'Somewhat Risky' Chameleon

HERE is my previously unposted Saturday-evening game from Coulsdon Christmas U2000/170.
Spanton (1951/168) - Theo Khoury (1415/110)
Sicilian Closed
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nge2 Nf6 4.g3!?
Grandmaster Andrew Soltis wrote the Chess Digest books The Chameleon Sicilian (1982) and Beating The Sicilian Defence: Chameleon Variation (1990), so he had a vested interest in making this move work.
(The idea of the Chameleon Sicilian is that White hedges his bets over whether to play an Open or Closed Sicilian. The hope is that White can choose an Open Sicilian if Black starts playing moves more suitable for a Closed Sicilian, and a Closed Sicilian if Black starts playing moves more suitable for an Open Sicilian.)
After 3...Nf6, Soltis writes (1990 edition): "Black would get his transpositional wish [of an Open Sicilian] after 4.d4. White can, if he wishes, avoid [this] with 4.g3 but it is somewhat risky and the only player of international stature who has taken the risk in recent years is Vlastimil Hort of Czechoslovakia."
In ChessBase's 2020 Mega database, 4.d4 is the most-popular and best-percentage-scoring move, but 4.g3 has been tried by modern strong players including Francisco Vallejo Pons and Baadur Jobava.
4...d6
The most-popular reply is 4...d5, which Soltis calls "by far the most ambitious and most aggressive of the moves available to Black." After 5.exd5 (5.d3 dxe4 "is not fun to play," according to Soltis), the main line runs 5...Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nxc3 7.bxc3! (Soltis's punctuation). However, Soltis concentrates on 5...Nc7, with the idea of setting up a Maroczy Bind, although the analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10 reckon this is too slow.
5.Bg2 e6 6.0-0 Be7 7.d3 0-0

Position after 7...0-0

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By several transpositions, we have reached a position discussed by Soltis on page 42 of his 1990 book, where he suggests White is likely to achieve "the kind of kingside attacking position that White usually got in the last century [ie the 19th century] when Black answered 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 with something other than 3...g6."
8.f4 Qc7!?
This has been played by a 2415. However, developing the queen to c7 is often thought of as being an Open Sicilian move rather than one that is useful in a Closed Sicilian. Having said that, the move comes to be Komodo10's top choice.
9.h3 a6 10.g4 Nd7 11.Be3 b5 12.g5 Nb6!?
This seems to be new. 12...b4 was played in Jacek Gdanski (2569) - Christer Niklasson (2413), Swedish team championship 2004, which continued 13.Na4 Rfe8 14.c4!? bxc3!? 15.Naxc3 with an unclear position (1-0, 39 moves).
13.f5 exf5?!
This is not liked by the engines. They suggest 13...Qd8!?, but Stockfish10 reckons 14.Qd2 gives White an edge. There is also the tempting combination 14.f6!? gxf6 15.gxf6 Bxf6 16.e5 Nxe5 17.Bxa8 with a sharp position that is hard to assess.
14.exf5 Rd8?!
14...Re8, which also allows the defensive ...Bf8, looks more natural.
15.f6 Bf8 16.Nf4 Bb7
The engines suggest 16...g6, but White is clearly better.
17.fxg7 Bxg7 18.Nh5 d5 19.Nf6+ Bxf6 20.gxf6 Kh8 21.Bh6 Ne5 22.Bf4?
Overthinking. The simple 22.Qh5 Rg8 23.Bg7+ leaves White well on top.
22...Re8?
Better is 22...Rg8, which defends and attacks along the mutually dangerous g file. If White continues, as in the game, with 23.Qh5, Black has the strong 23...d4.
23.Qh5 b4
Now 23...d4? is powerfully met by 24.Ne4 since 24...Bxe4 can be met by 25.Bxe4, which would not be possible in the line in the previous note as the g2 bishop would be pinned by a rook on g8.
24.Ne2 Nbd7 25.Bh2?
Good are 25.Bh6 (Stockfish10) and 25.Rae1 (Komodo10).
25...Qd6?
Strong is 25...d4, not least because an exchange of light-square bishops can only favour Black.
26.Rf5 Nxf6
There is no defence, eg 26...Re6 27.Raf1 Rg8 28.Qxh7+! Kxh7 29.Rh5+ Kg6 30.Rff5, and the threat of Nf4# cannot be stopped without ruinous loss of material.
27.Qh6 Re6 28.Bxe5 Rxe5 29.Rxf6 (1-0, 39 moves)

