The Mid Suburban League acquitted itself well at the IHSA State Tournament this weekend led by a resurgent Barrington team. After a disappointing 3-5, regular season, Barrington went 5-2 to finish 14th in the state led by 3rd Board Vyas Alwar who went 5.5-1.5 to earn the 10th place medal for that board. Also finishing with five points were Prospect at 16th, Buffalo Grove at 18th, and Fremd at 23rd. Close behind was Rolling Meadows at 29th with 4.5-2.5. Hoffman Estates finished 45th with 4-3. Conant and Palatine went 4-3 to finish 83rd and 85th and Schaumburg scored 2.5-4.5.
Placing five teams in the top thirty was the best that the MSL has ever achieved, but the real highlight was Prospect's Robert Moskwa and Buffalo Grove's Matt Wilber taking the 1st and 2nd medals on 1st Board with perfect 7-0 scores. Robert got the nod on tie-breaks because his opponents scored a combined 27-22 in the tournament while Matt's went 24-25. Robert also learned that he has been invited to the Denker Qualifying Tournament at the end of March where he will play in a round robin against Sam Schmakel, Adarsh Jayakumar, Aakash Meduri, and Kent Cen.
Showing posts with label Fremd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fremd. Show all posts
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Prospect Falls to Fremd (2): Knowing the Score
The result against Fremd could very easily have gone the other way if the players on 4th Board not agreed to a draw. At the time, Prospect's Ekrem Genc had good winning chances against Fremd's Chang. Unfortunately, he was running low on time and he lacked confidence in his ability to play the endgame correctly.
This position is winning for White, but it is going to take some work. After something like 48.b4 Bd2 49.a6, Black can give up his bishop for the a-pawn and b-pawn with 49...Bxb3 50.Rxb3 Rxa6. White's two extra pawns on the other side of the board should be enough to win, but it's going to take a while. With his king in front of the pawns and his rook checking from the side and from behind, Black could have held out for awhile. Nonetheless, given that Prospect needed a win to win the match, Ekrem should have kept playing. On the other hand, the fault does not lie entirely with the player.
A Coaching Failure.
When a match is down to one or two games, IHSA rules allow the coach to give a Communication Card to a tournament steward to give to a player telling him what the score of the match is and the effect that his result will have on determining the outcome of the match. Unfortunately, this did not occur to me until Ekrem was low on time and I did not know what the correct procedure was for going about it. As a result, I had to talk to Mr. Barrett about it and before we could get it figured out, the players had agreed to the draw.
Ideally, a player should always try to apprise himself of how the match stands before he agrees to a draw. IHSA rules also permit a player to have the steward pass a Communication Card to a coach in order to find out how the match stands. Moreover, a player can initiate a communication regardless of how many games are still being played in the match. A player can also get up and look at the match score sheet. However, a player with less than four minutes on his clock cannot reasonably be criticized if he decides that trying to figure out how the match stands is not a wise use of his remaining time.
Mr Barrett and I should have been prepared to communicate the score if the need arose.
Why Game 60 Sucks
Game 60 is a convenient time control if you want to hold a match after the school day ends without getting the players home so late that they can't have dinner and do their homework. G60 is also handy if you want to complete a seven round tournament for the state championship in two days. However, when it comes to developing endgame technique, G60 sucks. On those rare occasions where both sides play well enough to reach an endgame where the result is in doubt, it is even rarer for either player to have enough time remaining to do the position justice. On top of that, players are often so low on time that they quit keeping score in the ending making it very difficult to go over the game and learn from mistakes.
One of the best reasons for joining the United States Chess Federation is to get the opportunity to play in some longer time controls. The Continental Chess Association runs three area events each year, the Chicago Open, the Chicago Class, and the Midwest Class, that use a time control of forty moves in two hours filed by one hour sudden death (40/2, SD/1). That means that each side has up to three hours to complete the game which usually leaves enough time to devote some thought to the ending. The Illinois Open, the Illinois Class, and Tim Just's Winter Open use game in ninety minutes with a thirty second increment (G90 inc 30) which means that thirty seconds get added to each players clock on each move. In a game that goes sixty moves, each side will have two hours. This doesn't always leave time for deep thought in the ending but at least the thirty seconds per move allows the player to keep score for later review. Up in Madison at the University of Wisconsin Chess Club, they occasionally run events with a generous 45/2, 25/1, SD/1.
