Importance of the center

Hi, it's been awhile since I posted a game, this game is one I played against a friend who goes by the handle "Lethe" and "Where is my mind"

The game is annotated by him with only some comments by myself since I thought he did a better job of the analysis.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bxa6 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.e4 Bxf1 9.Kxf1 d6 10.h3 0–0 11.Kg1 Na6 12.Kh2 Qa5

"played by Sofia Polar in the game Igla,Bella - Polgar,Sofia 0-1 2001. Polgars plan in this game is great!I could not get the ideas from Igla,Bella - Polgar,Sofia into this game though."

13.Qe2

this seems to be a novelty - Dark Horse

13...Rfb8 14.Rd1 Nd7

"better is 14...Nc7 with the plan of playing Nb5 and trading Knights and Queens,this is a good plan for black in the Benko, for example after 14...Nc7 15.a3 Nb5 16.Nxb5 Qxb5 17.Qb5"

While 14...Nc7 may be Black's best option, the position is full of posibilities and hopefully some Master games may test this line.

Also, there is potential for improving at White's 14th move. - Dark Horse

15.Bg5 Re8 16.Qd2 Nb4 17.a3 Na6 18.Rdc1 Rac8 19.Bh6 Bh8 20.Rab1 Rb8 21.Nd1!




"Here I was happy to trade the queens not realizing the greater aim to this move."

I played this move to make the DSB and Knight really powerful and offset blacks rook activity nicely, 29.f3 also achieved this aim. - Dark Horse

21...Qxd2 22.Nxd2

"If 22.Bxd2 Nc7±"

22...Ne5 23.Rc2 Nd3 24.Nc4 Ne5 25.Nde3 Rb3 26.Na5 Rb5 27.Nec4 Nxc4 28.Nxc4 Reb8 29.f3! Nc7



"A waste of a move. Thinking to play e6 at a some stage. Better is 29...Rb3 30.Kg3±"

30.Bf4 Bg7 31.Rd1 Bxb2 32.a4

"I was planning(hoping for?)this 32.Rxb2?! Rxb2 33.Nxb2 Rxb2"

32...Rb3 33.e5



"If 33.Nxb2?! Rxb2 34.Rxb2 Rxb2 ; 33.Rxb2?! Rxb2 34.Nxb2 Rxb2"

33...Bxe5 34.Nxe5 R8b4 35.Bg3 Rxa4?



"If white plays 36.Nc4 then black is still in the game.Better is 35...Rb1 36.Rxb1 Rxb1"

36.Nc6 Kf8

"If 36...Kg7 37.Nxe7 Nb5 38.Nc8"

37.Re2 1-0

"now the e-pawn falls and the position crumbles"

An attack from the center

Control of the center is a point that is stressed in many books on chess. The following game of mine seems to underline that point very well. The game was complicated and it is highly probable that there are improvements for both sides.


[Event "QA Tour"]
[Site "Queen Alice"]
[Date "2008.10.22"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Shadrach"]
[Black "Scorpion Queen"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxe4 5. Nxe4 Be7 6. Bxf6 gxf6 7. Nf3 a6 8. c4 f5 9. Nc3 Bf6




The Morozevich Line of the French Defence, not for the faint hearted since there are no "safe" lines in this position

10. Qd2 c5 11. d5 e5

12.Qc2 is a novelty by the Chess Engine Rybka 3. The point is that the White Knight can retreat to d2 after e4 by Black and help bolster the center when the Hypermodern principle that it is better to control the center with pieces than occupy it with pawns seems to ring true. Another point is that with White having effective control of the center the Black King is forced to castle and would end up castling short. The open lines on the K side mean that White should have something, though of course there is an entire game to be played out.

12. h4 e4 13. Ng5 Nd7 14. O-O-O h6 15. Nh3 Bd4 16. Ne2 Be5 17. f4






17...Bd6 was an option to leave f6 for the Black Knight, but stronger was perhaps 17...Bg7 when Black can castle short, play b5 and then b4 molesting the White King. To defend correctly the White minor pieces would end up on uncomfortable squares

17...Bf6 18. g4

An important point in the game. I must confess that 18.g4 took me a bit of guard, I had planned to look at this move on my opponents time and after I had played 17...Bf6 which was a mistake. Though this was a 7days per move with 3 days increment (max 10 days) time control, with the number of simultaneous games going on I was becoming short of time



18...b5

The most critical move of the game, but made entirely based on gut feel and instinct.

If I may be so bold as to quote the Late Great Magician from Riga Mikhail Tal, "It is good in that all other continuations are bad."

18...Nb6 was the top suggestion of most engines

(18...Nb6 19.Qc2 fxg4 20.Qxe4+ Qe7 21.Nf2 Bd7 22.d6 Qxe4 23.Nxe4 Bg7 24.Nxc5 Nxc4 25.Ng3 Ne3 26.Re1 Bd4 27.Nb3 Ba7 28.Kd2 Bc6 29.Rh2 0-0-0 30.Rxe3 Bxe3+ 31.Kxe3 Rhe8+ 32.Kf2 Rxd6 33.Be2 Bd7 34.Rh1 with advantage to White)

the reasoning behind 18...b5 was simple. Better him than me, there is no way the Black King would survive if White had time to complete development of the K side pieces. The 2 main things going for Black were,

1) The DSB on the long diagonal with the vacant dark center squares
2) The undeveloped K side

However if White could start an attack on the e file then the Black King would have serious problems


