Friday: 80.4kg (177lb)
Saturday: 80.7kg (178lb)
Sunday: 80.4kg (177lb)
Yesterday: 80.2kg (177lb)
Today: 80.8kg (178lb)
This morning I faced a German.
Spanton (1998 ECF) - Martin Schaefer (1929 Fide)
Sicilian Bb5(+)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.c3 Nf6
More popular is 4...Bg7, but Magnus Carlsen has preferred the text and it scores a much better percentage in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database.
5.Qe2 e5!?
An interesting pawn sacrifice that has been played by Ukrainian grandmaster Pavel Eljanov and is the top choice of the analysis engine Stockfish13.
6.Bxc6!?
Both games to reach the position in Mega21 saw 6.0-0. Ilya Smirin (2594) - Eljanov (2655), Netanya Masters (Israel) 2019, continued 6...Bg7 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.Nxe5 0-0 9.Nf3!? Re8 10.d3 d5, when Black has more than enough compensation for a pawn, according to Stockfish13 and Komodo12.1.1 (0-1, 55 moves).
6...bxc6 7.Nxe5 Bg7!
The engines prefer this to 7...Qe7 8.d4 cxd4 9.cxd4 c5, when they reckon White is better after both 10.Be3 and 10.0-0.
8.d3 0-0 9.Be3!?
The engines prefer my originally intended 9.Bg5.
9...Ba6
 |
| How should White meet Black's threat to capture on e4? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
10.Nd2?!
Developing a piece while protecting e4 seemed natural, but the engines prefer giving the pawn back immediately with 10.0-0 or 10.Nf3, or holding on to it a bit longer with 10.Bg5. In each case, however, they give a small edge to Black.
10...Re8
Even stronger seems to be the engines' 10...Qb8!?, when they reckon best play goes 11.f4 d6 12.Nec4 d5 with continuing strong pressure.
11.Nef3
Giving back the pawn, as does 11.f4 d6 12.Nef3.
11...Nxe4?!
Again natural, but the engines want to ratchet up the pressure with 11...d5!?
12.Nxe4 Rxe4 13.0-0 Qe7
The engines prefer withdrawing the rook to e6, with a position they rate as roughly equal.
14.Qd2 Ra4?
This may look aggressive but the rook is short of squares on the queenside and in danger of getting sidelined. As a general rule, and I cannot recall where I first read this, rooks do not belong on the middle ranks in the middlegame.
The engines still prefer ...Re6, although they give White a slight edge.
15.Rfe1 Qd6 16.b3 Ra5
Not 16...Rg4? 17.h3, but possibly slightly better is 16...Ra3.
17.c4!
Further imprisoning the rook, and forcing Black to spend valuable tempi at some point to activate his light-square bishop.
17...Qc7
Worse is 17...Ra3 18.Bf4 Qf8 19.Qc1 Ra5 20.Bc7 Bxa1 21.Qxa1! etc.
18.Bf4 Qd8
If 18...d6, then 19.Bxd6!? is good for White, but even better is the calm 19.Rad1, eg 19...Rd8 can be met by 20.Bxd6!? (the engines reckon 20.Re2!? is even stronger) as 20...Rxd6 fails to 21.Re8+ Bf8 22.Qh6.
19.Be5 d6 20.Bc3 Bxc3 21.Qxc3 Ra3 22.Re2 Bc8 23.Rae1 Be6
The move 23...Bg4 can be met by 24.Qb2 Ra6 25.Re7 with a strong attack as Black's forces are not well-coordinated for defending his king.
24.Qc1!
The best moves contain more than one threat. Here one threat is obvious, but after ...
24...Qa5
.... comes the second threat ...
25.Qh6
(24...Ra6 25.Ng5 would not have been much of an improvement, according to the engines)
The game finished:
25...Rxa2 26.Rxa2 Qxa2 27.Ng5 Qb2 28.Qxh7+ Kf8 29.Nxe6+ fxe6 30.Qxg6 Re8 31.h4 Qc3 32.Re3 Re7 33.Rf3+ 1-0
Good stuff - a clean win. I wondered whether you've been through any of your games with GM Spyridon Skembris? Waiting on round six!
ReplyDeleteNo, I have been consulting my regular trainers (Stockfish and Komodo).
ReplyDelete