The downside to the USCF events is that the longer time controls tend to be bigger events with larger entry events. Nevertheless, the key to improvement in all phases of the game is to play slower games.
The Zwischenzug
Despite Ekrem's professed lack of confidence in his endgame skills, he actually found a couple of moves that demonstrate excellent chess thinking. "Zwischenzug" is a German word meaning "in between move." It refers to a quiet move that is played in an otherwise forcing sequence. They are very easy to overlook when calculating variations. Ekrem found a very nice one on his 36th move.
The most obvious move here is 36.Rxb5 when Black will find it very difficult to promote his remaing h-pawn. Running low on time, no one could blame White for playing this move immediately. However, Ekrem saw that 36...Rxc2 threatened both White's a-pawn and f-pawn. He also saw that the Black b-pawn wasn't going anywhere so he played the zwischenzug 36.Re5! driving the bishop away from e1. After 36...Bd2 37.Rxb5 Rxc2, White could play 38.a4 without worrying about his f-pawn. This is the kind of thinking that produces good endgame play.
Basic Endgame Positions
In order to succeed in endings at short time controls, it is necessary to have some of the basic positions down pat such as The Wrong Colored Bishop and Rook Pawn. A lone king can draw against a king, bishop and a-pawn or king, bishop, and h-pawn if the bishop does not control the queening square.
This is the position that White would have had with both rooks and all his pawns gone. It is a draw because there is no way that Black will ever be able to evict the White king from h1. The quick reason that Ekrem should have kept playing is that even if he managed to lose all five of his pawns, all White needed to do was trade rooks in order to reach a dead drawn position.
This position is winning for White, but it is going to take some work. After something like 48.b4 Bd2 49.a6, Black can give up his bishop for the a-pawn and b-pawn with 49...Bxb3 50.Rxb3 Rxa6. White's two extra pawns on the other side of the board should be enough to win, but it's going to take a while. With his king in front of the pawns and his rook checking from the side and from behind, Black could have held out for awhile. Nonetheless, given that Prospect needed a win to win the match, Ekrem should have kept playing. On the other hand, the fault does not lie entirely with the player.
A Coaching Failure.
When a match is down to one or two games, IHSA rules allow the coach to give a Communication Card to a tournament steward to give to a player telling him what the score of the match is and the effect that his result will have on determining the outcome of the match. Unfortunately, this did not occur to me until Ekrem was low on time and I did not know what the correct procedure was for going about it. As a result, I had to talk to Mr. Barrett about it and before we could get it figured out, the players had agreed to the draw.
Ideally, a player should always try to apprise himself of how the match stands before he agrees to a draw. IHSA rules also permit a player to have the steward pass a Communication Card to a coach in order to find out how the match stands. Moreover, a player can initiate a communication regardless of how many games are still being played in the match. A player can also get up and look at the match score sheet. However, a player with less than four minutes on his clock cannot reasonably be criticized if he decides that trying to figure out how the match stands is not a wise use of his remaining time.
Mr Barrett and I should have been prepared to communicate the score if the need arose.
Why Game 60 Sucks
Game 60 is a convenient time control if you want to hold a match after the school day ends without getting the players home so late that they can't have dinner and do their homework. G60 is also handy if you want to complete a seven round tournament for the state championship in two days. However, when it comes to developing endgame technique, G60 sucks. On those rare occasions where both sides play well enough to reach an endgame where the result is in doubt, it is even rarer for either player to have enough time remaining to do the position justice. On top of that, players are often so low on time that they quit keeping score in the ending making it very difficult to go over the game and learn from mistakes.
