Speelman's Agony #81

by Jonathan Speelman
8/5/2018 – A young Indian junior sends one troublesome experience and one triumph from his recent tournament praxis, while Jon provides his usual sage advice. Want to join in the fun? 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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GM scalp

This week's pair of games are by Indian junior Tarun V Kanth who is from Chennai in Tamil Nadu (Viswanathan Anand home city). 

He writes:Tarun Kanth

I am a grade 12 student aged 16 and have a current Elo of 2102. I have been playing chess from the age of 9 and am coached under the guidance of GM R.B. Ramesh, who is also the coach of the worlds youngest IM and second youngest GM Praggnandhaa R. and of the Indian team in the Olympiad.

I have represented the country in the 2016 world youth and Asian Junior 2016 and represented India in the 2015 — 2018 Commonwealth Championship. My highest rating is 2227. I am currently playing in Poland (2ND Irena Warakomska Memorial). My idol in chess is Viswanathan Anand.

The two games he sent me are a somewhat agonising battle where he accepted a draw in what turned out to be a winning position and his first ever win against a grandmaster. He sent plenty of notes which I've added to, as usual, as JS and we start with the former.

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,185,96054%2421---
1.d4960,10155%2434---
1.Nf3286,72856%2440---
1.c4184,98756%2443---
1.g319,89756%2427---
1.b314,60454%2428---
1.f45,95848%2376---
1.Nc33,91750%2383---
1.b41,79148%2379---
1.a31,25054%2406---
1.e31,08149%2409---
1.d396950%2378---
1.g467046%2361---
1.h446654%2382---
1.c343951%2425---
1.h328956%2420---
1.a411860%2461---
1.f310047%2427---
1.Nh39366%2506---
1.Na34762%2476---
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 0-0 I started playing this line only recently 8.Bd3 f5 9.Qg3 9.exf6 Rxf6 10.Bg5 Rf7 11.Qh5 g6 12.Qd1 Is how the line continues 9...b6 10.h4 Ba6 Exchange the good bishop in the French 11.h5 Bxd3 12.h6 g6 13.Qxd3 Nbc6 14.Bg5 Qd7 15.Ne2 Rac8 16.0-0 cxd4 17.cxd4 Rc7
JS It looks as though White should be able to do something on the kingside but in fact Black is pretty resilient and anything that does happen will initially do so slowly. Tarun's next move looks natural and is certainly an idea to keep in reserve but it weakens c3 and I think I might prefer to defend a little on the queenside first, recognising that White can't expect to hold there forever but trying signifcantly to slow the opponent down. However, in the sample line below, White hasn't really achieved anything at the end and Black has an obvious way to try to improve his position - see the next sub-diagram. So perhaps I'm overassessing White's chances and it's just about equal. 18.Nf4 18.c3 Na5 19.a4 Rc4 20.Qg3 Rfc8 21.Ra3 Kf7 22.Nf4 Ng8 23.Rb1
looks reasonable since Black can't capture on a4 though presumably he'd try to get the king to the queenside. 23...Rxa4? 23...Ke8 24.Rxa4 Qxa4 25.Nxg6
18...Rfc8 19.c3 Na5 20.Rac1 Nc4 21.Qg3 Nxa3 21...Kf7 22.Qh4 22.Bf6 22.Nh5 JS Qd8 23.Nf6+ 22...Nc4 23.Rfd1 a5 JS I wondered about R7c6 followed by R8c7 to defend e6 and free the queen to go to f7. Black can then later think about advancing on the queenside. 23...Rc6 24.Qg5 R8c7 25.Ra1 a5 26.Ra2 Here it defends the queenside and also stops Nd2 Qe8 27.Rb1 Qf7 28.Nh3 Kf8 29.Bg7+ Ke8 30.Qf6 Ng8 30...Qg8 31.Ng5 31.Qh4 Ne7 with the knight hoppping around on the dark squares, White surely has at least enough for the pawn and there are several repetitions which might occur. 24.Rd3?! JS Unless White is going to sacrifice the knight somehow the rook isn't especially well placed here. It does defend c3 laterally but probqbly White should have one rook on a2 and this one floating about on the back rank. 24.Ra1 a4 25.Ra2 b5 24...a4 25.Qg5 a3 25...Kf7 26.Bg7 Ng8 27.Nxg6 Qd8 28.Nh8+ Ke8 29.Qh5+ Kd7 26.Bg7 Rc6 27.Qf6 Qe8
