| I played in a category 7 (avg FIDE rating 2401-2425)
12 player 11 round round-robin held on Oct 2-13. It was organized
by Laszlo Nagy. 6 of the players were GMs, 3 were IMs. A +1
score was needed for an IM norm. My final score was four losses,
seven draws and no wins. Here are my round-by-round results: |
1:W Vovsha 0
2:B Forintos 1/2
3:W Narcisco 0
4:W Blatny 1/2
5:B Czebe 1/2
6:W Senff 1/2 |
7:B Lengyel 1/2
8:W Soffer 0
9:B Fogarasi 0
10:W Vaulin 1/2
11:B Bu 1/2 |
|
| The chess was a little different in Budapest, it
was more positional. I had to give up my favorite indulgence, bogus
tactical play (Ok my second favorite indulgence!). Man it was tough!
I am not concerned about my lack of wins, I had two basically winning positions
(Blatny and Czebe) and two more really good ones (Lengyel and Bu).
Next time I'll be putting the ball in the back of the net where it belongs.
If there's one thing I've taken from this trip it's the value of studying
positions. The good players have a more mature and studious approach,
and it pays off, for example look at my games with Soffer and Vaulin and
tell me which player has thought more deeply about the positions reached
in those games. |
| At any rate, here are my games, with quick comments. |
|
V. Rajlich - E. Vovsha
[B01/21] Scandinavian: Classical (Mieses)
Round 1
HUN Budapest, October 2, 1999
|
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c6
| Here I thought for a while. I just couldn't
remember theory, and I couldn't remember the Kasparov-Anand game.
I thought the main line went 6.Bc4 but I remember that later in the Kasparov-Anand
game Kasparov played Bc4 and it was given a ?!, so I played: |
| And now I thought for a while longer. |
| I liked this move, but my opponent did not.
To me the queen on a5 was annoying, if 7.0-0 then 7...Nbd7 and what's the
Ne5 doing? I decided that after 7.Rb1 the Ne5 is efficient since
after b2-b4 the queen will have to go all the way back to d8, since ...Qc7
is met with Bf4. However, my opponent shocked me with the following: |
| Voluntarily. I think it's bad, I like White
now... |
| Now, however, some of the drawbacks of the Rb1 start
to get revealed. For one thing, White can't ever castle queenside,
so it's harder to play h2-h4-h5 type stuff. So, I just contented
myself with going kingside: |
| Ugh. This runs right into Black's most natural
move and leaves Black better. However, White doesn't seem to have
much of an advantage anyway, for example 12.Rfd1 Nd5 anyway and while White
doesn't have the horrible queenside as in the game, I don't see any edge.
Probably an improvement earlier exists... |
| Unfortunately forced, else Black takes the a-pawn
(another drawback of the Rb1) or gets the two bishops. |
| Best. I thought about 14.Nxd7 Qxd7 15.Bh6
but Black is better. After 14.Bf3 White has near equality. |
| My opponent didn't like this move, maybe 16.Rbc1
with the idea of playing c2-c4 is better. However, I think 16.b5
is fine, White does have an extra weakness which becomes significant later
on, but only after further mistakes by White. 16.b5 also gives white some
extra ideas of his own. |
| This should lose. 18.Nd3 was forced, I think
it's close to equal in that case. |
| 19.Ne3 would lose to 19...Bd7. |
| Black returns the favor, 19...Bxg4 20.Bxg4 f5 21.Qxg5
fxg4 22.Be5 Rf7 is winning for Black. |
| Black can still win a piece, but White now has a
ton of play for it, so he decides otherwise. I think it's equal now,
and very complicated. |
| Unfortunately, I had only about 10 minutes at this
point. It's strange, I used to get in time trouble all the time until
a few years ago, then I pretty much stopped doing that, but every now and
then it comes back. |
| 22...Na8 23.Bxd5+ is probably good for White. |
| Also possible was 23.hxg3 Na8 24. Bxd5+ e6 25. Bxb7,
White will have three pawns for the piece, however I didn't trust this
variation. |
| Around here White needs a plan, at the moment he
controls the light squares and has good prospects but if Black can get
...f5 in then White will be crushed, as in the game. I think right
now that White's best is 29.Qd3 Rd4 30.Qg6. |
