SCCA Magazine Spring 2016 | Page 8

Second Place
[ Ed – Tom Matheis couldn’ t provide his customary in-depth analysis in the time available due to heavy work commitments. I hope he’ ll send in a full annotation for a later edition. Meantime, you can still enjoy this fine win against a CC GM.]
White: Matheis, Tom( 2440) Black: Bubir, Alex( 2545) [ E58 ] EU / TC10 / sf2 Board 1, 2015 Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein [ E58 ]
1. d4
Nf6
2. c4
e6
3. Nc3
Bb4
4. e3
0 – 0
5. Bd3
d5
6. Nf3
c5
7.0 – 0
Nc6
8. a3
Bxc3
9. bxc3
Qc7
10. cxd5
exd5
11. a4
Re8
12. Ba3
c4
13. Bc2
Bg4
14. Qe1
Bxf3
15. gxf3
Na5
16. Kh1
Nb3
17. Ra2
g6
32. f4
Qxd4
33. Rf3
Ng5
34. Qxg5
Nd2
35. Rh3
Ne4
36. Bxe4
Qxe4 +
37. Qg2
Qf5
38. Rg3
Rxe7
39. Qxd5
Re6
40. Qxb7
Re8
1 – 0
First Place The R. J. Burridge Trophy 2015
White: Bennett, Peter( 2319) Black: Struzka, Vlastimil( 2215) VWC7 – 29, 2015 Ruy Lopez, Chigorin Defence [ C96 ] [ Notes by Peter Bennett ]
I was pleasantly surprised that this game won the 2015“ Best Games Prize”. If any readers are interested enough to play it through, may I make a suggestion? Don ' t examine it with a computer engine, but get out a chess set and play it through OTB, imagining that it was being played at a congress. This way, my annotations will make better sense. Begin by skipping through the first 12 moves which are just standard theory.
15. Nc3 b4 16. Ne2 a5 17. Ng3 Nfd7 18. Bd3 Nc5 19. Bb5 Ba6 20. Bxa6 Nxa6 21. b3 Rc8 By this stage, I realised that Black was merely playing for a draw. Fixing the pawn structure in the centre and also on the queen side leaves White only kingside attacking options with his pawns; but Black achieves this formation at the cost of a critical strategic weakness: the pawn on a5. If White can eventually establish a knight on c4, Black will either lose the a-pawn or waste a piece on its passive defence. This is one of two key themes from which White ' s advantage eventually materialises. 22. Be3 g6 23. Rc1 Nd7 24. Rxc8 Qxc8 25. Nd2 Nac5 26. Qg4
18. f4N
a5
19. f3
Nh5
20. f5
Ra6
21. e4
Qf4
22. e5
Ng7
23. f6
Ne6
24. Bb1
Nc7
25. Be7
Re6
26. Rg2
R6xe7
27. fxe7
Ne6
28. Rg4
Qd2
29. Qh4
Qe2
30. Rf2
Qe1 +
31. Rg1
Qxc3
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5.0 – 0 d6 6. c3 Be7 7. Re1 b5 8. Bb3 0 – 0 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 cxd4 12. cxd4 Bb7 13. d5 I chose 13. d5 instead of 13. Nbd2 because it locks the centre. My dilemma was, how to give myself a chance of a win against a solid, careful, 2200 + Eastern European opponent who was using a strong engine? My experience of keeping the game open with a fluid centre in the Ruy Lopez is that Black can often chart a pathway to endgame equality. 13... Nc4 14. a4 Nb6
Fixing the g-pawn and therefore inhibiting f5, the second critical theme of the game. As any GM could see at a glance, the only way for Black to achieve true equality with this kind of pawn formation is to prepare and then play the freeing move f5, to undermine White ' s strong centre. Now, it is probably already too late to do this; indeed, the move is never played. 26... Nf6 27. Nf5 A little tactical skirmish which now adds to Black ' s problems. 27... Qc7 28. Nxe7 + Qxe7 29. Qf3 Nfd7 30. Bh6 Re8 31. Nc4 Creating precisely the threat that White had been planning 10 moves earlier!
SCCA Magazine 133 7 Spring 2016