The following is my most interesting game from the 2000 Arkansas championship, held in Fayatteville September 8-10 (the time control for all games was G/90).
Deputy, L. (1800) - Kamberi, S. (2374)
Arkansas Championship (5), September 10, 2000
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f3 O-O 6 Be3 Nc6
This, the Panno variation, has always been my choice against the Saemisch King's Indian. In general, the Panno has served me very well over the years.
7 d5 !?
In his new book, The Art of the King's Indian, Gufeld boldly states, "Of course, White is not going to yield to this provocation." Apparently, he was not familiar with the games of Deputy!
7...Ne5 8 h3
Even though this is a logical move, it is still fairly obscure. It is not even mentioned in Watson's thorough 1982 monograph on the 6...Nc6 Saemisch. The idea is to expand in the center, and also to force Black's knight back to a poor square. I discussed it with the Michigan master V. Rajlich who I used to train with, and he concluded that it was "really weak." Personally, I think that's a bit harsh. While 8 h3 shouldn't lead to any advantage for White, I don't think it's a bad move either.
8...e6
I didn't think too much about this move, thinking it was obvious, but apparently it was a novelty! Previous games have focused on Rajlich's recommendation 8...Nh5!? with Black invariably winning quickly after something like 9 f4? Ng3 10 fe NXh1 when the knight on h1 will escape. But things are not so clear after the better move for White 9 Bf2!. When I showed this move to Rajlich he was unimpressed claiming White was virtually lost after 9...f5 on account of White's difficulties in development. At first, I was convinced by this assesement, but after further analysis I would have to asses the situation as unclear. For example, 10 ef (White should aerate the enemy king as much as possible) gf 11 g4! (after the weaker 11 Qd2?! f4! Black can follow up with ...Bf5 with excellent development while White has no chances for kingside attack. Surely Black would be better here as wherever White castled his king would be in trouble. If White went queenside he would be exposed to the fire of the bishops on f5 and g7 and would also have to contend with ideas like ...a6 and ...b5 or ...c6 and ...Rc8. And if White went kingside Black would play ...e6 and ...Qh4 when the h3 pawn would be a major weakenss in White's castled formation. After the stronger 11 g4! the Black bishop can no longer get to f5 and White has much better chances to open lines on the kingside.) Nf4 12 Qd2 Neg6 (12...fg? 13 hg is not to be recommended for Black since opening the h-file is very dangerous. In the short term Black would have to contend with ideas like 14 Be3 and 15 Qh2 and even after Black successfully parried this idea the file would still be a major source of annoyance in the long term.) 13 Nge2 e5 and we reach a messy, unclear position. White will eventually castle queenside and then both sides will set in motion a slow simmering attack against the enemy king, but determining whose attacking chances are more substantial would require some practical tests.
9 f4 Ned7 10 Nf3 ?!
After this move, Black gets the advantage, so let me suggest instead 10 Bd3 ed 11 cd Re8 12 Qf3 when the e4-square is better protected than it was in the game. In that line, White should be able to hold the balance.
10...ed 11 cd Re8 12 Bd3 Nb6
I played this because I was worried that the complications after the move 12...NXe4! would rebound against me. 12...NXe4!, would have been, however, somewhat stronger than my choice (which is not at all bad, of course). What worried me about 12...NXe4! was the line 13 NXe4 (13 BXe4! BXc3+ 14 bc RXe4 15 Kf2 Nf6 followed by ...c6 leaves Black better as well but is probably White's best practical chance since the elimination of Black's dark-squared bishop might give White some attacking chances for the pawn down the line.) f5 14 Neg5 (14 Nfg5 fe 15 Ne6 Qe7 16 Bb5 was another tricky line. In the post mortem, we concluded that this could be refuted by 16...c6?, but then 17 NXg7 is very good for White. Therefore, I would have had to bite the bullet with 16...BXb2 17 NXc7 Bc3+ 18 Kf1 BXa1 19 QXa1 a6 20 NXa8 ab 21 Nc7 Rf8 when Black is better due to the insecurity of the White king. Here is one sample line which could well occur: 22 Ne6 Rf5 23 Qc1 Nc5 24 NXc5 dc 25 BXc5 Qc7 26 Be3 QXc1+ 27 BXc1 RXd5 and in this pawn-down opposite-colored bishop ending White would have a hard struggle to draw since Black's forces are very active.) RXe3+ 15 Kf2 Re8 16 Ne6, but apparently here I could have played RXe6! 17 de Nc5. Then Black would have more than enough for the exchange because he would get two extra pawns, his bishops on e6 and g7 would exert annoying pressure on White's queenside and Black would have the plan of ...d5 and ...Ne4 plunking the knight down on a super square.
