English Chess Forum

Ha, I made a good pun

With respect to my regular helpers, could I please have more than one or two responses to this game. I appreciate those who do help but you seem to end up putting others off from writing So anyone who doesn't normally write with a view or opinion please please give it!

Played this game in the PM Open today. I'd particularly appreciate any general criticisms of my positional play out the opening, and any concrete offerings on the long Rook endgame which followed. Any Rook endgame experts who can show me that I was doomed to lose regardless of the inbetween will be a great comfort. I wasn't able to calculate much because I had to keep my clock in mind, and there's a rather abrupt transition of exchanges despite White having a healthy game. Health warning: If you play White's 60th move you may keel over.

[Event "British Championship PM Open Week 1"]
[Date "2012.07.24"]
[Round "2"]
[White "O'Dowd, Daniel"]
[Black "Evans, Paul A."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B09"]
[WhiteECF "130"]
[BlackECF "177"]
[Annotator "O'Dowd,Daniel"]
[PlyCount "120"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]
[TimeControl "3600"]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. f4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c5 6. Bb5+ Bd7 7. e5 Ng4 8. e6
Bxb5 9. exf7+ Kf8 10. Nxb5 Qa5+ 11. Nc3 cxd4 12. Nxd4 Nc6 13. Ne6+ Kxf7 14.
Nxg7 Nf6 15. Be3 Kxg7 16. O-O Qf5 17. h3 h5 18. Qd2 a6 19. Rae1 Rhe8 20. Re2
Rad8 21. Bb6 Rc8 22. Rd1 Na5 23. Bxa5 Qxa5 24. Nd5 Qxd2 25. Rdxd2 Nxd5 26. Rxd5
Kf6 27. Kf2 Rc6 28. c3 Rec8 29. Red2 Rc5 30. R2d4 Rxd5 31. Rxd5 Rc6 32. Ke3 e6
33. Rd4 Kf5 34. g3 d5 35. Rb4 b6 36. a4 g5 37. fxg5 Kxg5 38. Rd4 a5 39. h4+ Kf5
40. Kf3 Rc5 41. Rf4+ Kg6 42. g4 hxg4+ 43. Kxg4 b5 44. h5+ Kg7 45. b4 axb4 46.
cxb4 Rc7 47. axb5 Rd7 48. b6 Rb7 49. h6+ Kg6 50. Kf3 Rxb6 51. Rd4 Kxh6 52. Kf4
Kg6 53. Ke5 Kf7 54. Rh4 Ke7 55. Rh7+ Kd8 56. Rh6 Kc8 57. b5 Kb8 58. Rh7 Ka8 59.
Re7 Kb8 60. Rxe6 Rxe6+ 0-1

I suppose you know about the forced draw in that opening (Sax-Seirawan 1988 and many imitators).

Event "It \"S.W.I.F.T. World Cup\""]
[Site "Brussels (Belgium)"]
[Date "1988.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sax Gyula (HUN)"]
[Black "Seirawan Yasser (USA)"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B09"]
[WhiteElo "2600"]
[BlackElo "2610"]
[Annotator ""]
[Source ""]
[Remark "IV"]

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 c5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.e5 Ng4
8.e6 fxe6 9.Ng5 Bxb5 10.Nxe6 Bxd4 11.Nxd8 Bf2+ 12.Kd2 Be3+ 1/2-1/2

I would have thought the ending you actually reached should offer equal chances. In the event you got a position where you were defending for a draw, but if you remember not to take on e6, chances of achieving it are high as you've cut off his king. Had it been a morning game, a 10.2 claim would be on the cards, as it is you've got to play on the increment and count to 50 to get the draw.

Just after the opening it might have been worth playing 15. Ne6 to entice the King out and only then develop with Be3. The engine thinks White a little better but doesn't come up with anything devastating.

Somewhere around move 30, you need to decide whether you are better off in the single rook ending or the double rook ending and for that matter whether you are trying to win and if so, how you are going to achieve it. If you think you are trying to draw, locking the structure with 35. h4 was worth playing. At move 47, isn't it better to play a5 rather than axb5? That way you've tied his Rook to keeping an eye on your a pawn and his King on your h pawn. With a pawn on a5, you may even be able to take his e6 pawn at some stage.

I'm only a weak player but I can analyse with a computer and it seems to me that 47.a5 would be pretty good for White.
Isn't this a case where the outside passed pawns are harder to stop than Black's connected centralised pair?
You must have thought so when you played 45.b4!
(Oh, on preview someone beat me to that comment.)

Other than that the game looked level from 24.Nd5 onwards
I can't comment on the opening except to say it's in the book (to a point) and that I would have tried to make more of the e6 square.

I like 47.a5 . I would get worried if black played Rc4 as he could get 3 connected central passed pawns if RxR, but at first glance the a and h pawns would be faster i think.

_________________
Hatch End A Captain (Hillingdon League)
Harrow 2 Captain (Middlesex League)

I think perhaps you lost your way after that. Giving up the h pawn seemed needless as it was your only remaining strength. Although its not easy to play under time pressure. Playing the Rook to d4 is very passive as the Rook is not a good blockader. You had the right idea after that getting your King to e5 and you Rook behind the pawns but having lost your h pawn you were destined to fall into the trap of taking the poisoned d pawn. Instead maybe 60.Ke5-d4-c5 might have offered some chances. If black takes the pawn then you take both and its a draw.

_________________
Hatch End A Captain (Hillingdon League)
Harrow 2 Captain (Middlesex League)

Many moons ago, I made up one of my own variants, called Tarzan chess, played with a normal chess set

Queen = Tarzan - has the combined moves of a queen and knight
King = Jane - same as King, but no castling
Pawns = Jungle - same as pawns, and yes, they can promote to let something new pop out of the Jungle
Bishops = Hunters - as per Bishops, but when they "capture" they don't move - i.e. they shoot it!
Knights = Elephants - Moves like a Knight, but 3 spaces instead of 2 and then 1 to the side. Rather clumsy pieces that can move (crash) though other pieces as per Knight jumps
Rooks = Orangutans - My favourite piece Orangutans swing through other pieces/pawns of either side, to a square next to one of the pieces, or to capture an enemy piece. So on the starting position an Orangutan on a1 can swing to h3. An orangutan that is next to no pieces can't move (they like lots of jungle!). And after say 1. e4 e6 2. d3, Black can't play d5 as then Jane would be in check by both Orangutans.

You've completely lost me with that last bit! How can Jane be in check with the Orangutans behind the pawns? And where is the check coming from? A1 and H1??

_________________
Hatch End A Captain (Hillingdon League)
Harrow 2 Captain (Middlesex League)

The most complicated chess variant that I have come across is a Japanese shogi variant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi

with a board 36x36 squares, and each player has 402 wedge-shaped pieces of 209 types.