27 Nov '07 13:45>
This is was played between me and Squelch and it was a fun game. I had a few ideas on this line and tried to see if they could work. This wasn't the normal Morra gambit in the sense that not too many fireworks were used by both players. Anyway here are my thoughts on this game and any help and/or discussion are expected and welcommed.
Game 4010788
[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.chessatwork.com"]
[Date "2007.09.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Squelchbelch"]
[Black "adam warlock"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[ECO "B21"]
[TimeControl "0"]
1. e4 c5
{
The Sicilian Defence. An assymetric, ready to fight response to 1.
e4. Black says: I'm going to attack on the queenside so do your worst at the
king side. By this early loss of symmetry on re-establishing the equilibrium
black is not fighting for coming out of the opening with equal chances, black
is indeed fighting for coming off the opening on top.
}
2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3
{
The best way to refute a gambit is to accept it so we got ourselves
the Smith-Morra Gambit accepted. White gives way one pawn for a quicker
development and strong attack. Right now it may not seem like it but with the
c and the d file semiopen and both center pawns out of the way seems can get
real messy for black. Bishops are free to roam the board and soon enough both
rooks will be ideally posted. This seems to be an uphill battle for black
but as a regular sicilian player I really want to grab any chance I get to
study this and bot get stomped if I ever get to face this gambit whiule
playing OTB. Enough with this yadda yadda and on with the game.
}
4... e6
{
I think
that nowadays the most popular way for black to play is 4. ... d6 but I
prefer this way. One thing that I've learned in the pre-study of this gambit
is the importance of the dark squares so I think that the sooner black
contest them the better.
}
5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bc4 a6
{
Untill now this all standar
commom knowledge of the gambit. Don't play either side of this gambit untill
you know this. Particularly 6. ... a6!
}
7. O-O Nge7
{
Inviting the pin
}
8. Bg5 f6 9. Be3 Ng6
{
On my pre-study of I've seens many of black set ups and this
was the one that suited me best. All that play this gambit are aware of the
consequences of the e5 pawn push by white. I really think this a resource to
fear on white's arsenal so I adopted this formation. Now I've taken control
of e5 and the pawn pusk lost all (well it lost a lot of it anyway, I'm just
patting my back!) of his sting.
}
10. Bb3
{
And at this point Squelch got the
best of me. No game in my database had this move by white so I think that is
safe to say that at this point we started playing our chess.
}
10... Be7
{
Iim
sorry to say this but I totally missed Squelch's next move and lasting
cramping effect it would have on my position. But move was also kinda forced
due to the central position of my king. I feared the quick attack and thought
that maybe I should get the monarch on a cozy little spot and take him away
from the action.
10. ... b5 {Instead I could have played this move and
taken away the a-4 square from the knight and went with the plan behind the
6. ... a6 move. Let's see how things could have happened.} 11. Qe2 Be7 12.
Rfd1 O-O 13. Rac1 {So now white has completed his normal development and
black's king is safe too. And on top of that black has a free ready to flow
position. That and the extra pawn should have done it for me but I lost this
chance. Anyway this is jsut the line I'm seeing maybe white had better moves
and that's why I annotated my actual tenth move with a ?! instead of a ?}
}
11. Na4
{
Already taken advantage of my not so energetic move. Chess this days
is getting so ruthless!
}
11... O-O
{
Making room for the queen.
}
12. Nb6 Rb8
{
And
this what I meant when I talked about a cramped position. No b5 push. A
bishop that is going to get exchanged by a white sooner or later and also
gaining some somewhat weak central pawns that will reveal themselves later
on.
}
13. Qe2 f5
{
Trying to free up something on my position. My queen side
counterplay has been smothered so maybe white can be nice and open up the
f-file for me. And I'm also threatening to harrass the dark square bishop on
my next move and take him from that real nice square.
}
14. Rfd1 Qe8
{
Queen on
a light square and out of the d-pawn's back. Tactical shot may appear at e6
with white's bishop so I ran for it. I am greedy and like to hang on to my
munched pawns int he opening!
}
15. e5
{
Interesting move. This keeps the
f-file closed for both players but allows me to harass the bishop and
pseudo-free my self on the queen side. But it sure is best that allowing me
to take the pawn or taking my pawn and allowing me to open up a file.
