2017 Lutz, Get Out Round 4 FM Matt Hassen, 2292 - Anton Taylor, 1928 Reti: King's Indian Attack (A05)

2017 Lutz, Get Out Round 4
FM Matt Hassen, 2292 - Anton Taylor, 1928
Reti: King's Indian Attack (A05)

1. Nf3 As with our previous encounter I had expected 1.e4. I'm uncertain what this change of repertoire means. I prefer to think that Matt is taking me more serious than in our first game but it may just be that he likes to play a lot of different things. 1. ... Nf6 Before this tournament I had been meeting Nf3 with f5. I have lost a little faith in the Dutch defense in many of its forms and that includes those positions arising in this move order. So, I keep my options open. 2. g3 b6 There are many Black moves in this position. I choose a counter fianchetto. It's hard to say what possessed me to adopt this. I do have some experience in the Queen's Indian. But I cannot say that it makes sense here or has some edge over the other options. The simple d5 could signal an even slower game with fewer tactical issues to consider (it is possible in some central exchanges to lose the bishop on b7 if it is unguarded whereas White's bishop is always protected by his king). 3. Bg2 Bb7 4. O-O e6 5. d3 Be7 It is worthwhile to note that in the almost 500 games in the database for this move it seems to swing generally in white's favor. c5 and even d5 fair much better. This leads me to the conclusion that my previous note is correct. b6 runs into a lot of tactical problems that make the fight for the center awkward for black. 6. e4 c5 7. Nbd2 Nc6 8. Re1 d6 9. c3 O-O 10. h4 This strange looking move makes some sense grabbing the space but d4 and a3 are the more common alternatives. In any case it is made to provoke a black response at some point to weaken his king (with moves like Ng5, etc.) 10. ... Ne5 This move could be a future key to uncorking Black's structure at some future time but here it allows the white knight to gain a tempo off attacking the undefended pawn and makes Qc7 awkward (because of the threat of Bf4 in some lines). In retrospect here is where things started to go wrong for me in this game. 11. Nxe5 dxe5 12. Nc4 Nd7 13. a4 Keeping his annoying knight there on c4 for one extra move. 13. ... Rc8 I played this move to deter d4 and move off the diagonal. However, there is no readily available plan for black and white is gaining more and more ideas and plans. That is why I think this position is completely lost. Komodo seems to think black is fine but as a human give me white here any day above black. 14. Qg4 f5?? A drastic overreaction that just leads to pawn weaknesses in all variations. Kh8 is a much cleaner solution to the threat of Bh6. 15. Qh3 Qc7 16. exf5 Bxg2 17. Qxg2 exf5?? I made this move automatically because I had calculated the variation on move 14. The problem is that in my mind's eye I did not see the queen able to give a check (as she is on g4 when I looked at it). Rxf5 creates a sharp struggle and had to be tried after committing to f5. 18. Qd5+! Kh8 Rf7 is recommended by komodo but is still fairly lost. The main drawback of that move is that it leads to a greater number of exchanges and I preferred to have a worse position with the pieces on. The rest of the game has a little sharpness to it but white's technique is clear enough to win. 19. f4 e4 20. dxe4 Nf6 21. Qxf5 Rcd8 22. Qe6 Rd3 23. Be3 Qb7 24. Bf2 Nh5 25. Ne5 Nxf4 26. gxf4 Rd6 27. Nf7+ Rxf7 28. Qxf7 Rg6+ 29. Kh2 Qd7 30. Rad1 1-0

2017 Lutz, Get Out Round 3 Anton Taylor, 1928 - CM Jerry Baker, 2144 Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack (B13)

2017 Lutz, Get Out 
Round 3 Anton Taylor, 1928 - CM Jerry Baker, 2144 
Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack (B13)

