(121) ChessChat Rotation Game [B00]
25.05.2007

This game is being played as a rotation game at ChessChat. 1.e4 (Weldon) 1...e6 (David) What else is there? I started going over the possibilities in my mind, thinking Scandi, thinking something UCOish. But like a life-long love, the French keeps calling to me, and I had to follow my heart. You can follow this game here: http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Annotated_Games/ChessChatR1.htm. 2.d4 Greg: .....nothing fancy here. I normally play the exchange variation but I wonder will black castle kingside or queenside? 2...d5 Dave: Not much to say here . The next move for white will be more interesting (as long as it isn&apost 3.Nd2) :-) 3.Nc3 Graham: Before I give my reasons for playing 3. Nc3, here is a brief history of the French Defence. Although anayzed by the Italian Lucena in the 15th century, the French Defence was named for the Parisian players who adopted the move 1...e6 in an 1834 correspondence game against London. Every World Champion since Steinitz (with the stark exception of Fischer, who stumbled against it as White a few times) has employed it, though it was Botvinnik who was instrumental in transforming it into the sharp counter-attacking weapon it is today. Many prominent masters are listed among its adherents. It is more a defence that most Black choices: Black occupies the a2-g8 diagonal with his first move and prepares to occupy the light central squares, intending to deal with the dark squares later. Far and away Black&aposs biggest problem in this opening is the queen&aposs bishop, blocked in by Black&aposs first move - many games revolve around this one feature. The tension created by the combat between e4 and e5 usually results in some central concession by one of the players. The choices here run the range from quiet defence to raging gambit play. White&aposs options at move 3 are the following 3. e5 (Advance Variation) 3. ed5 (Exchange Variation) 3. Nd2 (Tarrasch Variation) 3. Nc3, which can lead to 3....de4 (Rubinstein Variation) 3....Bb4 (Winawer Variation) 3......Nf6 4. Bg5 (Classical Variation) 4..e5 (Steinitz Variation) The Tarrasch Variation (3. Nd2) avoids the complications of allowing the pin 3...Bb4 after 3. Nc3, and the possible weakened pawns after the Black Bishop is exchanged for the White Knight. The disadvantage of the Tarrasch Variation is that 3. Nd2 exerts no presusre on d5, so allowing Black to play 3... c5 more freely. I prefer the Tarrasch Variation for my correspondence games, but as Dave does not like 3.Nd2, I will choose 3.Nc3. 3...Be7 Weldon: I don&apost care for the French, probably why Dave played it. I considered ...Bb4 and ...Nf6, the Winawer has always seemed more active to me, but I decided on ...Be7 just to get off the beaten path. With ...Be7 Black develops his bishop and prepares castling without making a commitment. Black wants to see how White will develop so as to better take advantage of White&aposs choices. Also, of course, we get to avoid all the heavily studied theory of the more common lines. 4.Bd3 David: Off the beaten path, huh Young Master Weldon? Just how far do you want to go...lol I thought here also about 4.Nf3 (boring!) and 4.e5 (Just where is the king-knight going to develop?) but opted for this move as more flexible, keeping White&aposs options more open. I think. 4...Nc6 Greg: I often play exchange variations, perhaps to avoid complications, but moreso I usually play for initiative and try to maintain it at all costs in my tournament games, sometimes even at the expense of position. Here I normally would have chosen 4.dxe4 but I went with the second choice 4.Nc6 as it maintains the tension on the center mentioned earlier and is actually an interesting line. 5.Nf3 Dave: There&aposs a few weird developing moves been played so far ! Im a bit worried about black&aposs obvious next move, but I cant stop it, so I&aposll ignore it ! Simple development is correct here I think. 5...Nb4 Graham: This is the "book" move given in "Nunn&aposs Chess Openings". The main threat is to exchange White&aposs white-squared bishop, as well as possibly allowing Black to play ....c5 at some stage. Black cannot win a pawn with 5...de4, as 6. Ne4 Nd4 7. Nd4 Qd4?? 8.Bb5+ wins the Black Queen. 6.e5 Weldon: White can&apost productively prevent the exchange of his light square bishop, so don&apost worry about it. exd5 is interesting, but it solves Black&aposs problem with his light square bishop so I played e5. Gaining a little space, complicating Black&aposs development of both the light squared bishop and the king&aposs knight and delaying castling. Nothing insolvable, but black will have to spend some tempos to get his pieces out. Besides, it looks like the best way to punish Dave for playing ...e6 in the fist place. 