Jon Speelman's Agony Column #14: David vs Goliath

by ChessBase
8/11/2016 – Facing a much higher rated opponent can always be a significant challenge, as much psychological as technical. The reverse is also true as playing as hard and focused can be a challenging proposition when our brains relax thanks to excess confidence. In this week's column, grandmaster Jonathan Speelman analyzes a game with just such challenges throughout. Enjoy this lesson and try your hand at the Training questions.
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This week, we have just a single game which comes from Dominique Contero, who is English and lives in Northamptonshire, a county in the East Midlands of England.

To fulfil (loosely) the criteria, Dominique has sent a fine game (Ecstasy) but also emphasised his opponent's Agony as he lost control. Dominique kindly sent me some notes and I've incorporated these as DC while the bulk of the notes are by myself though I have occasionally put in JS to be clear. You will also find a few key moves in the notes as Training questions to test yourself with.

In his introduction, Dominique explains the conditions of his game: "Chris Ross, a player of my first division team in the Northamptonshire Silver King League, is one of the top player in the Northampton Chess Mates Chess Club. We have always had interesting blitz games in the past and this game was the only time, to-date, that we met in a slow game. Chris, with already an International Master norm in his pocket  was the favourite to win our encounter. I was however not too worried playing with the black pieces as I knew that the Pirc defence, my pet defence against the King's Pawn Opening, was going to be a very good practical opening against him. We were both leading the club championship, and the winner of this game was sure to win the championship."

Facing a much higher rated opponent can be intimidating at times, but grit and heart can overcome much. Above is a depiction of the famous biblical battle between David and Goliath. On a sidenote, this excellent article describes it, and now...

Chris Ross - Dominique Conterno

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1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 a6 5.f3 b5 6.Qd2 Bb7 JS In this sort of line, Black should be okay if he can get developed without allowing an accident. This could occur if White found a good moment to punch through in the centre with e5 or less dramatically if White was able to gain the advantage on the queenside. Lots of moves have been tried and if White wants to play positionally then a4 makes quite good sense 6...Nbd7 is also possible first. I'm far from sure which is better or if it matters greatly but these things can make a serious difference. 7.Nh3 Taking advantage of the bishops development to use the h3 square en route to f2 or possibly g5. This isn't a bad idea but if Black gets in ...c5xd4 then he will normally be quite comfortable. 7.a4 c6 leaves Black a little passive in the short term but if 7...b4 8.Nd1 a5 weakening b5 is far from disastrous but a move you'd prefer not to have to make. 7...Nbd7 8.Bh6?!N (JS) It's a bit odd to do this before Black plays ...Bg7 since although you do prevent castling it loses time and, at least as important, facilitates the ...c7-c5 break. Nf2 or Be2 have been tried and both look more natural. 8.Nf2 c5 now can be met by 8...Bg7 is therefore more normal 9.dxc5 when dxc5 is alright but not what Black really wants. However if 9...Nxc5 10.e5! with a clear advantage 8...c5! 8...e5 was mentioned by Dave and may well be playable but I'd much rather play ...c5. 9.Bxf8 9.d5 JS is more challenging though I imagine that Bxh6 10.Qxh6 is alright. Black's only problem is the somewhat annoying queen on h6 and engines suggest Qa5! 11.Be2 Qb4 12.Rb1 Qd4 to evict her when if 13.a4? b4 14.Rd1 Qe5 15.f4 Ng8! saves the Black queen with a clear advantage
Decisions come at all times, and here is an almost innocuous one that is important. How should Black recapture?
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Ross,C2199Conterno,D18320–12014B07Club Championship 2013/4

Many thanks for your continuing emails, which are the life blood of this column. Please do send games - preferably a pair of "Agony" and "Ecstasy" but a single good game is also fine . The best format is either ChessBase .cbv or  .pgn as an attachment . I can also lift games in text format from the body of an email and paste them into the growing database.

About the author

Jon was born in 1956 and became a professional player in 1977 after graduating from Worcester College Oxford where he read mathematics. He became an IM in 1977 a GM in 1980 and was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980-2006.

Three times British Champion he played twice in the Candidates reaching the semi-final  (of what was then a knockout series of matches) in 1989 when he lost 4.5 - 3.5 to Jan Timman. He's twice been a second at the world championship for Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

He's written for the Observer (weekly) since 1993 and The Independent since 1998. With its closure (going online but without Jon on board) he's expanding online activity and is also now offering online tuition.

He likes puzzles especially (cryptic) crosswords and killer sudokus.

If you'd like to lambast Jon or otherwise he can be contacted via his email

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