Wednesday, January 30, 2008

H. Soltani-R. Pearson 01.27.08 1-0

Here is the game I played and described on Sunday. As sometimes happens, I'm having trouble in Chess Publisher getting the annotations to work, so I'll post them separately above the game replayer. Sorry for the inconvenience.

To answer a few points raised by by wonderful commenters:

Tanc and LEP: Really, truly, I'm not afraid of my dentist, or dentists in general. I had a perfect 3-0 record against him going into the game and when I began seeing him as my dentist he did a super job. Whether there was a subconscious fear for next time if I won yet again--well, by definition I wouldn't know about it. I must say, though, he did have one home field advantage; his parrot. He had this big African Gray that barked like a dog, talked trash and made various sounds from the other room during the game. Now, I figured that he was distracted just as much as I, but after further consideration I suppose that he's so used to the cacophony that he just tuned it out!

Fetiche: I do have some regrets about not sticking to my beloved King's Indian Defense for this game, having won twice with against this opponent. I've been working on the Tarrasch for awhile as an alternate and decided to try it out, but as you can see I started making stuff up on move 5; so I don't consider it that much of a success. I'm not sure whether to keep it as an occasional variant for selected opponents or stick to one thing...at least any future foe who reads this will have a little doubt.

Here are the comments, then the game:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. dxc5 {One can't study every variation--and I hadn't spent much time on this one} Bxc5 {The main line is d5, and I knew that, but I hadn't looked at it formally at all. I decided to sacrifice a pawn to win some time for development and, hopefully, attack} 6. Qxd5 Qb6 7. e3 {I think this is best} Be6 {Nf6 is more flexible} 8. Qg5 Ne7 {I seriously considered Kf8, but became strangely attracted to sacrificing more pawns--Black does gain a lot of time, but is it full compensation?} 9. Qxg7 Rg8 10. Qxh7 Nc6 {Black has shed three pawns, and probably has compensation for two; but White will have to defend well to avoid the many shoals} 11. Qc2 {11. a3 0-0-0 12. b4 might be more accurate, now the queen can be harassed some more} 0-0-0 12. Bd2 Nb4 13. Qc1 Rxd2? {Too much of a good thing! Nd3+ 14. Bxd3 Rxd3 keeps some reasonable compensation. I guess I was "playing the role" of Herr Anderssen circa 1851} 14. Qxd2 Rd8 15. Qc1 Kb8 {Probably as good as anything, and rather artistic--but objectively Black doesn't have enough for his big material investment} 16. a3! Nd3+ 17. Bxd3 Rxd3 18. Nge2 Nf5 {The only hope is to bring in every piece} 19. b4? {19. Na4! Qa5 20. b4 Qxa4 21. Qxc5 should be winning} Bxe3! {Gives a puncher's chance, anyway} 20. fxe3 Nxe3 21. Nf4 Rd6 22. Ra2?? {Most other moves maintain a winning position!} Bxa2 23. Ke2 {probably best} Bc4+? {Ng4! 25. Qg1 Qc6 and Black should win} 24. Kf3 Nf5 25. Re1 Nh4+ 26. Kg3 {and logical now is Nf5+ with a probable repetition. After the game my opponent said he expected that. Instead...} Qf2+?? {Perfect chess blindness. I had planned it the previous move; for some reason I thought this square was covered.} 27. Kxf2 1-0


6 comments:

chessboozer said...

Looks like Class B will go down to the wire. Nothing like a bit of excitement.
I cant believe you fell for the old Parrot trick.

ChargingKing said...

Was that Robert Pearson playing the opening...or Paul Morphy!

Robert Pearson said...

Rather, as I said in the notes it was like channeling Herr Anderssen from 1851, except Anderssen would have found 23. ...Ng4 and won--and he wouldn't have hung the queen, for that matter! :)

Tonight I have a really important game so I'm going to channel Capablanca and try to be the most accurate player ever.

Anonymous said...

Oh, man! Only if Qf2 was another purposeful sacrifice...

I really thought you didn't have a chance but that was a severe underestimation. You're never out of it against a class B!

Robert Pearson said...

Eggsactly.

Francis W. Porretto said...

You did go a little wild there, flinging material about the way Fetiche does. But your game never seemed to be without possibilities. I'll give it a closer look.