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A Sicilian Battle at the World Open
The Kings In Jeopardy By GM LEV ALBURT
IT WAS AMAZING, AND ENCOURAGING, to observe such a long, tough struggle in a game played in the Under-1400 section (our Game of the Month)! Some inaccura- cies, yes, but no big tactical blunders or obvious strategic errors. The winner of the game and of the award, Stephen Desmond, clearly believes in the power of ideas, and this shows both in his play and in his comments. Writes Stephen (my further notes will be in italics):
My old chess teacher, FM David Griego,
once told me that it is more important to understand the ideas behind the openings than to commit them to memory. These ideas revolve around the main strategic ideas in chess, as the great grandmaster, Reuben Fine, has laid out: king safety, force, mobility. In this game my young opponent played
seemingly aggressive pawn moves in front of his castled king. As Griego always advised me—calculate carefully before exposing your king—very carefully.
Sicilian Defense (B42) Abubakarr Kamara (1274) Stephen Desmond (1394) 41st Annual World Open, 2013 (4)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6
Scheveningen, my standard defense. 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6
I viewed this as a passive move—White
must fight to maintain the initiative. Besides, 8. h3 isn’t needed to stop ... Ng4. In such positions, White’s attacking plan
frequently starts with g2-g4; h2-h3 was indeed unnecessary.
8. ... Qc7 9. Be3 0-0 10. f4 b5
A mobility move to complete Black’s development. 11. a3 Bb7 12. Qe2
Technically OK, but puts no pressure on Black. 12. ... Nbd7 13. Kh1 Nc5 14. Qf3?
To voluntarily pin his e-pawn is short- sighted. Not here, no. In fact, I’d have played Qf3 on move 12.
14. ... Rac8 Mobility again with an idea to gang up
on e4 by moving the queen to a8 and cre- ating a battery on the h1-a8 diagonal.
15. Rac1?
A move which I feel is played by rote. 15. Rfd1 is better.
42 January 2014 | Chess Life Forced. 18. ... Rfd8
Here I’d consider 18. ... Rfe8, and in the likely case of 19. Bg5, 19. ... Nfxe4. 19. Bg5 h6
Putting the question to the bishop. 20. Bxf6
Perfectly happy to exchange a knight for his bishop. 20. ... Bxf6 21. Nh5 Bg5 (see diagram top of next column) With tempo on the misplaced rook.
22. Rcd1
I think that complications after 22. Qg4!? favor White. 22. ... Rd7! Anticipating the pressure on Black’s
king.
5. Bd3
I expected 5. Nc3, the usual line. The way to take advantage of 5. Bd3
was to play 5. ... Nc6, with equality (also good is the sharper 5. ... d5). Note that 5. e5 loses a pawn to 5. ... Qa5+.
5. ... d6 6. 0-0 a6 7. Nc3 Be7 8. h3
15. ... Qb8!
The point. Black will soon pressure e4 even more. 16. f5
Looks aggressive but has no threats after Black’s 16. ... e5. 16. ... e5 17. Nde2 Qa8! Black has seized the initiative aimed at
e4. 18. Ng3
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