One of the best reasons for joining the United States Chess Federation is to get the opportunity to play in some longer time controls. The Continental Chess Association runs three area events each year, the Chicago Open, the Chicago Class, and the Midwest Class, that use a time control of forty moves in two hours filed by one hour sudden death (40/2, SD/1). That means that each side has up to three hours to complete the game which usually leaves enough time to devote some thought to the ending. The Illinois Open, the Illinois Class, and Tim Just's Winter Open use game in ninety minutes with a thirty second increment (G90 inc 30) which means that thirty seconds get added to each players clock on each move. In a game that goes sixty moves, each side will have two hours. This doesn't always leave time for deep thought in the ending but at least the thirty seconds per move allows the player to keep score for later review. Up in Madison at the University of Wisconsin Chess Club, they occasionally run events with a generous 45/2, 25/1, SD/1.
The downside to the USCF events is that the longer time controls tend to be bigger events with larger entry events. Nevertheless, the key to improvement in all phases of the game is to play slower games.
The Zwischenzug
Despite Ekrem's professed lack of confidence in his endgame skills, he actually found a couple of moves that demonstrate excellent chess thinking. "Zwischenzug" is a German word meaning "in between move." It refers to a quiet move that is played in an otherwise forcing sequence. They are very easy to overlook when calculating variations. Ekrem found a very nice one on his 36th move.
The most obvious move here is 36.Rxb5 when Black will find it very difficult to promote his remaing h-pawn. Running low on time, no one could blame White for playing this move immediately. However, Ekrem saw that 36...Rxc2 threatened both White's a-pawn and f-pawn. He also saw that the Black b-pawn wasn't going anywhere so he played the zwischenzug 36.Re5! driving the bishop away from e1. After 36...Bd2 37.Rxb5 Rxc2, White could play 38.a4 without worrying about his f-pawn. This is the kind of thinking that produces good endgame play.
Basic Endgame Positions
In order to succeed in endings at short time controls, it is necessary to have some of the basic positions down pat such as The Wrong Colored Bishop and Rook Pawn. A lone king can draw against a king, bishop and a-pawn or king, bishop, and h-pawn if the bishop does not control the queening square.
This is the position that White would have had with both rooks and all his pawns gone. It is a draw because there is no way that Black will ever be able to evict the White king from h1. The quick reason that Ekrem should have kept playing is that even if he managed to lose all five of his pawns, all White needed to do was trade rooks in order to reach a dead drawn position.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Prospect Falls to Fremd (1): Revisiting the Fried Liver Attack
After winning the Mid-Suburban League conference tournament last year and finishing 18th at state, Prospect had high hopes for this season, but the competition is proving very tough. On Thursday, Prospect fell to Fremd 36.5 to 31.5. Robert Moskwa on 1st Board and Mike Monsen on 3rd Board continued their winning ways and Prospect got its first win on 8th Board from Brett Abraham. Unfortunately, Ekrem Genc's draw on 4th Board left Prospect short.
Happily for me, there are many teachable moments to blog about:
Defending Against 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 2.Nc6 3.Bc4.
The most natural response to 1.e4 is 1...e5. After the equally natural moves 2.Nf3 Nc6, White has the choice of several systems. One of the sharpest is 3.Bc4 which immediately targets f7 which is Black's weakest square.
The Two Knights Defense
Based on my experience the most popular response among high school players is 3...Nf6 which is known as the Two Knights Defense. The most popular move for White is then 4.Ng5. This violates the basic opening principle (or maybe just rule of thumb) which says that no piece should be moved twice until every piece is moved once. In this case however, the violation is justified by the fact that Black has no easy way to defend f7 against the dual threat of the knight and the bishop.
Black can if he wishes ignore the threat with 4...Bc5 which is known as the Traxler Gambit. This is very exciting, but completely sound. The recommended move is 4...d5, which blocks the bishop's attack on f7. However, Black faces another choice after 5 exd5.
Practice has shown that Black's best move here is the odd looking 5...Na5. This move also moves a piece twice when other pieces haven't moved once. On top of that, it places a knight on the edge of the board.
While the Two Knights with 5...Na5 is considered a perfectly sound approach, it is tough to play without a decent level of book knowledge It seems to me that it is an openings where the common opening rules of thumb (like not placing a knight on the edge of the board) get violated more often than usual. One main continuation goes 7.Bb5+ c6 8.dxc6 bxc8 9.Qf3.
