USCF National Events / 2014 US Open
a fairly quiet game. He offered a draw on move 25. I played on, hoping to parlay a small-to-nonexistent endgame advantage into victory, but nothing came of it. Round eight against John Bryant was my favorite game from Orlando:
Queen’s Gambit Declined (D37) GM Conrad Holt (2662) IM John Daniel Bryant (2462) 2014 U.S. Open (8), Orlando, Florida, 08.02.2014
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bf4 0-0 6. e3 Nbd7
The Queen’s Gambit Declined was a
surprising choice from Bryant who usually prefers sharper openings such as the King’s Indian.
7. Be2 dxc4 8. 0-0 Nh5 8. ... Nb6 9. Qc2 Nh5 10. Be5 f6 11.
Bg3 Nxg3 12. hxg3 (GM Conrad Holt-GM Varuzhan Akobian, U.S. Chess League, 2013) is a slightly improved for Black version of the game idea since White has had to play the non-optimal Qc2.
9. Be5 f6 Instead I expected 9. ... Nhf6. The point
of this move is to try to capture the bishop without either weakening the position with ... f6, or getting the knight trapped on h5 after dxe5. Now if the bishop retreats, the knight would go back to h5.
10. Bg3 Nxg3 11. hxg3 Nb6 12. a4
19. Rfe1 The immediate 19. d5 Bxa4 20. Qxa4
(20. Rxa4 b5 21. Rxa5 bxc4 22. Qa2 Rxa5 [22. ... Qe8 23. Bxe6] 23. Qxa5 seems to be another decent option) 20. ... Qxa4 21. Rxa4 b5 22. Rxa5 bxc4 23. Rxa8 Rxa8 24. dxe6 gives Black more chances for survival.
19. ... Qc8 20. Rab1 b6?!
The best chance is 20. ... Qd7!? to cause confusion, by attacking the a4-pawn. 21. d5 Bd7 22. dxe6 Bxe6 23. Nxb6 Now I have a clear extra pawn.
23. ... cxb6 24. Bxe6 Qc7 25. Qxb6 Qxc3 26. Rec1 Qe5 27. Rb5 Qd6 28. Qxd6 Bxd6
On move 25, had I played the most
obvious move 25. … Ng6, instead of 25. ... Nc4, I could have won the tournament outright. I failed to notice that I could respond to 26. Qf3 with 26. ... Nxf4, meeting 27. Qxc3 with Ne2+. As it was I had to trade into an endgame.
I pressed on for a few minutes, but he played solidly, so I did not come within striking distance. After the dust of the final round settled,
The extra pawn should be enough to
win here since Black’s rooks are also hemmed in at the back of the board. I also had to play with two rooks and a light-squared bishop versus two rooks and a dark-squared bishop in round five.
This move may not be so logical as it
opens the possibility of a black piece using the b4 outpost. On the other hand, after 12. ... a5 this becomes a target for my knight.
12. ... a5 13. Nd2 Bd7 14. Nxc4 Nd5 15. Qb3 Bc6? The move I was most worried about was
15. ... c6 (and even 15. ... Nb4 is fine). Black is more or less OK.
16. Bg4 Qd7? It can’t be a good idea to put the queen
into this pin. 16. ... f5 17. Bf3 Ra6 and the computer claims that it is still equal, but it seems unpleasant for Black.
17. e4 Nxc3 18. bxc3 Kh8
29. f4 Ra7 30. Kf2 g6 31. Rc6 Bb4 32. g4 Kg7 33. g3 Rd8 34. Rd5 Re8 35. Rb5 Rd8 36. Rcb6 Re7 37. Rb7 Rde8 38. Bd5 Kf8 39. R7b6 Kg7 40. Rc6 Rd8 41. Kf3 Rde8 42. Rbb6 Rf8 43. Kg2!?
Starting an attempt to exchange my
front g-pawn for his f-pawn, which would leave me with a strong passed e-pawn. I wanted to leave my rooks and bishop in place so that his rooks would have no chances to escape.
43. ... Ra7 44. Kh3 Re7 45. Kh4 Ra7 45. ... h6 would not work, since the g6-
pawn would be too vulnerable after White plays e4-e5 or g4-g5, clearing away the f6-pawn.
46. g5 f5 47. e5 Rd8 48. Bc4 Rd2 49. Kh3 Rd8
my opponent and I were tied for first, along with GMs Giorgi Margvelashvili, Fidel Corrales, Illia Nyzhnyk, and Alexander Shabalov. The wait to identify the lucky tiebreak winners commenced. The previous night after round eight, I had been studying the tiebreaks, thinking I could write a Python script into which I would feed the crosstable and experiment with tiebreak scenarios. I found some formulas for modified median, but I was unable to reproduce any of the numbers on the tournament website with my own calcula - tions. Thus I abandoned the idea. I was not optimistic about being selected
for the playoff. For one thing, six is a lot of players to choose from. Additionally, my fourth-round opponent Christopher Wu had withdrawn. But as it turned out, I won the lottery! I was first on tiebreaks while Mulyar was second. I began to ponder strategy for our
rematch. As the leader on tiebreaks, I re - ceived the privilege of choosing the white pieces and extra time, in return for giving draw odds. I couldn’t recall seeing Mulyar in any blitz tournaments I had played in, or on the Internet Chess Club, so I as sumed
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50. Rb5 Rad7 51. Rf6 Rc7 52. Bd5 Bc5 53. Rc6 Rxc6 54. Bxc6 Bb4 55. Rb7+ Kf8 56. Rxh7 Rd3 57. e6 Re3 58. Rf7+ Kg8 59. Bd5 Rd3 60. Rxf5, Black resigned.
In the ninth and final round, I was black
against IM Michael Mulyar. In this Slav variation we both went out of theory about move 13. He launched his pawns forward to g4, f4, and e5. The position was scary at that point, causing me to consume much of the allotted time. However, the pawn rush eventually backfired; I managed to break down his pawn center, leaving him with a drafty kingside.
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