Prague Summer Open

[Adam Bremner]

Good luck to Hamish Olson and Neil Irving playing in the A section starting today. Hamish is on a live board, black against the top seed, a 2575 Russian GM. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.czechtour.net/summer-prague-open/online/">http://www.czechtour.net/summer-prague-open/online/</a><!-- m -->

[Alan Tate]

Interesting. I'm torn between this and the other threads of endless debating of technical details, point scoring and pedantry.

On a brighter note, Vorobiov is a real grinder. A kind of archetypal Russian who plays without emotion and nerves. It will be a good experience for Hamish.

[Adam Bremner]

Yeah, it feels odd to be trying to discuss actual chess.

Seems you were right enough about this GM's style, but I'm going to back Hamish to draw here. He is good at these sorts of positions.

[Alan Tate]

I didn't mean that he can't get a result, but that it may be a long and difficult game. These positions are always a little better for White but I seem to recall that it's very hard to make progress with so few pieces left. Surprised that Vorobiov exchanged knights but what do I know.

[andyburnett]

These endgames are very difficult to defend. I would expect white to grind out a win from here (move 26) although I hope Hamish holds on

[Adam Bremner]

These positions do tend to be a GM's dream to play for white, although I would have loved something like this with black in half of my games last week! Looks like they are both about to hit time trouble, and I reckon the result should become clear at move 40.

[Alan Tate]

It's seemingly tough to get on those live boards.

[andyburnett]

Yep Until such time as Hamish drags himself back into the online action, I've taken to supporting and following my pal Nondas (Epaminondas Kouroussis - A Greek/Czech IM who is also a dentist in Prague) and also the young Ukrainian with the very bad haircut (Kirill Shevchenko) who I played last year in Brno (see the game below) and who had an easy draw today with the top seed who beat Hamish in round 1.

