| The 2001 Michigan Master/Expert and Class Championships
tournament was held at the Grand Inn in Grand Rapids. 94 players
attended the event, which Jay Carr directed. If you are Expert or
above and didn’t play you missed out on this event - with only one Master
and three Experts finishing the top section, everyone was guaranteed a
trophy and a cash prize! There were some excellent games played and
I believe we all had a good time. Here’s the games with comments
by Bob Ciaffone or myself, and annotated by a whole staff of chessplayers.
J |
| Black loses this game because he posts a piece on
a square that provokes a pawn advance by White in an area of the board
where the Black king lives. While inducing the opponent to move a pawn
forward may give you a point to attack and some weak squares to occupy,
it also may give you a headache getting out of the way of the infantryman,
as happens here. |
| Jeff Aldrich (1900) |
|
| Randy Ho (1865) |
|
| Round 2 |
|
| [A41] Modern |
|
|
Notes by Bob Ciaffone
1.d4 d6 2.c4 e5
| This move of Black's looks like an error, because if White elects to
trade pawns and queens, Black loses the privilege of castling. But
the truth is that the black king is comfortable in the center after a queen-trade,
so the system is quite playable for the second player. |
| A main line and critical, but most players with White at the top level
prefer a less committal move like 3.Nf3. |
| There are positions where Black successfully makes this type of move,
letting his pawn structure be ruined but getting the bishop-pair and an
open file in return. This is not one of them. The open g-file
is not so potent in attacking the king with the queens off, and White's
fianchetto pawn triangle breaks pressure on the g-file. |
| A serious error, as the knight is a target on this square. |
| Ineffectual, because the white rook already supports the b-pawn. |
White to move and win
(Hint: This move loses a piece by allowing the White
b-pawn to gain a tempo reaching b6.)
22.b5 Nb4
| 22...Nc5 also loses, as after 23.b6+ the black king is forced to go
into a deadly pin by 23...Kd7, where 24.Rbd1 wins the bishop. (24...Ne4
25.Nxe4 fxe4 26.Rxd6+). |
|
| Robert Herndon (1817) |
|
| Laurence Estlick (1907) |
|
| Round 2 |
|
| [C01] French: Exchange Variation |
|
|
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Be2
Bd6 7.O-O Nbd7 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 c6 10.c3 Qc7 11.Bg3 O-O-O 12.Bxd6 Qxd6 13.Nbd2
Rde8 14.Re1 Re7 15.Qc2 Rhe8 16.Bf1 Ne4 17.Nxe4 dxe4 18.Nd2 f5 19.Re3 g5
20.Ree1 Bh5 21.Be2 Bg6 22.Qd1 e3 23.fxe3 Nb6 24.Nc4 Nxc4 25.Bxc4 Rxe3 26.Rxe3
Rxe3 27.Qd2 Qe7 28.Kf2 f4 29.Re1 Rxe1 30.Qxe1 Qxe1+ 31.Kxe1 Kd7 32.Kd2
Be4 33.g3 b5 34.Be2 fxg3 35.hxg3 Ke7 36.Bh5 Bd5 37.b3 Kf6 38.Kd3 Kf5 39.c4
Be4+ 40.Ke3 Bb1 41.cxb5 cxb5 42.a3 a5 43.b4 axb4 44.axb4 Ba2 45.Bf3 Bf7
46.Be2 h5 47.Bxb5 h4 48.gxh4 gxh4 49.Bd7+ Kf6 50.b5 Ke7 51.Bf5 Kd6 52.Be4
h3 53.b6 h2 54.b7 Kc7 55.Kf2 Bc4 56.Kg2 Ba6 57.Kxh2 Bxb7 ½-½. |
| Thomas Evans (1823) |
|
| Jeff Aldrich (1900) |
|
| Round 1 |
|
| [B12] Caro-Kann: Advance |
|
|
Notes by Bob Ciaffone
1.e4
| In this game, Black in an even position sacrifices the exchange.
