A Dynasty Chess Game from this Weekend

[Dynasty]

On Saturday, I played in my first chess tournament in over three years. Since there have been an unusual # of chess threads in several forums recently, I thought I'd post my first game back.

The game was played at the Boylston Chess Club in Boston. It had a time control of G/90 (each player has 90 minutes to complete the game). After my 3+ year layoff, I got matched up against a player who had a nearly 600 rating point advantage against me. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

White: Dynasty (1771)
Black: Chikwere Onyekwere (2358)

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Be3 Be6 9. Qd2 Nd7 10. a4 0-0

When I was playing at the BCC years ago, I often played in round robin tournaments in which you knew your opponent weeks in advance. In one of those games, I knew my opponent played the exact variation of the Najdorf Defense which Onyekwere played. So, I felt very good about playing a competitive game and thought I would give my opponent some frustrating surprises.

11. 0-0 Qc7 12. Rfd1 Nc5 13. Nxc5 dc 14. Qe1 c4

The pawn push to c4 caught me a bit by surprise. It's very common for black to make effots to occupy c4 with a piece. But, occupying it with a pawn isn't (especially since the c-file is usually open for black). So, I'm in unfamiliar territory for the first time here.

15. a5 Bb4 16. Bb6 Qc6 17. f3 Nd7 18. Be3

My two bishop moves may appear a waste of time. But, it has caused black to relinquish some control over the d5 square which I'd love to stick my knight on.

18...Rfe8 19. Qg3

In this position, I missed the interesting 19. Nd5 exposing my Queen to attack but simultaneously threatening 20. Ne7+ forking his King and Queen. Black's best line would probably be to decline taking my Queen and retreating with 19...Bc5.

19...Bc5

Playing 19...Bxc3 and double my pawns doesn't lead to any special advantage for Black. Black's pawn on c4 prevents him from attacking what would otherwise be a terrible weakness. Meanwhile, Black is going to have serious dark square problems without his bishop.

20. Qf2 Rad8 21. Nd5 Bxe3 22. Qxe3

I think I've achieved a small advantage here in the middle game. My pieces are well developed (including the a1 rook) and I've got no vulnerable points to attack. Meanwhile, Black looks somewhat unorganized and his c4 pawn looks overextended.

At this point, Black simply makes a tactical error while trying to reposition his Knight.

22... Nb8?? 23. Ne7+

The forking of Black's King and Queen is made possible because of a back rank weakness.

23. Rxe7 24. Rxd8+ Re8 25. Rxe8

In this position, I was too quick to simplify and exchange rooks. Playing Rad1 was crushing because it threatens R1d6 driving the Queen away while maintaining mating threats. Black's position falls apart quickly.

In replay to 25 Rad1, it appears Black would be forced to play either 25...h6 or ...f6. However, White has Qa7 winning more material. The Knight can't move to d7 since Rxe8+ hangs the rook.

Basically, I achieved a won game when Black played the horrendous 22...Nb8. But, I missed the best possible follow-up.

25...Qxe8 26. Qc5 Nc6 27. Bxc4 Bxc4 28. Qxc4

Still, I've got a clearly winning position here up an exchange and a pawn. However, my chess history suggests that I'm very good at blowing these positions against masters.

28...Qd8 29. Qd5 Qg5 30. Qd7 g6 31. Qxb7

By this point in the game, I was feeling some time pressure. I had less than ten minutes left and it was clear that in order to win we'd be playing at least another 20 moves and probably 30. I wasn't rushing. But, I was playing quickly. As a result, I played too offensively and didn't pay enough attention to playing a simple prophalactic move.

In this position, I think I should have played 31. c3 keeping Black's Knight at bay by preventing him from occupying the d4 or b5 squares. This is the type of move I simply don't look for when playing quickly.

31...Nd4 32. Qxb7 Nxf3+ 33. Kf2?

I'm still winning by a large margin. But, with my time dwindling, it's harder to play the position while Black at least has desperation tactics on the Kingside.

33. Kh1 was better. Allowing Black to take the h-pawn was something I thought I could allow because I expected my a-pawn to Queen.

33...Nxh2. 34. Qc8+ Kg7 35. a6 Ng4+ 36. Qxg4??

I allowed Black to jump around with his Knight and take a couple pawns because I saw this move coming. I played it with about 2 seconds thought at most. But, with time short, I misanalyzed the ending position. The blunder costs me the win by allowing a Black a perpetual check which I missed.

