Out of the Frying Pan...

I rarely lose two games in a row. It's even rarer for it to happen at the Arcadia Chess Club. And surely pigs will fly before I lose games in a row, in Arcadia, to lower rated players, right? Wrong! In this case, defeats were like buses; none for a long time and then two came along at once.

In round 3 of the Fall Challenge on November 10, I was paired with black against Russell Balcom, rated 1751. I try not to take any player lightly but, when you are rated nearly 400 points higher than your opponent, it's natural to think you will win one way or another. Unfortunately, my old nemesis time trouble got the best of me and I left myself the ridiculous task of having to play ten moves in barely five minutes in a position I should have been winning (or at least close to it). I also have to give Russell credit because he played the endgame very well after I miscalculated.

1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. Nc3?

This is already a mistake by white and just hands black the initiative.

3. ... d4 4. Bb5+ Bd7 5. Bxd7+ Qxd7 6. Nb1 Nf6 7. d3 Nc6 8. Nf3 g6 9. a4 Bg7?

I give this move a question mark because it was too routine. It looks perfectly natural (after all, why else did black play g6?) but Fritz correctly says that 9. ... Bh6!  is an improvement that maintains black's slight edge. The point is that the bishop really does nothing on g7 because my own pawn on e5 is limiting its scope. However, on h6 the bishop is much more useful, eyeing the f4 pawn. Black will later bring his queen to g4 to try to force white to play g3, creating light squared weaknesses on the kingside and making castling there a more risky proposition.

10. Na3 O-O 11. O-O a6?

A poor move by me that just invites white to infiltrate on b6. This is the start of many of my troubles in this game, although for a while I got away with it.

12. Nc4 Qc7 13. a5 Nd7 

I couldn't stomach white landing his knight on b6 but Fritz doesn't think it's such a big deal. The computer wants to play either 13. ... e6  or 13. ... Rae8  (it rates them both equally) and says that, while white does have an advantage, it's only minor at +0.59. I suppose the point is that, once black has played his pawn to e6 (either on move 13 or 14), even if white does stick his knight on b6 what is really doing there? It looks nice but has no targets.

14. Bd2 b5 15. axb6 Nxb6 16. Na5!

I missed this when I played 14. ... b5. At the time, I thought it was an excellent (and annoying, for me) move by Russell and Fritz says it is white's best.

16. ... Na7?

The computer doesn't like this and thinks black should just play 16. ... Nxa5  but that's not a very human move to make. Most humans won't voluntarily walk into a position where a minor piece is pinned to their queen. Objectively, though, it shouldn't be anything to worry about because black can just move his queen to c6 or b7. After the text move, the knight is out of play on a7 and will take a while to bring back into the game in any meaningful way. White's pieces are coordinating nicely whereas black's are a bit of a mess.

17. c4 dxc3 18. Bxc3? Qxf4 

A very strange decision by white. I think he just blundered and forgot that my queen was hitting his f4 pawn, otherwise I can't really explain it. Even had white played the correct 18. bxc3, I figured at least I could then put some pressure on his d3 pawn by playing 18. ... Rfd8  etc.

19. Qc1 Qxc1 20. Rfxc1 Bh6 21. Rc2 Rfd8 22. Ne1 

This position is close to winning for black. He is up a pawn for no compensation, has pressure against the d3 pawn and a beautiful bishop on h6. White's pieces, so coordinated just five moves ago, are now uncomfortably placed.

22. ... Rd7 23. Kf1 Nb5 24. Be5 f6 25. Bg3 Be3 26. Bf2 Bxf2 27. Kxf2 Rc7! 28. Nf3 e5 29. Ke3 Nd4!

A move that looks obvious but I bizarrely spent 17 minutes on the clock deciding on whether to play it. That's an absurd thing to do because I now leave myself with only eight minutes to reach the first time control. As we will see, that's going to be what decides the game. I can't fully explain why I didn't play this move instantly, or at least after only a minute or two. I think I was afraid of pieces being traded but this should be in black's favor, not white's! As it turned out, white didn't even capture the knight so all my thinking was for nothing anyway.

