon taking a look at your games? Send them in! If you appear in 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!
Fritz 16 is looking forward to playing with you, and you're certain to have a great deal of fun with him too. Tense games and even well-fought victories await you with "Easy play" and "Assisted analysis" modes.

Self-awareness

One of the most problematic aspects of playing chess — and I presume other similar games — is the relative intensity of emotion you feel after winning and losing. Winning is always nice, of course, and against a really strong opponent can be a heady drug. But losing normally engenders much stronger feelings, however much you ought to get used to it.

This column depends on readers sharing their chess efforts but also perforce — and not I trust in some vile game showy way — the emotions of combat. This week, instead, I'm swinging the spotlight back on myself with a vignette from a London league game last week and in more detail on a recent game at the 4NCL where to my chagrin but also considerable (if slightly grudging) appreciation a 2300ish opponent turned out to have an excellent punch!

 
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.dxc5 5.c4 is more common leading to an entirely different set of problems. 5...Bg4 6.c3 This seems to be inaccurate. 6.Bb5 e6 7.Be3 Nge7 8.c3 is most common. Qa5 Houdini 8...a6 9.Ba4 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 Nf5 11.0-0 Be7 12.Bd4 0-0 13.Bxc6 bxc6 not 8...Ng6? 9.Bxc6+ bxc6 10.Qa4 8...Bxf3 9.Qxf3 Ng6 10.Bd4 Be7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Qe3 Qc7 13.f4 9.a4 a6 10.b4 Qc7 6...e6 7.b4 Nge7 8.Bb5 a6 9.Ba4 9.Bxc6+ Nxc6 10.Bf4 a5 11.b5 Nb8 or indeed 11...Ne7 are fine for Black. 9...Ng6 10.Qe2 Be7 11.0-0 11.Nbd2 Nf4 12.Qf1 looks very odd but isn't actually that ridiculous. Bf5 13.Nd4 Nd3+ 14.Kd1 Ndxe5 15.f4 Ng6 16.Qf3 16.Nxc6 Qd7 11...Bxf3 11...0-0 was also fine because if 12.Bxc6 12.Nbd2 Ncxe5 12...Bxf3! or 12.Qxf3 12.gxf3 Bg5 is nasty for White. 12...0-0 13.Qh3 Ncxe5 14.f4 Nc4 15.Nd2
This is the critical position and why I've brought this game up here. I tend to play very quickly in the London League and here took only a very short time to detonate his queenside. 15...a5 16.Nxc4 axb4 It's hard to annotate this move because actually it's absolutely the best one but was a blunder from my perspective, because I missed a pretty obvious reply. 17.Bc2 17.Nb2 occurred to me as soon as I played axb4 but he qucikly replied Bc2 after which the rest was pretty smooth. In the post-mortem afterwards we couldn't see a way for Black to continue since if bxc3 18.Qxc3 Bf6 18...Rxa4! as engines of course told me in a microsecond, gains the advantage. 19.Nxa4 Bf6 It's very unusual that this skewer should win a whole rook rather than just the exchange. White can fight afterwards but is clearly worse. 20.Qb3 Bxa1 21.Be3 Bf6 22.Qxb7 Qa5 and if 23.Nb6 23.Qb3 d4 24.Bc1 Rd8 25.c6 Ne7 23...Qc3 19.Qc2 17...dxc4 18.Be3 b3! engines also like 18...bxc3 but I felt that after 19.f5 exf5 20.Rxf5 White was definitely fighting. 19.axb3 Rxa1 20.Rxa1 cxb3 21.Bxb3 Qd3 22.Rc1 22.Bd4 Nxf4 23.Qe3 Qxe3+ 24.Bxe3 Nd3 25.Ra5 Rc8 26.c6! Rxc6 27.Ra8+ Bf8 This should be very good for Black but the pin is definitely annoying in the short term. 22...Qb5 23.Bc2 Bxc5 24.Rb1 Qc4 24...Qe2 25.Bxc5 Qxc2 26.Rf1 Rc8 27.Bd4 I did also make sure that 27.f5 Rxc5 28.fxe6 f5 doesn't work for White 27...Ne7! 25.Bxc5 Qxc5+ 26.Kf1 26.Kh1 26...Qc4+ 27.Qd3 Qxf4+ 28.Kg1 Qc7 29.h4 Rd8 30.Qe4 Qxc3 31.Rxb7 Rc8 32.Bb3 32.Bd3 was a tad more resilient. 32...Qg3 33.Bc2 Qxh4 34.Qd3 Rd8 35.Rd7 Rxd7 36.Qxd7 Qe1+ 37.Kh2 Qe5+ 38.Kh1 Nf8 39.Qd8 g6 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Okike,D-Speelman,J-0–12018A00London League5
Speelman,J-Bisby,D-0–12018D034NCL Division 1b3

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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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