Basically, I made a common calculation error which lower rated players make. I knew Black was going to capture the f and h pawns. But, I didn't see the missing pawns properly in the ending position. So, I couldn't see that Black would have an easy perpetual check.

In a longer time control, I'd like to think I would have avoided the errors I made.

36...Qxg4 37. a7 Qf4+ 38. Kg1 Qe3 39. Kf1 Kg4+

40. Ke2??

And, with this move, I lose the game. With just a few minutes on the clock, I made the same mistake again.

I hoped to find a hiding place on the Queenside with my two pawns. I figured Black would have to keep checking me and the worst case scenario would be a draw. I wasn't worried about losing the pawn when Black played the obvious 40...Qxe4+. But, I missed that it opened up the diagonal to the a8 square.

In this position, Black would eventually play Qa8 blockading my a-pawn and then pushed his pawn advantage on the Kingside.

With just minutes left, I'm sure I played a few poor moves to make things worse.

With about 30 seconds left and a much worse position (I stopped annotating shortly after move 40), I resigned in a truly hopeless position.

This win would have been my biggest upset ever. Doing it after a 3+ year layoff would have made it even sweeter.

[ilya]

Tough loss.

So the BCC still exists. Is it still at the YWCA? Was there a guy by the name of Jacob Rasin there?

[theBruiser500]

dynasy i thought you live in vegas? i might start goign back to chess club now that i have a car and license, i used to go to the one in natick for a couple of motnhs, feel like getting back into chess. maybe i will try the boylston one though

[Jake (The Snake)]

[ QUOTE ]
18...Rfe8 19. Qg3

In this position, I missed the interesting 19. Nd5 exposing my Queen to attack but simultaneously threatening 20. Ne7+ forking his King and Queen. Black's best line would probably be to decline taking my Queen and retreating with 19...Bc5.

[/ QUOTE ]


I don't see it here... what am I missing?

Certainly worked nicely later though...

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
18...Rfe8 19. Qg3

In this position, I missed the interesting 19. Nd5 exposing my Queen to attack but simultaneously threatening 20. Ne7+ forking his King and Queen. Black's best line would probably be to decline taking my Queen and retreating with 19...Bc5.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see it here... what am I missing?

Certainly worked nicely later though...

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe he meant on the previous move, before the rook covered e7. But it really doesn't do much except trade off some stuff.

Good game though. Yes you definitely should have consolidated with c3 or Qd3 before going pawn hunting your queen especially when low on time. A queen and knight are a dangerous attacking combination.

I hope I can have some good games to show from the Foxwoods Open, which starts this wednesday. I almost always get a grandmaster in round 1 of these things. If anyone wants to drop by and say hi, just find my board number, I should be the highest rated Tim M in the tournament, maybe even the highest rated Tim. (If my name were Alexander I would probably be 20th or 30th [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])

[Reef]

it looks like endgame is the weakest part of your game. (maybe due to time?). I play at about your level. Seems like you deserted your K in favor of material at the end.

you're definetaly tactical/material over positional type player.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
White: Dynasty (1771)
Black: Chikwere Onyekwere (2358)

[/ QUOTE ]

can't we all
just get along?
why make this
about race?

[TimM]

BTW, looks like it was still a draw at the end of your notation. After 39.Kf1 he can draw by perpetual check immediately, or he can go 39...Qa8 and then after 40.b4 threatening to eject the queen with b5-b6-b7, he will have to go 40...f5 41.b5 Qe4 41. a8=Q Qc4+ and you can't escape the checks again. Thanks to Fritz for this last possibility, but he should just take the immediate draw, since no human would want to risk betting that you can't escape in that line.

[theBruiser500]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
White: Dynasty (1771)
Black: Chikwere Onyekwere (2358)

[/ QUOTE ]

can't we all
just get along?
why make this
about race?

[/ QUOTE ]

The sophistication of your humour just dropped 10 levels.

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
18...Rfe8 19. Qg3

In this position, I missed the interesting 19. Nd5 exposing my Queen to attack but simultaneously threatening 20. Ne7+ forking his King and Queen. Black's best line would probably be to decline taking my Queen and retreating with 19...Bc5.

[/ QUOTE ]


I don't see it here... what am I missing?

Certainly worked nicely later though...

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a mistake on my part. In my analysis, I had played 18...Rfd8 so that the e7 square was unguarded. The Nd5 move isn't an option in the game.