Knight on the Rim: FINISH HIM! My games versus an FM and a GM.

Entering the second round of the Ontario Open, my 'reward' for the upset over Saposhnikov was to be put on top board against GM Bator Sambuev. People were checking out the game with some frequency, probably wondering how long I was going to keep up with the GM. The answer was not long.

In the game below I played stubbornly for a plan that the position did not ask for or even allow. I try to expand too rapidly on the Kingside when White has kept the center quite fluid. The result is I get Bator-ed into submission fairly quickly.

Of special note to this game and to this tournament (for me) was how frequently knights were landing on the edge of the board. In this game i could not fathom why, it seemed, on move 18 White wasn't forced to lose a piece. The answer came in the form of a deadly attack spearheaded by a knight on the rim. Thus I would like to take this opportunity to try and coin the phrase:

 "Knight on the Rim: FINISH HIM!"

a la mortal kombat, since as John Watson likes to point out, thinking of a knight on the rim as dim, is in itself, dim. Check out GM Sambuev's light squared attack.

If you are not satisfied seeing me get crushed by a GM, then watch as the same theme, a knight on the rim, gets me into deep trouble in the late middlegame during round 3 against FM Davies. Davies had been playing very solidly and passively all game, in a very slightly worse position. However things change when he constructs an initiative on the Queenside.