| After this White is lost, 30.Qg6 was necessary and
if 30...Be8 then 31.Qf5. I saw this but didn't like the draw after
31... Bd7, etc. It hadn't occurred to me yet just how monstrous Black's
central pawns would be. The rest deserves no comment. |
| The time scramble is over and black is winning easily. |
|
|
| That game really woke me up. I just played
bogusly, took too long, ... and everywhere around me people were playing
normally. I would only do this once again. |
G. Forintos - V. Rajlich
[A38/06] Reti: Symmetrical (Barcza)
Round 2
HUN Budapest, October 4, 1999
|
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.b3 Bg7
| White invests his first move to get a manoevering game where he hopes
for a very small advantage. |
| My opponent had played this in the Hungarian championship a few months
ago, which I didn't know about. Now, his opponent played 8...e5,
when after 9.e3 White had a small edge. I played a move which seems
to equalize completely, however it also simplifies everything. |
| If 9.Qc2 then Black can play as in the game 9...Nxc3 10.Bxc3 Nd4 11.Nxd4
cxd4 12.Bb2 and then 12...Bf5, or he can try 9...Bf5. If White wants
a sharper struggle then he should play 9.Rc1, I was planning 9...Be6 but
then maybe 10.d3 Nxc3 11.Bxc3 Bxc3 12.Rxc3 Qd7 and it's not clear that
Black has full equality, though he probably does. |
| Again, White chooses the tamer move. 14.fxe3 was more unbalanced. |
| My opponent offered a draw here. I'd rather be White but it's
just equal, I certainly wasn't going to lose this with Black. |
|
|
| I wish I could say this was the start of playing
good solid positional chess, unfortunately I had one more crazy game left
in me. |
V. Rajlich - M. Narcisco
[C45/13] Scotch: Schmidt (Mieses)
Round 3
HUN Budapest, October 5, 1999
|
1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3
| I use this move order to avoid the Petroff. |
| Sadly I couldn't remember the theory here, even though I had studied
it less than a month ago. That's the problem that I find with just
looking through lines in a book without trying them out myself, I'm just
not as involved and then I can't remember a thing. As it turns out,
my opponent knows this line real well, he had a well-known theoretical
game where he beat some Spanish GM a month ago or so, that guy played the
normal 10.g3. Maybe it's better that I avoided that... although my
choice was just bad. |
| I think this is bad, Black is better now. |
| Best, if 10...Nb6 I was going to play 11.c5 Bxf1 12.cxb6 Ba6 13.bxa7
Kb7 14.Be3. Apparently this is a normal sort of idea in this opening,
but I like White in this case, and my opponent agreed. |
| Ok. This is where things get really hairy. First of all,
my opponent just saw a lot more than I did in this game, my analysis was
sloppy. I rejected 11.Qe2 due to 11...Re8 12.Bb2 Qc5, however better
is 12.f4 when Black isn't so easily able to find his next move. However,
this is probably the best variation, maybe then 12...Nd5. My opponent
was planning the following spectacular reply to 11.Qe2: 11...d5 12.exf6
Qxf6 and now if 13.Bb2 then 13...Bb4+ 14.Kd1 dxc4+ 15.Kc1 c3 16.Qxa6+ Kb8
and White seems to be lost. Wow. However, Fritz as always just
refutes this: 16.Qg4+ (imagine that!) and now Qxb4 is next and it's with
check! So, 11...Nd5 or 11...Re8 would be forced. 11.Qe3 would
have been just plain bad after 11...Ng4 12.Qxa7 Qxe5+ 13.Be3 Bb7 14.Qd4
Re8. After 11. Qf5 black is better. |
| This is good for Black. I completely underestimated this.
Also good for black would have been 11...Re8. I was planning 12.f4
g6 13.Qc2 with the idea of 13...d6 14.c5, however this is bad due to 14...Bxf1
15.cxd6 Qxd6! (I missed this) and surprisingly White doesn't have a move,
for example 16.Kxf1 (seems to win a piece) 16...Qd4 and everything is hanging,
i.e. 17.Bb2 Qxf4+, etc. My opponent rejected this due to 13.Qh3,
I spent a long time looking at this, the problem is White doesn't threaten
exf6 due to the pin on the e-file and he can't threaten it by playing Be2
so Black has time for just 13...Kb8, i.e. 14.Be2 d6 and Black is winning.
