An Early Christmas Present

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Photo from
Rennings' photo stream on Flickr

What does every chess player want for Christmas? Well, I can't speak on behalf of every woodpusher, but for me it's really simple. I just want to play a really interesting and exciting game! There are three key ingredients that make an enjoyable encounter in my book although I do recognise these won't be everyone's cup of tea:

1. Monstrous complexity: a game that is so impossibly hard to assess at the board that it leaves you feeling physically exhausted and your head reeling for 24 hours afterwards!
2. Imbalance: an encounter where the three core elements of chess: space, time and force (material) are dynamic and imbalanced but roughly equal.
3. Aesthetic appeal: a pretty or unusual combination, manouevre or concept. Or a checkmate, preferably involving a king hunt.

How fortunate for me then that I had a game of just this sort last week? All the more so because it ended with me winning! Here is a game that is spawned out of a favorite opening variation of mine which brings mind-bending complexity, an imbalance of material, plenty of excitement and, in this case at least, an interesting tactical motif that is repeated throughout the game and in the sub-variations. So, for a bit of festive fun lets count the number of times in this game that a piece is attacked by a piece of lower value than itself and simply refuses to move itself.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H

Shapland, D. Unrated - Bagley, A. Unrated

1-0 (Leeds League Division 1) 21/12/2011

[#] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Introducing the Tarrasch Variation of the French Defence. 3...Nf6 And this is the closed system which has already featured once before on these pages - "The French Fried" 17/11/11. The alternative for Black is to play 3...c5, a move which leads to positions of a very different character. Grandmasters appear to favour the c5 move but at club level I find myself almost exclusively meeting the closed system. 4.e5 Nfd7 5.c3 c5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.Nf4!? I've played this move several times before. Many of the textbooks state that this is dubious and that Black can gain the advantage from it. That may be true theoretically, but the path to that advantage is hugely complex and requires fantastic map reading skills and a great deal of familiarity with the terrain in order to gain it. Most of my opponents don't face this line often enough to have been forced to learn the all the ideas in the position and as a result I've done pretty well with it. The mainline here goes 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.Nf3 and the game goes on from there. 9...Nxd4 10.Qh5+ Ke7 11.exf6+ Nxf6 12.Ng6+ hxg6 13.Qxh8 Kf7 14.Qh4 I ventured this line in a recent outing with Black (the first time I've ever played the French Defence!) and my opponent played the alternative move to this one which is

[14.O-O and play now continued with 14...e5 15.Nb3 Nxb3 16.axb3 Bf5 17.Bxf5 gxf5 18.Qh3 g6 I went on to win the game with the passed d-pawn proving to be decisive although White missed a couple of chances to improve on his play.]

14...e5 15.Nf3 Bb4+!? This was a new move to me. Previous games I've played in this line have all continued 15...Nxf3+ 16.gxf3 Bf5 17.Bxf5 gxf5 18.Bg5 and then the game really begins! In fact, as I studied this game afterwards I realised that Black has improved on the move order used in the game below where Black played

[15...e4 This is considered to be a decent alternative to 15...Nxf3 16.Nxd4 Bb4+ 17.Bd2 With this move order White can block the check. As played in the actual game that option isn't possible as we'll see in a moment. The move order played in the game is a distinct improvement on this variation then, as now 17...Bxd2+ 18.Kxd2 Qa5+ 19.Kd1 exd3 20.Nb3 Qc7 21.Rc1 Qe5 22.Re1 Qxb2 23.Qd4 Qxa2 24.Rc7+ Bd7 25.Qxd3 Rc8 26.Rxb7 with advantage to White in Agnos-Emms, British Championship, Southampton 1986.]

16.Kf1 This move is forced because as mentioned in the note above, blocking the check loses a piece after

[16.Bd2? Nxf3+ 17.gxf3 Bxd2+ and if the king recaptures the knight will check on e4 and White will lose his queen.]

16...e4 Only now this move! 17.Nxd4 exd3 18.Nb3? This is a mistake. I felt the need to try and drive the bishop from b4 but it won't be so easy to do and in the final analysis my knight was better placed on d4 than here on b3. It would have been much more sensible to develop my pieces as quickly as possible. One approach would be to play

[18.Bg5 Bd7 19.g3 Kg8 20.Kg2 Qb6 21.Bxf6 gxf6 as happened in Luther-Matamoros Franco, Capablanca B1 1997. The position is unclear and rather obscure.;

18.Be3!? is a move that my engines both llike and when I checked against the Chessbase app on my iPhone it seemed that this was the best choice of response statistically if not by volume. White prepares to meet 18...Bg4 with 19.f3 and intends Kf2 to liberate his king's rook.]

