Happy New Year! Don't give up!

by Jonathan Speelman
1/6/2019 – In his first Agony/Ecstasy column of 2019, GM JON SPEELMAN hears from a Turkish sociologist who focuses on the Queen's Gambit Declined. The games show why it's important to keep fighting, even when you fear a loss. Feel free to send in your own games! 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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Speelman's Agony #90

Many thanks first to everybody who's sent games into the drop box in recent weeks. Two requests though: Please include an email address so that I can contact you. And please use either PGN or a compressed ChessBase database CBV. (In ChessBase, click Menu→Database→Backup database, or hit Ctrl+Z.) 

A Happy New Year to all readers and please do keep on sending your games for me to dissect.

This week's pair of games are by Ayhan Anil, a Turkish sociologist who writes:

Ayhan Anil“I am 34 years old an amateur chess enthusiast from İstanbul Turkey. 

I am a sociologist as well as a chess trainer of 3 kids who are in between 8 to 10 years old. (I sent already the photo of my students!) 

Although I admire Alekhine's exciting attacking playing style, I can say that I am a positional player. I Learned a lot from Capablanca and Botvinnik's games. I like to study and improve endgame technics which is vital for every chess players I think. So I am trying to teach 20 years chess experience to my students who are already so successful in the age group tournaments in Turkey.

My highest rating so far was 1896 FIDE Elo and I hope to improve on this in the near future. 

In both games, Ayhan is Black in the Queen's Gambit Declined and both are very complicated. 

In the Agony game, Ayhan gained the advantage against a stronger opponent but then blundered decisively at the last. In the Ecstasy that follows, he lost a pawn in complications but kept on fighting well and got his reward when his opponent went wrong.

Ayhan sent introductions to both games but the annotations themselves are all mine.

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,186,70654%2421---
1.d4960,56055%2434---
1.Nf3286,91356%2440---
1.c4185,11556%2442---
1.g319,90256%2427---
1.b314,60954%2428---
1.f45,95948%2376---
1.Nc33,91950%2383---
1.b41,79148%2379---
1.a31,25254%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---
"This was played in the 6th round of the Kocaeli province chess championship. My opponent Aşkın Taşan has several times beeen champion of the province. Although I had a good position after the opening and had good attacking chances, I could not find the killer blow. I calculated a lot and sought the right continuation/plans a lot but only lost a lot of time. In the endgame phase I was one pawn up and stood well positionally but was in severe time trouble. As a result I lost. But I think the game is worth to look at and I decided to share with you as my "agony" game. I choose it because I understand that being positionally better or materially up (a pawn) against a better player does not mean that you will win the game." 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.e3 Be7 6.Bd3 0-0 7.a3 c5 8.0-0 a6 9.b3 b6 10.Bb2 Bb7 11.Qe2 Ne4
This is a very complicated position in which the next few moves are utterly crucial. White can now either keep the tension or try to resolve the centre to his advantage. My first thought was to try cxd5 and if exd5 dxc5 hoping to leave Black with either a slightly weak pawn on e4 or an isolated d-pawn. but it isn't very convincing since Black has many options. 12.Bxe4 12.cxd5 exd5 12...Nxc3 13.Bxc3 Bxd5 looks perfectly reasonable for Black too. 13.dxc5 Ndxc5 something like 13...bxc5 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15.Nd2 Nf6 16.Rfd1 Qc8 17.Nc4 Qe6 was what I was aiming for. Incidentally, White would be much happier here if the pawn were on a2 because then the b3 pawn wouldn't be a target. 14.b4 14.Rad1 14...Nxd3 15.Qxd3 Engines tend to be happy in this sort of position as Black but as White you can hope to get a good IQP position eventaully. 12.Rfd1 keeping the tension would have put the most pressure on Black when it's crucial that f5, which he would like to play, runs into tactics. f5 the modest 12...Nxc3 13.Bxc3 Bf6 feels a tad uncomfortable for Black (can White exploit that fact that h7 will be hit by Qc2 - is there some way to resolve the centre to get a +=?) though it may be okay... 13.cxd5 exd5 14.dxc5 bxc5 14...Bf6 15.c6 Bxc6 16.Rac1 gvies White a nice edge. 15.Nxe4! fxe4 16.Bxe4 dxe4 17.Ne5 Nxe5 18.Rxd8 Nf3+ 19.gxf3 Raxd8 20.f4 and White should win. 12...dxe4 13.Nd2 Nf6 With the e4 pawn well protected Black has a good game. 14.Rad1 14.Rfd1 looks more normal. 14...Qc7 15.f3 Getting some space and the f-file but weakening the light squares. exf3 16.Nxf3 Rad8 17.Ne5 Bd6
18.Nf3 I tried to make Rxf6 work but after 18.Rxf6 Bxe5! 18...gxf6 19.Ng4 is really dangerous since the long black diagonal will soon open for example if Be7 20.d5 exd5 21.Nxd5 Bxd5 22.Nxf6+ Bxf6 23.Qg4+ and mate next move. 19.dxe5 Rxd1+ 20.Nxd1 gxf6 21.exf6 Kh8 and White doesn't really have enough for the exchange. 18...Ng4! 19.h3 Nf6 20.dxc5 bxc5 21.e4 Nh5
With the light squares around White's king softened, Ayhan now has a very nice advantage 22.Qe3 Bf4 23.Qf2 Ng3 24.Rxd8 Rxd8 25.Re1
The main difficulty in positions like this is that our eagerness to wrap things up propels us to "do things". Black is in almost total control and Ayhan could have taken a move to sort out his back rank with h6. 25...Rd3 25...h6 when White has no good moves. Perhaps he would have tried 26.Bc1 but Bxc1 27.Rxc1 Bxe4 is very grim. 26.Qc2 Be3+ 27.Rxe3 Rxe3 28.Qd2 Rxe4 28...Rxc3! 29.Bxc3 Nxe4 30.Qd3 Nxc3 31.Qxc3 f6 would have given excellent and safe winning chances. 29.Nxe4 Nxe4 30.Qe3 Qd8 31.b4 Qd1+ 32.Kh2
32...Qc2?? A horrible blunder in time trouble. 33.Qf4! Suddenly White is winning and Ayhan resigned. A very sad end to an extremely complicated game in which, up to this point, Ayhan had played well. He took advantage of his opponent's bad resolution of the centre to gain a nice advantage which he increased with the excellent Nf6-g4 and back again after h3, creating serious dark square weaknesses around the enemy king. In the critical phase, Rd3 was strong but from a practical point of view h6 would have perhaps been even better, avoiding back rank disasters as actually occured in the game and putting the ball back into his opponent's court. 33.Qf4 h6 34.Qb8+ Kh7 35.Qxb7 f6 35...cxb4 36.Qxb4 36.bxc5 and with the bishop defended, White is in full control. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Tasan,A-Anil,A-1–01983D37Istanbul
Kuseyri,M-Anil,A-0–11983D37Istanbul

Click or tap the second game in the list below the board to switch

This DVD offers a complete repertoire for handling this solid opening, often featuring a dynamic approach to pose the opponent more practical problems. Both of the main continuations 3...Nf6 and 3...Be7 are covered in two separate parts.

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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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