13 g4 ?
Overlooking a fairly obvious tactical point. 13 Qd2 was much better as Deputy correctly pointed out after the game. Then Black should play the positionally indicated 13...c6. After 14 dc bc 15 O-O-O, Deputy stated "It's all over," thinking that White could just push his pawns forward on the kingside with an easily won game. Of course, this assessement is rather silly-after 15...Rb8 16 g4 d5 17 e5 Nfd7 a very sharp, unclear game is in prospect, with White having advantage on the kingside and Black being better in the center and on the queenside. Frankly, I think I would even prefer Black here as White's attack looks like it will need a few moves to pick up steam while Black's play in the center comes pretty fast, e.g. 18 Be2 Bb7 followed by ...c5. In fact, I would prefer 15 O-O to Deputy's suggestion-the White king would be much safer on the kingside.
13...NbXd5 14 Qd2 ?
Now this move loses another pawn. 14 ed had to be played, for better or worse, but after RXe3+ 15 Kf2 Re8 White obviously doesn't have enough compensation.
14...NXc3 15 bc NXe4 16 BXe4 RXe4 17 Ng5
White's only chance is a counterattack against the f7-square.
17...Re8 18 O-O h6 19 Nf3 Bd7 20 f5
This is a good try, but ultimately insufficient.
20...gf 21 BXh6 fg 22 BXg7 KXg7 23 Ng5 f6 24 Qd5
I completely missed this move, but fortunately for me it is not sufficient to save the game for White.
24...Qe7
24...Re7? would have been bad because of 25 RXf6! KXf6 26 Rf1+ Kg6 27 Nf7 with a dangerous attack.
25 Rae1 Qf8 26 Re6 ?
If he wanted this, I don't know why he didn't just play 26 Ne6+ which I was of course busy calculating while he was thinking. Perhaps he just wanted to make my head spin.
26...BXe6 ?
A hastily played move-I played it quickly because I intuitively felt I needed to simplify and wanted to transpose to the 26 Ne6+ line I had been calculating. The killer move 26...Qg8!, however, was even stronger-you should always think before you move! After 27 RfXf6 RXe6! would have finished matters (but not 27...BXe6? 28 Qd4!).
27 NXe6+ RXe6 28 QXe6 Qf7 29 Qf5 Qg6 30 Qd7+ Kh8 31 hg Rg8 32 Kf2
White's attack is all burnt out and now Black finally gets to open fire with his heavy artillery. But 32 Rf4 also allows Black to decisively invade with 32...Qb1+ 33 Kg2 QXa2+.
32...Qc2+ 33 Ke1 QXc3+ 34 Kf2 Qd4+ 35 Ke1 Qe4+ 36 Kf2 Re8
White resigned.
Of course, the position is hopeless, but I would have played another move to make Black show me!
In the fourth round, L. Umbarger played an interesting idea against me in a fairly rare line in the Schlechter Slav. Although the game was spoiled by Black's serious blunder on move 19, I think it is worthwhile to look at just because of the interest of the opening.
Kamberi, S. (2374) - Umbarger, L. (1839)
Arkansas Championship (4), September 9 , 2000
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 d5 4 e3 g6 5 d4 Bg7 6 Bd3 O-O 7 O-O Re8
From some of his comments in the post-mortem, I gathered that this move was Umbarger's specialty. Of course, it is not nearly as common as the main moves 7...dc and 7...Bg4, but nevertheless it has been played in several previous games.
8 b3
This seemed the most logical to me, but in practice the continuation 8 h3 is slightly more usual. This blocks Black's access to the g4 square. The best known game in this line is Ivkov-Rossolimo, Novi Sad 1972 which continued 8...Nbd7 9 cd cd 10 Qb3 e5 11 de NXe5 12 Be2 followed by Rd1 with a slight pull for White due to the pressure on the isolated pawn.
