| In round 4 of the Chicago Open I was paired against
19 year old Florin Felecan who recently
moved to the U.S. from Romania. He, like William Morrison, also plays for the UMBC chess team. |
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| 1.d4 d6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 Nf6 5.Nf3 | ||||||||||||
| I thought a long time before playing Nf3. Though I've had this position many times before, I figured that if I think about the position, Felecan may assume that he tricked me out of my normal anti-King's Indian system with his unusual move order. Maybe he would think I play the fianchetto system. I was hoping he'd try to punish me by playing the classical with 7...e5 which I love playing against. | ||||||||||||
| 5...0-0 6.Be2 Bg4 7.Ng1 | ||||||||||||
| Before the game someone told me that Felecan plays ...Bg4 in the King's Indian. I asked IM Boris Kreimen to suggest something against ...Bg4, and he told me that Ng1 is an idea. Knowing that Be3 is the main theoretical move, I decided to give Ng1 a try. | ||||||||||||
| 7...Bxe2 8.Ngxe2 c5 | ||||||||||||
| In my database I found 17 games with 7.Ng1, where the most common way to follow up is with c5, aiming for a Benoni position. Most of the games in the database were draws, but there were more Black wins than White wins. | ||||||||||||
| 9.d5 | ||||||||||||
| Castling and allowing ...cxd4 is not as effective as a normal Maroczy bind with the trade of the light-squared bishops. The c-pawn is now weak, and in general when you have a space advantage in the center you want to keep as many pieces on the board as possible. | ||||||||||||
| 9...b5 | ||||||||||||
| Black can also play ...Na6-c7 with the idea of ...b5. The plan of ...a6, followed by ...Nbd7, ...Ne8, ...Nc7, and ...b5 is also good. Black has a comfortable Benoni where White doesn't have many attacking chances. Black's ...b5 move is perfectly fine though. | ||||||||||||
| 10.cxb5 a6 11.bxa6 Nxa6 12.0-0 Qb6 13.Rb1 | ||||||||||||
| A useful move. Planning to develop the bishop without hanging the b2 pawn. Duh. | ||||||||||||
| 13...Rfb8 14.Kh1 | ||||||||||||
| Another useful move. White is planning to move his f-pawn at some point without worrying about ...c4+ and ...Nc5 coming with tempo. | ||||||||||||
| 14...Nc7 | ||||||||||||
| Black is planning to play ...Nb5 at some point. In this type of Benko Gambit position normally it is good to trade off minor pieces. | ||||||||||||
| 15.h3 | ||||||||||||
| Another waiting move, though maybe this one is unnecessary. I wasn't sure if I should play f4 right away, since possibly ...e6 would be a simple defense, making f4 look stupid. I decided to sit around and see what happens. | ||||||||||||
| 15...Nd7 16.Bg5 | ||||||||||||
| An annoying move. | ||||||||||||
| 16...Ne5? | ||||||||||||
| I sat around and something happened! I assume Black miscalculated when playing this. 16...Bf6 and the game looks equal. | ||||||||||||
| 17.Bxe7 f6 18.f4 Nc4 19.Qd3! | ||||||||||||
| I believe that Black missed the strength of this move. Probably Black thought he could play 19...Nxb2 after 19.Qd3. | ||||||||||||
| 19...Qa6! | ||||||||||||
| Now Black is threatening
to win the bishop; 19...Nxb2? 20.Rxb2! Qxb2 21.Bxd6 Qb6
22.e5[+-] and White is completely winning. |
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| 20.e5 | ||||||||||||
| Forced but strong. I assumed
White was winning during the game, though I was being too
optimistic. |
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| 20...fxe5 21.f5 gxf5! 22.Qxf5 Nd2! | ||||||||||||
| The critical variation. When I went into this line I assumed that White would be winning. That turned out to be a dangerous assumption since it turns out that White should be looking for a draw now. Luckily there is one. When showing this game to Vasik Rajlich, he bet me dinner that Fritz 5 could find a win for White in this position. Fritz 5 agreed with me that I should be looking for a draw. | ||||||||||||
| 23.Qf7+ Kh8 24.Bf6 Rg8 25.Qxc7 | ||||||||||||
| All attacking ideas such as Rf5-Rg5, and Ng3-Nf5, or Ng3-Nh5 are quickly dissolved by the simple ...Ne8 move. | ||||||||||||
| 25...Nxb1 | ||||||||||||
| 25...Bxf6? 26.Rxf6 Nxb1 27.Rf7 Qd3 28.Qxd6[+-] -Fritz 5 | ||||||||||||
| 26.Bxg7+! Rxg7 27.Rf7! Rxf7 28.Qxf7 Nxc3 | ||||||||||||
| The endgame that arises after 28...Qa7 is fine for White. Vasik Rajlich and I analyzed it finding no winning chances for Black; 29.Qxa7 Rxa7 30.Nxb1 Rxa2 31.Nbc3 Rxb2 32.Kg1 Kg7 33.Kf2 White's kingside pawn majority will always keep black tied down, and the passed c- and e-pawns are easily blockaded. | ||||||||||||
| 29.Qf6+ | ||||||||||||
| And White has a perpetual. | ||||||||||||
| 29...Kg8 30.Qe6+ Kf8 31.Qf6+ Ke8 32.Qe6+ Kd8 33.Qf6+ Kc8 34.Qf8+! | ||||||||||||
| 34.Qe6+? Kb8[-/+] | ||||||||||||
| 34...Kb7 35.Qe7+ Kb8 | ||||||||||||
| 35...Kb6?? It looks like a reasonable try since it almost, hence the word almost, forces the trade of queens. Even though White will have two pawns for the exchange, Black is still probably winning. White however has an amazing win which I didn't notice until Black had the option of playing ...Qb6 on move. My original intention was to simply play Nxc3 after 35.. Kb6 where White sill probably is drawing. White has a much better combination which leads to checkmate or the loss of Black's queen. Felecan unfortunately saw this variation also, and took the draw. 36.Qxd6+ Ka5 37.Qxc5+ Nb5 (37...Qb5 38.Qxc3+[±]) 38.b4+ Ka4 39.Qc4!! and Black can resign. 39...Nd6 (39...Nd4 40.b5+[+-]) 40.Nc3+ Ka3 41.Qb3#. | ||||||||||||
| 36.Qd8+ Kb7 | ||||||||||||
| 36...Qc8 37.Qb6+ Qb7 38.Qd8+ Ka7 39.Qa5+ Qa6 40.Qc7+. | ||||||||||||
| 37.Qd7+ ½-½. | ||||||||||||
| Conclusions: | ||||||||||||
| 1. I think this 7.Ng1 move is lame, and just gives Black incentive to play this ...Bg4 system. My database suggests the same thing. It's very solid and good for a draw, but that's about all you can hope for after playing it. | ||||||||||||
| 2. Vas owes me dinner |