Annotated game

Tactics and studying master games are supposed to be great ways to improve. CTS works for tactics and I decided to round out my day but annotating a game by one of the top 10 players on this site. I had never seen one of Stephane's games, and the first completed one I saw was a win over Korch. I would love to know what other people are seeing here that I'm not...

Game 3151629

[Event "Clan challenge"]
[Site "http://www.chessatwork.com"]
[Date "2007.02.09"]
[EndDate "2007.08.23"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Stephane"]
[Black "Korch"]
[WhiteRating "2308"]
[BlackRating "2275"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "3151629"]

1. d4 c5 2. d5 g6 3. e4 interesting, I've never seen Benoni w/o c4 but I don't se why it's not playable.

Bf8g7 4. Nb1c3 d6 5. Ng1f3 Ng8f6 6. Bf1e2 O-O
7. O-O Nb8a6 Straightforward development to this point. No apparent tactics or weaknesses. I expect Korch will try for a Q-side pawn storm, maybe with Nc7, Rb8 and b5. Whites play appears to revolve around a succesful e5 break and trading off dark square bishops would probably benifit him.

8. Bc1f4 Na6c7 9. a4 A nice prophylactic move

Bc8g4 10. h3 Why? the point of the bishop was to remove influence from e5.
Bg4xf3 11. Be2xf3 Nf6d7
12. Ra1a2 --Wierd. I suppose he is planning for Korch to push b4 and have an open b-file?? a Rook doubling on a1 and a2 is also possible now.

Nd7e5 -- preparing f4

13. Bf3e2 a6 14. Bf4e3 b6 15. Qd1d2 Giving him the option of Bh6 exchaning the lethal dark square bishops.

Rf8e8 16. f4 Ne5d7 17. Rf1d1 -- Makes Qd2 and f4 more understandable. Now the d4 pawn is defended in case of an e5 push.

Nd7f6 18. Be2f3 b5 19. e5 b4 20. Nc3e2 Nf6d7 21. e6 -- an interesting move that opens the kings position and the light squares.

fxe6 22. dxe6 Nd7f6 23. g4 -- apparently, this attack has more potential than Bxa8 in this closed position where the rooks do little. However, now Nxe6, Bd5, Nxd5, Qxd5, Qd7, f5

d5 24. Be3xc5 Nc7xe6 25. Bc5e3 -- Bxb4 seems better to me...Rb8, Bc3 and white has an excellent grip on the d4 square.

Qd8c8 26. Qd2xb4 Ra8b8 27. Qb4c3 Qc8xc3 28. bxc3 -- once again reinforcing control of the d4 square and preventing any tactics surrounding a d4 fork.Nc3, d4, Bxd4, Nxd4, Rxd4, Nxg4 gives black some counterplay.

Ne6c7 29. Be3d4 Re8c8 30. c4 -- liquidating the first of the doubled pawns. However, I don't see why exd isn't playable as black's e pawn is hopelessly weak already. dxc, c3!? allowing whites rooks to link up??

e6 31. g5 another interesting move. Trades off the dark square bishops, but black appears to now have a target for his rooks on f4.

Nf6e4 32. Bd4xg7 Kg8xg7 33. cxd5 exd5 34. c4 -- move 31 makes more sense now.


Rb8b3 35. Kg1g2 Ne4d6 36. cxd5 Nd6f5 37. Kg2f2 defending against Nh4+

Nc7e8 38. Bf3g4 Trying to exchange off the blockading knights.


Ne8d6 39. Ne2d4 Rb3b4 40. Bg4xf5 gxf5 41. a5 Rc8c4
42. Kf2e3 Kg7g6 43. Rd1d3 Kg6f7 44. Ra2a1 Kf7g6 45. h4 Rb4b2 46. Ke3f3 Rb2h2
47. Kf3g3 Rh2b2 48. h5 -- Kxh5, Rh1+, Kg6, Rh6+ wins the knight.

Kg6f7 49. Ra1g1 -- why? this seems to hang whites a-pawn.

Rc4a4 50. Nd4f3 Ra4xa5 51. Rg1c1 -- occupying the open file and attempting to advance the passed pawn.