8...Nbd7
8...Bg4 would also have been interesting, taking advantage of my failure to play h3.
9 Bb2
The funny thing is that when I played this move I saw everything through move 15, and I was worried that that position might be equal, but I talked myself into playing 9 Bb2 anyways because:
(1)It's the most natural move in the position
(2)I thought that I might get the advantage due to my control of the d-file in the position after move 15, and
(3)I didn't think he would have the nerve to play 9...e5 and put his rook in the line of fire of my bishop!
Nevertheless, Umbarger's next does seem to equalize, so I probably should have played 9 cd here, so that he could not play ...e5 without getting an isolated pawn. After 9...cd 10 Bb2, Umbarger suggested 10...e5 anyways, with the idea of the pawn sac 11 de Ng4 (taking advantage of my failure to play h3) 12 NXd5 NdXe5. White's best then seems to be 13 NXe5 QXd5 14 NXg4 BXb2 15 Rb1 Bg7 16 e4 Qa5 17 a4 Be6 18 Ne3, after which Black doesn't have full compensation for a pawn in my opinion (although I get the feeling Umbarger would disagree with that assessement!).
9...e5 !?
This is Umbarger's interesting novelty which seems to equalize for Black. The most recent game to reach this position, Markos-Kjartansson, Hungary 2000, had continued instead 9...dc 10 BXc4 b5 11 Be2 Bb7 12 Ne5 a6 13 a4 NXe5 14 de Nd7 15 f4 f6 16 Ne4 fe 17 Bg4 Nf8 18 Nc5 Qb6 19 Qc2 Rad8 20 a5 Qc7 21 Be6+ Kh8 22 Bf7, and Black resigned.
10 de NXe5 11 NXe5 RXe5 12 NXd5 NXd5 13 BXe5 BXe5 14 cd BXa1 15 QXa1 QXd5
This is the position which I had hoped would be in my favor, but now that I got here I realized that it would be very hard to exploit my control of the d-file as there are no penetration points. In my opinion, Black should be equal in this position provided he plays the next few moves with a minimum of caution.
16 Rd1
I wanted to play this instead of Bc4 since I knew I wanted the rook here but I wasn't so sure where I wanted the bishop.
16...Qg5 17 Be2
17 Bc4 Bh3 would force my bishop back to the silly square f1.
17...Bh3 18 Bf3 Re8 19 Qd4 c5 ??
This unleashes the full power of the bishop on f3 and exposes many Black pawns to attack. Instead, the simple 19...a6 was correct, and if 20 Qb6 Bc8, and it's hard to believe that White has an edge worth speaking of.
20 Qd5
This goes into an ending a pawn up. After the game I realized that 20 Qa4! was even stronger, since the double attack on a7 and e8 not only snips a pawn but also subsequently leaves Black with a flock of weak queenside pawns which will be ripe for harvesting. The only slight disadvantage of 20 Qa4! was that the queens would have remained on the board, increasing Black's chances for a cheapo.
20...QXd5 21 RXd5 Be6 22 RXc5 Rd8 23 h3 Rd2 ??
Losing a second pawn, and thus greatly simplifying my technical task. He must have just overlooked my next move. 23...Rd7 was of course correct.
24 Ra5! a6 ??
Black says adios to a third pawn, and now White's task is totally trivial. Slightly tougher would have been 24...b5 25 RXa7 b4, although even then I think the win would have been fairly easy.
25 BXb7
The rest requires no comment. The remaining moves were:
25...Rd1+ 26 Kh2 h5 27 h4 Rd2 28 Kg3 Rd7 29 BXa6 Ra7 30 b4 Kf8 31 b5 Bc4 32 Ra4 Be2 33 Rb4 Ra8 34 Rb2 Bd3 35 Rd2 Bf1 36 a4 Ke7 37 Rd4 Rd8 38 RXd8 KXd8 39 Bb7 Kc7 40 Bd5 f6 41 f3 g5 42 f4 gh+ 43 KXh4 Be2 44 Bf3 Bc4 45 KXh5 Bf7+ 46 Kh6 Kb6 47 Kg7 Bb3 48 KXf6 BXa4 49 Be2 Bc2 50 g4 Be4 51 g5
Black resigned.