These are not the easiest moves to find over the board in a sixty minute game if you haven't seen them before.
The Fried Liver Attack.
After the more natural looking 5...Nxd5, White has the option of playing the Fried Liver Attack where White sacrifices a knight for a pawn with 6.Nxf7 in order to expose the Black king and draw it out to the middle of the board. Apparently the name derives from the fact that Black frequently winds up as dead as a piece of liver.
The Fried Liver Attack is not necessarily winning for White but it is not easy for Black to defend after 6...Kxf7 7.Qf3+ when Black is forced to play 7...Ke6 in order to defend the knight on d5.
One possible continuation is 8. Nc3 Ncb4 9. Qe4 c6 10. a3 Na6 11. d4 Nac7. However, 6.d4, delaying the knight sacrifice may actually be a better move for White. This allows White to add his other bishop to the attack quickly and it turns out that Black doesn't have anything that particularly improves his defensive chances. For example 6...Be7 7.Nxg7 Kxg7 8.Qf3+ gives White a revved up Fried Liver.
The Italian Game
In the ten years that I have been coaching at Prospect, I may have seen the Fried Liver a dozen times in matches. To the best of my recollection, Black won most if not all of them. So what is Black to do if he doesn't want to allow the Fried Liver and he doesn't want to have to find a lot of counter-intuitive moves after 5...Na5? I've seen some players go for 3...h6 to prevent 4.Ng5, but neglecting development isn't a good idea. My preference is simply 3...Bc5 leading to the Giuoco Piano aka the Italian Game.
Now 4.Ng5?? simply loses the knight to 4...Qxg5. If White plays 4.0-0, after 4...Nf6, Black can meet 5.Ng5 with 5...0-0.
3...Bc5 doesn't eliminate the possibility that White may sacrifice material to get a nasty attack. 4.b4 is the Evans Gambit which can be very tricky to handle. However, White often plays more quietly with 4.0-0 or 4.d3 and even if he chooses a more aggressive line, overall I think opening principles are violated much less frequently than in the Two Knights.
To sum up: After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4
Defending Against 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 2.Nc6 3.Bc4.
The most natural response to 1.e4 is 1...e5. After the equally natural moves 2.Nf3 Nc6, White has the choice of several systems. One of the sharpest is 3.Bc4 which immediately targets f7 which is Black's weakest square.
The Two Knights Defense
Based on my experience the most popular response among high school players is 3...Nf6 which is known as the Two Knights Defense. The most popular move for White is then 4.Ng5. This violates the basic opening principle (or maybe just rule of thumb) which says that no piece should be moved twice until every piece is moved once. In this case however, the violation is justified by the fact that Black has no easy way to defend f7 against the dual threat of the knight and the bishop.
Black can if he wishes ignore the threat with 4...Bc5 which is known as the Traxler Gambit. This is very exciting, but completely sound. The recommended move is 4...d5, which blocks the bishop's attack on f7. However, Black faces another choice after 5 exd5.
Practice has shown that Black's best move here is the odd looking 5...Na5. This move also moves a piece twice when other pieces haven't moved once. On top of that, it places a knight on the edge of the board.
While the Two Knights with 5...Na5 is considered a perfectly sound approach, it is tough to play without a decent level of book knowledge It seems to me that it is an openings where the common opening rules of thumb (like not placing a knight on the edge of the board) get violated more often than usual. One main continuation goes 7.Bb5+ c6 8.dxc6 bxc8 9.Qf3.
These are not the easiest moves to find over the board in a sixty minute game if you haven't seen them before.
The Fried Liver Attack.
After the more natural looking 5...Nxd5, White has the option of playing the Fried Liver Attack where White sacrifices a knight for a pawn with 6.Nxf7 in order to expose the Black king and draw it out to the middle of the board. Apparently the name derives from the fact that Black frequently winds up as dead as a piece of liver.
The Fried Liver Attack is not necessarily winning for White but it is not easy for Black to defend after 6...Kxf7 7.Qf3+ when Black is forced to play 7...Ke6 in order to defend the knight on d5.
