Thursday, January 24, 2008

A look at the games from the Kent Oliver Memorial

Round 3

Turning points

Kaptsan - Nikouline 0-1
Aron went wrong by not playing 18. g3. Instead, Black got activity starting with Bxh2+ and won.

Lipnowski - Khedkar 1-0
Black starting drifting in what appeared to be an equal position. Once White's rook got the d file Black had difficulty defending.

Prince -Rutter 1-0
Black had an enormous advantage as late as move 23 when 23...Bxa4 seems logical. Black made a serious misstep with 24...Kg7 instead of Kg8, and compounded the error by playing 25...Bxe6.

Bince - Liu DRAW
The computer tries 38...g5 ! to stop the perpetual. The point is that after 39. Bxg5+, White can not check on f4 and Black gains a tempo. But even if Weixi considered g5, it is difficult to figure out the consequences over the board.

Gannon-Atem 0-1
Black unneccessarily sacrificed the exchanged, only to have White blunder it back on move 39 with result that Black ends up with a passed a pawn and domination of the dark squares. White
could have put some resistance, but 49. Qxd6 resulted in White getting mated.

Remillard - Greenberg 1-0
Black got a horrid position in the opening.

Goodman - Jim Green DRAW
The players locked up the pawn chains. I thought that White should leave the rooks on, and instead of 35. hg5, start the manouvre Bf3-d1-c2-b1-a2 ---what it Black going to do ? Instead the rooks came off and and at first glance it looks like a dead draw after 38. Bf3

Black played 38...Kg7. But what about 38...Nxc5 ! and it looks like Black wins.

Einarsson - Desjarlais 1-0
14...cxd4 would regain the pawn Black lost earlier, but soon lost a second pawn and the game.

Letain- Crawford 1-0
Not sure what happened after move 40 as Black squandered his won position. 41...Rc8 is not necessary, simply gf5 is sufficient, on the next move the extra bishop was left en prise. Black still had chances to hold the draw, first with 46...Kg6

5 comments:

Nigel Hanrahan said...

In Gannon-Atem 0-1 there were a few turning points. After 17. Qe2, Black got all kinds of queen side play. I thought a better line for White was 17. b4 Nc4 18. Bxc4 bxc4 as there may be a way for White to win the c4 pawn with careful play.

Black gave up the exchange (rook for bishop) in the course of his queen side activity. Later on, White made an error with 39. Qb2 (39. Qa3 was better) and gave the advantage back. Following a number of exchanges, Black had a decisive advantage with an outside passed pawn on the queen side in a queen and minor piece ending.

The final turning point was 49. Qxd6?? when White went pawn gobbling and fell into a mating net. He had to play 51. Qb6 (or 51. Qc5) to stop the mating attack; however, that would lose the knight in any case.

Chess Manitoba said...

Nigel,
I hadn't finished rd 3 yet !

Chess Manitoba said...

Exclam - regarding your idea of
17.b4...What is your response to
17...Nb3

Nigel Hanrahan said...

D'oh! Thanks for pointing that out. That should be 15. b4 (or possibly 16. b4) and Black's knight is kept away from invading on the queen side.

Nigel

Anonymous said...

Anthony: You are very much correct about hxg5 swapping the rooks being a doozer. I noticed the Knight sac right away otb and was really happy when Jim overlooked it!

clifford