19. gxf5 Nb6 20. Nc3 Bxf5 21. Nxe4

here 21. Nf2 or 21. Qe3 came in for serious consideration

(21.Qe3 Na4 22.Nxa4 bxa4 23.Qxc5 Rc8 24.Qe3 Rb8 25.Rh2 Rg8 26.c5 Qa5 27.c6 Kf8 28.Rc2 Rg3 29.Qxg3 Bxb2+ 30.Rxb2 Qc5+ 31.Kb1 e3+ 32.Bd3 Rxb2+ 33.Kxb2 Qb4+ 34.Kc2 Qc5+ 1/2-1/2 was the computer line analysed to a draw, but perhaps there are improvements)


21...Bxe4 22. Re1 Kf8 23. Rxe4 Na4



here perhaps 24.b3 was better but I dont think White was content with a draw yet. It is hard to visualise that White can get into a spot of trouble even if Queens were exchanged


24. Re5 Qd6 25. cxb5 c4

At this point White should have tried to get his Knight into the game with 26. Nf2

26. Qa5 Bxe5 27. fxe5 Qxe5 28. Qxa4

(28. Qb4+ Qe7 29. Qxe7+ Kxe7 still gave White a chance to fight on)

28...Qe3+ 29. Kb1 Qe4+ 30. Kc1 Qxh1

Black now has a decisive advantage but still needs to play accurately to hold on to the win.




31. Qa3+ Kg8 32. Qg3+ Kh7 33. Qf2 Rhf8 34. Qf5+ Kg7 35. Qg4+ Kh8 36. Qf4 Qxd5 37. Qxh6+ Kg8 38. Ng5 Rfd8 0-1

A game that was a lot of fun to play.

Interesting idea for White in the French Winawer

Recently I concluded a game on www.queenalice.com with a friend "Technical Draw."

The game featured an interesting idea in the French Winawer Variation for White.

The initial moves were

[Event "?"]
[Site "queenalice.com"]
[Date "2008.02.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Scorpion Queen"]
[Black "Technical Draw"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Ne7 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. Qg4 Kf8 (probably not the most popular variation in this line) 8. Nf3 Qa5 9. Bd2 Qa4 10. Bd3!?


This is the idea, White sacrifices a pawn in compensation for better development and an attempt to exploit the poor position of Black's King side. Black is not too happy on the Queen side either and in some lines loses a tempo with b6 to protect the b7 pawn in case of Rb1

However, the compensation seems just about enough with correct defence.



10...c4 11. Be2 Qxc2 12. O-O Qg6 13. Qf4 Qf5 14. Qg3 Qg6 15. Bd1 Bd7 16. Qf4 Qf5 17. Qh4 Nbc6 18. Rc1 h5?!



This was perhaps unecessary. Black could have considered 18...Qg6 and after 19.Bc2 Nf5 20.Qf4 and now 20...h5

The move 21.Rb1 which is suggested by some Chess Engines actually seems to be inaccurate due to the trick 21...Nfxd4! 22.Nxd4 Nxd4 23.cxd4 Qxc2 24.Rxb7 Be8 25.Rc1 Qg6 White's attack and compensation for the pawn has been extinguished

Position after 25...Qg6 in the analysis variation



White should probably try 21.h3 which is a suggestion of my friend Eyal who is extremely helpful with analysis and with whom I had the honor of drawing a game in an interesting Consultation Team battle which I will post soon.

After 21.h3 Nce7 22.Qh2 h4 White has the move 23.Bf4!

This move eluded me earlier as the idea is not obvious but now g4 is a serious threat and on hxg3 White can play fxg3 when g4 is a threat again, this means Black has to retreat his Queen by Qh7 to unpin the Knight on f5 so White retains the advantage it seems.

However this is a very complicated line and there may be improvements.

Going back to the game White continued

19. h3 Ng6 20. Qg3 h4? 21. Qh2 Nge7 22. Bg5 now the h pawn falls and White is well on top with a winning advantage 22...Qh7 23. Nxh4 g6 24. Bf6 Rg8 25. Nf3 Qh6 26. Ng5 (here perhaps Bg5 was stronger) Nf5 27. Qf4 Ke8 28. g4 Nce7 29. gxf5 gxf5 30. Kh2 1-0

Welcome to Dark Horse Chess

Hello there!

30 something female chess player from India.

I started this blog to document some of my interesting chess games.

For starters here is an interesting game I played as Black in the Grunfeld against a one time Candidate Master from the former Yugoslavia!

[Event "Battle of chessgames.com"]
[Site "www.chessgames.com"]
[Date "2008.02.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Brankat"]
[Black "Dark Horse"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. e3 O-O 6. Qb3
dxc4 7. Bxc4 Nc6 8. Be2 a5

The a pawn will be the source of White's troubles along with the Bishop on the long dark diagonal



9. Nf3 Nh5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bh4 g5 12. Bg3 Bd7 13. O-O a4 14. Qc2 Nxg3 15. fxg3 a3 16. Rad1 axb2 17. Qxb2 Qc8 18. Bc4 Na5 19. Bd3 Be6 20. Qc2 Nc4 21. Qe2 Nd6 22. Rc1 c5 23. Ne5 c4 24. Bb1 Ra5 25. Nf3 b5 26. d5

Probably the decisive error now Black's Center and Queen side pawns will begin to invade White creating tactical threats




26...Bd7 27. Rfe1 f5 28. e4 b4 29. e5 bxc3 30. exd6 exd6 31. Red1 Rb5 32. Bc2 Qc5+ 33. Kh1 Re8 34. Qf1 Rb2 35. a3 Ra2 36. Ne1 Bd4 37. Ra1 Rb2 38. Nf3 Bf2 39. Rac1 Be3
40. Bxf5 Bxf5 41. Rxc3 Rf2




41...Rc2 was probably stronger but the continuation in the game is more attractive

42. Qxc4 Qxc4 43. Rxc4 Bd3 44. Rc3 Be2 45. Rg1 Bxf3 46. gxf3 Bd4 0-1