15.
exf5 Rxf5 16. Bc2 Rf8 {A cheeky position that diserves some further
analysis.}
}
15... f4 16. Nxc8 Rxc8
{
16. ... fxe3 17. Nxe7+ Qxe7 18. Qxe3 {And bye
bye gambited pawn! So this line didn't look very attractive to me.}
}
17. Bb6 Bd8 18. Bxd8 Rxd8
{
Still no queen behind my pityful d-pawn!
}
19. Rac1 Qe7
{
At
this point b5 is out of sight. I wnated to keep two defenders on my knight
and at this tage of the game I see that move only as tempo wasting. White has
enough initiative on him as it is. I was reaaly depressed with my position
and at this stage I started analysing as a mad man. My two central pawns
should have been my greatest assets at this stage but they are so weak and
just waitnig for tactics to happen. My f-pawn and white's e-pawn are both
bones on the other's guy throat but I feel that Squelch's bone is choking me
more that I am choking him. I could have moved my king to h-8 in order to
run away from tactics at e-6 but I would be giving a free tempo for white. So
I really didn't like my chances.
}
20. Qe4
{
At first I didn't see white's
point in this move. But in a few moves it would hit me like a hard early
morning slap.
}
20... Nh4
{
Since I'm a pawn up and got my hands all tied up let just
invite Squelch to trade off a fiew pieces and loosen the knot around my
throat.
}
21. Nxh4 Qxh4 22. Rc3
{
And like a slap The revelation of Qe4 came
to me. The dreaded rook lift. A tactic that is very easy to miss. White now
threatens Rh3 with rook and queen hitting on h7; and Rd3 doubling on the file
and making a mockery of my pathetic d-pawn. Each option very nasty and
unfortunately for me only one threat could have been parried.
}
22... Qh5
{
So I
decided to parry the h7 bust and live in the misery of a rook battery on the
d-file.
}
23. Rh3
{
Doubling on the d-file was better for white in my
option. Now the initiative will slowly swing to my side of the board and the
future is turning sunny to me.
23. Rcd3 {Doubling on the file and tying me
up. Now I feel like I have no good move o make and white can regain his pawns
while having a superior position.} b5 {For instance this natural looking
move.} 24. Rxd7 {Taking the e-pawn support} Rfe8 25. f3 {Threatening R1d6!}
Nb8
}
23... Qf5
{
And the queens have to be exchanged or white will be two pawns
down. I dont think a lkot of people would like to go to an endgame with that
onus.
}
24. Qxf5 Rxf5 25. Bc2
{
Still hitting on h-7
}
25... Rxe5
{
And now my central
pawns breath. Particularly the d-pawn that gets to be a passed pawn. And with
my major pieces that would really tie down white's forces.
}
26. Bxh7+ Kf7
{
Now the white bishop needs to retreat but on d3 he blocks the rook. On c2 it
allows me to win time. On b1 he becomes useless.
}
27. Rf3
{
With this move
white regains his gambited pawn but hands over his bishop. This move made me
remember of Fischer's blunder against Spassky. I had a possible line analysed
but what I saw did seem to be better for me that for white and I'll show it
in the following variations.
27. Bd3 Nb4 28. Bc4 Rf5 29. a3 Nc6 30. Bd3 Rf6
{Nice position for black}
27. Bc2 Re2 28. Rc1 Rf8 29. Kf1 Re5
27. Bb1
Re2 28. b3 e5 {And this too seems to be favourable to black. In all of this
variations my plan would be trying to cause the rooks exchange and go for
minor pieces and pawn endgame with me having the extra pawn or even better
going for a king and panws endgame.}
}
27... g6
{
Trapping the bishop.
}
28. Rxf4+ Kg7 29. Rh4
{
This move seems to hold on the bishop but what it really does is
to condemn that rook to passivity. But what else to do?
}
29... Rd5
{
This what I
like to do when I have a material advantage. To simplify things and get the
rythm of the game dictated by me. Letting me rule ove the file was
unthinkable so Whithe had to take my rook. Downsides of my move: Three
connected passed pawns on my king side. Gulp. Even with an extra piece things
would be very hard for me.
}
30. Rxd5 exd5 31. f4
{
And white resigns. I think
Squelch could hanged on for a while more and best for him would be the move
on the variation. Anyway it was a fun game were the momentum swung from one
side to the other and some less accurates moves were played by each side but
a great learning experience for the both of us. At least with was for me.