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Nf3 e6 7. Bg5 Be7 8. Rc1 Rc1 is also one oif the main moves against the conservative Be7 bishop development. It turns out to be a great counter to black's play here. 8. ... O-O 9. cxd5 Nxd5 10. Bxe7 Qxe7 The knight capture is far more common but I see little wrong with this (except if the center gets resolved by a forced exd5 then black has made things symmetrical and drawish). 11. Be2? As I suspected this is a positional mistake. the square is needed for the knight to guard the d-pawn when it comes under fire if d5 isn't possible to trade off the weak pawn. Bc4 is the book move and makes far more sense. 11. ... Nf4 12. O-O Rd8 13. Re1 Qf6 14. Ne4 Nxe2+ 15. Qxe2 Qf5 Komodo likes to avoid all the queen gymnastics and simply retreat to e7 but if that is the result of Qf6 that means the f6 move was just a mistake to start with. It is worth noting that with the c-file open Rc1 is powerful ... it keeps development moves like b6 impossible for the moment. 16. Rc5! A critical test of black's aggression, thank Caissa for Rc1 here. All lines lead to an advantage for white. black's best try against this move is Qf4 and even that is difficult to justify in the face of the coming build-up by white. 16. ... Rd5? Loses immediately. 17. Ng3 Rxc5 18. Nxf5 Rxf5 19. Qe4 Rd5?? As soon as his hand left the piece Jerry's face gave away the tactic. I didn;'t need him to break his poker face as this is why I played Qe4 to begin with. 20. Qxd5! Jerry played out the mate instead of playing on without a rook. 20. ... exd5 21. Re8# 1-0

2017 Lutz, Get Out Round 2 Gene Lewter, 1700 - Anton Taylor, 1928 Nimzo-Larsen, Indian Variation (A01)

2017 Lutz, Get Out Round 2 
Gene Lewter, 1700 - Anton Taylor, 1928 
Nimzo-Larsen, Indian Variation (A01)

1. b3 Nf6 2. Bb2 e6 3. e3 Be7 4. g4 This move is interesting but probably premature. The only real advantage to the move is that it forces black to castle kingside. 4. ... O-O 5. Nc3 d6 6. g5 Nd5 7. Ne4? White invests too much in keeping this knight active when he gets a small plus trading it off. 7. ... f5 8. gxf6 Nxf6 9. Ng5 It is strange that after one mistake rescuing a knight my opponent makes an aggressive move with another knight that turns out to be even worse a mistake. It seems that My opponent is becoming more and more invested in this attack on my king that is doomed to failure by a simple rule of thumb. Three pieces are best to attack a castled king with in general. White has two so his attacking moves are premature by principal. 9. ... Nc6 Komodo dislikes this developing move. It prefers playing against the knight in black's territory with moves like d5 and h6. The list of moves that test Nc6 is relatively small. in fact there is only one move for white to hope for anything ... Bh3. I was not at all afraid of that move and even Komodo admits that black has an advantage in that case as well. My only weakness is my lack of development in my opinion so I set about to solve that first. 10. Bd3 e5 11. Ba3 d5 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. h4 e4 14. Be2 Ne5 15. d4 I couldn't decide whether this was a good time to take en passant or not. I decided against it but playing it as a way to start opening things against the White king stuck in the center is probably the best idea. What I played isn't bad though. 15. ... Neg4 16. N1h3 Nh6 17. a3 Bg4? This move was the idea behind Nh6 but trading off the bishops leaves d6 a little weak. It would have been better not to offer this counterplay in spoite of the fact that the computer gives black a won position in any case. 18. Nf4 c6 19. Rg1 Bd7 20. c4 Nf5 21. Bh5? I'm guessing I was supposed to take this Bishop but it is better to just leave it alone and with this swing in tempo white is completely lost when he was just on the brink to it. 21. ... Nxh4 22. Bf7+? Rxf7 23. Nxf7 Qxf7 24. Rh1 Nf3+ 25. Ke2 Bg4 0-1 I hit my clock and watched his flag fall in the face of losing his queen no matter what. 