[pgn][Event "Brno open"]
[Date "2014.11.19"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Shevchenko, Kirill"]
[Black "Burnett, Andrew"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B72"]
[WhiteElo "2141"]
[BlackElo "2269"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. Be2 {A bit
unexpected from my young Ukrainian opponent. (Less than a year later he would
gain an IM norm at Pardubice 2015). There wasn't too much data available on
him, but solid positional lines didn't seem likely. Therefore I now expected
the Q-side castling continuation - an interesting departure from the heavy
main-line theory, but challenging none-the-less.} Nc6 8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O-O Nxd4
10. Bxd4 Be6 (10...
Qa5 11. Kb1 e5 12. Be3 Be6 13. Qxd6) 11. h4 (11. g4 $5 {might be more critical}
Nxg4 $5 (11... Qa5 12. g5 Nd7 13. Bxg7 Kxg7 14. a3 Rab8) 12. Bxg7 Kxg7 13. f4
Nf6 (13... f5 $6 14. Bxg4 fxg4 15. h3 $1) 14. h4 {and white has a serious
intitiative in the offing, so black must play with great precision.}) (11. f4
$5 {is reasonable also} Qa5 12. a3 (12. Kb1 $4 Nxe4 $1) 12... Rfc8) 11... Qa5 (
11... b5 $5 {is an interesting move, and one that I looked at after playing
Milan Beno in Nove Zamky the previous month. However, I hadn't looked at it
closely and couldn't recall the analysis I did, so, I need to work harder!} 12.
a3 Qa5 13. Qg5 Rab8 {and the b-pawn no longer needs to be sacced, although} 14.
e5 $5 {always has to be considered. Here} dxe5 15. Bxe5 h6 16. Qe3 b4 $1 {is a
good answer and white is in serious trouble (as he often is when Black gets an
attack and white has no k-side counter-attack)} 17. Bxb8 (17. axb4 Rxb4 18. Kb1
Rfb8 $1 19. Bxb8 Ne4 $1 {and the dragon breathes fire!}) 17... bxc3 18. Be5
cxb2+ 19. Bxb2 Nd5 {and black is clearly in the driving seat.}) 12. Qg5 {A
very similar idea occurs in the main-lines with 9. 0-0-0 so I thought I should
follow black's main counter from that line.} b5 $5 {Sacrificing a pawn to get
open lines and distracting white from any k-side pretensions he might have.}
13. Qxb5 (13. h5 $5 {is still playable here} Rab8 14. hxg6 hxg6 15. f4 Rfc8 {
with a tense position. White may be a bit better, but when the position opens
Black will definitely have chances.}) 13... Qc7 14. e5 $6 {Not the strongest
move, but it took me ages to work out why and what I should reply.} a6 $1 (
14... Ne8 {was Topalov's choice here but I think my move is stronger!}) 15. Qb6
(15. exd6 $2 {would be a mistake on account of} Qxc3 {but I hadn't spotted
this simple response and instead was feverishly calculating deep lines
beginning with} (15... axb5 {white is almost winning with accurate play after}
16. dxc7 Bh6+ 17. Be3 Bxe3+ 18. fxe3 b4 19. Nb5 {e.g.} Bd7 20. Rhf1 Bxb5 21.
Bxb5 Rac8 22. Rxf6 exf6 23. Rd7 {This kind of wasted analysis time is why you
should always check the first move is correct before deep calculation begins!})
) 15... Qxb6 16. Bxb6 Nd7 $6 {Perhaps this isn't best, but it looked like
re-capturing on e5 with a piece rather than the pawn was a sensible idea.} (
16... dxe5 17. Bc7 (17. Bf3 e4 18. Nxe4 Nxe4 19. Bxe4 Bxb2+ 20. Kxb2 Rab8 {is
fine for black}) 17... e4 18. Rhe1 Rfc8 19. Be5 {looked a little dangerous to
me, but is probably fine.}) 17. Be3 Bxe5 18. Nd5 Bxd5 19. Rxd5 Rfb8 20. c3 {
Taking stock, white has the bishop pair and a q-side pawn majority. On the
down-side, his king will be awkwardly placed when he tries to do anything with
them, and for the moment black's pieces are all fairly active. So, white
should be better, but perhaps not by much or easy to prove. I felt my first
priority ought to be preventing Ra5, when the a-pawn feels a bit uncomfortable.
} a5 21. Rb5 a4 {and push again to prevent white playing a4 himself.} 22. a3 e6
23. h5 Rc8 24. hxg6 hxg6 25. Kd2 d5 {The position is quite complex; Black has
central control and envisages the white king being a tactical problem at some
stage, whereas white has the advantage on both wings, where Black must be
careful.} 26. Rb4 Bf6 27. Bb5 Nc5 28. f3 e5 29. Bxc5 {Winning the a-pawn, but
in a practical game black is not too badly placed - the opposite-coloured
bishops position means he will have counterplay on the dark squares, which
white will struggle to defend.} Rxc5 30. Bxa4 Be7 31. Bb3 Rd8 (31... Ra7 {with
the same idea of coming to the d-file might have been more accurate.}) 32. Rb7
Bg5+ 33. Ke2 e4 $5 {the engine dislikes this thrust, but my opponent was
looking distinctly uncomfortable.} 34. fxe4 Re8 35. Rd1 (35. Rf1 Rxe4+ 36. Kd3
{and keeping the king on the q-side was a safer idea.}) 35... Rxe4+ 36. Kf3
Rf4+ 37. Kg3 Rf5 38. a4 Kg7 {There are some nasty possibilities awaiting the
white king if he isn't careful! Rc8-h8 might appear quickly.} 39. Rd7 Bf4+ 40.
Kg4 Be5 41. R1xd5 Rc8 42. Rd8 $2 (42. g3 {immediately was safer.}) 42... Rc6 (
42... Rxd8 43. Rxd8 Rf2 {would lead to a fairly simple draw but by now I
wanted more if possible. Unfortunately the ...Rf2 idea now disappeared from my
thoughts.}) 43. g3 Kh6 44. Rd3 Rb6 45. c4 $4 (45. Bc4 {or even}) (45. Bxf7 {
were safer candidates}) 45... Bxb2 $2 {missing my chance!} (45... Rf2 $1 {wins
as the white king is in a mating net, which will cost him too much material to
escape from.} 46. Kh3 (46. Rd2 f5+ 47. Kh3 Rxd2 48. Rxd2 Rxb3) 46... f5 47. Bd1
Rbxb2 {and wins. Although mating nets had been on my mind for a number of
moves now, the thought of grabbing a2 and probably never losing the position
was too difficult to resist. With a couple minutes on the clock I played it
quickly, not really believing there was something more in the position I
should be looking for.} (47... g5 $5 48. Bg4)) 46. R8d5 Rxd5 47. cxd5 f5+ 48.
Kf3 Be5 49. Bc4 g5 50. Bb5 (50. a5 {was better, but it's natural to try to
block the rook out of the game.}) 50... g4+ 51. Kg2 Kg5 52. Rd1 f4 53. gxf4+
Kxf4 54. Re1 g3 55. Rf1+ Ke4 56. Rd1 Rh6 57. Rh1 {and neither side can
reasonably avoid the draw now. I chose the most aesthetic version though!} Rxh1
58. Kxh1 Kf3 59. Bf1 Kf2 60. Bg2 Bc7 {and the bishops will shuffle on their
diagonals for ever more! A hard-fought game against a 12-year old who will
likely become very, very strong if he learns to control his nervous behaviour
at the board.} 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

[David G Congalton]

Looks like Hamish has dragged himself back onto the live action tomorrow with a good result against his 2201 rated Czech opponent today.

Neil Irving's having a good event so far, as well, sitting just off the leaders in the B tournament.

[Alan Tate]

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