Red Army vs. Spartans results

Iznogud (Red Army) gave up 130 rating points in his two games, but had a chance to win this one as Black. He played a dubious opening; 3...Be7, 3...Bc5, and 3...Ba5 are all better than his Bd6?!, which leads to a +- for White. It is never a good idea to lock one's pieces in like that. But White does not properly take advantage of that and his premature Queen sortie is repulsed and Black is left with the better position. Black wins a piece through a fork, but then on his 37th turn, overlooks the pin and plays ...Nc5??, losing the piece and the game.

Two words of advice:

1. Don't hurry -- you have three days a move. A lot of these moves looked like they were blitzed off. If you like blitz, there is the live server, or there are plenty of other places. You have three days to move -- use them.

2. If you want to know how the openings are played, you can either get a database program like Chessbase or Chess Assistant; if you want to just know how they are played in general, you can use Nunn's Chess Openings or MCO; if you don't have the money to invest, you can try http://www.chessopeningsdatabase.com/Chess-Openings-Database.htm, a free online chess database.

Iznogud (Red Army) should seriously think about getting another handle -- he has the potential to improve a bundle of rating points; he had winning positions in both games.

Mistake #1 -- On Move 7, there was no need for White to move a piece twice in the opening -- if he finds the pin irksome, 7. h3 was better than 7. Be2, because Black cannot maintain it because he has already fianchettoed his King Bishop. That is a useful rule to remember.

Mistake #2 -- On Move 12, White should not have allowed the freeing push ...b5. In these Benoni positions, when Black plays ...a6, it is always with a view of pushing the b-pawn and expanding on the Queen side. Therefore, 12. a4 was better than 12. Re1?!

But then Black grabs a poisoned pawn (...Bxc3? was awful; ...b4 would have won a pawn without having to trade off the Bishop), and then all of a sudden the tables turn -- Black must either submit to a King-side attack or submit to the loss of the exchange, which is what happened in the game.

Then White goes astray -- Instead of 23. Bc4?, White should have returned the exchange another way -- with 23. Rxa4 and 24. Bxc4. Then, Black would have been stuck in the mud on the Queen side; his pawns would have been nice targets for White, and he has no play on the King side that I can see. Material would have been even and White would have been += or +/-. But in the actual game, White is a pawn down and he has a bad Bishop to boot. But White still had drawing chances until he blundered into the fork at the end.

Like I said before -- this is not blitz; this is three days per move. If you have trouble seeing simple Knight forks, then get Reinfeld's 1001 Chess Combinations and work on the section on forks until you get them right. And when you're confronted with positions with long tactical sequences, like move 23, then it always pays to sit down and go over the different alternatives.

This game had some interesting turns before Manovsky (Red Army) blundered a piece on move 21 and resigned on move 30.

First of all, this was not the best way of playing the Modern -- this is the passive kind that I see all the time on Internet chess -- Black tries to play "solid," and plays e6, d6, puts his Knights on e7 and d7, and fianchettos both Bishops. But, speaking from personal experience, this approach simply doesn't work -- I have won countless blitz games simply by being patient and then opening up the position when Black is helpless against the tactical mayhem that follows. There are three active ways of playing the Modern:
1. Play an early ...Bg4 and ...Nc6, exchange the Bishop for the Knight on f3 early, and pressure the pawn on d4. We won a vote chess game with this variation.
2. Try to improve on the King's Indian by playing ...e5 and ...f5 before bringing out the King Knight.
3. Play ...c5 and then trade off Bishop for Knight on e3, crippling Whites Pawns and then seeking to control the e4 square.
I suggest you work out these three lines for yourself and figure out what you're comfortable playing.

But that was not the reason Black lost this game, thanks to White's 11th move. 11. Nh2?! was passive and allowed Black to equalize; White should have simply moved the Bishop to d3 where it would have been on a more active square, then bring the Rooks out.

On move 16, Black made a mistake that should have lost. 16...Qe7 should have lost to the pin move 17. Nd5, which would have lost the e6 pawn since the Queen had to go back to d8. After White failed to take advantage of Black's lapse, Black made a nice move in 18...h5!, killing White's pressure on the e6 pawn and ensuring at least equality.

On move 20, Black made a pawn break that was actually pretty interesting. The problem was that he could have captured the f-pawn for free. Sometimes it happens -- it doesn't occur to people that 1900 players make mistakes as well. White gets the pawn back with 21. Bxh5, only to have Black's queen come into the game with 21...Qg5 with tempo.

Black is still OK, but fell victim to routine thinking on move 21. Around 99% of the time, moves like 21...dxe5?? are automatic. But not this time -- Black ignored a pin that cost him the game. 21...Rxf4 would have held the balance because after 22. exd6, Black had 22...Bd4+ and Qxd6. This is the sort of thing that separates the men from the boys -- the strong players are the ones who are able to think outside the box and see the 1% positions when moves like ...dxe5 are losing moves.