18...Qe7 With the simple but effective threat of 19...Qe2+ and mate on e1 next move. Now I had to block the e-file immediately. 19.Be3 Both engines (Crafty and Fritz) assess this position as being much better for Black and it is all down to one inaccurate move on my part - Nb3. This one mistake could have cost me the game. If you're going to play this kind of opening however, you have to accept the risks. 19...Bg4! I must admit that I hadn't seen this coming quite so soon. Black is putting my centre under great pressure. By depriving my rook of the d1 square Black is indirectly preserving his passed pawn on d3 and now threatens to force it home at once. In addition, I can't play f3 to remove the bishop from its outpost and give my king the chance to get to f2. At this stage of proceedings I realised that I was in trouble. I felt I had to try and relieve the pressure some how so I opted for 20.a3 Fritz thinks that a better line was

[20.h3 Be2+ 21.Kg1 Rc8 but that still looks jolly unpleasant for White to me.]

20...d2! 1: Here we are then. For the first time in the game an attacked piece refuses to retreat. Quite right too on this occasion. Again, I must admit to having not considered the possibility that Black would just advance the pawn but it makes complete sense. As a minimum Black will win back the exchange and he will maintain the initiative. 21.axb4 d1=Q+ Nothing wrong with this but Black overlooked his best opportunity to drive home his advantage in the form of

[21...Qxb4! After the game I told Andy that I had been really worried about this reply, more so than the game continuation. He said he hadn't considered it and it's the first time in the game that I think he selected a suboptimal choice. The post mortem analysis demonstrated the power of this continuation to both players' satisfaction. Black threatens both the White knight and also the discovered attack on the White queen revealed after Be2+. This double threat should prove decisive after 22.f3 Qxb3 23.Kf2 Kg8 24.Bxd2 Qb6+ 25.Kf1 Qxb2 26.Qe1 and Black is clearly much, much better here.]

22.Rxd1 Compared to the variation above (which I hadn't seen all the way through of course but could see was dangerous) I was more than happy to give back the exchange for Black's passed pawn and balance up the material again. 22...Bxd1 23.Nc5 Bg4 It would be easy, given the benefit of hindsight, to say that this move was inaccurate. I had expected 23...b6 to drive the knight back to d3. Certainly if Black had been able to forsee the critical role this knight will play in his demise on this outpost then he would have driven it off as soon as possible. However, at the time there didn't seem to be an immediate threat and Black wanted to remove his bishop to this square. If nhe had chosen to kick the knight immediately I had considered something like

[23...b6 24.Nd3 Bc2 25.Ke2 Rc8 although Black stands rather better here to my mind and the engines concur.]

24.h3 d4!? 2: Here is the second instance of a piece being threatened but not retreating. Aesthetically, it is the mirror idea of the previous example. The bishop is threatened by the flank pawn but does not retreat in order to allow the d-pawn to advance with a threat! On this occasion it seems likely that Black did not select the very best continuation although d4 is by no means a critical error, it simply gives White a chance to get back on terms a little. Fritz 11 recommends instead playing

[24...Bf5 25.Qf4 White lines up his queen on the f-file ready to play g4 and g5 if given the chance. This move also gets the queen back towards the centre of the board as well. 25...Kg8 Black side steps the threat and puts his king onto a safer square. 26.Kg1 White prepares to put his king on h2 in order to finally get his rook into the game. 26...b6 27.Nb3 Rc8 28.Nd4 and Black is likely to pick up the two White b-pawns whilst White will exchange on f5 and win one of Black's king's side pawns leaving the game finely balanced but slightly in Black's favour.]

