Speelman's Agony #78

by Jonathan Speelman
6/17/2018 – John Chernoff sets chess and financial data to music, and sent Jon a collection of annotated games for review, replete with tactics, sacrifices and one very big 'oops' moment! Just a reminder — 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!
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.

It's Schliemann time!

This week's pair of games are by John Chernoff, an American who lives in Arcata, California, which is roughly 300 miles north of San Francisco. He got in touch with me at the beginning of this month with five games nicely annotated and with very amusing introductions. (My lead time is very short at the moment so please do send your games in!)

He writes:

ChernoffI was born in 1973 and work as a pianist for a Humboldt State University.

Outside of chess, my hobbies include reading, writing, programming, and cheese. Well, the cheese is basically just something I eat, but still.  Perhaps of some interest might be a chess to music application I'm currently working on. I am also developing an financial chart to music program that I will likely call "Stockhausen", but I digress.

Being in such an isolated area has limited my OTB chess, but I am fairly active online as "ZugAddict" and "GargleBlaster".  For the latter I've a chess blog which I haven't written for in years but sometimes think of resuming. I'm also considering starting a web page as I hear that's now definitely a thing people do.

Oh, one other thing — during my brief visit to Europe (and England, which I have on good authority to, in spite of recent developments, still be technically part of Europe) in 2011 I did post something to the English Chess Forum about my initial impressions of the Old World which turned out to generate a very small flash of notoriety and, more importantly, a free banana on my board for the first round of the 2011 Guernsey Open.

Of the five games, I've chosen one disastrous Agony and a nice victory and I may well use some of the others anon. We start with the Agony and as usual, I've added my comments as JS.