30. Rc3 Rb8

Now I only have five minutes to make ten moves. Not good.

31. b4 Nd7 32. bxc5 Nxf3 33. Kxf3 Rxc5 34. Nc4 Rc6 35. Raa3 h5 36. Ne3 Rxc3 37. Rxc3 Rb7 38. Rc6 Ra7 39. Nd5 Kg7

This is the move that I feel threw away the win, not because the move itself is bad but because I failed to spot Russell's response. I had less than a minute left on the clock, two moves to make, and I played the move that looked natural. I totally missed white's reply which frazzled me and caused me to panic, enter a mode of what NM Dana Mackenzie calls "wrong think", and miscalculate numerous proceeding moves. In reality, 39. ... Kg7  is totally fine (Fritz even says it's the best move along with 39. ... a5!) but, when you miss your opponent's reply, it can really mess with your mind and that's what happens here.

40. Re6 a5??

A terrible move that throws it all away. I had to bash this move out with virtually no time to think because it was the last move to make the first time control and I had only seconds left. The computer says that 40. ... Nc5 is practically winning.

41. Re7+ Kf8 42. Rh7 a4 43. Nxf6 

Black has lost a pawn (though that just means the pawn count is now equal) and, on the surface, it looks like he has to lose a piece or the exchange. Not so! If I had played 43. ... Ra6!  the position would be roughly equal. The point is that 44. Rxd7??  would lose to 44. ... a3!  when white can't stop the pawn from promoting. White's best is 44. Nxd7+ Kg8 45. Re7 a3 46. Nc5 a2 47. Nb3 Rb6 48. Rxe5 Rxb3 49. Ra5 Ra5  when the position should be drawn.

However, in keeping with my play over the last several moves, I naturally didn't play 43. ... Ra6  and promptly threw the game away in the following fashion:

43. ... Ra5?? 44. Nxd7+ Ke8 45. Nf6+ Kd8 46. Rb7 a3 47. Rb1 Ke7 48. Nd5+ Kd6 49. Ra1 Kc5 50. Ke3 Kb5 51. Rb1+ Kc5 52. Nc3 g5 53. Ra1 Kb4 54. Kd2 Kc5 55. Nb1 Kb4 56. Rxa3 Rxa3 57. Nxa3 Kxa3 58. Kc3 1-0

That was a tough loss, especially coming off the defeat to Eren in the previous round. This time, I didn't feel quite so bad because I never quite felt in control of the game until I won the pawn. Even then, although I knew I was better, it wasn't totally clear how things would pan out. I also felt Russell played the last 15 or so moves very well and I can't have any complaints about that. I miscalculated, he took advantage, and just outplayed me (albeit in what was now a won position for him but you still have to find the moves!).

Here is the complete PGN:

[Event "Arcadia Fall Challenge"]
[Site "Arcadia"]
[Date "2014.11.10"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Balcom, Russell"]
[Black "Hayes, Matthew"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B21"]
[WhiteElo "1751"]
[BlackElo "2133"]
[PlyCount "115"]
[EventDate "2014.11.10"]
[EventRounds "6"]
[EventCountry "USA"]

1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. Nc3 d4 4. Bb5+ Bd7 5. Bxd7+ Qxd7 6. Nb1 Nf6 7. d3 Nc6 8.
Nf3 g6 9. a4 Bg7 10. Na3 O-O 11. O-O a6 12. Nc4 Qc7 13. a5 Nd7 14. Bd2 b5 15.
axb6 Nxb6 16. Na5 Na7 17. c4 dxc3 18. Bxc3 Qxf4 19. Qc1 Qxc1 20. Rfxc1 Bh6 21.
Rc2 Rfd8 22. Ne1 Rd7 23. Kf1 Nb5 24. Be5 f6 25. Bg3 Be3 26. Bf2 Bxf2 27. Kxf2
Rc7 28. Nf3 e5 29. Ke3 Nd4 30. Rc3 Rb8 31. b4 Nd7 32. bxc5 Nxf3 33. Kxf3 Rxc5
34. Nc4 Rc6 35. Raa3 h5 36. Ne3 Rxc3 37. Rxc3 Rb7 38. Rc6 Ra7 39. Nd5 Kg7 40.
Re6 a5 41. Re7+ Kf8 42. Rh7 a4 43. Nxf6 Ra5 44. Nxd7+ Ke8 45. Nf6+ Kd8 46. Rb7
a3 47. Rb1 Ke7 48. Nd5+ Kd6 49. Ra1 Kc5 50. Ke3 Kb5 51. Rb1+ Kc5 52. Nc3 g5 53.
Ra1 Kb4 54. Kd2 Kc5 55. Nb1 Kb4 56. Rxa3 Rxa3 57. Nxa3 Kxa3 58. Kc3 1-0

