Inside the Master Mind: Winning with the Sicilian Grand-Prix

Submitted by TigerLilov on Fri, 08/29/2008 at 10:07am.

In my second article, part of the series “Inside the Master Mind: The Best Games of a Chess Coach”, I would like to show you one of my best recent games. This game has been played in the 7th round of one of the most prestigious Open tournaments in Bulgaria – Georgy Tringov Memorial. In this moment I had gained 4.5 points out of 6 games and my only chance to join the battle for the first places and to achieve a good performance was to win. My opponent in this game was one of the strongest Bulgarian players for this time – IM Grigor Grigorov (ELO Rating 2463). Although in this particular game the lot assigned for me to play with white pieces, which is an additional advantage, I expected this game to be really hard and tiring, because of the fact that IM Grigorov is very tough and hopeful player and besides that that was one of the most crucial games in this tournament. Before the game, I had stumbled across a very interesting and dynamic idea in the Sicilian, known as Grand – Prix variation. This modern system, which is initiated by white pieces, is not very common among the high rated players, because black is considered to have enough solid ways to neutralize white’s attack on the king’s side as well as on the other side and create a severe counterplay in the center and on the queen’s side. For that reason this variation is very common among the players, who play at championship level. I consider Gran – Prix as being not enough strong for a regular use of high-ranked players as a part of their opening repertoire, but it reveals a perfect possibility for an opening surprise in some games. This particular game with Grigorov began very interestingly, as we have lined up one of the main lines of this particular variation. While the initial moves were correctly played by both sides, an interesting position occurred, which at first seemed to be very static and completely innocuous, but in fact the deep evaluation of the present situation, involving deep calculation of the future variations and clear perspective for fast development of white pieces showed that this position was far more sophisticated and dynamic rather than it appeared at first sight.

Here is the game:

» posted in Amazing Games

| 2128 reads | 5 comments |

3 votes:

Comments:

by peter2 - 4 months ago
Netherlands

Member Since: May 2008
Member Points: 3

after 18. Rxf7, Rxf7, 19 Qxe6 black can also play Qf6

by misha11 - 4 months ago
los angeles United States

Member Since: Aug 2008
Member Points: 4

Thank you for sharing this interesting variant with us - very nice early middle game tactics. The Closed Sicilian often gives White a strong kingside attack with much less risk than what he must assume in many of the open systems. Spassky and Karpov both played the Closed Sicilian frequently in the early part of their careers and scored quite well with it. Some of Spassky's victories over Geller are especially worth careful study. Incidentally, 6...g x f5 is not "much stronger" than Ne6, as someone has suggested. It weakens Black's kingside pawns and subjects him to a strong attack. My friend Bruce Pandolfini played this exact same opening against Larry Evans years before Bruce became well-known as a chess teacher (at the time his only student was me!). At any rate, after Bruce played 6. f5 Evans did not capture the pawn, realizing over the board that it wuld give White a strong pull, but chose to develop with the same move as in this game, 6...Ne7. Bruce got a crushing attack against Evans, but then made several inaccuracies that allowed the game to fizzle out to a draw.

by Bentley1958 - 4 months ago
Diekirch Luxembourg

Member Since: Aug 2008
Member Points: 9

@ EJ

Ok, I was somewhat hard :-) !! I will bite on my tongue next time, promised.

But analysing a game with the title "the best games of a chess coach" I like to see more deep analyses.

by jay - 4 months ago
San Jose, CA United States

Member Since: May 2007
Member Points: 1102

Thanks for the interesting game. Nice sacrifice.

by Aliyat-EJ - 4 months ago
Arizona United States

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 3

@Bentley1958

I don't think the author can fairly defend the move choices of his opponent. If you have comments about why WHITE moved a certain way, I'm sure he can answer that, but how is he supposed to know why Black choose to make the moves that he (she?) did.

"3..e6 with a simple plan of d5; what against???"

4. Nf3 d5 5. Bb5 Nge7 6. exd5 exd5 7. Qe2 White appears to have a fair game from this point.

"6..Nge7 is a nearly equalizer, but what do you play against the much stronger 6..g x f5 ???"

6. f5 gxf5 7. d3 (Nge7 is actually a much stronger move statistically speaking.)

7... Ne5 - L Shapira vs I Len, 2001 (0-1)
7... a6 - Marionito Jose vs J Kerry, 2001 (0-1)
7... Nd4 - O Biti vs M Vyparina, 2001 (1-0)
7... Nge7 - E Rutherford vs S Ledger, 2001 (1-0)

"7..dxe6is good enough, but 7..f xe6!! was the way to play and believe me as a 150 points higher rated player, I don't let run such an opportunity."

Something to discuss with his opponent I guess.

"8..Qb6 not mentionned"

I can not find a game with this eighth move. Perhaps if no notable games included that move, that was the reason it was not mentioned.

"9..f6! and then ????"

A fair question.

"10..g5 why not?? 10..Qa5 simply and strong enough"

Again, a question for his opponent, not him.

I admit, I came to this article expecting something different too, but that doesn't mean I should be critical of someone who's put time and effort into making this site better. If the article and information is not useful to you, then pass it by without comment. This article might be useful to someone else, even if it just ignites a spark in their mind with something new to consider.

- EJ

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