Sicilian Pin King-Hunt

Submitted by sam_musil on Mon, 08/10/2009 at 12:58am.

Last week I analyzed a fine win for black with the Pin Variation of the Sicilian Defense where white tried the Koch Variation Schoenmann Variation versus black. That win demonstrated the latent power of black's position in the hands of a skilled Pin master, your humble instructor. This week, I am analyzing a great victory over the Koch Variation Pytlakowski Variation that was first played in the Polish Championship of 1938. In that initial game, Jaroslav Sajtar defeated Andrzej Pytlakowski with a relatively weak move 7. .. Kf8, but that loss put the Pytlakowski Variation under a cloud until Marjan Lacic and Sam Musil revived it in the 1990's. Here is a black win over the Pytlakowski Variation that is the favorite attack of both your humble teacher and the great undisputed Pin Champion of the world, Marjan Lacic!

At Chess.com, with the black pieces in the Pin Variation, in 43 games, Marjan has accumulated a record of 36 wins, 2 draws, and just 5 defeats! Marjan is a Super GM defending with the Pin! At Chess.com, with the white pieces against the Pin Variation, in 22 games, Marjan has accumulated a record of 22 wins, 0 draws, and 0 defeats! Marjan is a Super GM playing against the Pin!

I consider this win the greatest Pin win of my career because of the strong opening that Geoff played by copying Marjan's and my games from the Chess.com database. Here I had to defeat the favorite white opening of both Marjan Lacic and your humble teacher!

The result is one of the greatest chess games that I have ever played that demonstrates the proper handling of the black side against a "Super GM " (>2700 FIDE) opening, which I claim that Marjan is with the Pin Variation. Marjan, who plays under the handle "lac" has a current rating of 2814 at Chess.com! That makes him the No. 9 player at this site today, August 9. Of course, Geoff deviated from the Marjan favorite line at move 9, so I cannot use the same variation to defeat Marjan. White played a T.N. at move 10, which took both players out of book. That is when the mental gymnatics really got rolling! The game ends in an unusual king-hunt where white is the hunted! Enjoy!

» posted in sam_musil's Blog

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Comments:

by bondiggity - 3 months ago
United States

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 1531

You need to take a look back because what you just said makes no sense sam.

by sam_musil - 3 months ago
Marysville, Kansas United States

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 270

SJM1 ,

I started to propose 23. Rd1?? as a possible white improvement and then I saw that black wins easily with 26. .. Q:Rd1 and the whole suggestion was flawed. I should have deleted the variation, but forgot.

You are very observant, but missed the black win like I did !

Sincerely, Sam

by SJM1 - 3 months ago
Toronto Canada

Member Since: Jun 2009
Member Points: 27

your writeup of the game proposes a variation for white at move 23. I think there is a win there for white, if you follow those black moves, but of course, I might be missing something.

by bondiggity - 3 months ago
United States

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 1531

Humble my ass. Any GM would wipe you off the board in an OTB game.

by sam_musil - 3 months ago
Marysville, Kansas United States

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 270

Summersiron ,

I promise to keep these blogs coming because I am a chess lover AND teacher. I am one of the most experienced Pin players in the world, so many of my games illustrate the winning lines for black that have never been played before at the master level . No Grandmaster has ever championed the Pin simply because it is so dangerous for both sides . Very few Pins end in draws! Even in the FIDE master DB at Chess.com, only 18% of the Pin games end in draws . With the Scheveningen, 29.7% of the master games are drawn ! That is over a 50% increase in the draw rate and illustrates the reluctance of GM's to risk losing the opportunity for a draw with black in a round-robin tourney.

In my younger days, I played in $100,000 Swiss tournaments like the Chicago Open to win first prize and that meant winning with black! I am accurately annotating these games to show my young students the proper way to handle these Pin positions from the black perspective when I play the black side! Rarely, I do show a white win against the Pin, but most of those are against relatively inexperienced Pin players who are quickly dispatched!

Sincerely, your teacher, Sam

RCWoods ,

I thank you for the nice complement. I work hard to accurately portray all the important elements of my annotated games and I appreciate the positive feedback.

Your faithful teacher, Sam

averit ,

Thank you so much for pointing out my mistake at move 13. I have just corrected it and apologize for any confusion that the typo may have caused!

Thanks again, Sam

by averil - 3 months ago
Manila Philippines

Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 77

On 13...Nb4, don't you mean if white captures the knight at b4?

by RC_Woods - 3 months ago
Nijmegen Netherlands

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 537

very nice game and good annotations!

by SummersIron - 3 months ago
Exeter United Kingdom

Member Since: Jun 2009
Member Points: 21

As black I play what is currently a very one-dimensional sicillian, so I found this game interesting and the advice very helpful, especially the bit about about when to castle, something I was not previously aware of. Please keep these blogs coming, as I am sure there are lots of other young players like me who play the sicillian but don't quite know how they should be using the position it creates.

by Politicalmusic - 3 months ago
Alabama United States

Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 2454

"Black continues to collect booty."

LMBO!!!!!!

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