I'm on 3/4, drew an interesting game i might post when i'm off the expensive hostel internet against a 2250 in round 3, then beat another 2250 with black after completely overlooking a strong move, then making only moves for some time and ending up in a position where he controls the d-file, has Q+R+B vs my Q+R+N, he has a queenside majority, threatens mate in 1 and is probably lost After that dawned on him, he completely broke down, turned down 2 defensible pawn-down endgames and lost by taking a protected pawn with his queen some moves later.

Looks like he underestimated you. Well deserved for him, as it's irresponsible to spend so little time for such sharp moves, even if you play a "donkey" or whatever he might have thought...

That's one of my favourite tournament strategies. Usually a chess tournament is supposed to be fun as well, isn't it (-:


That's why I called it a cheapo opening.

well done both noir_desir live board gogogo

vn sir , keep up the good work, you are making the chess forum proud!

We went to the Naturhistorisches Museum in the morning. In the afternoon, I had to play a 2205 rated genteman from Slovakia.

D., I. - Ajezz
Vienna Open (5), 19.8.

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. e3 Bg4 5. cxd5 cxd5?

Unbelievably, I make the first mistake after five moves. It was the first tgime I played Bg4, and I KNEW I had to take on f3 first, but my fingers were faster than my brain. I was cursing myself for the first half of the game...

6. Qb3 Qb6 7. Bb5+ Bd7 8. Nc3 e6 9. Ne5



9...a6 10. Nxd7 Nfxd7 11. Ba4 Qxb3 12. Bxb3 Nc6 13. Bd2 Bd6

Somehow I managed to get an okay position out of the opening. He has the bishop pair, however, and some ideas to open up the position with a4 or e4.

14. Rc1 O-O

I did not really want to move the king away from the center, but after Ke7 I did not like that he is in reach of White's knight, e.g. Na5 Nxd5!

15. Ke2 Rfc8 16. Bc2 Nb6 17. Na4 Nxa4 18. Bxa4 b5 19. Bc2



I am not so sure about Kf8, maybe the right play is to double the rooks immediately.

19... Kf8 20. Bb1 Rc7 21. h4 g6

And here stopping the pawn with 21... h5 is probably way better.

22. h5 Kg7 23. hxg6 hxg6 24. Rh3 Rh8 25. Rxh8 Kxh8 26. Bd3 Nb8

I was afraid of a4 so I played this passive move. But there was no need for that, because after e.g. 26... Kg7 27. a4 bxa4 28. Bxa6 I can just play 28...a3! which I did not see during the game.

27. Rh1+ Kg7 28. f3 Nc6 29. Rc1 Nb8

Again...

30. Rxc7 Bxc7 31. Kd1



My pieces are placed passively but I should be able to hold the position, I think. During the next few moves I ruin it.

31... Kf8 32. Kc2 Ke7 33. a3 Kd7 34. b3 Bd6 35. a4 b4 36. e4 a5 37. Bb5+ Ke7 38. e5 Bc7 39. Bg5+ Kf8 40. Bf6



Just compare the two diagrams. a5 was probably just a stupid idea, giving him the b5-square; and Ke7 ist just catastrophic. Now I am effectively stalemated; I just can repeat moves and hope that I have a fortress that he can't breach. I have no idea if it is a fortress, but probably not. He can go with his king to g6 or h7 and give check and move in.

40... Bb6 41. Kd3 Bc7 42. Ke3 Bb6 43. g4 Bc7 44. f4 Bb6 45. Bh4 Bc7 46. f5 gxf5 47. gxf5 Bb6 48. Kf4

My problem is that Bxd4 doesn't work here or later.

48... Bc7 49. Kg5 Bb6 50. fxe6 fxe6 51. Kg6 Bc7 52. Bf2 Bd8?

52... Ke7 53. Kg7 Nd7 is probably still a draw, my opponent said after the game. I can't really believe that but I am too tired to analyse it.

53. Be3 Be7 54. Bh6+ Kg8 55. Be8 1-0

So this was definitely a game that I would like to forget very quickly. I played horribly and lost very deservedly. Sorry for the lack of variations or good comments in this game, but I did not know what was going on during the game, and I don't know it now. I'll try to play better tomorrow.