31. Bxg6 Kxg6 {Down a piece but with three connected passed pawns and things
get really sticky for my side. Any missplayed move I think that it is safe to
say that Squelch could win this.}
}
0-1
Game 4010788
[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.chessatwork.com"]
[Date "2007.09.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Squelchbelch"]
[Black "adam warlock"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[ECO "B21"]
[TimeControl "0"]
1. e4 c5
{
The Sicilian Defence. An assymetric, ready to fight response to 1.
e4. Black says: I'm going to attack on the queenside so do your worst at the
king side. By this early loss of symmetry on re-establishing the equilibrium
black is not fighting for coming out of the opening with equal chances, black
is indeed fighting for coming off the opening on top.
}
2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3
{
The best way to refute a gambit is to accept it so we got ourselves
the Smith-Morra Gambit accepted. White gives way one pawn for a quicker
development and strong attack. Right now it may not seem like it but with the
c and the d file semiopen and both center pawns out of the way seems can get
real messy for black. Bishops are free to roam the board and soon enough both
rooks will be ideally posted. This seems to be an uphill battle for black
but as a regular sicilian player I really want to grab any chance I get to
study this and bot get stomped if I ever get to face this gambit whiule
playing OTB. Enough with this yadda yadda and on with the game.
}
4... e6
{
I think
that nowadays the most popular way for black to play is 4. ... d6 but I
prefer this way. One thing that I've learned in the pre-study of this gambit
is the importance of the dark squares so I think that the sooner black
contest them the better.
}
5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bc4 a6
{
Untill now this all standar
commom knowledge of the gambit. Don't play either side of this gambit untill
you know this. Particularly 6. ... a6!
}
7. O-O Nge7
{
Inviting the pin
}
8. Bg5 f6 9. Be3 Ng6
{
On my pre-study of I've seens many of black set ups and this
was the one that suited me best. All that play this gambit are aware of the
consequences of the e5 pawn push by white. I really think this a resource to
fear on white's arsenal so I adopted this formation. Now I've taken control
of e5 and the pawn pusk lost all (well it lost a lot of it anyway, I'm just
patting my back!) of his sting.
}
10. Bb3
{
And at this point Squelch got the
best of me. No game in my database had this move by white so I think that is
safe to say that at this point we started playing our chess.
}
10... Be7
{
Iim
sorry to say this but I totally missed Squelch's next move and lasting
cramping effect it would have on my position. But move was also kinda forced
due to the central position of my king. I feared the quick attack and thought
that maybe I should get the monarch on a cozy little spot and take him away
from the action.
10. ... b5 {Instead I could have played this move and
taken away the a-4 square from the knight and went with the plan behind the
6. ... a6 move. Let's see how things could have happened.} 11. Qe2 Be7 12.
Rfd1 O-O 13. Rac1 {So now white has completed his normal development and
black's king is safe too. And on top of that black has a free ready to flow
position. That and the extra pawn should have done it for me but I lost this
chance. Anyway this is jsut the line I'm seeing maybe white had better moves
and that's why I annotated my actual tenth move with a ?! instead of a ?}
}
11. Na4
{
Already taken advantage of my not so energetic move. Chess this days
is getting so ruthless!
}
11... O-O
{
Making room for the queen.
}
12. Nb6 Rb8
{
And
this what I meant when I talked about a cramped position. No b5 push. A
bishop that is going to get exchanged by a white sooner or later and also
gaining some somewhat weak central pawns that will reveal themselves later
on.
}
13. Qe2 f5
{
Trying to free up something on my position. My queen side
counterplay has been smothered so maybe white can be nice and open up the
f-file for me. And I'm also threatening to harrass the dark square bishop on
my next move and take him from that real nice square.
}
14. Rfd1 Qe8
{
Queen on
a light square and out of the d-pawn's back. Tactical shot may appear at e6
with white's bishop so I ran for it. I am greedy and like to hang on to my
munched pawns int he opening!
}
15. e5
{
Interesting move. This keeps the
f-file closed for both players but allows me to harass the bishop and
pseudo-free my self on the queen side. But it sure is best that allowing me
to take the pawn or taking my pawn and allowing me to open up a file.
15.
exf5 Rxf5 16. Bc2 Rf8 {A cheeky position that diserves some further
analysis.}
}
15... f4 16. Nxc8 Rxc8
{
16. ... fxe3 17. Nxe7+ Qxe7 18. Qxe3 {And bye
bye gambited pawn! So this line didn't look very attractive to me.}
}
17. Bb6 Bd8 18. Bxd8 Rxd8
{
Still no queen behind my pityful d-pawn!
