Welcome Surfers fans! I hope you're as excited as I am that San Diego has been given an opportunity to join the USCL this season. This should be a great opportunity to add to the chess culture of San Diego and Southern California as a whole.
Unfortunately our season did not get off to a great start as we fell to the Minnesota Blizzard in week 1 by a score of 2.5-1.5. Here's a brief summary of each game from the match as well as in depth analysis of my own game. All the games can be seen at uschessleague.com as well as on the ICC.
Board 4: Saumik Narayanan (1949)-FM Ali Morshedi (2328) 0-1
Board 4 saw a hybrid Benoni line which developed into a King's Indian like middle game position. After White continued with a logical plan of castling kingside, Black developed a ferocious attack. Minnesota's young 4th board played accurately for a ling time, the engines were even favoring white by more than a pawn. The problem was that white had to walk a very tight rope in order to reap the fruits of his advantage, and against a dangerous attacker like Ali this is easier said than done. I would have preferred to play Black's position the entire way. In the end, White faltered allowing a pretty finish with a Middlegame Knight checkmate!
Board 3: IM John Watson (2340)-IM Andrew Tang (2475) 0-1
This game was a standard Queen's Gambit Declined with Bf4. John chose a quieter line than the ones that have been played like crazy recently at the high level. The Queens were traded early and a symmetrical ending emerged where White appeared to enjoy a slight edge due to superior piece play. After a critical misstep from White however, Tang showed why he is one of the premier blitz players on ICC and chess.com by converting his winning endgame with pinpoint accuracy,
Board 2: IM Sean Nagle (2542)-NM Stevan Djordjevic (2366) 1/2-1/2
One of the highlights for me of taking part in the USCL is getting to know some of the players better. I've been friends with John and Ali for 10+ years, but I only recently met Stevan and wasn't quite sure what to expect from him given his lack of experience in long time control games (Stevan plays in mostly rapid events). I must say I was impressed! Stevan comfortably held his own with black against an IM who I have faced several times and know to be very strong. The game started as a Slav, and like in the board 3 game the Queens were exchanged quickly. White also appeared a bit more comfortable in this endgame due to his central control, but Stevan defended patiently. After a slight inaccuracy by White it was black who had all the winning chances late in the game. There was a way that Black could have had a comfortable pawn up endgame, but wasn't able to find it in time pressure so the game fizzled out into a simple draw.
Kiewra,Keaton
(2518) - Flores,Mauricio (2565)
USCL Week 1
Internet Chess Club, 25.08.2015
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.Nbd2 0–0
5.c3 d5 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Be2 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Nh5 This idea of
trading off the Knight for the dark Bishop has rarely been played, and for good
reason.
10.Be5! The point is to
provoke f6 which kills Black's dark Bishop and creates uncorrectable weaknesses
on the Kingside. Nothing else is really possible here since the Knight on h5
will be ridiculous if it cannot trade off for the Bishop.
10...f6 11.Bg3 Nxg3 12.hxg3 Nb6 13.c4 I wanted to
strike out at the center here to create some kind of active play. Once the
position shakes up a bit Black's weaknesses start to tell.
13...dxc4 14.Nxc4 Be6 15.Rc1 c6 16.0–0
Nxc4 17.Bxc4 Bxc4 18.Rxc4 I was surprised by my opponent's decision to
simplify in this way and improve the placement of the white rook. White stands
clearly better here due to his more secure structure and Knight which is more
useful than Black's Bishop.
18...Qd5 19.Qb3 White needs to
develop the Queen and this is the most accurate square. Black's Queen is now
tied down to his king, and b5 is never possible because of Rxc6.
19...Rfd8 20.Rfc1 Rd7 21.Qc2 Rad8 So White has
claimed the c-file and Black the d-file. Now it's time to open the Queenside and
White's edge should be clear.
22.a4 Qf7 23.b4 e6 24.b5 cxb5 25.axb5
Bf8 Mission
accomplished, now time to provoke weaknesses in Black's camp.
26.Qa2 b6 27.Rc6 The Rook is an
absolute monster on this newly vacated square.
27...Bd6 28.Nd2 e5 Black has
suffered long enough and needs to lash out. However this move creates more
holes and weaknesses in the black camp.
29.d5 Bf8 30.e4 f5 A great
practical decision by GM Flores to change the nature of the fight. According to
the engines White's position is becoming more and more winning after the next
few moves, but white will have to abort the autopilot and do some serious
calculating in order to bring home the full point.
31.Qc2 Bg7 32.exf5 Qxd5 33.Ne4 Qxb5 Up until this
point I have played a strong positional game and enjoy a winning position.
However according to the double edged nature of the position I need to change
my mindset here and calculate until I find a forced win. Unfortunately I wasn't
able to do that and find any of the Myriad of forced wins that existed in the
next few moves.
34.Rg6 [34.f6 Bf8
35.Nxg5 hxg5 (35...Qd3 36.f7+ Kh8 37.Qxd3 Rxd3 38.Ne6 Rb8 39.Rc8) 36.Qg6+
Kh8 37.f7 Was my first chance to win the game.
34...Kh8 35.Kh2? This is the wrong
time to play profilactically.
35.f6 Bf8 36.f7 Rxf7 37.Nf6 Rxf6
38.Rxf6±
35...Qd3 36.Qc6 Qd5 37.g4?? Not only a bad
move but a poor decision as well. I needed to find...
37.f6 Bf8 38.Qxd5 Rxd5 39.f7 Bg7 40.f8Q+
Bxf8 41.Rc7 Where I still have a winning position due to piece pressure since
my Knight will come to f6. This variation is hard to see, but I did see that
after 37.Rxh6+ Bxh6 38.Qxh6+ Rh7 39.Qxh7+ Kxh7 40.Nf6+ Kg7 41. Nxd5 Rxd5
42.Rc7+ Kf6 43.Rxa7 Kxf5 that the game would almost certainly be a draw. This
would have been smarter than continuing to play for the win. After the game
continuation all 3 results are possible, which does not bode well
psychologically for the player who has been better the entire game.
37...Qxc6 38.Rcxc6 b5 39.Nc5 Rf7 40.Rge6
40.Ne6
Rb8 41.Nxg7 Rxg7 42.Rxh6+ Rh7 43.Rxh7+ Kxh7 44.Rc7+ Kg8 45.Rxa7 b4 46.Ra2 b3
47.Rb2 Was the way to go with a drawn ending.
40...b4 41.Ra6 Bf8 42.Ne4?? Losing the thread
and the game along with it.
42.Rec6 Rb8 43.Ne6 b3 44.Nxf8 Rfxf8
45.Rxa7 b2 46.Rxh6+=
42...b3 43.Rxe5 Rb7 44.Ra1 b2 45.Rb1 Rc8
46.Rd5 Rc1 47.Nd2 Bg7 48.f4 Bc3 49.Rxb2 Rxb2 50.Rd8+ Kh7 51.Rd7+ Kg8 52.Ne4
gxf4 53.f6 Rbb1
0–1
So in conclusion, to lose the match deciding game from a winning position...for lack of a better term it pretty much sucks. As always though there is a silver lining. I often preach that a chess player's two best friends on the journey are passion and resilience, and such experiences build the latter in abundance. Sometimes failure is necessary in order to bring the mental toughness and desire needed to succeed. No longer do I entertain the thought that I should get out of chess and do something more practical with my time. I absolutely love this game, and I am living my dream right now by contributing all that I can to it. Rest assured I will learn the lessons available to me from this setback, and come back strong. To borrow an old slogan from the NBA: "Fall down seven times, get up eight."
