Speelman's Agony #73

by Jonathan Speelman
4/1/2018 – A Two Knights and a Pirc from a Belgian. Sam Azzoug has a pawn sac gone wrong providing the 'agony' and then makes up for it with a nice a central pin breakthrough bit of 'ecstasy'. 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!
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Not enough comp

Sam AzzougThis week's pair of games are by Sam Azzoug a forty-five-year-old Belgian who wrote:

I have chosen these 2 games because I had tried to play two new openings. In the first game the Two Knights defence and the second Pirc defence.

When the game has finished, I always analyse with Fritz and with my brain and try to find some moves I could forget it in the game.

We start with the rather agonising Two Knights, in which he failed ever to get real compensation for the theoretical early pawn sacrifice.

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1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 5...Nxd5 6.Nxf7 6.Nc3 Qxg5 7.Bxd5= 7.Nxd5? Qxg2 8.Rf1 Nd4-+ 6...Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3 Ncb4 9.Bb3 c6= JS This may indeed be equal according to engines but you'd be pretty crazy to go for it willingly as Black. 6.Bb5+ c6 6...Bd7 7.Qe2 Be7 8.Nf3 Nxd5 9.Bxd7+ Qxd7 10.Nxe5 Qe6= 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Be2 8.Qf3 Rb8 is another line JS JS 8.Bd3 is trendy in high level chess at the moment. 8...Bf5 8...h6 9.Nf3 e4 10.Ne5 Bd6 11.d4 exd3 12.Nxd3 0-0= 12...Qc7 JS is normal move to make White play a preparatory move before castling and stop Bf4 for the moment. There have been numerous games with Black supposedly having very decent compensation. 13.Bf4 9.d3
JS After getting this in, White can simply retreat the knight to f3 without worrying much about e4 so he should have an edge. 9...Bd6 9...h6!? 10.Nf3 Bd6 is more sensible JS since now White can get control of e4 10.Nc3 0-0 11.0-0 Qd7 JS with the knight able to retreat to e4, Black's compensation for the pawn looks inadequate. 11...Nd5 12.Bg4 Nxc3 13.bxc3 Bxg4 or 13...Bg6 14.Bh5 14.Qxg4 JS White has a very nice advantage. 12.Nge4 Nd5?! JS surrendering the dark-squared bishop looks wrong. 12...Be7!? 13.Nxf6+ Bxf6 14.Ne4 JS There's no particlar need to move this piece which is already well placed though Ne4 certainly isn't a bad move. Simply 14.Re1 is also very pleasant. 14...Be7 14...Bxe4? 15.dxe4 Qxd1 16.Rxd1 Rfd8 17.Be3+- 15.Be3 Nb7 Black can resist. JS Yes of course he can but he hasn't remotely justified his pawn sacrifice. 13.Nxd6 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Qxd6 15.a4 JS This threatens Ba3 but any sensible rook move will avoid it and it weakens the queenside and costs a tempo. 15.Rb1 looks even better. 15...Rfd8 15...Rab8? 16.Ba3 c5 17.d4 exd4 18.cxd4+- 16.Ba3 Qg6 17.Kh1
17.Bh5!? Qe6 18.Qc1 JS is an engine line which is hard to see. The idea is that if e4 19.Qf4 exd3? 20.Rfe1 wins outright 17...Nc4± 17...e4 JS would put real pressure on White's centre. 18.Bc5 Nd6 18...Rd5!? 19.Be3 Be4± 19.Bh5 Qf6 20.Bg4 20.Qc1!?± 20...Ne4 21.Bxf5 Nxc5 22.Qf3 Rab8 23.Be4 Qxf3? 23...Nxe4 24.Qxe4! JS Black is defintiely fighting here and should have got rid of the bishop when he had this chance. 24.Qxf6?? Nxf6-+ 24.dxe4 Qxf3 25.gxf3 f6 24.Bxf3 Rd6 24...Rb2 JS was a good idea since after Rd6 White gets the b-file and the rook is passive on d6. 25.Rab1! Rbd8? However, 25...Rxb1!? 26.Rxb1 f5! would still have given reasonable chances. 26.Rb4 27)Tc4 Ne6 27.Rb7 Ra8 28.Rfb1 28.Re1 Nc5 29.Rb4 Nd7+- 28...g6
29.Rb8+ White now has full control so there was no need to cash in yet and 29.g3 making luft was cleaner. 29...Rxb8± 30.Rxb8+ Kg7 31.Ra8
31...Ng5? 31...c5 32.Rxa7 c4± would still fight though the a-pawn is very dangerous and the bishop may settle on d5 e.g.: 33.h3 cxd3 34.cxd3 Rxd3 35.c4 Rd2 36.Kg1 Kf6 37.Bd5 Rd1+ 38.Kh2 Rd2 39.Kg3 Rd3+ maybe 39...g5 40.a5 Rd3+ 41.f3 Rd2 42.Bxe6 Kxe6 40.f3 Rd2 41.h4 to prevent Nf4 and White should win. 32.Rxa7 Nxf3 32...e4 33.Be2+- 33.dxe4?! Rd2± ≤33.Bxe4 Nxe4 34.a5 Nxf2+ 35.Kg1 Nd1 33...exd3 34.Bxd3+- 33.gxf3 Kf6 34.Kg2 34.Rc7 JS is even better. Ke6 35.a5 Rd5 36.Rxc6+ Kd7+- 34...Ke6 34...Rd5 35.c4 Rd8 36.a5+- 35.a5 Rd8 35...Rd5 36.c4 Rc5 37.Kf1+- 36.a6 JS Here Sam resigned in what is indeed a dead lost position. A depressing game for him since he never really got compensation for the sacrificed pawn. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Lambert,L1790AZZOUG,S14121–02017C59Chess Club Championship10
Gervais,J1522AZZOUG,S14120–12017B08Chess Club Championship11

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The Two Knights Defence is one of the oldest opening lines in chess history. This DVD is aimed at players of both sides, giving an objective overview of all relevant theoretical lines.

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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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macauley macauley 4/4/2018 02:41
@adbennet Got it corrected. Thanks.
adbennet adbennet 4/4/2018 03:46
Thanks for the reply. Follow the line to the end, after 12.O-O-O it says "=". Yes, no doubt the keys problem is my browser. No keyboard issues in other applications, still broken here. Not to worry, the numeric keypad works:8,9! And I can paste the newline:

There is a way to download the pgn, but it's a bit of a hack so I wouldn't say anything without ChessBase's permission. Let me know.
macauley macauley 4/3/2018 12:49
@adbennet - Unless I'm missing something it doesn't say it's equal. Just given a '!?' Keys not working in this textbox sounds weird, but I haven't seen other reports of this, nor can I reproduce it. Perhaps a local issue? Have you tried another browser? Please write to support if you continue to experience this: https://en.chessbase.com/support-new
adbennet adbennet 4/3/2018 04:46
In the Pirc game Gervais vs. Azzoug, at black's move 7, I have my doubts that the line given with 7...b5 eight.Bd3 is equal. And speaking of bugs, not all of my keys are working in this textbox. The eight key is one, the enter key is another, the back-arrow key, who knows what other keys ...
macauley macauley 4/2/2018 12:16
@Illingworth - There seems to be a bug in this feature. We'll get it fixed ASAP.
Illingworth Illingworth 4/2/2018 07:10
You want real agony? Try to download the games...
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