In the last round, I was unable to obtain any advantage out of the opening and an equal ending was soon reached. Objectively, I should have just conceded the draw, but needing a win to win the tournament outright and my opponent being more than 600 points lower rated than me, I decided to take some risks and was rewarded.
Kamberi, S. (2374) - Gibbs, T. (1723)
Arkansas Championship (6), September 10, 2000
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 d4 O-O 6 Be2 c5
The same move played against me the weekend before in Stillwater. In this game, however, Black plays more logically.
7 O-O e6 !?
This move's strange appearance no doubt explains its rarity. Black shuts off his own bishop, but the idea is nevertheless quite interesting. After 8 d5 White would have been tricked into a main line of the Benoni that many players (including myself) have no interest in playing. But if White quietly maintains the tension in the center with h3 and Be3, then Black can reach a perfectly satisfactory Sicilian type position, e.g. 8 h3 b6 9 Be3 cd 10 NXd4 Bb7 and White experiences some discomfort over the protection of his e-pawn. 11 f3 is undesirable because f3 and h3 don't mix well, and after 11 Qc2 White's pieces would be somewhat misplaced for Sicilian play, allowing Black an easy equality. Therefore I played...
8 dXc5
I thought that my lead in development in this ending would be promising, but as it turns out this leads to no more than equal chances. Black easily catches up in development and then White is annoyed by the fact that Black can try to occupy the d4-square and that his e-pawn is a target.
8...dXc5 9 QXd8 RXd8 10 Be3 b6 11 Rad1 RXd1 12 RXd1 Nc6 13 h3 Bb7 14 e5 Ne8 15 Bf4 Rd8 16 RXd8 NXd8 17 Nd2
My bishop felt pathetic, so I wanted to transfer it to a post where it would have a little more activity.
17...Nc6 18 Bf3 Nc7
This knight is going to maneuver ...Nc7-a6-b8-d7 to increase pressure on the e5-pawn, but he must be careful about Nc3-b5 as his a-pawn might get in trouble.
19 Kf1
Activating the king is of course the most important order of business.
19...Na5
19...Na6 20 Nb5 clips the pawn on a7.
20 BXb7 NXb7 21 Ke2 Na5
Heading for c6 to pressure e5.
22 Kd3 Nc6 23 Nf3 Na6 24 a3
I didn't want to have to worry about a knight journeying to b4.
24...Nab8 25 Nb5 Nd7 26 Ke4 Na5 27 Kd3 Nc6 28 Ke4 Na5
Black wants to force a repetition which I should have agreed to since attempts to play for more are more likely to benefit Black than White. Still, with my opponent rated so much lower I couldn't bear the thought of a draw and decided to play a risky looking line and hope for the best!
29 Nd6 ? Bf8 30 b4
Of course, this was the whole point behind 29 Nd6?. It was too late to back out with 30 Nd2 because of 30...BXd6 31 ed f5+ followed by ...e5, ...Kf7, and ...Ke6 when Black wins a pawn. Likewise, after 30 Kd3 BXd6 31 ed f6, the d6-pawn would eventually be gobbled up.
30...BXd6 ?
With this move my whole strategy becomes justified! If Black had made the c5 square available to his bishop with the stronger 30...cb!, he would have acquired excellent winning chances after 31 ab BXd6 32 ba Bc5 33 ab NXb6.
31 ba Bc7 32 ab ab 33 Kd3
Now it turns out that the ending offers White the better chances due to the possibility of White's king penetrating into the queenside.
33...Kg7 ?
This is another serious error on Black's part. Black plans to play ...h6, ...g5, and ...Kg6, but this plan is easily stopped. I've done alot of analysis of this position and tried to hold Black's position by passive play, but I never really found any way to do that. The only Black plan that I think makes it hard for White to win is to take advantage of the pin along the h2-b8 diagnol by 33...f6!. In that case, there would be some drawing chances for Black, although after 34 Kc3! intending to penetrate with the king into the queenside White would have quite good winning chances despite the loss of a pawn on account of his more active king and minor pieces.