The game typically starts here JS Tarun has played really well up to here and with his opponent unable to deliver a serious blow on the kingside he has a clear advantage. 28.Nxe6?? Here White falls into a pin. But how to exploit it? White has an idea to play Bf8 or h8 and threaten mate on g7 (White's only counterplay) and to exploit the pin I must move my e7-knight to a place where I support g7 mate. It is easy to recognize that f5 is an ideal square. but there is a pawn on f5 blocking the knight's path to victory. Therefore the only winning move in this positions is... JS I think I'd give this just one question mark. If White doesn't play it then his build upo makes no sense so he might as well. Qf7? 28...f4‼ ! which I missed 29.Bf8 Nf5 30.Bd6 Ncxd6 31.exd6 Rxd6 32.Re1 Rcc6 33.Qf8+ Qxf8 34.Nxf8 Kxf8-+ 29.Ng5 Rxf6 30.exf6 Nc6 30...Qe8 31.f7+ 31.Re1! JS is in fact a better move and one that you should at least consider in a game. a2 31...Nd6 32.Rxe7 Qxe7 33.fxe7 a2 34.Rd1 Rxc3 35.Ra1 Rc2 36.Be5 Ne8 37.Ne6 b5 37...Kf7 38.Nf4 38.Nc5 b4 32.Rdd1 Nd6 33.Ra1! 31...Qxf7 32.Nxf7 Kxf7 Here the bishop looks free to go to e5... so I chose to have the pawn on f6 JS The bishop looks far from great on e5 so my instinctive feeling is that it's better to get rid of the pawn.. 31.Nxf7 Kxf7 32.Ra1 Ra8 33.Rdd1 Re8 34.Re1 Ra8 35.Ra2 g5 36.f3 Ra5? 36...b5= 37.Rae2 Ra8 38.Kh2 f4 Tarun gave this a ? but at this moment everything is good for White if he plays correctly 39.Re7+? JS A mistake but the ?? which Tarun gave it seems overly censorious in a difficult position and presumably in time trouble. 39.Re6+- N4e5 39...N4a5 40.c4! 40.R6xe5 Nxe5 41.dxe5 Ke6 42.Kh3 a2 43.Ra1 b5 44.Kg4 Tarun stopped here. You can continue b4 45.cxb4 d4 46.Kxg5 d3 47.Kxf4 d2 48.Ke3 d1Q 49.Rxd1 a1Q 50.Rxa1 Rxa1 but with half a million pawns for the exchange, White is obviously winning. 39...Nxe7 40.Rxe7+ Kg6 41.f7 a2 42.Ra7
Here my opponent offered a draw... so I began to calculate (I had 50 mins remaining after time control) 42.f8Q Rxf8 43.Ra7 Na5 42.Re8 Kxf7 43.Rxa8 Na5 42...-- What I had calculated 42...Rxa7 43.f8Q a1Q 44.Qe8+ Kf5 45.Qc6 Rf7 46.Qc8+ Kg6 47.Qe6++- So I decided to agree for a draw thinking I was losing After accepting it my opponent laughed at me, telling me Na5 was winning... I was shocked. The variation before was instead of 42.Ra7. I calculated 42.Re8 Kxf7 42. Rxa8 Na5... My silly mind couldn't see that it transposes to the same variation 42.Ra7 Na5 43.Rxa8 Kxf7 (transposes). It was a half-point for a silly move... After the game I felt.. was I winning or losing... but ended in a draw... just like life I got an unexpected result JS It's easy when calculating such a complex position to miss something entirely different right at the beginning. Various measures have been suggested to counter this and I guess that with enough time to play with, you might try to stop thinking entirely for a moment or perhaps get up and go to the toilet, before returning to look at the board again, supposedly with fresh eyes. In any case, this was an extremely complicated game which Tarun mostly coped with very well before the annoying slip at the very end. 42...Na5
½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Onikwere,C2215Tarun,.1967½–½2017C18IV Sunway Sitges chess festival 2017 5.65
Agrest,E2600Tarun,.19670–12017A13IV Sunway Sitges chess festival 20172.40

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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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