One possible continuation is 8. Nc3 Ncb4 9. Qe4 c6 10. a3 Na6 11. d4 Nac7. However, 6.d4, delaying the knight sacrifice may actually be a better move for White. This allows White to add his other bishop to the attack quickly and it turns out that Black doesn't have anything that particularly improves his defensive chances. For example 6...Be7 7.Nxg7 Kxg7 8.Qf3+ gives White a revved up Fried Liver.
The Italian Game
In the ten years that I have been coaching at Prospect, I may have seen the Fried Liver a dozen times in matches. To the best of my recollection, Black won most if not all of them. So what is Black to do if he doesn't want to allow the Fried Liver and he doesn't want to have to find a lot of counter-intuitive moves after 5...Na5? I've seen some players go for 3...h6 to prevent 4.Ng5, but neglecting development isn't a good idea. My preference is simply 3...Bc5 leading to the Giuoco Piano aka the Italian Game.
Now 4.Ng5?? simply loses the knight to 4...Qxg5. If White plays 4.0-0, after 4...Nf6, Black can meet 5.Ng5 with 5...0-0.
3...Bc5 doesn't eliminate the possibility that White may sacrifice material to get a nasty attack. 4.b4 is the Evans Gambit which can be very tricky to handle. However, White often plays more quietly with 4.0-0 or 4.d3 and even if he chooses a more aggressive line, overall I think opening principles are violated much less frequently than in the Two Knights.
To sum up: After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4
- The Two Knights Defense 3...Nf6 is perfectly sound however after White's most common move, 4.Ng5, Black is likely to wind up in tricky positions that are hard to play without some prior study.
- 3...Bc5 is also perfectly sound and the odds of Black reaching a position that requires less book knowledge is much greater.
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Rule of the Square
Prospect moved to 6-2 yesterday without a hard fought win over Fremd which was much closer than the 57-11 score indicated. After an hour an a half of play, each team had one win, Prospect was in trouble on two boards, and the other four boards were tense games that could have gone either way.
A vital question in any king and pawn ending is whether a king can catch a pawn before it queens. Of course it is possible to simply calculate out the moves, but the quickest way to figure it out is to apply the Rule of the Square. Take the distance from the pawn to the end of the board and draw an imaginary square extending towards the defending king. If the king can move into the square on his move, he can catch the pawn. If he cannot move into the square, he cannot catch it.
On 3rd Board, Fremd's Mihir Awati reached this position as Black with seven seconds left on his clock against Caleb Royce. The Rule of the Square would have told him that his king would have reached the White pawn before it queened, but he was unable to calculate out the moves quickly enough and he lost on time. It was a very tough loss as Mihir had played very well in time pressure for many moves to reach this position. On the other hand Caleb had also missed a chance to win using the Rule of the Square a couple moves earlier with twelve minutes left on his clock.
A vital question in any king and pawn ending is whether a king can catch a pawn before it queens. Of course it is possible to simply calculate out the moves, but the quickest way to figure it out is to apply the Rule of the Square. Take the distance from the pawn to the end of the board and draw an imaginary square extending towards the defending king. If the king can move into the square on his move, he can catch the pawn. If he cannot move into the square, he cannot catch it.
On 3rd Board, Fremd's Mihir Awati reached this position as Black with seven seconds left on his clock against Caleb Royce. The Rule of the Square would have told him that his king would have reached the White pawn before it queened, but he was unable to calculate out the moves quickly enough and he lost on time. It was a very tough loss as Mihir had played very well in time pressure for many moves to reach this position. On the other hand Caleb had also missed a chance to win using the Rule of the Square a couple moves earlier with twelve minutes left on his clock.Thursday, October 15, 2009
Fremd Beats Prospect
After a twenty month hiatus, I am back to blogging about chess. My previous blog was Vinny's Chess Adventures which still exists. Unfortunately, Yahoo is shutting down GeoCities so the links to the games will only work for another two weeks. I still have most of the games on my computer so I may upload some of them to the new webhost if I think they have instructional value.