On the plus side, I am still on 50 per cent after round 5 with which I would have been very happy if someone had told me that before the tournament. Even better, NoirDesir beat a 2269 today and is now on 4/5, the same score as e.g. Tiviakov!

Your first diagram is missing the f6 knight, and I was quite puzzled for a moment as to why White didn't simply play 11. Bxd7+, winning instantly. Of course, without the f6 knight on the board White is already up a piece.

49...Bd8+ looks like it might save the game:

A. 50. f6 Bb6-a7-b6 really is unbreakable, Black can defend any mate threats by putting his K on g8 when there isn't enough room to sneak all of White's pieces into the top right corner, if White tries 51. Kh6 Bxd4 52. Kh7 Be3! it's actually White who risks zugzwang

B. 50. Kh5 Bxh4 51. Kxh4 now it looks like the bishop is dominating the knight but actually the bishop is in trouble too, it can't retreat and allow Nc6 which would win for Black if White isn't careful. So basically we have a pawn ending with the extra nuance that White might be able to play Be8 at some point. 51...Kg8! 52. Kg4 Kh8! 53. Be8 Kg7 54. Kh5 Na6 only move. Now it looks like the knight is on a bad circuit but actually on c7 it threatens ef5, Ne6 and can also defend a weak epawn after fe fe 55. fxe6 (55. Bb5 Nc7 56. Kg5? exf5! -/+) 55...fxe6 56. Kg5 Nc7 57. Bc6 Kf7 58. Kh6 Ke7= You can't force the K to move and you can't run the N out of squares: the bishop can never cover a8, a6 and e8.

I had Rybka 3 to help me with this but to be honest it wasn't much use and I had to work out the ideas myself and blundercheck it with the computer. I'm still not certain there isn't an improvement but it's hard to see where: there is nowhere to triangulate because I already got Black as far away as possible before playing Be8, and sticking in fxe6 earlier only gives Black an extra square to manoeuvre on.

of course it's not easy to see that the only (?) way to draw the game is to give up your good bishop for his bad one and leave yourself with a totally dominated knight against a "good" bishop! Maybe you should turn it into a study. In the game 50...Bd8+ doesn't work because of 51. Kg4 Bxh4 52. Kx fxe6 53. Kh5! when Black would dearly like to play Kh7

Noir_Desir on the live transmission boards today starting in ~1,5 hours! Go go go go

update: he is a clean exchange up after 20 moves against a FM. sweat is working so far

Do you have a link to the broadcast?

http://www.chess.at/live/
on board 20, Black

update: uh oh he started playing too passively. not looking v good at the moment :\

Yeah, such a shame. He played so energetically in the opening to achieve a good position then just sort of drifted and let white take over.

Edit - although it's still interesting with the queenside pawns. Good luck, Noir!

yeah.. what did he do!?!?

He super pwned that guy to start out in the middle game. :-x

He spoilt it, unfortunately. I must say that his opponent just played ridiculously. He might have had some activity for the exchange, but this could have never been enough compensation, let alone what I think of White's treatment of the opening....

21...Be6 was indeed very passive. I think that 21...Bc4 was the way to go. After 22.Nf5 Black would have to play 22...Qc7 since 22...Qf6 runs into 23.f4. So Black is able to elimininate the bishop pair or force White to keep the bishops by means of Ne2, and he shouldn't have too many problems after that.

As a caveat I have to say that I haven't engine-checked anything of what I've written... as always.... (-:

As you have already seen, NoirDesir lost today against a master, but he is still playing an awesome tournament. As for myself, I played a 2155 rated German WFM today.

Ajezz - WFM L., O.
Vienna Open (6), 20.8.

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nf3 e6 6. cxd4 b6 7. Bc4

The main variation here is 7. Nc3 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Qc7 9. Bd2 Bb7 10. Bd3 d6 11. 0-0 Nd7 12. Ng5 which I did not want to play (too much theory). 7. Bc4 is a little side line with ideas like Bxd5 Bxd5 / Nc3 Bb7 / d5.

7... Bb7 8. O-O Qc7

After Qc7 the Bxd5 idea is pointless as Black can now play Qb7. But now White can play a rook to c1. My theoretical knowledge ended about here.

