SenseiDanya (1590) vs Vilhaze (1640)

1500Episode 09 · 1-0

During the gameIn the review

  1. Sicilian Defense: Alapin, Barmen Defense
  2. 1.e4 c5
  3. 2. c3 A narrow repertoire, on purpose Opening The same thing against the Sicilian again, and deliberately. He knows a narrow repertoire is dull to watch and plays it anyway: the point of the speedrun is to take a few concepts and work at them, and a small set of openings is what lets the same ideas keep coming round.
  4. 2...d5 3.exd5
  5. 3... Qxd5 The dividing line for an early queen Opening The test for an early queen in the centre, and he calls it the dividing line: can a knight come to c3 and hit her? Here it cannot, so she is well placed, and Black has no need to spend a move tidying her away - developing the knight and leaning on d4 is the move.
  6. 4.d4
  7. 4... cxd4 Releasing the tension gives something away General And this is the move that changes the answer to that question: it opens c3 for the knight, and the queen stops being stable. The habit behind it is the thing he wants named. At this level a trade on offer gets taken and a capture available gets played, because clarity is comfortable - and sometimes the tension is exactly what to keep, because releasing it hands the opponent something he had no way of taking for himself. The review is careful with the verdict: followed up precisely it is not quite a mistake, but as a practical matter it is one. What Black wanted was the same plan without it - ...e6 or ...Nf6 - after which there is no Nc3 at all, and White's Na3 heading for b5 is a far smaller worry.
  8. 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4
  9. 7. Be2 The unpin that keeps the pawn Tactics The answer to the pin, and with an isolated pawn he says it is worth knowing by heart: unpin like this and the pawn is not really hanging. It looks as though ...Bxf3 and ...Qxd4 simply wins it. It does not, because the queen would then be a type-2 undefended piece - the knight on c6 her only defender - and the bishop that has just arrived on f3 takes that knight with check. The check is the whole point: it buys the move that collects the queen. He pulls up one of his own games, a King's Indian Attack against Carl, where the opponent believed he had just won a pawn. Same idea, different opening: ...Nxd4, and recapturing slices off the defender.
  10. 7...e6
  11. 8. Nc3 The c3 square, collected Opening The inaccuracy collected: the knight arrives on c3 with tempo and the queen has to leave d5.
  12. 8...Bb4
  13. 9. O-O Break the pin by castling, and count the trade Opening Two ways to break a pin, and Bd2 is the passive one - there is no reason to play it when castling does the same job and finishes development besides. Nor is ...Bxc3 anything to fear, even though it keeps the queen on d5: count what the trade hands over. The isolated pawn stops being isolated, since c3 protects it; White gets the two bishops; White gets the b-file; and the bishop comes to a3, where it stops a king that still has a knight to develop from ever castling. The review adds one more: c4 is then there to push the queen away whenever it suits.
  14. 9...Qd7
  15. 10. d5 Strike while the iron is hot Strategy Strike while the iron is hot, and the reason is across the board: the knight is not out, castling is not close, and a closed e-file is the only thing keeping that king comfortable. So open it. The tactical detail is small - if he takes, the knight recaptures, defended by the queen, and cannot be taken back. Then he stops on the manner of it: he played this without calculating. Normally the implications get worked out; here the concepts point at the move so clearly that he allows himself not to. The review's verdict is that taking was close to forced and what follows is miserable - survivable if Black gets the knight out and castles quickly, but frightening. Stronger still was Qa4, whose idea is a knight coming to b6: with the rook's x-ray behind it, that is a real fork and not a trick.
  16. 10... Bxc3 What is he actually threatening? Tactics Unpack what he wants before answering it. Recapture on c3 without thinking and the d5-pawn is loose, because the knight being taken off c3 is the piece that defends it.
  17. 11. dxc6 A capture does not oblige a recapture General The habit instead: a capture does not oblige a recapture. Look at the other captures first. And the position is simpler than it looks - his queen hangs and his bishop hangs, so he has to take the queen or lose one of them.
  18. 11...Qxd1
  19. 12. Rxd1 A monster on b7 against a sleeping kingside Endgame After the recapture, two things hang again: the bishop, and a pawn that is not just any pawn. A pawn on b7 is a monster - it more or less promotes by itself. The part worth seeing is that reaching an endgame does not save him. His kingside is still at home, so there is nothing to contain the pawn with, and the choice is between losing a piece and letting it get there.
  20. 12...Ba5
  21. 13. cxb7 Do not take the foot off the gas General The mistake to avoid from here is taking the foot off the gas. Relaxing in a won position is how opponents get let back into games.
  22. 13...Rb8
  23. 14. Ba6 Make a wish list Strategy So make a wish list first. The goal is to queen the pawn, which means getting the rook off b8, which means Bf4 - except the pawn is attacked, so it wants defending first, and preferably with tempo. Ba6 does both at once. A check on b5 was available too; there is no reason to experiment when a crushing move is already there.
  24. 14... Bxf3 Find every way, not the first way General The other half of that habit: having found one way to do a thing, look for the rest of them before playing it. And the question he asks is Black's, not White's - how does Black stop Bf4? ...e5 is one way; ...Bc7 is the robust one. Meeting it is not a matter of despairing over a bishop that cannot reach f4. The review supplies the answer: Be3, and now two things are attacked at once - he must allow Bxa7 or allow Bf4.
  25. 15.gxf3 Nf6 16.Bf4 Nd7 17.Bxb8 Nxb8
  26. 18. Rac1 No need to move the attacked bishop Piece play There is no need to move the attacked bishop at all. Rc1 is the move and the rook is going to c8; taking the bishop loses the rook, and the game with it. The review runs the plan through again: the rook comes into the game and the knight is removed by force, because moving the king costs the rook.
  27. 18...Ke7
  28. 19. Rc8 When the main idea is stopped, look again General With the rook on c8 it is over. ...Re8 keeps his rook on the eighth rank for a moment, and a rook on the eighth rank is something to poke and prod at. The review builds this into the lesson of the episode, from a position that never happened - ...f6 having stopped Bf4, the way in is to intercept the rook's hold on b8. Rc1, then Rc8, and it works because the bishop and the pawn contest c8 between them. The part people miss is the bishop's share of that: it controls a square it cannot yet see through. Do not miss the x-rays. And the lesson on top of the lesson: when the main idea is stopped, the position is not stopped. Look again for another way to shift that rook - and when the first attempt is foiled, remember there is a second rook.
  29. 19...Re8
  30. 20. Bb5 Chase the rook off the rank Piece play Keep his rook moving. Taking on c8 makes a queen, and ...Rf8 is the only square on the rank that is even playable.
  31. 20...Rf8
  32. 21. Rd7+ Force the knight off d7 Tactics The move that ends it. The knight is forced off d7, and the red carpet is out for the pawn. With the accurate finish attached: if he takes the bishop, take the rook first - no need to promote and let him take anything on the way.
  33. 21...Nxd7 22.Bxd7
  34. Black resigned
End of episode 09 · 1-0 ← 08. vs uuuuuuuuuuuh (1224)All games at 150010. vs DMD9584 (1535) →