HCC Classical Thursday - April-May 2022 - Round 2

For round #2 we had 16 players, as we did in round #1, but the specific players were a bit different! Overall, we've had 19 players participate. As is common in a Swiss system tournament, the games got more competitive than in the prior round, as player ratings were more similar.

While we will have my coach, FIDE Master Nicholas Vat Der Nat, review all the tournament games and create an instructional video using them, I wanted to take an opportunity to highlight some interesting moments in each of this week's games.

BigData1969 vs perryand1971: 1-0
White got an early advantage, pinning both of Black's knights, then tripling(!) Black's f-pawns, and launching an attack on the exposed Black king. The attack was not warranted, however, and Black got significant counterplay. Black wasn't able to get his 2nd rook fully into the game, however, and White managed to defend and simplify to a won endgame. Here is the very interesting tripled f-pawn position:

jcss64 vs sourbaum: 0-1
Tournament newcomer sourbaum (also this author's nemesis in classical games), faced off against Jacques in an a Bishop's Opening that quickly transposed into a Scotch Gambit and then morphed into a Two Knights Defense. It was a complex, tactical, back and forth game with momentum changes. There is a reason I play 1.d4 these days... The players navigated the complexity in book until White initiated a queen exchange on move 9, which gave Black the advantage of the two bishops vs. bishop and knight in a hybrid middlegame / endgame. Black calmly improved his position, managing to trade off his knight for White's remaining bishop, and then made a tactical blunder that White did not see:

Can you find White's winning move?

White took the advantage but got a little greedy in taking the a-pawn and got his knight in a precarious position that Black exploited nicely to regain the advantage.

Can you find Black's best move here?

After 49 moves, the dust had settled into an equal endgame, but as is often the case in endgames, one inaccuracy by White ceded the advantage to Black, who was able to close out a win.

jpmunz vs datasmith: 0-1
In this game our fearless tournament director had black against our highest-rated player (provisional 2322), who also happens to be his nephew. The game started as a Bowdler Attack in the Sicilian Defense, which I had never heard of before despite playing the Sicilian as Black myself! After an unusual move sequence (at least to me), by move 11 things looked more like a typical Closed Sicilian, with Black having equalized according to Stockfish.

Here Black advanced on the queenside a little to early with ...b4, instead of first developing his remaining pieces. White was able to close off the play on the queenside and start an attack on the kingside, which Black attempted to counter by offering a queen trade while simultaneously relieving the pin on the f6 Knight:

However, this does not work, and White went on to a quick victory. Can you spot why this last move was a mistake?

FaveAgba vs E3Engineer - 0-1
This game got very interesting very quickly, reaching this position after Black's 11th move:

I'm not sure I've seen a game with double IQPs for White, let alone 11 moves into the game. A few moves later Black had a crippling move sequence but chose a simpler approach that kept a small advantage.

Can you find the move sequence here for Black? Spoiler alert - I am going to show it next here...

In the above diagram, after ...Bd4+, Kh1, ...Re3!, White has no good way to defend against ...Rxd3 other than Ne4, but that then allows ...Qxd5. Material is equal but Black is dominating the board and has the two bishops.

In the actual game, E3Engineer played very solidly, as I have seen in his games before. For example, after move 29, Black is only up one pawn, but his position is solid as a rock and White has zero counterplay.

From here it was, as players far superior to me say "a matter of technique". 41 moves later, Black ended the game in a well-deserved checkmate.

markdrury vs danieljames-dj - 1⁄2-1⁄2
When a Bird's player faces a Dutch player, things are going to get strange! After both players achieved identical setups, White managed to double Black's c-pawns and slowly nursed an advantage through the middlegame and early endgame. After some small inaccuracies by White, Black had a chance to level the game in the following position:

Here ...c5! keeps the balance, with White not having a good way to infiltrate Black's position, nor a way to pressure the weak paws. Instead Black traded knights on e5, providing White with a way to infiltrate via f4 and g5.