Money Game

I WENT into the fifth and last round of Coulsdon Christmas U2000/170 as one of four players on 2.5, a clear point behind leader Brendan O'Gorman.
Spanton (1951/168) - O'Gorman (1675/154)
Sicilian Closed
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nge2 Nc6 4.g3 d5
The main move in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database, and clearly critical. From now on each move by both sides has the potential to be highly significant.
5.exd5 exd5 6.Bg2 Nf6!?
A popular alternative to the main line, but not liked by Stockfish10 or Komodo10. The main line goes 6...d4 7.Nd5!? Nf6 8.Nef4 Nxd5 9.Nxd5 Bd6 10.0-0 0-0 11.d3 Be6, reaching a position Andrew Solits discusses in his Chess Digest book Beating The Sicilian Defence: Chamelon Variation (I have the 1990 revised and expanded edition).

Position after 11...Be6

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Soltis writes: "Black has more space but White has that great diagonal leading from g2, and the better squares for his other pieces. His queen can become quite active on the kingside at h5 or f3 and his knight is magnificent on d5. Unlike Black, he really doesn't have a bad bishop. Black, however, ha[s] good power lines for his rooks and the prospect of a queenside push (...b5/...c4) and no kingside weaknesses. Both players will want to mine the e file with rooks and both have an interest in advancing their f pawns. Two examples indicate that the position is not quite balanced and that White is always a little better."
Times have moved on - there are more than 50 examples of this position in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database, including Fischer winning with the white pieces against Spassky in their 1992 match. However, it is fair to says results overall have not been good for White, and the engines reckon the position is equal.
7.d4 cxd4
Always tempting in this type of position, at least for club players, is 7...c4?, but Soltis calls it "a positional blunder which allows White a free hand in a semi-closed centre." The engines reckon White is winning (Stockfish10) or at least has the upper hand (Komodo10) after 8.Bg5 and the other known move 8.0-0.
8.Nxd4 Bc5!?
This aggressive bishop-move is not very popular, but has been played by Andrei Sokolov (2556).
9.Qe2+ Qe7 10.Qxe7+ Nxe7 11.Nb3 Bb4
Black seems to be in difficulties whatever he plays, eg 11...Bb6 12.Bg5 Be6 13.0-0-0 0-0-0 (13...Bxf2 14.Rhf1) 14.Na4 Bc7 (14...Bxf2 15.Rd2) 15.Nd4 with much the better position for White.
12.Bd2 0-0 13.0-0
I rejected the engines' choice 13.0-0-0 because of 13...Ng4?, missing the strength of 14.Nxd5, eg 14...Nxd5 15.Bxd5 Bxd2+ 16.Rxd2, when White has won a good pawn.
13...Bf5 14.Nd4 Bxc3?!
I expected 14...Bg6, when White has a pleasant edge.
15.Nxf5 Nxf5 16.Bxc3 Ne4
The engines suggest 16...d4, but after 17.Bb4 Rfe8 18.Rfe1 they reckon White is better.
17.Bb4 Rfe8 18.Rad1 Rad8
The engines give 18...Ne7 19.Bxe7 Rxe7, but White has the upper hand after 20.Rfe1 (or the simple 20.Rxd5).
19.Rfe1 h6 20.c4
Black is losing a pawn, and White will have a passed pawn that is already on the fifth rank (and so considerably stronger than Black's isolani on his fourth rank).
20...Nf6 21.Rxe8+ Rxe8 22.cxd5 b6 23.Kf1
I was not certain 23.d6 or 23.Bh3 definitely won, but felt that centralising the king, while covering the e2 square, must be good.
23...a5 24.Bc3 Ne4?
This loses trivially, but the engines reckon Black is lost anyway.
25.Bxe4 Rxe4 26.d6 Re8 27.d7 Rd8 28.Be5 1-0
My final score of +3=1-1 saw me lose 16.4 Fide elo. It was an ECF grading performance of 159.6. I came equal-first with two others, winning £67.
Addendum 23/12/19: one of the juniors I beat does not have the rating he was credited with (the organisers used a converted ECF), which means my Fide elo loss rises to 18.