This week, Prospect lost to Fremd by 50.5-17.5, only managing wins on 5th and 8th boards. As was my practice in the past, I will analyze some of the games from each week's match with an eye towards illustrating basic chess principles that I hope will be helpful to high school players. I hope that no one will take any of my criticisms personally. I may say that a move is really awful, but there is no reason to be embarrassed. There are few moves so bad that I cannot show you one from one of my games that is even worse.
Question No. 1
In the starting position for the Ruy Lopez (or Spanish Game) that arises after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5, is White threatening to win a pawn with 4.Bxc6 and 5. Nxe5?
Answer No. 1
No, not yet. Although White can remove the knight that is guarding the Black pawn on e5, after 3... a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Nxe5, Black can recover the pawn with 5...Qd4! with a double attack on the White knight and pawn.
This is a very basic opening tactic that everyone should know. As a general rule, White has to secure his own e-pawn as with 0-0 and Re1 before he can try to grab Black's. The most common move for Black is 3... a6.
Black can of course reinforce his e-pawn immediately with 3... d6 as Johnston did against Moskwa on 5th Board, although this is considered somewhat passive. Black should never, never do what White did on 1st Board, 3... Bd6?!.
There are very few moves I hate seeing in the opening as much as someone blocking one of his center pawns with his bishop. Essentially, this takes the bishop which is a very useful piece and turns it into a big pawn which is reason enough to hate this move. On top of this, it makes it much more difficult for Black to develop his other bishop. On top of this, it takes away Black's ability to open up the game with ...d5 if an appropriate opportunity should present itself. I won't say that it is never the right thing to do, but I can assure you that the situations in which blocking a center pawn with a bishop is the best move are pretty rare. Feldman v. Zwolenik bears this out.
Question No. 2
Black just captured a pawn with 31... Bxc7. What is White's best move.
Answer No. 2
32. Bxc7! Black cannot recapture with 32... Rxc7 because 33. Rb8+ leads to mate.
This game illustrates the need to keep concentrating even when behind. White had been playing down a rook for a dozen moves. One of his only hopes was that Black would be careless with his back rank, but when it came up, White still missed it in Burke v. Nanduri.
This week, Prospect lost to Fremd by 50.5-17.5, only managing wins on 5th and 8th boards. As was my practice in the past, I will analyze some of the games from each week's match with an eye towards illustrating basic chess principles that I hope will be helpful to high school players. I hope that no one will take any of my criticisms personally. I may say that a move is really awful, but there is no reason to be embarrassed. There are few moves so bad that I cannot show you one from one of my games that is even worse.
Question No. 1In the starting position for the Ruy Lopez (or Spanish Game) that arises after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5, is White threatening to win a pawn with 4.Bxc6 and 5. Nxe5?
Answer No. 1No, not yet. Although White can remove the knight that is guarding the Black pawn on e5, after 3... a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Nxe5, Black can recover the pawn with 5...Qd4! with a double attack on the White knight and pawn.
This is a very basic opening tactic that everyone should know. As a general rule, White has to secure his own e-pawn as with 0-0 and Re1 before he can try to grab Black's. The most common move for Black is 3... a6.
Black can of course reinforce his e-pawn immediately with 3... d6 as Johnston did against Moskwa on 5th Board, although this is considered somewhat passive. Black should never, never do what White did on 1st Board, 3... Bd6?!.
There are very few moves I hate seeing in the opening as much as someone blocking one of his center pawns with his bishop. Essentially, this takes the bishop which is a very useful piece and turns it into a big pawn which is reason enough to hate this move. On top of this, it makes it much more difficult for Black to develop his other bishop. On top of this, it takes away Black's ability to open up the game with ...d5 if an appropriate opportunity should present itself. I won't say that it is never the right thing to do, but I can assure you that the situations in which blocking a center pawn with a bishop is the best move are pretty rare. Feldman v. Zwolenik bears this out.
Question No. 2Black just captured a pawn with 31... Bxc7. What is White's best move.
Answer No. 2
32. Bxc7! Black cannot recapture with 32... Rxc7 because 33. Rb8+ leads to mate.
This game illustrates the need to keep concentrating even when behind. White had been playing down a rook for a dozen moves. One of his only hopes was that Black would be careless with his back rank, but when it came up, White still missed it in Burke v. Nanduri.
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