Pressing the Self-Destruct Button

Nobody likes to lose a chess game but it's a lot easier to swallow if your opponent simply outplays you. The absolute worst kind of game to lose (aside from being mated in under ten moves or something equally absurd) is one where you have totally outplayed your opponent, only to then blow it with a one move blunder that throws the game away. You can probably see where I am going with this!

On Monday in Arcadia, I was paired against Eren Karadayi, rated 1918. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I had played Eren three times before but never with the white pieces. I wasn't completely sure what to expect and assumed he might play a Sicilian, since I know he is quite an aggressive blitz player. The following game is quite tragic, as I built up a winning position and then played one of the most horrific blunders of my life that 99% of beginners wouldn't have even played.

Tonight I showed the game to GM Jesse Kraai, who I sometimes have lessons with, and I have added his thoughts to my own.

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 

Already a slight surprise but the Scandinavian can be quite tactical, so perhaps it suits Eren's style of play.

3. Nf3 Nf6 

I always used to play 3. Nc3  against the Scandinavian but started playing 3. Nf3  two or three years ago. I like the idea of being able to dislodge black's queen with a timely c4, with the knight being able to move to c3 later. White would then have hanging pawns on c4 and d4 which can be both a weakness (especially the pawn on d4) but can also give white some dynamic possibilities if he can achieve a d5 push.

4. d4 c6

At the time, I didn't think this was so bad but Jesse already thought this was a mis-step by black. The point is that black usually plays c6 at some stage to give his queen a way to retreat from a5. On c6, the pawn also dominates white's knight on c3. However, in this position the queen is not on a5. Even worse, white hasn't put his knight on c3 yet, so 4. ... c6  is really a waste of a tempo.

5. c4 Qd8 

I thought this move was suspicious, which Jesse concurred with. True, the queen does often go back to d8 in the Scandinavian, either directly after white puts a knight on c3 or after some sort of Bd2 attack/discovery on the queen when she is on a5. Here, however, putting the queen back on d8 is really an undeveloping move and black now owes us at least two tempi.

6. Nc3?! 

I flagged this move as being slightly dubious. I didn't realize it at the time (in fact, it seemed perfectly normal) but Jesse said 6. Nc3  is an inaccuracy. When he explained why, it made perfect sense. It's inaccurate because I am not taking into account what black wants to do. What black should want in this position is to put his bishop on g4, then trade on f3 and play e6 (in either order). Since black is a bit cramped, this will help to free his position somewhat and he will be getting rid of arguably his worst piece. After he plays e6, black will have a good clamp on the d5 square and the d5 push is really white's only way to open up the middle of the board.

Better would have been 6. Be3  or 6. h3, preventing black's light squared bishop from reaching its ideal square on g4.

6. ... e6 7. g3 

This was an interesting moment. Although fianchettoing the light squared bishop is sometimes played by white against the Scandinavian, in my experience it isn't very common. The natural move would obviously be 7. Bd3, which Jesse felt was best. Fritz actually thinks 7. Bf4  is best, with 7. Bd3  being its second choice. However, it says there is nothing wrong with 7. g3  and rates it only slightly less favorably than its top two moves.