9. Qe2 Be7 10. Bd2 O-O 11. Rc1 Qd8



At this point I decided to exchange the centrally placed knight with Bxd5. My friends critizised me strongly for giving up my nice bishop, and rightfully so. I guess positional mistakes like this show why I am only a 2000 player. Both Qe4 or simply Nc3 are probably way better. Bxd5 doesn't even make sense if I want to exchange the knight, I could do this better with Nc3. Duh.

12. Bxd5 Bxd5 13. Nc3 Bb7 14. a3

Here I had difficulties finding a plan. I played a3 to take away b4 from a knight on a6/c6 and to maybe play b4, b5 later on. a4 was probably good too, claiming space and introducing the idea a5.

14... a5 15. Rc2 Na6 16. Nb5

To prevent Nc7-d5.

16... d6 17. Rac1 dxe5 18. Nxe5



At this point I liked my position, but it also has become clear that Black has no major difficulties. I could really use my light-squared bishop in this position...

18... Bf6 19. Bf4 Qd5 20. f3 Rfd8 21. Qc4 g5 22. Bg3 Kg7 23. Qxd5

I am not sure if this is the right play. A friend suggested simply moving back the queen, e.g. to e2, now that Black has opened up his kingside.

23...Bxd5 24. Nc7 Nxc7 25. Rxc7 Bxe5 26. Bxe5+ Kg6 27. Kf2 a4



Now I have nice-looking rooks, but they have nothing to do.

28. g4 Ra5 29. Rc8 Rxc8 30. Rxc8 f6

A little part of me was hoping for 30... Rb5? 31. Rg8+ Kh6 32. Bd6 with mate.

31. Bd6 Ra8 1/2-1/2

So despite my wrong exchange, I managed to draw this game rather comfortably, and I am quite happy with the draw and still being at 50%. Tomorrow I have Black against another 2150, NoirDesir is taking on a 2250.

:-(

These types of positions are all about the White Light Square Bishop!

Solid draw though, nh

21.-Bc4 22.Nf5 Qb4 looked best to me. 21.-Bc4 22.f4 Bxf1 23.fxe5 Bc4 also looked quite winning

I'm at work, but why didn't you play 29.Re7 when you were given the opportunity of doubling your rooks on the 7th rank?


Edit : Ok, I get it, the pawn of f3 is too weak. 29.Re7 Rb5 30.Rc7 Rxb2+31.Rg3 Rf8 32.Bd6 Rb3-+

Ok, so what about this :

29.Re7! Rb5 30.Rc7 Rxb2+31.Re1! Rf8 32.Bd6

What to do against the threat of Red7?

Yeah, that sucked. Thx for watching guys, at least i finished late enough to get promoted to the 9 boards on the screens, what was nice. If only my position was not lost by then...

I got too obsessed with exchanging my light-squared bishop for his knight, which i didn't want to see on e6. Of course, Qf7 was just horrible. I completely overlooked that i can't play Nc4 because of Nxe6. After that he played it very well, i thought my ...g6 trick after b3 would save it, but he found the precise Qh3. Bb5 is obv impossible because his rook penetrates on the c-file with devastating effect.

I'm still having a great tournament, i'm not impressed with how people with 2250 ELO played. If i get my greatest weaknesses fixed (quenching counterplay, winning endgames) I see myself at 2200 ELO at least. When i get home, I'll give you guys a synopsis of my games.

One thing: please respect that i don't want to read my last name on the forums, its one thing if its easily deductible, but appearing in google is another.

Very exciting positions arise, after 32... Bxf3 33. Red7 Rg8 34. Rxf7 Bxg4

For example, 35.h3 is possible for white, or 35.Be5 with some ideas (d5 in some lines) .

What do you think?

sorry for the surname, i did consider that but didnt figure out a way to encrypt it (did not put first name exactly because of that and its a fairly common surname). RT can edit it out now that the message got through

Is this tournament gonna be evaluated for DWZ? If yes, you'll be enjoying a nice boost, because they usually just take the ELO of players without DWZ ((-:

No problem, i wonder where you're from that this name is common, in my 300k-souls hometown our family was the only one My employer knows about my poker habit anyways, i just don't want to take chances.

According to Ajezz, it should get rated. Around 1/3 of the field is from Germany anyways.