Defensive chances

GM Shankland
| Jul 30, ‘11 at 8:32am
| Posted in: Shankland's Blog
| 3585 reads
| 22 comments

I have a problem- I just completed the Biel International and my only loss came when I played black against the Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein (2637 FIDE). I came into the early middlegame with a slightly worse position, but I don't think it was anywhere near lost. I blundered later on in the game, but by that point my position was already a bit sketchy as I had been counting on a tactical sequence working for me that just completely didn't. In any case, I'll open it up to the members of the chess.com community to try to tell me how I could have played better. One FYI- I have a very powerful computer that can simultaneously run Houdini and Firebird on 8 cpus, so if you just want to spout computer lines it probably won't help me! Human-created plans, on the other hand, could very well be useful.

The first moment I think was largely critical was on move 18. I felt that I should move the d7 knight to contest the dfile, but to b6 or e5? e5 is surely a more active square, but it may compete with the other knight for it and b6 pressures the a4 pawn and the slightly weakened white queenside.

I ended up choosing Nb6. I had foreseen that after Nc5 I would have to capture it because Nxb7! is a very strong threat, but it didn't seem like such a problem after Rxd4 Rxd4 Bxc5 Qxc5 Re8! threatening both Rxe2 and preventing Qxa5 because of Re5 (which will inevitably kick the queen back anyway). The next critical moment came on move 23.

I had 2 main candidate moves here: Nd7 and Qc8. The point of Nd7 is to improve that lousy knight (while incidentally threatening Rc5) and the game could continue with Kb1 fxg3 hxg3 Nc5 intending Ne6 and Rc5, with a strong reorganization. I ended up playing Qc8 though, intending Nd6 Qe6 Kb1 (gxf4 Nxf4 didn't bother me) Rd5!, trading off the rooks as I felt his was better than mine and Bxd5 obviously fails to Qxd6.

Ultimately, I blundered the game away a few moves later with Qh3??, overlooking that after Qd6+ Ka7 Qd4+ Ka6 would not be quite as strong as I anticipated. Instead I had to return to b8 and after Qd8+ Ka7 Qxa5+ would obviously end my suffering. I elected for Qc8 instead of Ka7, but still Qxc8+ Kxc8 Nd6+ Kc7 Nxf7 left me helpless and I resigned a few moves later.

The complete game is as follows:

Comments

7 months ago
KillerCrocBG

by GM Shankland http://cssjs.chesscomfiles.com/images/icons/member/diamond.png); margin-left: 4px; font-weight: bold; background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;" title="Premium Member" href="http://www.chess.com/membership.html?c=icon"> - 2 months ago
Bay Area, CA United States

Member Since: Apr 2009
Member Points: 89

Dear Mr. Sultan,

Thank you for the excellent and clear reply- it is greatly appreciated and I will do my best to make use of this knowledge in the future. However, I think you also will be able to make use of my knowledge. I have studied the kindergarden-first grade cirriculum in depth and would consider myself an expert on the subject. MY specialty is counting from 1 to 10, and after a thorough examination I have ascertained that after your intended Nd7-c5 white may reply with gx-f4 and he will then have 6 foot soldiers to his opponents 5. And, as an expert on the subject, I have also ascertained that 6 is a greater number than 5. to GM SultanOfKings Blunt: FAIL /closed
7 months ago
TD-I-Prevail

Wow, 2 GMs duking it out!
10 months ago
elindauer

Shanky, you are getting badly outplayed in the comments here! I'm sure a GM like you can see the counterplay for black on the g file after 14...Nc5 15. gxf4?! The compensation for black is clear even for a nobody like me. :P :D

Anyways, I will try to help. In your 2nd position, perhaps you could consider ...Nd5? It seems that this would return control of the d6 square which was a nice home for the white knight in the game. Following up with the idea of Nf8-e6 as suggested by others (and my engine) seems reasonable. Exchanges on d5 seem fine, you may have to accept the isolation of the d pawn, but I think this seems holdable for black. Did I miss something or is there merit in this idea?
10 months ago
elindauer

Shanky, you are getting badly outplayed in the comments here! I'm sure a GM like you can see the counterplay for black on the g file after 14...Nc5 15. gxf3?! The compensation for black is clear even for a nobody like me. :P :D

Anyways, I will try to help. In your 2nd position, I was surprised to see that you are not considering ...Nd5. It seems that this would return control of the d6 square which was a nice home for the white knight in the game. Following up with the idea of Nf8-e6 as suggested by others (and my engine) seems reasonable toa rookie like me. Exchanges on d5 seem fine, you may have to accept the isolation of the d pawn, but I think this seems holdable for black. Did I miss something or is there merit in this idea?

thanks,

Eric
10 months ago
dannyhume

Someone quickly write Silman...
10 months ago
fish_food

Ah...GM Shankland has opened with the "Every American Kindergarten school boy knows" gambit.