My rationale behind fianchettoing the bishop was that I felt Eren would be more comfortably in a tactical sort of game, whereas he would be less comfortable in a more strategic position. The position is going to loosely resemble a Catalan structure, which I thought he wouldn't be very familiar with, and I wanted to mix things up a bit.

Jesse's rationale behind playing 7. Bd3  instead was that he is naturally suspicious of unnecessary pawn moves. Also, black is so far behind in development already that white should want to rapidly finish his own development. Jesse stressed how important time is in chess and he is right about that. If I had this position again, I would play Jesse's recommendation.

7. ... Be7 8. Bg2 O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Qc2

This is okay but Jesse thought that the queen would be better placed on e2. As we will see, he was right as usual!

10. ... g6 

This is a serious positional mistake. Eren was obviously nervous about my queen exerting pressure along the b1-h7 diagonal but his fears were misplaced. True, the queen does eye some juicy squares but there are no immediate threats against h7. Black should play g6 if he absolutely has to (and here he doesn't have to) because it causes a whole host of weaknesses on the dark squares around his king.

11. b3 

Again, Jesse wasn't thrilled with this because it's another pawn push that isn't strictly necessary. He said I should have been looking at how black intended to untangle himself and then I should have been trying to stop it. The most natural way for black to coordinate his pieces is to play Qc7, b6, Bb7 and then c5. Therefore, white should seriously consider playing 11. Bf4  because it keeps the queen off her best square (c7). White needn't fear 11. ... Nh5?!  because this just loses another tempo after 12. Bh6 and then the knight is horrible on h5 anyway.

From my perspective, I had seen that black had severely weakened the dark squares around his king and I intended to fianchetto my other bishop, potentially putting pressure along the a1-h8 diagonal. True, to achieve much of anything along that diagonal I will eventually have to push with d5 but I was trying to think long term.

11. ... Qc7 12. Bb2 Re8 13. Rfe1 b6 

Here Jesse wryly noted that the queen would have been much better on e2 than c2 because then white could seriously consider playing Ng5 next move, threatening to capture on either e6 or f7. True, black can play his bishop back to f8 and that seems to put an end to most of the fun but at least it would cause black a little grief.

14. Ne5! Nxe5? 15. dxe5 Nd7 

Here I felt that black was strategically lost. He has chronic problems with both the d6 and f6 squares.

16. Rad1 Bb7 17. Ne4! Nxe5?? 

A horrible move. It was knee jerk reaction from Eren, who was understandably very concerned about me planting my knight on d6 that he would have a hard time ever getting rid of. However, 17. ... Nxe5  is an outright blunder that should have cost him the game. Fritz says black is totally busted here, giving white an almost four pawn advantage.

18. Qc3! f6 19. f4 Nd7 20. Rxd7!

Of course. This was the reason why I played 16. Rad1  a few moves earlier. The exchange sac removes the knight that was holding black's position together.

20. ... Qxd7 21. Nxf6+ Bxf6 22. Qxf6 e5

Let's take a look at the position. Believe it or not, I am about to lose in one move.

This position is crushing for white. Fritz rates it as +3.14 after 23. Rxe5. Even if I had played the more natural looking 23. Bxe5, the computer still says it's nearly two pawns better for white. I honestly thought Eren was going to resign on the previous move but he probably figured he might as well play on for a bit to see if I made a mistake. I more than obliged on my next move!

23. Qh8+?? 0-1

Tragic but let's talk about what happened here. Our last few moves had been played at a near blitz pace because they were all forcing. As a result, I had several moves to write down in order to catch up with the position on the board. On move 21, I had made a mental note that if my queen reached h8, black could not play e5 because he would lose his queen to a skewer after, for example, 22. ... Rf8 23. Qh8+ Kf7 24. Qxh7+ Ke6 25. Bh3+  and it's game over. After Eren made his 22nd move, I committed the cardinal sin of not looking at the board before I played my move. Consequently, I didn't check that 23. Qh8+  was playable (I just assumed it was) and, without so much of a glance at the board, I slammed my queen down on h8.