I am not a fan of this line of play for Black, but I see it all the time on the Internet. But specifically, the problem with this line is that White should have played 6. Qb3! instead of what he did. Not only does it target b7, White will follow with Bc4, targeting the Pawn on f7. The problem with these premature Bishop moves (3...Bg4?!) is that they make the queenside vulnerable to a Qb3.

But after White fails to take advantage of Black's opening lapse, Black fights back to equalize by move 19. Then, White drops a piece when he gets his Bishop trapped.

I have noticed that many people as White do not know how to play against the Gruenfeld -- I have had two other a-players drop a pawn against me. Here, White exposes his Queen to attack early. I miss a fork on move 7 (7...Nxc3 and 8...b5), but Black is better throughout. On move 14, White apparently thought that he had prevented the standard ...c5 pawn break in the Gruenfeld, only for me to play it anyway because of the pin. On move 16, objectively better was 15...Nxc5; however, White goes totally beserk with 16. Qxa6??, overlooking that he has a whole bunch of loose pieces hanging. Black wins a Rook and the game.

I have stated elsewhere why I don't care much for the pawn push 3...d5?! in response to either 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2 or d3. It moves the Queen out early, and the Queen becomes a target whether it tries the Center Counter-like ...Qa5, or tries to retreat to a square like e6. Therefore, Black has nothing better than the passive retreat 6...Qd8, when White is able to cripple Black's pawn structure with 7. Bb5 and 8. Bxc6+.

But White had to follow up energetically, and failed to do so. Best would have been 9. Re1 O-O 10. Nxe5, when Black has dubious compensation for the missing pawn. That was a direct consequence of his third move, which set him back in development.

But from moves 9-17, Black plays excellent chess as he punishes White's premature Bishop pin by driving it back and establishing a bind on the King side. This bind is what will win the game for him, though not without a lot of twists and turns.

On move 18, Black starts to dither -- first, he locks his Queen Rook in with 18...Rfb8, allowing White to grab a pawn as compensation -- had Black played the correct 18...Rab8, that would not have happened because he can simply regain it with ...Rxb2. The difference is that after ...Rfb8, the King Rook has to guard the Queen Rook which is still on a8. But once he moved it there, he should have left it there -- Black has fair compensation for the pawn after 20...Be7 21. Qxf6 Bxf6 22. b3.

White tried for too much with 23. Qxc7?!, which allows Black some serious counterplay. Not only does he still have his blockade on the King side, his Bishop is able to support it with the pin on f2. Therefore, he did not have to fear the loss of a second pawn with 25...Bb6! 26. Qxe5 Qxe5 27. Nxe5, because his Rook dominates the 7th rank after 27...Rc2.

After missing that promising pawn sacrifice, Black was worse; White could have played 29. Nc6, which would have killed Black's counterplay and boxed in his Rooks. But his 29. Nf3? was the beginning of the end as his Knight was no match for the onrushing Black pawns. His best chance for a draw was to bail out with 31. Bxf4 gxf3 32. gxf3, but after hesitating once (31...Bf7?), Black rushes in with his pawns and wins a Rook and the game.

The Black side of the King's Gambit and the White side of the Gruenfeld are two openings that (in my experience) a lot of people don't know how to play properly, and here is a prime example. Black develops his Bishop to b4, which simply gives me a free move to strengthen my center and get my Queen out. Normally, I harp on the need to play Qb3 in response to a ...Bg4 in these positions, but this time, White had better -- 8. d5 would have targeted the stranded Bishop on a5. After 8...Nce7 9. Qa4+, Black must create major structural weaknesses and allow White to open the position in his favor or submit to the loss of his Bishop.

There was nothing wrong with 9...Qf6 and 10...Qg6 (as I thought during the game) because Black has to castle Queenside to avoid White's planned King-side onrush. The real error comes with 11...Qh5, after which the Queen becomes a target and Black must lose material. 11...f6 would have left him with a bad but tenable position as he would have created a flight square for his Queen and completed his development with 12...Nge7.

White missed two chances to win and one to hold. Black captured a poisoned pawn on move 18 with 18...Qxe4??, and White missed a double attack -- had he played 19. Qxe4 Nxe4 20. Bd5, the Knight and Rook are both hanging and White wins.

The second blown chance was when he played 21. Bxa6? Instead, he could have played 21. Qxe4, pinning the Knight and setting up a double attack. Black has to move his Knight to b4 or the Queen or Knight will drop. Then, White plays 22. Qg4, when both the Knight and g7 pawn are hanging. After 22...Nd5 23. Qxg7, White is much better since there is no secure place for Black to put his King.

The third mistake and losing move was 23. gxf3?? 99 times out of 100, that is a routine recapture. But in this case, the Bishop on a6 is hanging. Therefore, White had to throw in the check with 23. Bb5+. Then, he has time to capture the Queen and enter a better ending.