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SOS at Superstates
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This past weekend I had a chance to go to a Super State Tournament in northern Florida. At SuperStates, usually you can expect very strong players to compete, and that was definitely the case. During my fourth Round I was set up against a player with a rating of 1600. I was very intimidated because I was almost 600 rating points lower than him. So what happens when you're playing an opponent who has more experience, and maybe is better than you in certain parts of the game i.e Middle and Endgame. So I though I Gotta make an SOS! Not an SOS (An urgent appeal for help) but an SOS- Secrets of Opening Surprises.
I first learned about a SOS from IM Jeroen Bosch monthly Blogs on Chess.com. Here’s a Link to this month’s:
I love the way he opens his articles
"No time to study opening theory? Shock your opponent with an SOS!
With an SOS you deviate early (usually before move 6!) from regular lines in mainstream openings. So you will reach positions you have actually studied without having memorized tons of stuffy theory, while gaining time on the clock! And you will have fun watching the horror on your opponent's face... "
During the game I decided to be aggressive and make sure Black had a hard time. I thought that if I threw the kitchen Sink at black then I have a good chance of having a creative attack. I thought that was much better than losing to a silly tactic in the middle game or and Endgame were perfect play is almost always required.
With a Time control of 60 minutes I thought alot about this move. It almost went against all ideas of normal chess player Ideals.
1. Don’t just push pawns or you’ll get over extended.
2. Try not to go b4, g4, b5, or g5 in the opening
3. Develop all your pieces.
But rules/guidelines are meant to be broken sometimes. Besides I had a plan. Albeit most of some of it was psychological but I’d rather have a bad plan than no plan.
At ...h5 I realized black had no intention of castling kingside. So it kinda made g6, and Bg7 pointless. I continued with my plan to shut down his kingside and but at the same time attacking on the queenside. And all this will happen because of a single pawn- The g pawn.
Black is suffering from many things in this position.
Lack of space. Due to e5 and g5
Demobilized kingside due to g5 pawn.
A annoying pin which ties the Queen side down.
Not his move. Black need atleast three ‘free’ moves if we wants to have a nice flowing position.
White’s only problem is his king is not castled. But why does the king need to castle anyway? There’s not harm when the queen and her court are all tied down!