It's not clear whether 11...Bg4 is better than 11...Re8, they are both
good for Black. |
| The critical position has now arisen. If White can survive the
next few moves, he'll be in good shape. Unfortunately, damage cannot
be stopped. |
| This loses on the spot. Forced was 14.h3, the main difference
being that after 14.h3 Bc5 White can play the natural 15.Nc3 since then
15...Ne3 can be met with 16.Bxe3 Bxe3 17.Ne2 whereas after 14.Be2 Bc5 White
can't play 15.Nc3 since then after 15...Ne3 16.Bxe3 Bxe3 has the two threats
of ...Bd2+ and ...Bxf4. After 14.h3 Bc5 15.Nc3, it took us a long
time in the postmortem to decide what should happen, however in the end
it does seem good for Black: 15...Bd4 16.Bb2 (16.Bd2 Nf2 17.Rh2 Ne4) 16...Ne3
17.Rc1 Nf5 and Black has an edge. Note also that 14.a3 Bc5 15.Ra2
loses also to 15...Nf2. The rest of the game just isn't pretty, I
asked for it and I got it. |
|
|
| That sort of wrapped up the first phase of the tournament,
this crap wasn't going to happen again that's for sure. I played
more sanely after that, and I'm happy with that, although I was unable
to convert my good positions. |
V. Rajlich - P. Blatny
[B14/05] Caro-Kann: Panov (Fianchetto)
Round 4
HUN Budapest, October 6, 1999
|
1.e4 g6 2.d4 c6 3.c4 d5 4.exd5 cxd5 5.Nc3 Nf6
| We've transposed to a Panov-Botvinnik now, with ...g6. |
| This was a new move for me, I've seen only 8...Nbd7 9.Bf3 Nb6 10.a4
a5 11.Nge2 Bg4 12.Bxg4 Nxg4 13.0-0 when White is holding the extra pawn
but it's still weak. |
| I thought for a while here. I could hold on to the pawn with
11.Bg5 and then Bxf6, however that's a pretty big price to pay and the
pawn is still weak after that. Then I saw what I think is a better
idea: |
| I think this is pretty sweet, White is just better here. This
whole variation is a little suspicious, in my opinion. I was talking
to Narcisco later (my rd 2 opponent), he also just doubts this whole variation
from Black's perspective. |
| This isn't bad, but I played it really sloppily. On 15...Qa6
I was going to play 16.Qxe7, I analyzed 16...Rfe8 17.Qc5 Nxd5 18.Qa5 and
of course White is very happy. That was the end of my analysis of
15...Qa6. 15.Qb3 was also quite good, without the unnecessary adventure. |
| Whoops, now I saw 16.Qxe7 Rfe8 17.Qc5 Nb5 and Black wins. If
18.a4 just 18...Nxc3 first. Fortunately, White can keep an edge here
with the strange-looking: |
| I like the way my opponent played this now. Of course if 16...Qxa5
17.bxa5 Bf5 (to stop 18.Rb1) then 18.d6. 16.Qa5 was forced so I didn't
spend much time looking at the ramifications, however it seemed to me that
Black equalized with the game continuation. Somehow, however, White
seems to be keeping an edge. I don't really understand this at the
moment. |
| I was really pleased with this move. At first it seems that Black
is doing well, he has good minor pieces. I was thinking about 20.Na4,
to see if Black's knights won't be redundant. However, they are not,
White's key move is Rc5, and Black's other knight could go to e6 to stop
this. So, what is the most useful waiting move? Answer: 20.a3. |
| Perhaps this should wait, Black soon lands in trouble. |
| It took me a while to realize that I should trade one of my rooks for
his d-rook, but I need to be able to play Nc3 and then my control of the
c-file is huge. |
| A radical solution, but if 31...Rb7 then 32.Rc6. |
| This ending seems to be winning for White, however Black just keeps
making one solid move after another and I just drop the ball. |
| Mistake number one, after this it might well be a draw. Winning
was 52.a8 Rxa8 53.Rxa8 Kxe3 54.Kc5 f4 55.Kd5 (I missed this) 55...f3 56.Ke4
(of course, the f-pawn is all Black has, everything else is irrelevant)
56...f2 57.Ra2+ Ke1 58.Ke3 and now Black must try to draw with 58...f1N+
but White will win this. I thought I was winning in the game, but
it's not so clear. |
| There were three time controls, I repeated to make the second time
control. |
| Ugh. I kept playing after this but White no longer has serious
winning chances. On 58.Rg4 Black would play 58...Rd7 59.h4 Rd3 etc.,
it's not clear whether White wins or not but clearly this is better than
58.g4. |
| My idea is to sac the rook for the e-pawn and win with the kingside
pawns, but it's not enough. |
| One nice trap was 60...Ra5+ 61.Kd6! and White has winning chances again. |
| In view of 66.g6 Rxh4 67.Rxe2 Kxe2 68.g7 Rg4 69.Kf7 etc. |
|
|
A. Czebe - V. Rajlich
[B90/11] Sicilian: Najdorf (Byrne)
Round 5
HUN Budapest, October 7, 1999
|
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3
e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f4
| This was new for me. One of the problems with my opening knowledge
right now which I need to correct is that although I know some of the topical
lines decently well I don't know so well some of the offbeat lines.