But he gets only a pawn for it, has no attack, and eventually White is
able to mobilize his rook to great effect. |
| The Caro-Kann, a solid opening that has Karpov written all over it. |
| The Advance Variation, favored by attacking players like Shirov and
Short. |
| I do not know much about this line, but I do know that I would not
want to trade light-squared bishops like this if I were White. |
| An ugly move, and I do not understand the thought behind it either.
White moves his knight to the rim instead of developing a piece. |
| Black intends to put the e7 knight on c6. |
| Looks like the horse went over to the h-file to see what was happening
at an adjacent board, and then returned, achieving nothing. |
| I would prefer Be7 and 0-0, deciding later which rook to put on the
c-file. Make the moves that you know have to be made, and defer your
other decisions until more info is acquired. |
| I love bishops, but this does not get the bishop-pair, it gets rid
of White's passively posted piece for him, excusable only if the pawn it
defended can be successfully attacked. Here, Black has no pressure
on d4, so he should not trade. |
| And now Black will have approximate equality after 20...Qd7. |
| Black gets a pawn for the exchange, not enough, because he did not
create any targets. |
| Black wins another pawn, but his center now becomes weak. |
| The d-pawn had to move forward or be lost, but now the black center-pawns
and bishop are both on dark squares, weakening the light squares. |
| Dumps the lady, but Black was losing anyway. |
|
| Don DeFrayne (1678) |
|
| Jim Mellas (1610) |
|
| Round 1 |
|
| [C44] Ponziani: Jaenisch |
|
|
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 Nd5 6.Qb3 Nb6
7.cxd4 d6 8.Bb5 Bd7 9.O-O dxe5 10.Re1 Be7 11.Bxc6 Bxc6 12.Nxe5 Qd5 13.Qg3
O-O-O 14.Qh3+ Kb8 15.Nc3 Qxd4 16.Nxf7 Rhf8 17.Be3 Qd7 18.Nxd8 Qxd8 19.Rad1
Bd7 20.Qg3 Bd6 21.Rxd6 cxd6 22.Qxd6+ Ka8 23.Bxb6 axb6 24.Rd1 Rf7 25.Qa3+
Kb8 26.Nb5 Qe8 27.Qa7+ 1-0. |
| Laurence Estlick (1907) |
|
| Randy Ho (1865) |
|
| Round 3 |
|
| [B07] Pirc: Czech |
|
|
1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6 4.h3 e6 5.Be3 Be7 6.Bd3 e5 7.Nf3
exd4 8.Nxd4 O-O 9.Qd2 Re8 10.O-O-O b5 11.Nf5 Qa5 12.Nxe7+ Rxe7 13.Kb1 b4
14.Ne2 Be6 15.b3 c5 16.Nf4 Na6 17.Nxe6 fxe6 18.g4 Nc7 19.g5 Nxe4 20.Bxe4
Nb5 21.Qd3 Nc3+ 22.Kc1 d5 23.Bxh7+ Kh8 24.Kd2 d4 25.Bf4 Rf8 26.Qg3 Kxh7
27.Qh4+ Kg8 28.g6 Ne4+ 29.Ke1 Nf6 30.Bd6 Rfe8 31.Bxe7 Rxe7 32.Rg1 Qxa2
33.Rc1 Qb2 34.Qf4 e5 35.Qd2 Ne4 36.Qd1 d3 37.f3 d2+ 38.Ke2 0-1. |
| Stan Jarosz (2061) |
|
| A. M. Gregg (2162) |
|
| Round 1 |
|
| [D15] Slav: Two Knights |
|
|
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bf5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Qb3
Qb6 7.Qxb6 Nxb6 8.Bf4 e6 9.e4 Bg6 10.Ne5 N8d7 11.Nxg6 hxg6 12.Be2 Be7 13.O-O
Nf6 14.h3 O-O 15.a3 c5 16.dxc5 Bxc5 17.Rfd1 a6 18.Bd6 Bxd6 19.Rxd6 Nc8
20.Rd2 e5 21.f3 Ne7 22.Nd5 Nexd5 23.exd5 Rfd8 24.Rad1 Rd6 25.Bc4 Rc8 ½-½. |
| Ron Williams (2016) |
|
| Eric Fishvogt (2230) |
|
| Round 2 |
|
| [A26] English: Closed Sicilian |
|
|
Notes by Bob Ciaffone
1.c4
| In this game, White starts making aggressive moves too early.