Ra5a2 52. Rc1c6 Kf7e7 53. Rc6c7 Ke7d8 54. Rc7xh7 Nd6e4 55. Kg3h4 Ra2a1 56. Rh7h8 Kd8c7
57. d6 Kc7b6 58. Nf3e1 a diversionary tactic to prevent Rh1# while allowing the rook to then defend against it.

Ra1xe1 59. d7 the pawn will queen with check 1-0

why not 4.Bxc3+?


Bc8g4 10. h3 Why? the point of the bishop was to remove influence from e5.

why not? h3 will stop (no matter how remote) bank rank mates and the trade give the bishop pair -- to me, it doesn't sound like bad compensation for the loss of e5.


12. Ra1a2 --Wierd. I suppose he is planning for Korch to push b4 and have an open b-file?? a Rook doubling on a1 and a2 is also possible now.

I think the main purpose is to allow the knight to move at some point, Ra2 stops Bxb2 (which potencially lose a pawn and tempo)


21. e6 -- an interesting move that opens the kings position and the light squares.

perhaps also aiming to block the g7 bishop?


25. Bc5e3 -- Bxb4 seems better to me...Rb8, Bc3 and white has an excellent grip on the d4 square.

Not sure, but White may not like the idea of Qb6+

Originally posted by zebano
10. h3 Why? the point of the bishop was to remove influence from e5.

Possible reasons
1. One point behind h3 is to keep black from oversimplifying by limiting the exhange to one piece. If black gets a knight to e5 then Nxe5 Bxe2, Qxe2 Bxe5 two pieces are exchanged.
2. white's plan of development may be hindered without immediate resolution. If white wants Qd2 and rfd1 and has in mind a certain pawn structure then he has no useful move other than to resolve it first with h3 before black's knight gets to e5.
3. White my value his bishops and not want them forcibly exchanged.

Originally posted by Regicidal
Possible reasons
1. One point behind h3 is to keep black from oversimplifying by limiting the exhange to one piece. If black gets a knight to e5 then Nxe5 Bxe2, Qxe2 Bxe5 two pieces are exchanged.
2. white's plan of development may be hindered without immediate resolution. If white wants Qd2 and rfd1 and has in mind a certain pawn structure then he has n ade give the bishop pair -- to me, it doesn't sound like bad compensation for the loss of e5.

Thanks for the suggestions (Regicidal and Shinidoki). While the game certainly opened up later with the e5 & e6 pawn pushes, that is simply not the type of position where I personally think a bishop pair will make much difference. The thought of preventing Bxb2 is also a good one. I personally always play for a Qd2, Bh6 forced exchange of dark square bishops in such positions and need to stop assuming that others will play as I do.

My main mistakes were:

13....a6?! (better was 13...Na6) after which white got advantage
23...d5? (instead of 23...Rb8) after which white could ge winning position

After some inaccuracies of Stephane (cant say where exactly) I got chances to draw, but I did let them out with one horrible blunder 57...Kb6?? - 57...Kb7 would allow me fight for draw. Because after 57...Kb7 white would not able to play 58.Ne1 Rxe1 59.d7 due to 59...Rh2+ 60.Rh3 Reh1! with draw (when king is on b6 pawn can be promoted to queen with check, which is impossible when king is on b7)

If you study someone's games you'll only get as good as they are (with any luck) so why study someone on a game site when there are tens of thousands of grandmaster games out there?

Originally posted by MoneyMaker7
If you study someone's games you'll only get as good as they are (with any luck) so why study someone on a game site when there are tens of thousands of grandmaster games out there?

Curiosity. Besides, If I find an improvement in their play (which I did not) why would I not get better than them?

Originally posted by MoneyMaker7
If you study someone's games you'll only get as good as they are (with any luck) so why study someone on a game site when there are tens of thousands of grandmaster games out there?

Well getting to 2300 would be a start! 🙂

Originally posted by MoneyMaker7
If you study someone's games you'll only get as good as they are (with any luck) so why study someone on a game site when there are tens of thousands of grandmaster games out there?

there is also the fact that Korch (one of the players in the game) is an active member of the forum....


you know, If I could talk to kasparov about his games any time i wished, I'd study a lot more of his games.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
there is also the fact that Korch (one of the players in the game) is an active member of the forum....


you know, If I could talk to kasparov about his games any time i wished, I'd study a lot more of his games.

Don't worry - MM7 is just z00t in disguise...