6...Nxd3+ David: If the point of ...Nb4 was to threaten exchanging White&aposs bishop, then so be it. I don&apost really like this position for either side, but it seems to me that White&aposs light-squared bishop would play havoc with Black&aposs kingside over time, so I opted to get rid of it. [ This is the only game I could find from the position after 6.e5: 6...c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.0-0 Ne7 9.Na4 Qc7 10.Bb5+ Kf8 11.a3 Na6 12.c4 dxc4 13.Bxa6 Black Resigns 1-0. Van den Doel,E - Boersma,J [C10] Dutch Open Dieren NED, 2006] 7.Qxd3 Greg: I suppose 7.Qxd3 is pretty much forced. I cannot imagine that there is some devastating line white can play after cxd3 or moving his king. 7...Qd7 Dave: Well.....Im still in my "book" , and 7...Qd7 has been played before by a better player than me (and black won !)...so why should I argue ? I dont care much for blacks position . The bishop on e7 is a little in the way , so I cant develope the kingside easily , I have to look for some activity on the queenside . 7...Qd7 prepares something (at least !) , and is fairly non - committal. 8.0-0 Graham: I think that 8.0-0 is a sensible and obvious move for White in this position. It moves the King from the centre of the board, and brings the White Rook to the centre of the board. I also played this move because I still would not want to move the lack-squared bishop until Black has committed himself, especially in regard to how he is going to develop the Knight on g8. 8...a5 Weldon: Well, I have to say I prefer White here. Black has two pieces with out a clear path to develop, so that would seem to be the place to start. ...f6 to attack the center just gives White a nice post for his knight on e5. ...Nh6 followed by ...Nf5( White shouldn&apost trade his bishop for the knight as it leaves Black with the bishop pair) doesn&apost seem to result in much, so that leaves the queenside. ...a5 and ...b6 both look good. ...b6 open a path for the bishop, but it has nowhere to go yet, ...a5 grabs some space and following with ...b5 allows Black to finally make a threat. White will probably expand on the queenside as well so I&aposll go with ...a5. 9.Ne2 David: Black&aposs going to play on the queenside? Where is his king going to be safe at? Since it appears the black king will need to stay on the kingside (or in the center, perhaps foregoing castling altogether?) White&aposs goals here are (1) reinforce the center, which can come under strong pressure from Black; (2) prepare to shift forces to the kingside for an attack there; and (3) at some point Black&aposs bound to play ...Ba6, so we have to be aware of the tactics along that diagonal. The e2-knight may be headed for g3, from whence it can support an f5-push, which means we&aposll probably play other moves soon like c3, and if Black plays moves like ...c5 and ...cxd4 then White can recapture Nfxd4, opening the way for that f-pawn to enter the fray, which in turn opens a line for the white rook sitting on f1. Musings about possible furture courses for this game... 9...b6 Greg: Ok well 9..b6 was my first instict here, rather than playing something more aggressive, this moves sets a decent pawn structure and allows black to develop his queen&aposs bishop. Black can eventually safely castle to the queenside, although castling really isn&apost such a priority for black in my opinion in this game with a locked center pawn structure. I&aposve seen a few of these games where the black king looks unsafe, but is actually hard to get to. 10.Re1 Dave: Well......blacks position seems ok (which is a bit of a shock....I thought white was practically winning last time I looked !)The threat now of Ba6 looks very nasty .I want to play 10.c4 , but it looks to be dodgy after 10...Ba6 . So...what to do as white ? I think I need to move something OFF the a6f1 diagonal . 10...Ba6 Graham: Black&aposs previous moves of 8...a5 and 9..bg were the preliminaries for this move. Black develops his Bishop on the long a6-f1 diagonal, as it is blocked on the c8-h3 by the Black queen on d7 and the Black pawn on e6. Black is now able to castle on the Queenside, which may be a sensible option considering to will take a few moves for Black to develop his Kingside pieces. The queenside may be the safest place for the Black King. 10..Ba6 also attacks the White Queen, which now has to find a reasonable square. 11.Qd1 Weldon: Well moving the queen seemed to be a good idea and with only a couple of spots to put it, so back to Dave. 11...Bxe2 David: Black certainly isn&apost going to be castling on the queenside, because that&aposs the only place Black has to play! The light squares are covered well enough with the light-squared bishops gone, and after either Rxe2 or Qxe2 I figure Black can play ...c5 and grab space on the queenside. I think the kingside will take care of itself, oddly enough I&aposm not worried about developing it yet. This exchange slows things down dramatically (I think!) and allows Black more time to complete his development and seek an initiative. 12.Qxe2 Greg: A little better square for the queen I think. Seemed like white should have been better off earlier, but perhaps not so much better now. Black&aposs next move should be interesting. 