34 Kc3 h6 35 h4 !
Now the Black king cannot get to g6 unless Black decides to trade his g-pawn for my e-pawn. But after he does that he is totally lost because I can pick off his b-pawn with no worries whatsoever.
35...g5 36 hg hg 37 BXg5 NXe5
37...BXe5+ 38 NXe5 NXe5 39 Bd8 Nd7 40 Kb3 also allows White to win without any difficulty. 37...Kg6 doesn't save Black either, e.g. 38 Be7! Kf5 39 Kb3 NXe5 (39...Ke4 40 Ng5+ Kd3 41 Bd6 ++--) 40 NXe5 KXe5 41 Ka4 Kd4 42 Kb5 f5 43 a4 f4 44 Kc6 Be5 45 KXb6 KXc4 46 a5, etc.
38 NXe5 BXe5+ 39 Kb3 Bf6
This is a lost pawn ending, but there was no hope in any case. 39...f6 for example, loses after 40 Bd2 Bd4 41 f3 e5 42 Ka4 f5 43 Kb5 e4 44 fe fe 45 KXb6 e3 46 Be1.
40 BXf6+ KXf6 41 Ka4 Ke5 42 Kb5 Kd4 43 a4 f5 44 KXb6 KXc4 45 a5
Black resigned.
With that win, I captured clear first place with 5.5 points out of 6. Of course, it would not be fair for me to only show the games that I won, so here is the game that I drew. This is one of those maddening games that makes me think about adding the Sicilian to my repertoire. Paired against a much lower rated opponent, I quickly got an easy game out of the opening as Black. After my opponent's thirteenth move, I saw the proper plan for Black, but as I started to analyze the correct 13...f6, I concluded that by a pawn sacrifice he could reach a drawish position. Therefore, I decided to play a different plan which turned out to be weak. After a further tactical slip on my part, he should have won the game, but he overlooked the winning combination and the game fizzled out to a draw. A lucky escape for me!
Holyfield, R. (1973) - Kamberi, S. (2374)
Arkansas Championship (3), September 9, 2000
1 e4 e5 2 d4 ed 3 Nf3
Several theoreticians have recommended this as a good move order for players who want to reach the White side of the Scotch gambit (normally reached via the move order 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 ed 4 Bc4). The idea is that this move order allows White to avoid certain lines in the Petroff (namely 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 d4 NXe4), and it also steers clear of assorted rubbish such as the Hanham variation of the Philidor defense (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 Nd7), the Latvian counter-gambit (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 f5), and the Elephant counter-gambit (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 d5). I must admit, however, that why anyone would want to avoid those last three possibilities is beyond me!
3...Nc6
Naturally, I had a very wide choice here. Depending on which opening I wanted to transpose into, I could have also played any of the following:
(A)3...Nf6 which would have tranposed into the 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 d4 ed variation of the Petroff defense. I know the Petroff very well, but almost all my Petroff experience is in the 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 d4 NXe4 line, so I decided against playing 3...Nf6.
(B)3...Bc5 might transpose into the Scotch after 4 NXd4 Nc6, a line which I am quite familiar with, but White could have also played the gambit 4 c3!?. Probably not too fearsome, but I knew nothing about it so I decided to steer clear.
(C)3...c5!? is an interesting line for Black here. The idea is that after ECO C's recommendation, 4 c3, Black can play 4...Nc6 tranposing into Filipenko's line against the c3 Sicilian, 1 e4 c5 2 c3 e5 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 d4 ed, which Silman recommends as leading to an easy game for Black. I used to play this way as Black in some blitz games a few years ago, but I was afraid that so much time had passed since then that I would not be able to remember the theory.
(D)Finally there is the materialistic 3...Bb4+, with the idea of entering the complications of the Goring Gambit accepted after 4 c3 dc 5 NXc3 d6 6 Bc4 Nc6. In theory, I don't think the Goring gambit is at all a bad one for Black to accept, but the fact was that I don't normally accept it if White plays 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 ed 4 c3 against me, and I wasn't familiar with any of the theory of the gambit. Add that to the fact that pawn-grabbing in the opening is something that I am strongly opposed to philosophically, and it is easy to understand why I didn't choose this course.