}
19. Rac1 Qe7
{
At
this point b5 is out of sight. I wnated to keep two defenders on my knight
and at this tage of the game I see that move only as tempo wasting. White has
enough initiative on him as it is. I was reaaly depressed with my position
and at this stage I started analysing as a mad man. My two central pawns
should have been my greatest assets at this stage but they are so weak and
just waitnig for tactics to happen. My f-pawn and white's e-pawn are both
bones on the other's guy throat but I feel that Squelch's bone is choking me
more that I am choking him. I could have moved my king to h-8 in order to
run away from tactics at e-6 but I would be giving a free tempo for white. So
I really didn't like my chances.
}
20. Qe4
{
At first I didn't see white's
point in this move. But in a few moves it would hit me like a hard early
morning slap.
}
20... Nh4
{
Since I'm a pawn up and got my hands all tied up let just
invite Squelch to trade off a fiew pieces and loosen the knot around my
throat.
}
21. Nxh4 Qxh4 22. Rc3
{
And like a slap The revelation of Qe4 came
to me. The dreaded rook lift. A tactic that is very easy to miss. White now
threatens Rh3 with rook and queen hitting on h7; and Rd3 doubling on the file
and making a mockery of my pathetic d-pawn. Each option very nasty and
unfortunately for me only one threat could have been parried.
}
22... Qh5
{
So I
decided to parry the h7 bust and live in the misery of a rook battery on the
d-file.
}
23. Rh3
{
Doubling on the d-file was better for white in my
option. Now the initiative will slowly swing to my side of the board and the
future is turning sunny to me.
23. Rcd3 {Doubling on the file and tying me
up. Now I feel like I have no good move o make and white can regain his pawns
while having a superior position.} b5 {For instance this natural looking
move.} 24. Rxd7 {Taking the e-pawn support} Rfe8 25. f3 {Threatening R1d6!}
Nb8
}
23... Qf5
{
And the queens have to be exchanged or white will be two pawns
down. I dont think a lkot of people would like to go to an endgame with that
onus.
}
24. Qxf5 Rxf5 25. Bc2
{
Still hitting on h-7
}
25... Rxe5
{
And now my central
pawns breath. Particularly the d-pawn that gets to be a passed pawn. And with
my major pieces that would really tie down white's forces.
}
26. Bxh7+ Kf7
{
Now the white bishop needs to retreat but on d3 he blocks the rook. On c2 it
allows me to win time. On b1 he becomes useless.
}
27. Rf3
{
With this move
white regains his gambited pawn but hands over his bishop. This move made me
remember of Fischer's blunder against Spassky. I had a possible line analysed
but what I saw did seem to be better for me that for white and I'll show it
in the following variations.
27. Bd3 Nb4 28. Bc4 Rf5 29. a3 Nc6 30. Bd3 Rf6
{Nice position for black}
27. Bc2 Re2 28. Rc1 Rf8 29. Kf1 Re5
27. Bb1
Re2 28. b3 e5 {And this too seems to be favourable to black. In all of this
variations my plan would be trying to cause the rooks exchange and go for
minor pieces and pawn endgame with me having the extra pawn or even better
going for a king and panws endgame.}
}
27... g6
{
Trapping the bishop.
}
28. Rxf4+ Kg7 29. Rh4
{
This move seems to hold on the bishop but what it really does is
to condemn that rook to passivity. But what else to do?
}
29... Rd5
{
This what I
like to do when I have a material advantage. To simplify things and get the
rythm of the game dictated by me. Letting me rule ove the file was
unthinkable so Whithe had to take my rook. Downsides of my move: Three
connected passed pawns on my king side. Gulp. Even with an extra piece things
would be very hard for me.
}
30. Rxd5 exd5 31. f4
{
And white resigns. I think
Squelch could hanged on for a while more and best for him would be the move
on the variation. Anyway it was a fun game were the momentum swung from one
side to the other and some less accurates moves were played by each side but
a great learning experience for the both of us. At least with was for me.
31. Bxg6 Kxg6 {Down a piece but with three connected passed pawns and things
get really sticky for my side. Any missplayed move I think that it is safe to
say that Squelch could win this.}
}
0-1