Six Surprising Chess Facts About Bobby Fischer (part six)

1. He had a 50% score against Damiano's Defence
2. He played the Morra Gambit
3. Opponents were more likely to meet Fischer's 1.e4 with 1...e5 than with 1...c5
4. He had a better record as White in double e-pawn openings with the King's Gambit than with 2.Nf3
5. The Exchange Variation of the Spanish was a sideline for Fischer compared with his use of 4.Ba4
6. He had a better score against the Sicilian with Nc3 than with Nf3
Fischer faced 1...c5 in 179 games, playing 2.Nf3 170 times, scoring 73%, and 2.Nc3 nine times, scoring 89%, according to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database.
He is perhaps best-known in the Sicilian for popularising the move Bc4 in Open Sicilians.
In the Closed he championed a system later dubbed the Chameleon Sicilian by GM Andrew Soltis.
Fischer - Boris Spassky
Match 1992, game 17
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6
The choice of seven of Fischer's nine Nc3 opponents. The two exceptions played 2...e6. In all nine games, Fischer played the same third move.
3.Nge2!?
This fits with the normal Closed Sicilian plan of fianchettoing White's kingside bishop. But at the same time White keeps on the agenda the possibility of switching to an Open Sicilian by playing d4. This chameleon-like flexibility is what Soltis drew attention to in a 1982 booklet for Chess Digest.
3...e6 4.g3
This and 4.d4 are almost equally popular in Mega19. Fischer tried both moves.
4...d5 5.exd5 exd5 6.Bg2!?
6.d4!?, although little played, looks a critical alternative. In game 23 of the same match, Fischer tried a Soltis favourite, 6.d3, drawing in 80 moves.
6...d4 7.Nd5
The knight might look precarious here, but it can be supported and, in case of need, can fall back to f4.
7...Nf6 8.Nef4 Nxd5 9.Nxf5 Bd6
9...Be6 is met by 10.Nf4.
10.0-0 0-0 11.d3 Be6
Black has more space, and now sets about evicting White's only trump, the knight.
12.Nf4
Given as a novelty by GM Ľubomír Ftáčnik in Mega19 but, hardly surprisingly, it is not.
12...Bf5 13.h3 Rb8!?
GM Vladimir Epishin preferred 13...Re8 in a win over a 2290 at the 1991 New York open.
14.Bd2 Re8 15.Re1 Rxe1+ 16.Qxe1 Qd7

White needs a plan

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17.g4!?
Arguably White's only active plan, and without it the situation in the centre surely makes him slightly worse.
17...Re8 18.Qd1 Bxf4
Giving up the bishop-pair is also the choice of Stockfish10 and Komodo10. The obvious alternative, 18...Bg6, also loses the bishop-pair (as does 18...Be6) after 19.Nxg6, and then Black is weak on the central light squares.
19.Bxf4 Be6 20.Qf3 Nb4 21.Qxb7 Qxb7 22.Bxb7 Nxc2 23.Rc1 Nb4 24.Be4 Bxa2
Ftáčnik gives 24...c4! 25.dxc4 Bxg4, when Black is close to equal.
25.Bd2
If 25.Rxc4, then 25...Bb1, which is equal according to Ftáčnik.
25...Bd5 26.Bxd5 Nxd5 27.Rxc5 Nb6
Material is level but here, as is often the case, a rook works better with a bishop than with a knight.
28.Kf1 f6 29.Ra5 Re7 30.Bb4 Rd7 31.Bc5 Kf7 32.Ke2 g5?!
This weakens f5 and e4, which is presumably why the engines prefer 32...g6.
33.Kf3
If Black had played 32...g6, then 33.Kf3 could be met by 33...Ke6, and if 34.Ke4, then 34...f5+ 35.gxf5+ gxf5+, evicting the white king from e4.
 Kg6 34.Ke4 h5 35.Bxd4 Re7+ 36.Kf3 h4 37.Bc5 Re1?!
Jettisoning a second pawn for activity, but it was probably better to sit tight.
38.Rxa7 Nd5 39.Bf8 Re8
Spassky may have originally intended ...Rh1, but his king is too weak.
40.Bd6 Re6 41.Rd7 (1-0, 58 moves)

"Distinguished - Plays With Great Style"

