To: NSChess@yahoogroups.ca
Thanks - although I was the higher rated player in all my games. I did
not think I played especially strongly, but only my game with
Fernandes I felt like I played a lot of bad moves.
Round 1: Be4+ was stupid (played immediately...), if I move the rook
first, there is nothing black can do in the meantime, and I just have
an extra rook, plus all the good things that happened in the game. And
if black doesn't play Qc6 but something else, white doesn't really
have much, although I would of course still set up some more tricks :)
Round 2: When white played Rg6 it was a complete shock, I had not
foreseen that possibility at all. I was lucky I had Rcg8 in response,
and because I'd used a lot of time calculating Nxb2 (it wins for black
if white plays Kxb2 for example) the rest of the game was played very
quickly, with white missing some wins (Rc1? Rd1! +-), and black not
realizing at all white's idea was to head for a pawn ending (probably
the rook ending is also a draw I bet, but at least there are many
tricks in those...). I also didn't realize I could play on, maybe it
is still drawn, but I should have maneuvered my queen to a menacing
spot, and then calculated if my king can run to the other king in time
to deliver mate before his a-pawn queens, I suspect it might be
possible.
Round 3: N to e3 was in hindsight not worth the excessive time it took
to put it there, but black played many poor moves. I couldn't resist
Qxf6+ heading for another minor piece on the king attack after round
1. White wins easily because of black's king position (ie in the
crossfire of 4 of my pieces), with no risk to lose. Strangely, this is
the first time I've even played a black player who played the standard
KID attack wtih e5 and f5 against the Nge2 line (I suggest the main
lines in O-O Nc6 d5 Ne7; either Be3, Ne1, Bd2, a4, b4, they are all
pretty good, or the geller Be3 instead of O-O [Ng4 Bg5 f6 is typical]
if you need a system against the KID, the Nge2 is essentially very
trappy and it's main virtue is being not well studied, if black reacts
ok, white tends to have a stupid looking knight on g3 that gets to be
rerouted through h1...)
Round 4: likely a6 is not necessary, although not bad, and black
should probably be playing d4 (perhaps immediately). Especially after
Nce2?! d4 was hard to resist (and probably wrongly so), black would
grab more space and make both knights look pretty dumb. c3 d3 is
probably good. Maybe black loses the pawn, but would have excellent
white square compensation, and where is white's dark square bishop
going to go? Or even just taking and Bf5 is an amazing piece, or bc
and d5 is in black's control forever. I am not sure why this was
rejected in favor of playing a french where I gift white the d4
square, lose lots of time unfianchettoing, weaken my kingside with g6,
and give white a useful target in f5, I suspect he missed a good
continuation involving a duel f5-e6 sacrifice to nab the rook in the
corner with Bb2.
Round 5: Not sure what my opponent was doing, I couldn't resist
playing b4, it just made so many of his pieces on the queenside look
so ridiculous. I suspect white has a more critical move than Bd2 in
the opening, but I was feeling pretty anti-theoretical that weekend.
:)
From: Jason Kenney
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 04:07:28 -0500
Subject: Re: CUCC - what happened?