2017 Lutz, Get Out Round 1 Anton Taylor, 1928 - Bradley Charles, 1545 Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack (B13)

2017 Lutz, Get Out Round 1 
Anton Taylor, 1928 - Bradley Charles, 1545 
Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack (B13)

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 e6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Nf3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Nc6 8. Rc1 This is the move I had done some home preparation in this line with. I like this classic sort of development and lkeaving the tension. The common moves in the position are cxd5 and a3 leading to general liquidation and no hope for anything but equality. I prefer something else. There is a little trap here as well if the opponent looks to win a pawn (as my opponent here does) 8. ... dxc4? 9. Bxc4 Allowing White to get ahead in development might even be worth almost a pawn here even if the pawn weren't complete poison. 9. ... Nxd4? 10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Qa4+ Nd7 When I saw this move I realized an even further mistake my opponent was getting ready to make. 12. Qxb4 Ne5?? 13. Bb5+ 1-0 Black had enough and threw in the towel. I had a long chat with the young man about the Caro-Kann in general and as is normal after a loss like this he was disheartened. I told him about some older games on this blog where I lost similarly horribly against the Panov. That seemed to help him a little. 

Not a bad first test of Rc1 but also not a challenge to the move. This means I will have to play it again.

Mistake Check-in #2

In the previous check-in I mentioned several of my crucial mistakes. Let's revisit the old mistakes

Poor Concentration - I have had a much better time maintaining my focus lately. I increased my stamina through a recent trend toward martial arts practice (specifically the grappling arts as these build greater stamina than the other martial arts I have practiced for years).

On the negative side I have noticed two problems in my concentration. Firstly, I tend to play online games in a "for fun" frame of mind. I divide my attention by multitasking and then lose games for silly reasons. This could lead to very poor play in the future due to bad programming. At the very least it is time spent goofing off when I could be growing in skill instead. Secondly, my internal calculator is still a slow starting engine. This means that in early rounds of day tournaments I'm not "firing on all cylinders" as it were. I'm not sure quite how to "flip the switch" to the on position. GM Igor Smirnov and some other masters I have listened to or read have said to do a few puzzles before a round (meaning a single round in a day of course). To me this just leads to a waste of effort, a use of brain cells that could be better used aimed at an opponent. But is there no other way?

Playing Without a Plan - To put it simply, I have been exposing myself to various opening schemes and the resulting variety of middlegame plans. The result has been a far richer view of chess and at times the formulation of winning plans. I will continue doing this moving forward.

Time Management - I have found a happy medium place in blitz games where I simply play the opening quickly until I need to think and then I tend to use the time efficiently conserving only a small portion to finish the game if an endgame is necessary. We will see if this trend continues in the upcoming G/30 tournament I will be playing in in Lexington, Kentucky.

King Safety - I do not know by what means but somehow this has not been an issue any further. Perhaps I have now developed a sufficient amount of skill in the so-called "Blumenfeld Rule" ... checking to see by habit whether or not a move I want to make falls into a basic problem (checkmate, checks, etc.).

"It often happens that a player carries out a deep and complicated calculation, but fails to spot something elementary right at the first move. In order to avoid such gross blunders, the Soviet master B. Blumenfeld made this recommendation:- When you have finished your calculations, write down the move you have decided upon on the score sheet. Then examine the position for a short time 'through the eyes of a patzer'. Ask whether you have left a mate in one on, or left a piece or a pawn to be taken. Only when you have convinced yourself that there is no immediate catastrophe for you should you make the planned move." - GM Alexander Kotov

Pawn Weaknesses - Alas, this one still plagues me. I have studied very few endgames and have not reviewed pawn structure since the last check-in. Most often when I lose in blitz it is due to this weakness. Thinking back on my tournament this was the case as well in two games and the third game was a closed position and difficult for my opponent to drum up a structural complication. It should also be noted that in that game (against Bob Faust) I played on my experience rather than needing to find a new idea (except in the end fighting for the draw and most of the newer ideas were based around piece play not the pawns). I have finished an interesting book by GM Andy Soltis called "What it takes to become a chess master" and I am now free to find another source of information (a book, article series, or perhaps video series) that addresses this specific weakness.