However, chessbase11 gives 90 plus games where ...Nc5 is played, and nobody takes the f pawn...white castles short instead.
10 months ago
jrichman38

In a recent yearbook article they proved that white gets an annoying edge if black allows long castle. That is why Nc5 is the main move where black equalizes. Here is my game with FM Kassa Korley from NY International first round.
10 months ago
RatfromSky

[COMMENT DELETED]
10 months ago
ricardowolf

I love polite insults
10 months ago
Blind_Demon

Do they always go at it like this, it's like a bad relationship I was once in...
10 months ago
sheardp

14...Nc5, 15. gxf Nc4 looks dangerous for White, so maybe Hammer has a point. There is even a fantasy variation 16.b3 Rd2, 17. Qc1 Qxf4, 18. bxc4 Nd3+ .
10 months ago
ANason21

What about trying to trade pawns (14...fxg3) before moving Nd7-c5?
10 months ago
GM Shankland

Dear Mr. Sultan,

Thank you for the excellent and clear reply- it is greatly appreciated and I will do my best to make use of this knowledge in the future. However, I think you also will be able to make use of my knowledge. I have studied the kindergarden-first grade cirriculum in depth and would consider myself an expert on the subject. MY specialty is counting from 1 to 10, and after a thorough examination I have ascertained that after your intended Nd7-c5 white may reply with gx-f4 and he will then have 6 foot soldiers to his opponents 5. And, as an expert on the subject, I have also ascertained that 6 is a greater number than 5.
10 months ago
davidmelbourne

Dear Mr Shankland

I look forward to your response to Mr Sultan's guidance on Qside castling.

Yours in chess

DM
10 months ago
GM SultanOfKings

Dear Mr. Shankland,

I have studied the rules of chess in-depth. In this quest for knowledge, I specialized in rules for castling. As it turns out, you are not allowed to place your king in danger, neither after nor during its trip to a flank. Now all that is left is to applicate theory in practice: By attacking the d1-square, queenside castling will be illegal for white.

Therefore, I would suggest the profylactic, discovered castling restricter 14...Nd7-c5

I look forward to helping you with simliar law of chess queries you may have.
10 months ago
GM Shankland

Thanks all for the comments, I enjoy the feedback! Keep it coming :). In response to one particularly impetuous commenter:

Dear Mr. Sultan,

I do not believe black has a choice in the matter, as 0-0-0 will inevitably be a legal move after Qc2. If I am not mistaken, the next strongest player in Norway after yourself castled kingside in this very position once, only to recieve a position of dubious objective merit against GM Wang Yue.

Seeing that you have sultanly powers, can you help me? I need to figure out how to stup queenside castling.
10 months ago
DJHeilke

Criticisms not withstanding, from move 14 onward, the Ng6 becomes furniture. I think on 18 the Nb6 is correct, pressuring a4, but you needed a unifying theme. On 23 you move this same night again, with the idea of Rc5 pinning the queen, and you also state that the white Rd4 is better. Considering all these things, I think the best plan is 23. .... fxg3 24. hxg3 Nf8!? creating the immediate "threat" of Ne6, which forks the Nd4 and the *square* c5. Even if white deals with this threat (say with Kb1) you could put the N-f8-e6-c5, covering the b3 square and doubling up on the a4 pawn. This plan fits much more with your overall theme of playing on the queen side. I don't have a big fancy computer, and there may be a refutation for this; but it has been my experience that computers often miss moves like this, and that computers often do not play with a coherent theme. Hope that helps!!!
10 months ago
Sicilian101

Send the game to Garry Kasparov and see what he says.
10 months ago
GM SultanOfKings

Mr. Shankland,

Will you explain why you allowed white to castle queen side, I thought you weren't supposed to do that.

PS: Please use arrows in your explaination of my aforementioned question.
10 months ago
EminenceGrise

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