Often there is some very specific problem with one of these lines, which
is why it's offbeat, but if you don't now it then the line is dangerous.
After 8.f4 I sank into thought. It's actually kind of funny how I
analyzed it. My main choice was of course between 8...exf4 and 8...Ng4.
After 8...exf4 I analyzed 9.Bxf4 Nc6 10.Qd2 Be7 11.0-0-0 and now the pressure
against d6 forces 11...Ne5 when White can play 12.Nd4. I wasn't totally
sure about this, it's all normal type of stuff but the 12.Nd4 is annoying.
So, why not put the other knight on e5, i.e. 8...Ng4 9.Bd2 exf4 10.Bxf4
and eventually ...Nge5. The drawback of course is eventually White
will play Nd5 and now there's no ...Nxd5, so how does that compare with
allowing Nd4 in the first line? This is what I thought about, and
it's a reasonable question which I answered reasonably. Perhaps White
has a slight edge in both cases. I completely missed the reason this
line just isn't played any more: 8...exf4 9.Bxf4 Nc6 10.Qd2 d5! Duh.
When I told Narcisco these variations blindfold he suggested 10...d5 without
even having a board. However, when I looked this up later in Gallagher
and Nunn's book, apparently 10...d5 is a relatively new invention.
This system used to be played a decent amount, and then 10...d5 was found,
and Gallagher finds it strange that it took people so long to find it.
I find it strange too... and yet I missed it too. I guess it's just
so rare to be able to play this move in this opening. At any rate,
what I played is fine, and in fact if Black needs to win then it might
even be better than this ...d5 line, which becomes pretty tame. |
| Actually probably more common is 9...Qb6 10.Qf3 and only then 10...exf4.
We're getting pretty far off beaten theory here... |
| This is logical but new, there was some game in my database with 12.0-0-0
leading to +=. |
| This took me a while to play, I had some trouble with the variation
12...Bxd5 13.exd5 Nce5 14.0-0-0, then I saw 14...Ng6. Also, I was
looking at ideas involving 12...Bh4+ 13.g3 Nc/ge5, and also just letting
things sit. I think 12...Bxd5 is best, maybe White has a slight edge
but my knights are good. |
| Again, this took me a while. I really wanted to try to trade
dark-squared bishops and I was concerned that if 14...0-0 then 15.h3 Nf6
and that will be ruled out. However, this variation is no big deal,
and my opponent wants to play more positionally. |
| Best, I think. I don't think White has any serious advantage
here, the knights are good. |
| I find myself going into a lot of positional sequences like the last
five moves, just building up... it's actually kind of artistic, I like
it. |
| Here I thought for a long time again. Yes, perhaps I should just
avoid complications, however with the opposite colored bishops perhaps
there will be drawing chances and Black has a chance to land the knockout
punch right here, which I did... but even that wasn't enough... |
| Not 23...Nxf1 24.Bxa8 Ng3+ 25.hxg3 Qh6+ 26.Qh4. I spend a long
time trying to make sure that after 23...Rad8 White doesn't have a move. |
| My opponent was banking on this, but there's a refutation. |
| I didn't ask my opponent what he missed in going into this, but I would
guess he was relying on 28.Rxe5 here, which loses to 28...Rxe5 29.Rxe5
Bxd4. It took me a while to find this, I didn't seriously consider
26.Nd4 until he played it and then I realized that I should have analyzed
that move before playing 22...Ne3, it's not clear at first. |
| Ugh. This would have been one of my best games, and I saw 29...Bd2
and White has to go for something bogus like 30.Nxf7, however I was a little
low on time (5 minutes or so here) and I saw all the way to the queen ending
after 29...Rxd8 and it's really forcing and I was sure it was winning.
Plus, I'd be able to actually work out the win, avoiding draws and all
that, after time control. Unfortunately, after 29...Rxd8 White can
draw. |
| This is the position I saw when playing 29...Rxd8. I just didn't
really appreciate White's next move. |
| This is a draw now, I think. |
| My opponent had time to think now, I wonder if actually 41.Qf1 doesn't
give winning chances. I would never lose that, though, just 41...Qd5.
He didn't even hesitate in taking the draw. |
|
|