25.hxg4 3: Not to be out done I now also refused to move my attacked piece. Of course this just results in an exchange but from my point of view I was happy to open the h-file in order to try and develop my rook on that file. The draw back was that I could see I was going to have my pawn structure damaged even further. 25...dxe3 26.g5! According to both engines, White has now equalised again with this move. The key point is that White now gains a tempo against the Black knight threatens to win another by coming to c4 with his queen. Now I felt I was putting pressure on my opponent rather than the other way round! 26...Rd8 4: Here we go again! Once more Black refuses to move his attacked piece. Of course White can't take the knight because 27.gxf6?? e2+ 28.Kg1 Rd1+ 29.Kh2 Rxh1+ 30.Kxh1 e1=Q+ and Black wins. 27.Qc4+ White inserts an intermezzo of his own and now the Black knight really is under threat and must move itself into a position where it is pinned and also blocks the d-file. 27...Nd5 28.fxe3!? Voluntarily breaking up the last vestages of a pawn shield around my own king. I had a fairly long think before taking this decision and didn't take it lightly. In the end I decided to go for it for two reasons. First of all I couldn't see how Black could immediatley take advantage of my king's exposure and second of all I felt that he would try and refute my play directly and that would enable my rook o develop with a tempo. In the end the benefits appeared to outweigh the risks. Of course the engines don't agree with my "human" decision. That's because, as we'll see in a moment, they can see the tactical flaw in my concept. Instead of this move, Fritz thinks White's best continuation involves developng the rook directly via h4.

[28.Rh4 b5! Black hurries to try and break the pin. 29.Qe4 ( If White tries to avoid simplification then it will not go well for him after 29.Qb3 Qxg5 30.Re4 exf2 31.Ne6 Qc1+ 32.Kxf2 Rd6 and in a crazy position, Black has the edge.) 29...exf2 30.Kxf2 Qxe4 31.Rxe4 and the endgame appears to be dead even.]

28...Qxe3 29.Rh3 We've reached the critical moment of a nerve shredding game. Black has captured on e3 and allowed my rook to come alive and join the fray. I was very confident that my position was close to winning here and was very surprised when I analysed the game on my computer later on to find that, in fact, it is Black who should be winning here. How can this be? 29...Qxg5? It seems harsh to award this move a question mark and yet I must because it is the crucial inaccuracy of the game. Black captures the g-pawn but in doing so gives White the time he needs to drive the Black king into the open and onto the rocks. There was a refutation to my idea but, and maybe this would be some consolation to the losing party, I doubt many players would have found it. Neither of us saw it over the board or afterwards in our post mortem.

[29...Ke7!! 4: "We shall not, we shall not be moved!" A fourth and most unexpected refusal to retreat and a wonderful moment! The Black queen doesn't run. Instead with this quiet intermezzo Black breaks the pin and liberates the knight to recapture on e3 with check and a fork to boot. It's such a pretty move I almost wish Andy had found and played it because it deserves to see the light of day shine more brightly on it than in the footnotes of this commentary. Having said that, if he had seen it, it would have robbed me of the entertaining king hunt that now follows. After this stunning side-step White is left with nothing better than 30.Qe4+ Qxe4 31.Nxe4 Nxb4 and Black should have enough to win the endgame.]

30.Rf3+ Suddenly the White rook has sprung to life with deadly effect. 30...Ke8 This allows White a clean kill. Black could have limped on after

[30...Kg8 but White's material advantage ought to be decisive after 31.Ne6 Nb6 32.Qc3 Qb5+ 33.Ke1 Qd7 34.Nxd8 Qxd8 35.Qe5 ]

31.Qb5+! An important check. I needed the king on e7 in order to deprive Black of the chance to bring his queen to the aid of his majesty via that square. For the record, Fritz 11 tells me that White now has forced mate in 15 moves. 31...Ke7 32.Qe2+ This seemed cleanest to me and I'd calculated to the end of the game prior to playing my last move. The forced mate Fritz spotted continues with

[32.Qxb7+ Kd6 33.Ne4+ Ke5 34.Nxg5 ]

32...Kd6 Now, with the king forced out to d6, the hunt is on and the weak light squares in the Black camp will prove to be his undoing. Black could have prolonged his agony by giving up the knight but that's not the kind of decision a human being would make as it is so obviously losing.

[32...Ne3+ 33.Rxe3+ Kf7 34.Rf3+ Kg8 35.Qe6+ Kh7 36.Rh3+ Qh5 ]

33.Qe6+ Kc7 34.Rf7+ Kb8 35.Rxb7+ Ka8 36.Rxa7+! And now Black realised that the end is nigh. It's mate in 2. [1-0]

Generated by Aquarium

Things to remember from this game:

1. Attacked pieces aren't alwasy forced to retreat! In very open, tactical positions it's important to consider whether you or your opponent can leave a piece en prise in order to install a more potent threat.
2. In positions were both sides have exposed kings the initiative is vitally important and will likely as not decide the game. If you have the initiative do whatever you can to preserve it, if you don't have it do everything in your power to steal it from your opponent.
3. If you are a good little boy or girl then maybe, just maybe, Santa will bring you what you want most for Christmas!