Then he never backs off, trying to justify his previous play at every opportunity,
instead of removing his foot from the accelerator pedal. As a result,
he is totally busted inside of sixteen moves. |
| This is a very familiar position to me - but with colors reversed,
which is a Closed Sicilian. The position is balanced. |
| Why? Can't White castle before doing this? He is not going
to castle queenside or leave his king in the center, so he should make
the move he knows he is going to make, 7.0-0, and then decide the moment
to take aggressive action by crossing the meridian. |
| This is the standard way of punishing the knight for coming to d5 prematurely. |
| If White were a computer, I would attribute this error to the "horizon
effect," where an undesirable move is delayed until the computer can no
longer "see" it. But White is a man, and he should admit his
error by taking the knight on e7 and getting on with the game, not trying
to justify his first error with another. |
| White has gone out of his way by Bg5-e3 to provoke Black into playing
the useful move h6, mobilizing the black kingside. Punishment will arrive
soon. |
| By persisting over and over to try and justify his previous play, White
now forces Black to attack him. This whole game is like a boxer leading
with his chin, as if he has some clever way of inducing a mistake, but
the opponent simply pops him in the kisser and puts him on the canvas. |
| Another "attacking move," but it is the last one White will make in
this game. |
| Black gives White a chance to defend the pawn and protects his own
on b7. |
18.f3
| The cure is worse than the disease, because for the rest of the game
White is going to wish the kingside pawns were off the board, as they form
a tomb for his bishop and knight. The rest of the game requires no
comment, because when a master is the equivalent of two pieces ahead, even
Kasparov will lose to him. Oops, make that Kramnik; I forgot about
the World Championship match for a moment. |
|
| Ken Williams (1847) |
|
| Greg Bailey (1908) |
|
| Round 1 |
|
| [E81] King's Indian: Sämisch |
|
|
Notes by Bob Ciaffone
1.d4
| Be sure to play through this game and see the final combination and
game-ending position. Bailey had a lot of ways to win, and chose
the most artistic. |
| This is the Samisch Variation of the Kings Indian Defense, one of White's
better options. |
| Putting the knight on the rim like this looks like a beginner's error,
but is actually a decent placement for the Nb8 in many Kings Indian lines. |
| I would prefer to try and execute the thematic b5 by playing Nc7, a6,
Rb8, et cetera. |
| Black now has a more passive position on the queenside than he had
hoped for. |
| White's thematic move in this pawn structure. If Black takes
the pawn, White will win Black's c-pawn. |
| This is a real pawn sac now. |
| Forced, as otherwise the pawn c4 drops. (Black would lose now
by Nxc4 because Qc3 wins the knight by attacking the Nc4 and threatening
mate at h7 ). |
| Black continues to strengthen his position, as he reckons the pawn
c4 is doomed anyway. |
| We see that White got over-extended with his "attack," and now has
indefensible pawn weaknesses. |
Black "pins" the pawn...
33.dxc7
| But the pawn is not pinned, as RxQ?? loses to c8 (Q) with check. |
| But now the truth is apparent. Black sacrificed a piece to take
advantage of the White back-rank weakness. There is no escape for White.
For example, if 31.Qb3 to cover d1, Black has the death-blow Qb6 check,
and Kh8 runs into a smothered mate by Nf2, Nxh3 double-check, and Kh1 is
answered by Qg1+ followed by Nf2 mate. |
|
|
Continued on Part II
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