In summary then, I had a very wide choice here but I decided to play the simple 3...Nc6 since out of all the choices it led to the position I was most familiar with.
4 Bc4 Nf6
My usual practice against the Scotch gambit is to transpose to the 4 d4 line of the Two Knights defense, which is considered fully satisfactory for Black theoretically. Nevertheless, next time I will give strong consideration to playing Morphy's excellent move, 4...Bc5, with the following possibilities:
(A)5 Ng5 Nh6 6 NXf7 NXf7 7 BXf7+ KXf7 8 Qh5+ g6 9 QXc5 d5! (Black usually plays 9...d6 which is about equal. 9...d5!, a move attributed to Cochrane and Schumoff, allows Black to get the better of it.) 10 O-O! (Black's initiative is quite dangerous after either 10 QXd5+ QXd5 11 ed Re8+ followed by 12...Nb4 or 10 ed Re8+ 11 Kf1 Re5. In this latter variation, White dare not try to hold the pawn with 12 c4? for after 12...Qh4 with the threats of ...Qe4 and ...Bg4 followed by ...Rae8 Black's attack would be decisive.) de 11 c3 Re8 12 cd QXd4 13 QXd4 NXd4 14 Nc3 Bf5. Black has some targets so White definitely has a certain amount of positional compensation for the pawn, but it shouldn't be enough.
(B)5 O-O d6 6 c3 Bg4 7 Qb3 BXf3 8 BXf7+ Kf8 and now White can go wrong with 9 BXg8?! RXg8 10 gf when 10...g5! gives Black the better of it due to his very strong attack, e.g. 11 Qe6 Rg6 12 Qf5+ Kg7 13 Kh1 Qe7 14 b4 Rf8 15 Qg4 Ne5 16 Qg2 Bb6 17 Bb2 NXf3 18 cd Rh6 19 d5+ Kg8 20 h3 Qd7, 0-1, Schumoff-Schiffers, St. Petersburg 1872. The 19th century masters eventually discovered that White should not exchange on g8 and give Black counterplay on the g-file unless absolutely necessary. Therefore, 9 gf is correct and now Black can play any of 9...Ne5 10 cd BXd4 11 f4 (Charousek-Maroczy, Budapest 1895) or Steinitz's move 9...Nf6 or Fritz's suggestion of 9...dc!? 10 BXg8 (of course not 10 NXc3?? Nd4 and Black wins after 11 Qc4 NXf3+ and 12...Ne5) RXg8 11 NXc3 Nd4 12 Qd1 (not 12 QXb7? Rb8 13 Qd5 Qh4 14 Kg2 g5 15 Be3 g4 16 BXd4 Rg5! and Black has a winning attack as on 17 Qc4 there comes 17...Qh3+ 18 Kh1 Rh5 19 Be5 de 20 QXc5+ Kg8 when the checks will soon run out for White). In each case, there would be a lively game with about equal chances.
(C)5 c3 Nf6 transposes to a line of the Guioco Piano where it is well known that White has little hope for more than equality. In fact, I have won many games as Black in that line of the Guioco Piano, and I have never lost.
5 e5
My opponent was apparently very familiar with the videotape "New White Secrets In the Two Knights Defense" where GM Dzindzihaschvili recommends this move.
5...d5
When I was in Michigan, Michigan's strongest player, IM Ben Finegold once used 5...Ne4 to defeat me in a Metro League match. Because of my experience in that game, I know that the strong Correspondence player T. Harding's recommendation of 6 O-O d5 7 ed NXd6 8 Bd5 Nf5 9 Re1+ Be7 10 BXc6+ bc 11 g4 is not so good because of 11...Nh6! when Black has no particular problems. Nevertheless, to play 5...Ne4 with confidence you also have to be well prepared to meet the continuations 6 Bd5 and 6 Qe2, and I knew nothing about those moves, so I decided to stick with the tried and tested 5...d5.