12...h5 Dave: so...what does black do here ? The white squared bishops are off , which I think favours white . Also black STILL hasn&apost developed the kingside . I&aposm tempted to play 12....a4 to try to stop white gaining space on the queenside , but I feel we have wasted too much time already ignoring fundamental development issues . 12....Nh6 loses a pawn to 13.Bxh6 gxh6 14.Qe3 . However we need to get the kings knight into the game. Hence .... 12...h5 is my choice . I&aposm not overly happy , but at least we should be able to get the knight out next move and maybe get it to f5 the move after ! 13.Ng5 Graham: A tactical trick to stop the development of the Black knight, as 13...Nh6 14. Qh5 loses a pawn. If Black plays 13...h4 to remove the pawn from the attention of the White Queen, then 14. Qf3 with pressure against f7 forces Black to make a move that weakens his position. If Black is playing on the Queenside, then according to "classical" principles White should respond either in the centre or on the King-side. 13...Bxg5 Weldon: Thus solving the problem of developing the knight. Black&aposs kingside looks a little loose though, the bishop will be difficult to kick out, and where he goes with the king is anyones guess. 14.Bxg5 David. Hmmm, should I recapture or not? :-) I think that with this knight move & subsequent exchange White has eased Black&aposs congestion and helped him develop at last. A missed opportunity, methinks. 14...Ne7 Greg: "Well, it&aposs about time." says the black king&aposs knight. 15.Rac1 Dave: Whites position now looks almost un-losable ! Black has a few weak pawns that are easy to attack . I think putting the rook behind the c pawn and preparing c4 is best for white , and when the position opens up I feel black will be in trouble unless he can connect his rooks in some way. 15...Nf5 Graham: Trying to connect rooks by 15...0-0 loses a pawn after 16. Qh5. Black needs to play actively. 15...Nf5 brings the Knight further into the game and attacks White&aposs d-pawn, which needs to be defended. If White plays 16. c3, then he has lost a tempo for the planned c4 advance. The downside of 15.... Nf5 is that Black is unable to play 0-0-0. 16.c3 Weldon: Sorry Graham, but I don&apost think White is in a position to play c4, so this isn&apost a loss of tempo. The weak point here is d4 and it needs to be protected against the coming ...c5. With the center locked down play will be on the wings. White already has the better position on the kingside, Black&aposs king is all but stuck in the center, so that leaves the queenside. If White can contain Black there, he has the best long term chances for the win. 16...c5 David: Nature abhors a vacuum they say, and that seems to me what Black faces. His kingside is a shambles - too many weaknesses on the dark squares. He&aposll never be able to castle queenside either - too many holes over there on the light squares, though this is not as serious a problem as the dark-squared weaknesses on the kingside. I think Weldon is right - the king is stuck in the middle. Meanwhile, what is Black to do? Back to that vacuum again. If he sits & waits, White will eventually be able to open the queenside in a favorable (to White) way and so Black is behooved to strike first. 17.Be3 Greg: I&aposm sending this email again. Hope it goes through ok. 17...Nxe3 Dave: Blacks King is indeed stuck in the centre.... but we are almost in a heavy piece end-game...so the black king is actually nicely centralised ! Perhaps needs to get off the e file ASAP though.... 18.fxe3 Graham: Here are my reasons for playing 18.fe3 rather than 18.Qe3 a) The White Queen keeps an eye on the Black h-pawn. If Black defends the pawn by ..g6, then the f6 square becomes very weak. b) If Black plays ...Ke7 to try and connect the rooks, the Qg5+ forces Black to move ..Kf8, otherwise the g7 pawn is lost. c) With a major piece middlegame, the White rooks need access to open files. 18. fe3 opens the f-file for White d) If Black plays ...cd4, White can straighten his pawn structure with ed4, keeping the central pawn wedge of d4/e5 intact. 18...c4 Weldon: Graham&aposs reasons for playing fxe3 are all good, in fact I think Black may regret ...Nxe3, the knight looked strong especially with the rooks not joined. The pawn on h6 also looks a little lonely. For the first time I see black as being in trouble, worse I don&apost quite know what to do about it. I set Black on this ...Be7 experiment and now I&aposm going to have to commit us again. Let&aposs try and close up the queenside, then we have a place for the king if it gets too hairy on the other wing. This is the kind of position that gives me fits, you can&apost pick the best move, cause your options are a lessor of evils. I would love to hear what more experienced players think of this move and what they would do in my position. 