I won't go into too many details but I thought Eren's reaction was rather disrespectful. Instead of just meekly taking the queen, he pointed at the board, let out a loud guffaw (which naturally aroused the curiosity of various onlookers, only adding to my embarrassment), and then started loudly talking to Craig Faber behind him about the huge blunder I had just committed. I don't think he intended any malice with his reaction but he should have kept himself in check, especially since this game was nothing for him to be proud of given he had been outplayed and lost for many moves.

After the game, I didn't beat myself up too much about what had happened. It was just one of those things. I felt that, despite a few inaccuracies (well pointed out by Jesse!), I had played well for the most part. I would almost prefer to play well and lose than to play poorly and win. Well, almost...!

Jesse and I have scheduled another lesson two days before the start of the American Open, which takes place over the Thanksgiving weekend at the end of the month. Before then, I have another three games to play in Arcadia. Hopefully I have better results than in this one!

Here is the complete game PGN:

[Event "Arcadia Fall Challenge"]
[Site "Arcadia"]
[Date "2014.11.03"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Hayes, Matthew"]
[Black "Karadayi, Eren"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "2133"]
[BlackElo "1918"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[EventDate "2014.11.03"]
[EventRounds "6"]
[EventCountry "USA"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d4 c6 5. c4 Qd8 6. Nc3 e6 7. g3 Be7 8. Bg2
O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Qc2 g6 11. b3 Qc7 12. Bb2 Re8 13. Rfe1 b6 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15.
dxe5 Nd7 16. Rad1 Bb7 17. Ne4 Nxe5 18. Qc3 f6 19. f4 Nd7 20. Rxd7 Qxd7 21.
Nxf6+ Bxf6 22. Qxf6 e5 23. Qh8+ 0-1

Chou Mein: Carving up the Alapin

Monday saw the second round of the Fall Challenge in Arcadia. I was paired with the black pieces against Jeffrey Chou on board 3. Jeffrey is another one of those "Alapin Kids", which I alluded to a couple of posts ago, although I didn't know that until the game got underway. I had played Jeffrey before but only with white, so I wasn't 100% sure what to expect from him. As it turned out, he played in almost exactly the same way as Anthony Ge had against me in the last round of the Istvanyi Open tournament.

Jeffrey was recently rated as high as 1915 but has apparently had a bad run of results that saw his rating slump to 1781. In a similar vein to Anthony Ge, he is always getting up and playing with his friends. He's a kid, so it's somewhat understandable, but I do wonder if he would improve his consistency and get his rating back up if he spent more time at the board.

Here is the game:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6

Against Anthony Ge, I had played 2. ... d6  but 2. ... g6  is my normal response. I only played that way against Anthony because I knew he would go into an Alapin type of structure.

3. c3 Bg7 4. Be2 Nf6 5. e5 Ng4?!

This was not the best. I had intended to play 5. ... Nd5, which is Fritz's top choice, but I changed my mind on move and decided to mix things up. Actually, the knight is okay on g4 but white will be able to harass it and force me to take several moves to bring it to a meaningful square. Of course, the idea is for black to put pressure on white's e5 pawn.

6. d4 O-O 7. O-O d6 8. h3 Nh6 9. exd6 Qxd6

Not an easy decision. I knew that white was going to have to relieve the tension in the center somehow by playing either 9. exd6  or 9. dxc5. There's just too much pressure building up on his pawns. However, I had assumed I would play 9. ... Qxd6  (which indeed I did end up playing) but seriously considered 9. ... exd6. Yes, it gives me an isolated pawn if white doesn't capture my c5 pawn but the d6 pawn could be useful as it controls e5, a potential outpost for white's knight on f3. Also, once the pawn is gone from e7, I do have the e7 square for my knight via f5 if necessary. Fritz prefers 9. ... Qxd6  and I think ultimately this is correct because I can always play e6 at some point if I desperately need e7 for the knight. Plus, I would prefer to keep my pawn structure as intact as possible!

10. dxc5 Qxc5 11. Be3 Qc7 12. Na3 a6

Despite appearances, Fritz rates this position as only a bit better for white (+0.78). True, black is lagging behind in development whereas white has basically completed his. However, I thought I would have good long term play against white's queenside, something that is a common theme in many Sicilians.