6 Bb5 Ne4 7 NXd4 Bd7 8 BXc6 bc 9 O-O Bc5 10 Nc3 ?!
Surely this move is not Dzindzihaschvili's recommendation?! The move seems inaccurate to me, even though it has been played by a few fairly good players (most notably the Greek GM Kotronias). If White wants to play Nb1-c3, he normally throws in 10 f3 Ng5 11 f4 Ne4 and only then 12 Nc3 when he has solidified his e-pawn in the center for free.
10...NXc3 11 bc O-O 12 Be3
Threatening 13 NXc6!.
12...Bb6
This is a novelty apparently, but we were already in relatively unexplored territory anyways. 12...Qe7 is the known move, but after 13 Re1 the e-pawn is not really attacked and it is not really clear that Black is helped by having the queen on e7. I felt that there might be various tactics against my bishop if I left it on c5, so I decided to make it safe once and for all.
13 f4 Qh4 ?
This move is weak in my opinion, and gives White a small advantage. Not only does the queen do nothing on h4, but it is also a target for White's pieces. Simply the standard idea of ...f6 in these types of positions was much better. The reason I didn't play 13...f6 is because of the line 14 e6!? BXd4 15 cd when I thought that the opposite colored bishops and poor Black pawn structure would make it easy for White to draw, despite his pawn minus. This situation is an excellent one for demonstrating some of the problems 1...e5 players face when playing lower rated opponents. 1...e5 is not the opening move best suited to playing sharply for a win. Many of its lines require Black to either accept a drawish equal position or else concede White a slight advantage. In the Sicilian defense, on the other hand, Black can nearly always play for a win without making any theoretically inferior moves. By the way, I should just mention that if White tries to maintain his pawn on e5 after 13...f6 Black gets excellent chances, e.g. 14 Re1 (14 Qh5? is weak because of 14...Qe8 and the White e-pawn comes under pressure) fe 15 fe Qe8 16 Bf2 Bf5 followed by ...Be4 and Black is better.
14 Qd3
White connects his rooks so he can place them effectively, and he also eyes the f5-square for a possible knight invasion.
14...Rfe8
14...f6 15 e6 would have been good for White since the pawn on d7 would have disrupted the coordination of my remaining pieces. Therefore, I prepare it.
15 Rf3 f6 16 Bf2
Of course, White needs to clear a path to protect his e-pawn with the rook. Here already we see the drawbacks of having the queen on h4, as White is able to accomplish his aim with gain of tempo.
16...Qh6 17 Re1 fe 18 fe Re7
Black now threatens to increase the pressure on the e-pawn by doubling rooks, so White plays to sacrifice it in order to open lines for his pieces, which are more actively placed for the time being. Of course, the "pawn sacrifice" does not really entail any real risk with the opposite colored bishops and the greater White activity, and White should retain some edge.
19 e6 BXd4 20 BXd4 RXe6
20...BXe6 was also playable, as after 21 Rh3 Qg6 (21...BXh3? 22 RXe7 Qc1+ 23 Qf1 QXf1+ 24 KXf1 and White with the twin threats of RXg7+ and gh stands better) 22 Rhe3 QXd3 23 cd Kf7 White can of course recover the pawn with some move such as 24 BXg7, but his better pawn structure would only give him a small edge in the ending due to the opposite colored bishops.
21 Ref1 Qg6 ??
A horrible blunder which should have lost on the spot. 21 ...Re7! offered good chances of holding on against White's combined blitz on the f-file and dark squares.
22 Bc5 ??
Threatening mate in two, but fortunately this transparent threat can be defended against. 22 Rg3! instead would have splattered me as after the forced 22...QXd3 there would have come the murderous intermezzo 23 RXg7+!.
22...Ree8 23 QXg6 hg 24 Rf7 Bf5
Now the opposite colored bishops allowed me to reach the draw fairly easily by temporarily sacrificing a pawn after:
25 RXc7 Rec8 26 Rb7 Rcb8 27 Rfb1 RXb7 28 RXb7 BXc2 29 Bd4 a5 30 RXg7+ Kf8 31 Rc7 Re8 32 RXc6 Re2 33 Rf6+ Ke7 34 a3 Be4 35 Rf2 Re1+ 36 Rf1 Re2 37 Rf2 Re1+ 38 Rf1
Game drawn by mutual agreement.