DITO 2

The previous post in this occasional series was an example of forgetting opening preparation, today is an example of playing your normal line without paying sufficient attention to the move order being used by your opponent and is taken from the same tournament.

When playing the first game in your first tournament for nearly two decades it always helps if your opponent has a DITO...

Lines where Black plays an early ...d5 in the Symmetrical English are quite common as instead of trying to maintain symmetry Black tries to grab the initiative. 1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 leads to a fairly common position:

There are numerous possibilities after this e.g. 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nc7 is the Rubinstein System, a complex line often seen in grandmaster play.

Today's DITO shows an example of ...d5 being played too early in a Symmetrical English, taken from Barnes, N (ECF:146) - Burrows, J (ECF:164)(2014).

2.g3 is the 4th most common move in response to 1...c5; Nc3, Nf3 and d4 are the more frequently seen alternatives. The game continued in a normal manner 2...Nc6 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nc3

However, 4...d5? just throws a pawn away. The difference from the line shown at the top of the post is that White has played Bg2 instead of Nf3 and so d5 is attacked three times and only protected twice. Black has not noticed the move order difference and has lost a pawn. It is going to get worse though...

Black still hasn't noticed that the knight is not on f3 and played 5...Nxd5??

White is a piece up after just six moves and the rest (should be) simple.

DITO

DITO (Disaster In The Opening)

This is the first in an occasional series of posts about openings going badly wrong in the hands of experienced players (no beginners falling for Fool's Mate here). The guilty will be named. Today's example is Lamont, R (ECF: 169) - Barnes, N (ECF: 146)(2014).

To show that nobody is safe we will start with a DITO of my own at the 2014 Bury St Edmunds congress.

This was my first chess tournament for nearly 20 years and the first day had gone well (scoring 2 out of 3 against higher-grade opposition). The morning of the 2nd day didn't go quite to plan. I had stayed overnight in Bury St Edmunds - not realising that the church bell would ring every 15 minutes throughout the night (so I knew exactly what time it was when I couldn't sleep).

I was a bit groggy at the start of the day but was pleased to see my opponent go for a line that I (thought) I knew well.

On move 3 I played c5 entering a respectable line (though not the main line) against the Advanced Variation of the Caro-Kann.

White accepted the pawn (the first person to do against me since I had started playing chess again), which is the critical response to 3...c5, and after 4...e6 played 5.Be3 protecting the pawn.

So far, so normal. However, I now couldn't remember the continuation to play. At the back of my mind something was telling me to go with 5...Nh6

The idea is to swing the knight to f5 where it will attack the bishop on e3 and start to put pressure on White's weakened pawn structure in the centre. This is generally considered to be the best plan. But I couldn't remember if this was right or not. After a few minutes thought I was confident that I had worked out something a bit better than Nh6...

A temporary sacrifice of a bishop that will regain a pawn and leave Black with a decent position. After White captures the bishop the queen can come out with forking White's king and bishop.

But this overlooks the obvious...

Black has lost a piece and the rest is simple for White.

Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress

Six Colchester players took part in the annual Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress.

In the 50-player Minor (U120) Section, John Duff-Cole scored 2.5/5 to finish in 29th place. Shazia Jaufarally's 2/5 included a win over John. Also on 2/5 were Mark Johnson (whose results included a win over former Colchester player Dave Wood) and 10-year-old Nadia Jaufarally who lost her first three matches but finished strongly.

Playing up a section in the Intermediate (U145), Mohammud Jaufarally finished on 0.5/5.

In the Major (U170), Nathan Barnes finished in 15th place with a score of 2.5/5 - all five games were against higher-graded opponents. Two annotated games are given below - a win from round 2 against one of the players who finished in joint 3rd and one of Nathan's two defeats (the two players who beat Nathan finished in joint 1st).

 

 

 

[Event "Bury St Edmunds Congress 2014: Major"] [Site "Bury St Edmunds"] [Date "2014.10.25"] [Round "2"] [White "Barnes, Nathan"] [Black "Kirkham, Ed"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A22"] [Annotator "Barnes, Nathan"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "2014.10.25"] {Board: 4 White ECF: 146 Black ECF: 155} 1. c4 d6 2. g3 e5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. d3 Nbd7 6. e4 {White has the Botvinnik system setup with pawns on c4, d3 and e4.} c6 7. Nge2 Nc5 8. O-O Bg4 9. f3 Bh5 {e6 or d7 would be better squares for the bishop as it would help to support advances in the centre.} 10. Be3 Ne6 11. d4 exd4 {Slightly inaccurate - this allows White to get a strong knight on d4.} 12. Nxd4 O-O 13. Nf5 {Winning the bishop pair} Bg6 14. Nxe7+ Qxe7 15. b4 Nd7 (15... a5 $5 {effectively neutralises White's advance on the queenside.}) 16. b5 (16. f4 $142 f5 17. exf5 Rxf5) 16... Nec5 17. bxc6 bxc6 18. Re1 (18. -- f5 {I thought this would be good for Black and so decided to play a move that prevents this.}) 18... f6 (18... f5 $4 19. exf5 {and White wins a piece} Qf6 (19... Bxf5 20. Bxc5 Qf6 21. Bd4) 20. fxg6) 19. Qd2 Ne5 20. Bxc5 dxc5 21. f4 $5 {Forcing the knight away from its strong position in the centre. Black wins a pawn - but this is likely to be only temporary as Black's doubled c pawns form an easy target. A well-timed push of the e pawn will release the bishop on g2 and could cause Black some problems.} Nxc4 22. Qe2 Bf7 23. e5 $1 { every other move means Black keeps his one pawn advantage} fxe5 (23... -- 24. e6 $1 {wins a piece} Bxe6 (24... Bg6 25. Qxc4) 25. Qxe6+ Qxe6 26. Rxe6) 24. Bxc6 Rad8 25. Rad1 Nb6 (25... -- 26. Nd5 $1 {is White's threat - gaining a substantial material advantage.} Qe6 (26... Bxd5 27. Bxd5+ Kh8 28. Bxc4) 27. Qxc4 {The bishop is safe as if Black takes it then the white knight can fork Black's king and queen - leading to White winning a rook.}) 26. Rxd8 Rxd8 27. Qxe5 Qd6 $6 28. Rd1 $1 Qf8 29. Rxd8 Qxd8 30. Qxc5 { White is now a pawn ahead} Bxa2 $2 {In severe time pressure Black miscalculates and doesn't see that the white queen can come back to f2.} 31. Nxa2 Qd1+ 32. Kg2 Nc4 $2 (32... Qd2+ 33. Qf2 {is the move that Black missed - leaving White a piece up}) 33. Bd5+ 1-0