 
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1.e4 This game is especially painful for having been played upon the brink of attaining a National Master title. Only later did I learn that such titles are the chess equivalents of a diploma in business ethics from Trump University. e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.Nc3 fxe4 5.Nxe4 Nf6 6.d3 Very much not to the point of this line, which is to pressure e5 with Qe2. d5 7.Nxf6+ gxf6 8.Qe2 Qe7 9.Bd2 Bg7
10.0-0-0 Brave, at any rate. JS Well Yes. But mainly in the "Yes Minister" sense... 0-0 11.h3 f5 12.Bxc6 bxc6 13.Rhe1 e4
Black's position looks overwhelming and I probably expected to checkmate within a few moves. I should have remembered, of course, that chess is almost never that simple. 14.d4 c5 14...Qd6! JS 15.Ne5 15.Nh4 Bxd4 15...c5 16.f4 16.c3 cxd4 17.cxd4 c5 16...cxd4 splat! 15.Bc3 As is so often the case for me, I now fall into the only real trap White can set here, that of thinking far too long in search of an immediately winning combination. Qf6 Hoping to provoke Ne5. 16.Nh2 White defends cleverly by presenting Black with even more tempting yet murky possibilities, all of which are frustratingly difficult to calculate in my mounting time pressure. 16.Ne5 cxd4 17.Bxd4 Qd6 18.f4 c5 19.Bf2 d4 16...Qd6 If 16 ...Qg5+ (my initial plan), White almost certainly gains fantastic compensation by sacrificing his Knight. 16...Qg5+ 17.Kb1 Qxg2 18.Rg1 Qxh2 19.dxc5 JS in a game, you really wouldn't have to go beyond here to reject the line. It's obvious that White has a massive attack and may well be winning (in fact he is). And there are alterntives which get a very pleasant game in which Black shouldn't be in any danger whatsoever. Rf7 20.Qb5 is a reasonable defence 20.Qh5 JS is actually the strongest of all. Kf8 20...Be6 21.Qh6 21.Qg5 Be6 22.Bxg7+ Ke8 Unsurprisngly after a couple of accurate moves this should be the end of the world. Komodo gives Bd4 as more than +6! 20...Bd7 20...Kf8! 21.Qb7 Re8 22.Qxd5 Be6 23.Qxe6‼ 16...Rb8 JS isn't bad but it's annoying that the main idea runs into Qc4+: 17.dxc5 Bh6+ 18.Rd2 d4? 18...Qa6 19.Qc4+ 17.g3 Qh6+ 18.Kb1 Rb8 18...Qxh3 19.Rh1 Qh6 20.Ng4 Qa6 21.Nh6+ Bxh6 22.Qxa6 Bxa6 23.Rxh6 would be a ridiculous way for Black to play. 19.Qe3 Qxh3 Though this pawn appears safer to snatch, White still somehow manages to hold things together. JS: It isn't best and does look like a distraction when Black is trying to slaughter the king on the opposite wing. In fact he can't land a huge punch immediately but just simple positional chess would be enough for a nice advantage. 19...c4 20.Qxh6 Bxh6 21.Rg1 Kf7 20.Rh1 Qh6?
At this point the reality of the situation had begun to dawn on me - my opponent wasn't going to get mated any time soon, and I needed to find a way to, in the meantime make it to move 40, in more or less one piece. 20...f4!? 21.gxf4 Qxe3 22.fxe3 c6∞ JS The extremely calm 20...c4 was sensible because if 21.Nf3 f4! 22.Qc1 Qf5 23.Ne5 and Black should be okay though with the knight in his guts it could easily go wrong. 21.f4? Amazingly enough, White accompanied this rather reckless move with a draw offer that I, with five minutes remaining, probably should have accepted. 21.Qxh6 Bxh6 22.dxc5 c6 23.Nf3 Bg7 24.Bxg7 Kxg7 25.Nd4 Rf6 26.Rh4 JS Of course this is clearly better for White - the knight is now superb. 21...Qf6?! 21...cxd4! was much stronger, perhaps winning, but I had grown over-fond of my dark squared bishop. 21...cxd4! 22.Rxd4!? 22.Bxd4 JS c5! 23.Bxg7 Qxg7 24.b3 d4 22...Qb6! 22.Ka1 c4 Black, while still much better here, still needs to work hard for a win, and with my clock nearing three minutes, the final act of this tragicomedy begins to take a predictable shape. 23.Rdg1 Rb6 24.Qe2 Bd7 JS 24...c5! 25.Rd1 25.dxc5 Qxc3 25...Be6 26.g4 Rb7 keeps good control 25.g4!