13. Nc4 Nd7 14. a4 Nf5 15. Nd4?

This is a poor move and Fritz's evaluation swings from +0.09 to -0.37 in black's favor because now black will have the bishop pair in a position that is quite open.

15. ... Nxe3 16. Nxe3 Nf6 17. Qc2 e5

Fritz's top choice. It gains space in the center and denies white's knights some important squares.

18. Nf3 h6

I played this because I wanted to play Be6 but didn't want the annoyance of white sticking a knight on g4. Fritz thinks that 18. ... Bh6  is best but I'm not sure why. I don't think black really wants to swap off his dark squared bishop (why give up the bishop pair?). I suppose the idea is to just give the bishop more scope along the c1-h6 diagonal but I think the bishop is just as good on g7. True, it is temporarily blocked by the e5 pawn but that pawn can move later.

19. Rad1 Be6 20. Nd2 Rfd8 21. Ne4 Nd5

The computer prefers 21. ... Nxe4, although the text move is its second choice. The knight is tricky on d5 where obviously I will capture on e3 if white lets me. There are also possibilities of the knight going to f4, which white won't be able to stomach so he swaps it off immediately.

22. Nxd5 Bxd5 23. c4 Rac8 24. Qb1 Be6 25. b3 Bf5 26. Bg4??

A blunder that costs white a piece and the game. He does get two pawns for it but it's just not enough.

26. ... Bxe4 27. Qxe4 f5

Oops!

28. Bxf5 gxf5 29. Qxf5 Qf7 30. Qe4 Rd4 31. Qe3 Rcd8 32. Rxd4

I thought this was a bad move at the time but it's Fritz's number one choice! I didn't think white could afford to give me such a huge passed pawn.

32. ... exd4 33. Qe4 d3 34. Rd1 d2 35. Qc2 Qe6 36. Kf1 Qd6 37. Ke2 Re8+ 38. Kf1??

This loses on the spot to a nice forced mate.

38. ... Qh2 39. f3 Qh1+ 40. Kf2 Qe1+ 41. Rxe1 dxe1=Q# 0-1

All in all, I was reasonably happy with how I played. It wasn't amazing but it was okay. I didn't miss anything major and took advantage of my opponent's two big blunders, plus a couple of other less serious inaccuracies, to push home the win. Next week I am paired against Eren Karadayi but it's not clear yet if the pairings will change. I have played Eren three times and, although I have won every game, I had black and have never faced him with the white pieces. Therefore, I won't really do much of any preparation, at least not specifically for Eren, and will look forward to a good game on Monday.

Here is the full PGN of my second round game against Jeffrey Chou:

Chou,Jeffrey (1781) - Hayes,Matthew (2124) [B27]

Arcadia Fall Challenge Arcadia (2), 27.10.2014

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3 Bg7 4.Be2 Nf6 5.e5 Ng4 6.d4 0–0 7.0–0 d6 8.h3 Nh6 9.exd6 Qxd6 10.dxc5 Qxc5 11.Be3 Qc7 12.Na3 a6 13.Nc4 Nd7 14.a4 Nf5 15.Nd4 Nxe3 16.Nxe3 Nf6 17.Qc2 e5 18.Nf3 h6 19.Rad1 Be6 20.Nd2 Rfd8 21.Ne4 Nd5 22.Nxd5 Bxd5 23.c4 Rac8 24.Qb1 Be6 25.b3 Bf5 26.Bg4 Bxe4 27.Qxe4 f5 28.Bxf5 gxf5 29.Qxf5 Qf7 30.Qe4 Rd4 31.Qe3 Rcd8 32.Rxd4 exd4 33.Qe4 d3 34.Rd1 d2 35.Qc2 Qe6 36.Kf1 Qd6 37.Ke2 Re8+ 38.Kf1 Qh2 39.f3 Qh1+ 40.Kf2 Qe1+ 41.Rxe1 dxe1Q# 0–1