 

[Event "Bury St Edmunds Congress 2014: Major"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.10.25"] [Round "3"] [White "Daugman, John"] [Black "Barnes, Nathan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D18"] [Annotator "Barnes, Nathan"] [PlyCount "95"] [EventDate "25.??.??"] {D18: Slav Defence: 5 a4 Bf5 6 e3} {Board: 2 White ECF: 169 Black ECF: 146} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. Qb3 a5 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Na2 Be7 11. Nh4 (11. Qxb7 {is safe, but leads to a forced draw} Rb8 12. Qxc6 $4 (12. Qa6 Ra8 13. Qxc6 Rc8 14. Qb5 Rb8 {and the only way to avoid losing the queen is to take a draw by repetition}) 12... Rb6 {traps the queen}) 11... Be4 12. Nc3 Bd5 13. Nxd5 (13. Bxd5 Nxd5 14. Nxd5 cxd5 15. Nf3 Qb6 16. Qxb6 Nxb6 17. b3 f6 18. Bd2 Kd7 19. Rfc1 Rhc8 20. Ne1 Rxc1 21. Rxc1 Ba3 22. Rc2 Nc8 23. Nd3 Ne7 24. Nc5+ Bxc5 25. Rxc5 b6 26. Rc2 h5 27. f3 Nc6 28. Kf2 Rb8 29. Ke2 b5 30. axb5 Rxb5 31. Ra2 Rxb3 32. Bxa5 Nxa5 {1/2-1/2 (32) Ivanchuk, V (2781)-Anand,V (2798) Bilbao 2008}) 13... Nxd5 {with a discovered attach on the h4 knight} 14. Nf3 Qb6 15. e4 $146 (15. Qd1 O-O 16. e4 Nb4 17. Qe2 Rad8 18. Be3 c5 19. Bb5 cxd4 20. Bxd4 Bc5 {1-0 (51) Mirzoev,A (2529)-Camarena Gimenez,R (2376) La Roda 2005}) 15... Qxb3 16. Bxb3 Nb4 {The knight occupies a strong position here.} 17. Rd1 Nf6 18. e5 Nfd5 {Black's knights dominate the board - White's minor pieces lack coordination.} 19. Ng5 h6 20. Ne4 O-O 21. g3 Rac8 22. Bd2 Rfd8 {looking to start targeting the weak pawn on d4} 23. Nc3 {Black has come out of the opening better and has comfortably equalised.} c5 $6 {the c5 pawn push is often a vital move in the Slav defense - but the timing is not quite right here.} 24. Nxd5 exd5 {Nxd5 was the better choice - but I hadn't yet realised how I had weakened my position with c5.} 25. dxc5 d4 $5 {the best chance for counterplay} (25... -- 26. Bxb4 axb4 27. Rxd5 {wins a pawn for White }) 26. Bxb4 axb4 27. e6 d3 28. exf7+ Kf8 29. Rd2 (29. -- d2 {and Black has no problems}) 29... Rd4 30. Be6 Rxc5 31. b3 Rc2 32. Rad1 {White had to move one of his rooks to d1 to prevent Black from winning} (32. Rxc2 $4 dxc2 33. Bg4 Rxg4 34. Rc1 Rc4 35. bxc4 b3 {and White can't prevent a pawn from queening}) 32... Re4 33. Bf5 Re2 $2 {Missing the chance to equalise with Re1+ - I forgot to check all checks} (33... Re1+ 34. Rxe1 Rxd2 35. Bg6 Rb2 36. Rc1 Rc2 37. Rxc2 dxc2 38. Bxc2 Kxf7 {and Black will easily hold the opposite-coloured bishop endgame}) 34. Rxd3 Rxf2 35. Rd8+ $1 {and White went on to win} 1-0

 

Photos are from the pool of photos taken by tournament organiser Bob Jones. Further photos from the event can be found here and the full tournament cross-tables are available for the Minor, Intermediate, Major and Open sections.

On the same weekend, Martin Harris scored 2/5 in the Foundation (U121) Section of the Scarborough Chess Congress.

Martin Harris wins Minor Section of 31st Bury St Edmunds Congress

Three Colchester players took part in the minor section of the 31st Bury St Edmunds Congress - John Duff-Cole, Martin Harris and Dave Wood.

Martin Harris, in his first chess tournament as a Colchester player, led throughout and finished joint 1st. Below is his win from the 3rd round - a game with a slightly farcical finish! Annotations (apart from the !s and ?s) are by Martin.