19.e4 David: Oops! Now White gets to force the action in the middle. The initiative I thnk has passed to White; Black is now doomed to passivity. I think Black would have been better off playing ...Rc8, maintaining the central tension and preparing for a possible exchange on d4. 19...g6 Greg: Well, for what my knowledge is worth, I know it is sometimes best to hold the tension and then it is sometimes best to act quickly. I don&apost have as big a problem with 18.....c4. I expected 19. e4 was coming after seeing 18.fxe3, but I don&apost see a real problem from 20. exd5 as long as black recaptures with the queen. In fact it may be ok for black by leading to more play on the queenside. I considered 19....Rc8 or even Rb8 but I thought it better to liberate black&aposs king&aposs rook and leave all of black&aposs options open regarding castling. So 19...g6 is also a waiting move in this regard. I also don&apost see much of a problem with having a weakness on the dark squares, especially if the queens get traded, but if they don&apost then I expect black&aposs queen can cause enough interference. 20.exd5 Dave: I think black seems to be in a little bit of trouble now .Assuming 20...Qxd5 then 21.Rf1 . Backward weak pawn on f7 ? White simply doubles (or trebles !) heavy pieces on the f file . Black will be completely tied down. Greg: Actually, I was thinking it looked to me black can defend f7 very easily with his king and both rooks, leaving the black queen free to roam. Although white can certainly load up on the f file, black has enough time, though perhaps white will make some threats to g6 or e6, I just don&apost see the position as indefensible. 20...Qxd5 Graham: I agree with Greg. Black needs to be active, rather than to be totally passive by defending the f-pawn. If White triples on the f-file, then Black can defend the f-pawn by Key, Rh7 and Rf8, leaving the Black Queen to provide counterplay. 21.Rf1 Weldon: It&aposs easy to say black should play actively, but it&aposs more difficult to arrange. White has the room to maneuver and the f-pawn as a target. Black seems tied down to protecting the f pawn and can&apost even afford to push the queenside pawns. The choice of move is easy here, for white, F6 is just begging for a rook, and is the first step to tripling on the f file. 21...b5 David: I think Black is going to need the queen for defense of something slightly more valuable than the c-pawn, so the intent of ...b5 is simply to free the queen from this defensive duty, so she can assume another defensive duty elsewhere. Defensive seems to define Black&aposs position now. Weldon wrote "If White triples on the f-file, then Black can defend the f-pawn by Key, Rh7 and Rf8, leaving the Black Queen to provide counterplay." in which case White wins a pawn, and probably more, with Rxg6! since the f7-pawn would be pinned. Of course we could exchange rooks, but then White&aposs invaded Black&aposs king position, besides winning a pawn in the bargain. I think. :-) I see the position as being clearly in White&aposs favor, though perhaps not quite yet winning. 22.Rf6 Greg: I guess white should stick with the kingside attack theme, at least till something better comes along. 22...0-0 23.Rcf1 Graham: A pretty obvious move. White increases the pressure on the backward Black f7 pawn. 23...b4 Weldon: Black has big problems on the kingside, so how about a little queenside counter play. 24.g4 David: Q-side counterplay? Methinks Black will be playing with himself. Err, by himself. As one annotator once said: "Tally-ho!" White&aposs attacking the k-side, and has no spare tempi for defending the q-side. 24...hxg4 Greg: I actually was thinking black would have been better off not castling but instead playing 22. ....Rh7 to both defend f7 and deterr white&aposs last move 24.g4, then perhaps white would have been forced to play on the queenside, but that&aposs moot point now. I do hope black can survive his king on g8. I think 24....hxg4 is pretty much forced so that is what I will play. [ 24...bxc3 25.bxc3 ( 25.gxh5 Qxd4+ ) 25...hxg4 26.Qxg4 Rab8 27.h4+- ; 24...h4 25.Qf2+- ] 25.Qxg4 Dave: White&aposs position seems even better than the line I was analysing ! 25...Kg7 Graham: As Dave said, White has a very strong position. There is an obvious plan: Qg5/Qh6/Rf4/Rh4/Qh7 or h8#. It is for this reason that I chose 25...Kg7. White is temporarily stopped from moving the Queen to h6. 25...Kg7 also allows Black to try and block on the h-file with a rook, if White manages to double his Queen and Rook on the h-file. If the Rook on f8 has to move to h8, then Black will need to defend the weak f7-pawn. Ra7 might be an option, with the Black Queen then retreating to d8 to support the Rook on h8. It is a very passive position for Black! 26.h4 Weldon: h4 is obvious as is the eminent loss to black. Black can resign any time now. David: I concur with Weldon. Black is toast. I second his motion to resign the Black side of this game. [ 26.h4 Ra7 27.h5 Rg8 28.hxg6 Kf8 29.Qh4+- bxc3 30.bxc3 Ke8 31.Qh7 Rxg6+ 32.Rxg6 fxg6 And now Fritz announces mate-in-11!] 1-0