There's a problem with endgames though - they are HARD :-). In K & P endgames, you typically want to freeze your opponent's pawn such that they lose if they move any of them. In the following position, after Black's 36th move, Black is threatening to play ...b4, freezing all of White's pawns except the h-pawn. This would create a draw, as White could only move the King and h-pawn forward and make no progress.

White missed this threat and played 37. h5, but Black also missed it and played 37. ...a5. White then locked the pawn structure with 38. a4, and the game ended in a draw. A tough break for White, who had the advantage almost the entire game.

denisbouchard vs ahmad_raja - 1⁄2-1⁄2
Fresh off last week's draw against our top non-provisionally rated player, White played a safe Ruy Lopez exchange type of opening. Black agreed to keep things calm by castling kingside in the following position.

I would have loved to see Black castle queenside here, play Rdg8, and see what could happen with both sides attacking their opponents' kings. Alas, it was not meant to be. Black had another option to make things quite complicated a few moves later.

Black thought about the next move for 5 minutes and chose ...Bg6. An interesting alternative was ...Nxg4. After hxg4, Bxg4 it is instructive to assess the resulting position:

- There is a material imbalance: White has two knights for a Bishop and 2 pawns.
- King safety is very important due to the large amount of material still on the board, especially the Queens. White's King is very exposed.
- Black has the two Bishops, though the one on d6 is badly constrained.
- White's knight on f3 is in a horrible pin, and it is very hard to find another defender of f3 to allow the Black Queen to move. At some point, White is going to have to play Kg2.
- While it is only on the 6th rank, Black's h-pawn can join the battle unopposed.
- The f-file, if Black could open it, could prove decisive, and there is already a Black rook on f8.
- Black can likely create a majority of force on the kingside,

So, Black in this position certainly has the initiative and attacking prospects. Is there a clear win for Black, no, but in such positions it is easier to find good moves for the attacker.

The game continued with some exchanges, most notably the Queens, and a rather interesting endgame ensued:

After both players made moves that locked up most of the pawns, we reached this position, with Black to move.

A bunch of us were kibitzing in the spectator room about ...e4!? here, forcing exchanges in a way that activates Black's Bishop. However, in the resulting position, Black has no way of making progress.

The game ended in a draw after 49 moves.

rush_graysonX vs hodjon 0-1
This game started as a Petroff, which is normally calm and balanced, and then everything went crazy after Black's 4th move, with the sacrifice of a knight on f2!

White developed nicely, creating a strong edge, but didn't pay quite enough attention to King safety. In the following position, White played Ne2 but should have first tucked the king away with Kg1.

Black took on f3 with the Bishop, and White viewed the recapture with the g-pawn too risky, so they moved their King back to g1, and the position became much more balanced. With many potential forcing moves on the board (checks, captures, and simple threats), both players seem to have played at blitz speed, and White missed the winning move Qxe7 in this position:

A bit of a tactical melee ensued, including White sac'ing a Bishop to open the Black kingside.

Both players came to close to mating each other several times in the next 15 moves, when Black was finally able to force a trade of Queen's. With the attack over and down material, White resigned. An exciting and complicated game that was fun to watch!

sausjulian vs chavezo: 0-1
If the players in the prior game played at times like this was blitz, the players in this game may have thought it was bullet! After White's 31st move, White had gained 11 minutes and Black had gained nearly 20 minutes on their respective clocks, with many sacrifices and blunders along the way due to the speed of play. This crazy position resulted, which Stockfish claims to be relatively equal despite Black's king being undefended in the center and many pieces still on the board.

After more very fast play, we reached a complex Queens and Pawns endgame which Black converted to a win.

In the final position, White had gained 31 minutes from the original 60, Black had gained 26 minutes.

Here are the standings after two rounds:
2.0 - BigData1969, sourbaum, and jpmunz
1.5 - E3Engineer, devbanana
1.0 - markdrury, danieljames-dj, perryand1971, jcss64, datasmith, denisbouchard, hodjon, chavezo
0.5 - FaveAgba, ahmad_raja, lythande
0.0 - sausjulian, rush_graysonX, SabreRef