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01 November, 2009

Physician, Heal Thyself

I think it's useful, when given advice, to see how the advisor behaves in the very situations he provides advice about. You don't want to see someone recommend one thing and do something else. Reminds me of this Dilbert Cartoon.

So when I posted about what a player should do when he/she is confronted with the unfamiliar, I promised to show you how I handled that situation. Did I take my own advice?

The game I present today is from my utterly disastrous showing (+0-3=0) from the Gulf Coast Open in 1998. I have the white pieces against a nine-year old Ukrainian girl, Inga Makhlaychuk.

  • 1. e4 e6
  • 2. d4 d5
  • 3. e5 c5

This is the Advance Variation of the French Defense. I had played scores of terrible games against the French when squared off with against Chessmaster 3000, so I vowed that I would always play the Advance against the French to channel the game into very specific positions. A noble idea, but at the time 3 e5 was all that stuck with me. In other words, what now?

  • 4. c3

"Don't make too many pawn moves in the opening." So what gives here? In this position it's reasonable. Neither player has developed a piece, and the basic idea here is that white can maintain a pawn on d4, which is consistent with another piece of advice: "When in doubt, play in the center."

  • 4...Nc6 - "Knights before Bishops!"
  • 5. Bb5

Fritz calls this "last book move". Trust me - it wouldn't be hard to find a book on the French Defense showing many more moves in the Advance. Of course, five moves beats my three. But what happened to "Knights before Bishops"? Well, the pin on the knight helps maintain the pawn on d4. Or am I just making excuses for myself? Fritz said it was a standard move, how bad can it be?

  • 5...Qb6

I like this move. It threatens the Bishop and aims at d4 yet again. Is it too early to move the queen, though? To answer that question, take a look around and see if any of the white pieces can attack it.

  • 6. Bxc6+ bxc6

You may be wondering why black recaptured with the pawn. Remember, I have mentioned how black is attacking the d4 pawn and that white has been playing to keep the d4 pawn in place. Well, with the doubled pawns, it's easy to see that black can play ...c5xd4 and if white recaptures with the pawn, black can again attack the d4 pawn with the other c-pawn with ...c6-c5. The stupid looking 7 Na3, 7 Qb3, or even 7 Qa4 was better than giving up bishop for knight and a central pawn majority. Besides, capturing the knight violated the rule "Avoid moving a piece more than once in the opening."

  • 7. Ne2 cxd4
  • 8. cxd4 Ne7
  • 9. 0-0 Nf5!

My precocious opponent is determined to harrass the d4 square!

  • 10. Nbc3 Ba6

Here's a good stopping point. Consider that we've been talking about the d4 square over and over and over. So what do you suppose the point of this move must be?

  • 11. b3

"Secures c4 - 11 Re1!?= must be considered" - Fritz. Indeed, Herr Fritz; but I was not taking the center into account - I was simply playing the moves I wanted to play. And my approach then, when in doubt, was to fianchetto my bishops. Aren't they POWERFUL on those long diagonals?

  • 11...Bb4 - and black is better, says Fritz.
  • 12. Bd2 0-0 - 12...Nxd4 safely rips off a pawn
  • 13. Na4 - equalizes, says Fritz.
  • 13...Qa5
  • 14. Bxb4 Qxb4

"If you can get out of the opening without losing a piece, you're OK." - IM Jack Peters. The problem is that my d4 pawn is toast and generating counterplay will not be easy. Fritz gives a line which preserves my d4 pawn at the cost of doubling my queenside pawns on the b-file: 15 a3 Bxe2 16 axb4 Bxd1 17 Rxd1=. That "=" is Fritz's evaluation; I don't see how those doubled pawns aren't a liability in the endgame, but I'm a pretty weak player. Need proof of that?

  • 15. Nc5?? Bxe2
  • 16. Qxe2 Nxd4

There is no rescuing my knight. The queen must be moved out of danger, since a counterattack on her queen fails to ...Nd4xe2+, at which point black's queen skips harmlessly away.

I had planned to comment on the entire game, but the rest of the game is even worse than the opening was. Everything worth learning in this game came from the opening - and it's easy to see that black's moves adhered to common sense principles and white's moves did not. This is how nine-year olds can defeat twenty-three year olds in chess. The pieces are ageless.

Don't misunderstand - I'm not trying to spare myself by not commenting on the rest of the game. You can click the link below and view the rest of it.



Ricardo Aparicio-Inga Makhlaychuk
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