INTERNATIONAL master Gary Lane has always struck me as a most-perceptive analyst.
Well, that has certainly been my verdict since coming across some analysis of his while I was surfing the internet yesterday.
The analysis, now only available in a cached version, seems to have been part of an article about the Closed Sicilian for the openings site chesspublishing.com.
It brought back memories of playing in the annual 11-round Politiken Cup in Copenhagen.
The game Lane cites was played in round six of the 2001 tournament, when I was following a White repertoire laid out in grandmaster John Emms' Everyman book Attacking With 1 e4 (I had been asked to review the book for Chris Rice's now-defunct Weekend Chess Magazine).
Spanton (2051) - Michael Tandrup (1795*)
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3
Emms' book is "aimed for those who want an opening repertoire based on 1.e4 (but) who have neither the time nor the inclination to learn reams and reams of the latest modern opening theory." He recommends, among other lines, the Bishop's Opening against 1...e5, the King's Indian Attack against 1...e6 and the Closed Variation against 1...c5.
Emms explains: "In general I've opted for 'opening systems' in which learning the major ideas is just as important as learning the actual variations (but) many of my recommendations have been played at one time or another by world-class players, even world champions."
If this sounds good to you, bearing in mind that most of the theory presented by Emms is not vulnerable to sudden new discoveries, the book is available via Amazon for around £10. For what it is worth, I used the repertoire in Copenhagen to score +4=1-0 for a rating performance of 2234.
2...e6 3.g3 b6!?
I had been able to predict MT's first two moves, based on his earlier play in the tournament. But I had not expected ...b6, which in any case is not covered by Emms. Looking at ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, I see the text is only Black's sixth-most popular move, although it has been played by strong players including grandmaster Jaan Ehlvest.
4.Bg2 Bb7
I had a bit of a think here. The normal repertoire recommended by Emms is based around d3, Be3 and Qd2 before White develops his king's knight. But that is aimed at combatting Black's commonest Closed Sicilian strategy of fianchettoing his king's bishop. I decided that in the particular circumstances of this game, I should postpone as long as was reasonable a decision on whether to play d3 or d4. The game continued:
5.Nge2 Nc6 6.0-0 g6?
I gave this move a "dubious" annotation (?!) in my review for Weekend Chess Magazine, and Lane did the same in his chesspublishing.com article, but I now think a straight question-mark is correct. Lane wrote: "Normally, when Black plays an early ...e6 he puts his bishop on the a3-f8 diagonal. The problem with trying to fianchetto is that it leaves d6 weak. White exploits this detail with remarkable ease."

Normally, when Black plays an early ...e7−e6 he puts his bishop on the a3−f8 diagonal. The

problem with trying to fianchetto is that it leaves d6 weak. White exploits this detail

with remarkable ease.

Normally, when Black plays an early ...e7−e6 he puts his bishop on the a3−f8 diagonal. The

problem with trying to fianchetto is that it leaves d6 weak. White exploits this detail

with remarkable ease.

7.d4
Lane gave this an exclamation mark. I got the idea from grandmaster Andrew Soltis's 1990 Chess Digest booklet Beating The Sicilian Defense - Chameleon Variation. The idea of the Chameleon is to wait to see Black's set-up before deciding whether it is better countered with a Closed (d3) or Open (d4) Variation.
Lane wrote: "In the 'Closed Sicilian' there are times when White needs to advance the d pawn in order to take advantage of Black's inaccurate move-order. Here the English player and distinguished journalist plays with great style." There is then a link, that no longer works, to the game, and, presumably, more analysis. But we are not missing much as the game only lasts another 12 moves.
7...cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bg7
There is another game in Mega19 in which a 2245 played 8...a6, but only managed to reach move 16 before throwing in the towel.

White to make his 9th move and seriously embarrass Black 

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9.Ndb5 Bf8 10.Nd6+ Bxd6 11.Qxd6 Qb8 12.Nb5 Qxd6
The best move, according to analysis engines. Contrary to first impressions, it does not lose a piece to a fork, but that does not matter as Black's position is already completely gone.
13.Nxd6+ Ke7 14.e5
14.Nxb7 is met by 14...Rb8, when White's knight is trapped.
14...Rb8 15.Rd1 h6
For a while, this is Komodo9's second-choice (to 15...Ba8). The move prevents Bg5, but that is not the only way the dark-square bishop can get at Black's king.
16.b4 Nd8 17.b5 Bxg2 18.Ba3 Ba8?
Allowing an immediate finish.
19.Nf5+ 1-0
*This must have been a Danish rating as MT seems to have entered the Fide lists in October 2002 with a rating of 1922, and is today 1979.