| Here is a game where I go from worse, to much worse,
to slightly worse, to winning, then to drawing. It’s an interesting
game nonetheless. |
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N. Solon - A. Zaremba
[A44/05] Old Benoni: Pawn Thrust
World Open, 1999
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1.d4 c5 2.d5 e5 3.e4 d6 4.Nc3
Not the main move in this position, but enough for a small advantage,
in fact Julian Hodgson and Piket have employed this move with success.
This move aims to play a4 and establish the white king knight on c4, while
Black usually gets to trade off his bad dark squared bishop White still
keeps the advantage. Main line here runs 4...a6 5.a4 Be7 6.Be2 Bg5
7.Nf3 Bxc1 8.Qxc1 Ne7 9.Nd2 Nd7 10.Nc4 [+=]. I didn’t know book here,
but ...Be7 seemed obvious, in fact it’s bad due to 5.Bb5+! and Black is
forced to play 5...Kf8, other lines run:
A) 5...Nd7 6.f4 exf4 7.Bxf4 Ngf6 8.Nf3 0-0 9.0-0 a6 10.Bxd7 Bxd7 11.e5
and White gets the advatage.
B) 5...Bd7 is bad due to just 6.Bxd7 Nxd7 7.Nf3 when White gets Black’s
good bishop and Black is unable to trade off White’s dark squared bishop. |
| Weaking the dark squares too much, simply 8.g3 with the idea of Bg2,
castles, and f4, is called for with equal play for both sides. Now
Black has the advantage. |
| 9...h6 with the idea of Nh7 and Ng5 is better. |
| Not the right idea. White should’ve continued with 11.a4 Re8
12.Nd2 Nf8 13.Nc4 Ng6 14.Qd2 Bd7 with a slightly worse position. |
| Black wants to land a knight on f4 and that’s the only way to do it. |
| Hard to judge this move as it opens up the f-file for Black’s rooks
and the outpost on f4 becomes very strong, but what else is White supposed
to do? On 15.0-0-0 gxf5 16.exf5 Nbxd5 [-+] and White has no compensation
for the pawn. |
| Allowing White his next move and some counterplay, more precise was
18...Rf7, if 19.h4 Black will just capture and White has no attack.
Hard to find a move for White after 18...Rf7, but unfortunately I played
18...Rf6. |
| Another inaccuracy, I underestimated Whites attacking chances here,
thinking I was invincible with the knight on f4 I thought I could do whatever
I wanted here, but that’s not true, Black has to be very careful.
More precise was 19...h6 20.h5 g5 21.Bg4 a6 22.Bf5 Nc4 23.Qg3 b5 [-+]. |
| Whole sequence of moves is excellently played for White. Now
Black faces a tough choice between giving up his knight on f4 or letting
the white bishop into the Black camp with a lot of potentially dangerous
threats and combinations. So... |
| Black has to be really careful here, as White has a lot of threats. |
| Now Rh5 is a threat as well as the obvious Rg6. 26...Rf2 loses
of course. |
| With the plan of bringing the white knight to g5. Fortunately
I had a good, far from obvious, reply. |
| Black sacrifices an exchange but gets enough compensation to maintain
his advantage. |
| A very bad move. Black should’ve played b5 and had 2 extra tempi
on the game. |
| If I didn’t have this move it’s game over. |
| An outrageous blunder, a common oversight though, I was thinking that
there is still no way for White to play R5g4 because I would take the queen
on h4, but I can’t so this sucks. I should’ve continued with 36...b5
and attack on the queenside. |
| 37.R5g4 Ne5 38.Qg5+ Kh7 39.Rxf4 Qe7 40.Qxe7 Rxe7 41.Rf6 [++--]. |
| Now Black has a decisive advantage. White has no play and uselessly
moves around while Black conducts an attack on the queenside. |
| White must give the exchange back now. |
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| A game full of mistakes and blunders, the overall ideas were right
for both Black and White, while White misplayed the opening, his ideas
were mostly right, but the execution needs more work, this was worse than
Shaq at the free throw line. Execution for both sides was terrible. |
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