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My Best Move


GM ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ


First Central American Grandmaster


Master's degree in arts and technology, video game design


2013 U.S. Championship runner-up


P


icking out a best move is not such a simple decision for a grandmaster—after all we have accumulated enough games that at


some point we must have made a brilliancy here or there! Now, I do believe that the style of players will make this decision harder or easier: if, for example, you asked Alexander Shabalov for his best move, I have no doubts that he could pull out a medium-sized book of his own spectacular coups. Despite the fact that I have a few nice tactical wins, I don’t feel they fully exemplify my style as a subtle and very boring positional player. When I remembered my game against Larry Christiansen from 2013 and replayed it, it became an instant winner! The tournament situation was already quite


tense: a few people were tied for second place half a point behind Gata Kamsky in the 2013 U.S. Championship. Gata had black against Ray Robson and was in for a tough fight, while I had the luck of getting my second white in a row to finish the tournament. In the diagram position things are quite complicated. With the queenside locked down, my opponent has just played the move Re7 to reposition his rooks for the impending breaks in the center. Little did he suspect that this move was already a grave mistake:


SYMMETRICAL ENGLISH (A37) GM Alejandro Ramirez (2623) GM Larry Mark Christiansen (2657) 2013 U.S. Championship (9), St. Louis, Missouri, 05.12.2013


1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 e5 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. a3 Nge7 7. Rb1 0-0 8. 0-0 a5 9. Ne1 d6 10. Nc2 a4 11. Ne3


When playing against Larry C. it is not a bad idea to play as boring as boring gets.


11. ... Nd4 12. d3 h6 13. Re1 Qa5 14. Ned5 Nxd5 15. Bxd5 Kh7 16. Be3 Nb3 17. Ne4 Qb6 18. Nd2 f5 19. Nxb3 axb3 20. Bd2 Bd7 21. e3 Rae8 22. Bc3 Re7


72 March 2016 | Chess Life


23. a4! My Best Move. This subtle pawn push


surprisingly gives White a great advantage. Black could technically ignore the pawn, but after 24. a5 he no longer has a way of defending b3.


23. ... Bxa4 24. Ra1 Ra8 24. ... Qa6 25. Ra3 will eventually cost Black


material: he has no good way of defending against Qe2 and Rea1.


25. e4! This is the point. I have no way of improving


the pressure on the a-file, but I don’t have to.


brilliancy here or there! “


…at some point we must have made a


With Black’s rook tied down to defending the bishop and the bishop itself being pinned on the a-file, I plan to use the few tempi and superior force on the other wing I have to explode the kingside and get a winning attack. For this reason I start by threatening exf5 followed by Qh5.





25. ... f4 26. gxf4 exf4 27. Bxg7 Kxg7 28. Qf3 Re5 29. Qxf4 Rf8 30. Qe3 Bc6


Black has unpinned himself but the damage


is done. White’s structure is far superior and my pawns start rolling.


31. f4 Rh5 32. Qg3 Bxd5 33. exd5 Black prevented me from taking with the c-


pawn, but the fact that he had to give up the e-file is probably even worse.


33. ... Rhf5 34. Re6 R8f6 35. Ra8 Rxe6 36. dxe6 Qc7 37. Re8 d5 38. e7 Kf7 39. Rh8 Kxe7 40. Qxg6, Black resigned.


With this win, I was able to force a tiebreak


against Kamsky, and despite losing the Arma - geddon it remains one of the happiest chess memories for me.


Whose Best Move would you like to see? Write to us at letters@uschess.org..


PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHESS CLUB AND SCHOLASTIC CENTER OF SAINT LOUIS


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