Posing the maximum number of problems with the minimum amount of time to solve them in. 25...c5?! 25...fxg4 26.Nxg4 Qxf4 27.Ne5 Be8 28.Qg2 Qf6 29.Nxc4! 25...Qf7! 26.gxf5 Bxf5 would perhaps have kept some advantage, though if White just moves the knight to e3 he has very decent chances after something like. 27.Nf1 Rg6 looks most normal to me 27...Bg6 28.Ne3 c6 29.Bb4 Re8 29...Bxd4 30.Nxf5 Qxf5 31.Rxg6+ hxg6 32.Bxf8 Kxf8 33.c3 is just a fight. 30.Rxg6 hxg6 31.Bc5 26.g5?! Giving me one last chance for glory. After 26.gxf5 there's hardly any way for me to thread my way through the ensuing complications. JS Even without calculating - and finding the vicious Ne3 - it's obvious that if White leaves the g7 bishop undisturbed then he should be in massive trouble. 26.gxf5! cxd4 27.Ng4 Qxf5 28.Ne3‼ JS This is easy to miss but very strong. I've upgraded John's one exclamation mark to two since it completely changes the evaluation of the position. dxc3 29.Nxf5 cxb2+ 30.Kb1 Bxf5 31.Qd2 Rd6 32.Qd4 Bg6 33.Qxa7∞ 26...Qe7?! JS worng because it encourages Nf3. Instead 26...Qc6 was better and if 27.dxc5 Qxc5 28.Bxg7 Kxg7 transpposes back to the game. 27.dxc5? 27.Nf3 bringing the knight back into the game was a much saner alternative. 27...Qxc5?! With this move I seal my fate, as I spent my last three minutes trying to make 27...Rxb2 "work" but, in the end, just couldn't quite see it through and "bailed out" with this and seven seconds on my clock. A pity, since ...Rxb2 actually leads to some fantastic possibilities. 27...Rxb2‼ 28.Bxb2 Bxb2+ 29.Kxb2 Rb8+ 30.Kc1 Qxc5 31.g6 Qa3+ 32.Kd2 Qb4+ 33.c3 Qb2+ 34.Ke3 Qxc3+ 35.Kf2 Rb2 36.gxh7+ Kh8 37.Rg8+ Kxh7 38.Rg5 Rxe2+ 39.Kxe2 JS Houdini gives a lovely line here: Qh3 39...Qb2+ 40.Kf1 Qc1+ 41.Kg2 Qxh1+ 42.Kxh1 c3 and the pawns turn out simply to be too strong e.g.: 43.Rg1 d4 44.Nf1 44.Rc1 d3 45.Nf1 d2 44...c2 45.Ne3 dxe3 46.Rc1 Ba4 40.Ng4‼ fxg4‼ 41.Rxh3+ gxh3 42.Ke3 42.Rxd5 Bg4+ 43.Kf2 e3+ 42...c3 43.Rg1 c2 44.Kd2 Ba4 45.Rh1 d4 46.Rxh3+ Kg6 47.Ra3 e3+ 48.Kc1 e2 49.Rg3+ Kf5 50.Rg1 Kxf4 51.Kd2 Kf3 28.Bxg7 Kxg7 29.c3 Rfb8 30.Rb1
Amazingly, I still have seven seconds due to the digital clock's five second delay. Even more amazingly, this position is still completely winning for Black. 30...Ra6? Much less amazingly, I now begin to blunder horribly. 30...Qa5! 31.a3 Rb3 31...Ra6 JS was a ,more complicated and hence less practical way to score a goal: 32.Rbc1 Rb3 33.Rc2 Ba4 34.Rd2 Rxa3+ 35.bxa3 Bb3 and there's no defence. 32.Rhd1 Rxc3 32...R8b6! JS was a reasonably clean win 33.Qd2 33.Rd2 Rxa3+ 34.bxa3 Qxa3+ 35.Ra2 Qxc3+ 36.Qb2 36.Rbb2 Qc1+ 36...Rxb2 37.Rbxb2 37.Raxb2 Ba4 37...Qd4 33...e3 34.Qd4+ Kg6 35.Nf3 Qxa3+ 36.bxa3 Rxa3# 33.bxc3 Qxa3+ 34.Qa2 Qxc3+ 35.Rb2 Ba4 36.Rdd2 Rb3 31.b4! cxb3?? Oops. En passant is always treacherous... 31...Qd6 32.Qd2 d4! 33.Qxd4+ Qxd4 34.cxd4 Rd6 35.Rhd1 Ba4 36.Rd2 e3 37.Re2 Rxd4 38.Rxe3 Rxf4 32.Qxa6 D'oh! Qxc3+ 33.Rb2 bxa2? Perhaps I thought I might still be winning here. However... 34.Qf6+ I'm not. 1-0 Augh. JS This was an immensely complicated game in which I wouldn't remotely expect even a very strong player to find all of the best moves. But there were some moments when both sides could have used assessments to guide them even if they couldn't calculate what was going on. Once he had gained a lovely position, John should perhaps have made more of an effort to keep control and tried less hard to find a KO. And from his opponent, g5 rather than gxf5, even though it later led to an unexpected victory, was palpably too slow. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Esler,B2060Chernoff,J21591–02018C63Portland 2012 Summer Open3
Chernoff,J2159Herrera,R20441–02018B46Portland 2012 Summer Open5

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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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