English Chess Forum

Hi
What was my mistake, appart from ...Nxe4?

[Event "Winter TNM"]
[Site "San Francisco"]
[Date "26.1.2016"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Askin, Michael C"]
[Black "Houshdaran, S"]
[Result "1-0"]
[BlackElo "1736"]
[ECO "E91"]
[Opening "King's Indian"]
[Variation "6.Be2 c5 7.O-O"]
[WhiteElo "1958"]
[TimeControl "300"]
[Termination "normal"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[WhiteType "human"]
[BlackType "human"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 c5 7. O-O cxd4 8.
Nxd4 Nc6 9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. Be3 Be6 11. f4 Qa5 12. Qc2 Qb4 13. a3 Qb7 14. f5
Bd7 15. c5 Rfb8 16. b4 a5 17. Rab1 axb4 18. Rxb4 Qc8 19. Na4 Qe8 20. g4
Rxb4 21. axb4 Nxe4 22. Nb6 d5 23. Nxa8 Qxa8 24. Bd3 Qa3 25. Kh1 Be5 26. Bh6
Qxb4 27. Bxe4 Qxe4+ 28. Qxe4 dxe4 29. Rd1 1-0

His castled position looked shaky, an I should've been able to do something

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 c5 7. O-O cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nc6 9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. Be3 Be6 11. f4 Qa5 12. Qc2 Qb4 13. a3 Qb7 14. f5 Bd7 15. c5 Rfb8 16. b4 a5 17. Rab1 axb4 18. Rxb4 Qc8 19. Na4 Qe8 20. g4 Rxb4 21. axb4 Nxe4 22. Nb6 d5 23. Nxa8 Qxa8 24. Bd3 Qa3 25. Kh1 Be5 26. Bh6 Qxb4 27. Bxe4 Qxe4+ 28. Qxe4 dxe4 29. Rd1 1-0

Without checking with an engine, the exchange sacrifice after 21. .. Nxe4. Some idea that keeps your a8 Rook. Certainly there are holes round the White king, but the wave of pawns is usually enough to keep White in the game.

Hence the need to break the wave......

Again not checking with an engine or spending a long time analysing, but the manoeuvre 11...Qa5 12...Qb4 13...Qb7 doesn't make a particularly strong impression. Maybe you can play something like 11...Rb8 or 11...Qc7 instead?

Matt Fletcher wrote:Maybe you can play something like 11...Rb8 or 11...Qc7 instead?

Qc7 has been played in that position, but there's a problem in playing Rb8, that the a7 pawn would hang. Hence the Knight move of the Queen d8-a5-b4-b7 so as to cover a7 and free the Rook.

Black is marginally short of moves at move 11. There aren't any sensible pawn moves, minor piece moves or rook moves, so that just leaves the Queen.

Were it one of my games I would check with a database or engine the position just after the opening. I would then check the position when it had gone wrong or appeared so, just to make sure there wasn't a hidden resource. You then work between those positions to identify the exact move or moves where "equal chances" or "equality" no longer applied.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ... there's a problem in playing Rb8, that the a7 pawn would hang.

Sure - but doesn't b2 hang as well?

Roger de Coverly wrote: Black is marginally short of moves at move 11. There aren't any sensible pawn moves, minor piece moves or rook moves, so that just leaves the Queen.

Yes, I was struggling to find many sensible moves but the overall plan with the queen just seemed to lose time. I've just fed the position to a computer which is happy with 11...Qa5 but thinks 12...Qb4 is ?! at best (moves such as 12...Ng4, ...Bd7, ...Rfb8, ...Bg4 being preferred).

It actually doesn't mind 11...Rb8 too much but does give White a small edge after 12.f5 Bd7 13.Qc2 Qa5 which looks similar to something you could get by following the lines above but with somewhat less flexibility for Black's in terms of rook position.

How I managed to ruin a winning position!
[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Soheil Hooshdaran"] [Black "FM Cameron wheeler"] [Result "*"] [ECO "C17"] [Opening "French"] [Variation "Winawer, Bogoljubow, 5...Ne7 6.Nb5"] [WhiteElo "1736"] [TimeControl "300"] [Termination "unterminated"] [PlyCount "124"] [WhiteType "program"] [BlackType "human"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. Bd2 Ne7 6. Nb5 Bxd2+ 7. Qxd2 O-O 8. f4 cxd4 9. Nf3 Nbc6 10. O-O-O f6 11. exf6 Rxf6 12. Nbxd4 Qb6 13. g3 Bd7 14. Bh3 Rc8 15. Rhe1 Nxd4 16. Nxd4 Rc4 17. f5 Nxf5 18. Nxf5 exf5 19. Qxd5+ Be6 20. Qd8+ Qxd8 21. Rxd8+ Kf7 22. Bg2 Rc7 23. a3 f4 24. gxf4 Rxf4 25. Rf1 Rxf1+ 26. Bxf1 Ke7 27. Ra8 b6 28. Bd3 h6 29. Kd2 Bc8 30. b4 g5 31. a4 Kd6 32. Ke3 h5 33. a5 bxa5 34. bxa5 h4 35. Rb8 g4 36. Rb5 Re7+ 37. Kd4 Rg7 38. Rd5+ Ke7 39. Re5+ Kf6 40. Rh5 g3 41. hxg3 hxg3 42. Rh1 g2 43. Rg1 Bb7 44. a6 Bc6 45. c4 Rg3 46. Be4 Rg4 47. Rxg2 Rxe4+ 48. Kc5 Re6 49. Rf2+ Ke7 50. Rh2 Bd7 51. Rh7+ Kd8 52. Kd5 Rxa6 53. c5 Kc7 54. Rg7 Rh6 55. Rg3 Rh5+ 56. Kd4 Rh4+ 57. Kd5 Bc6+ 58. Ke5 Re4+ 59. Kf6 a5 60. Ra3 a4 61. Rg3 Bd5 62. Kf5 Kc6 *
Where was my mistake?

soheil_hooshdaran wrote:How I managed to ruin a winning position!

When did you think it was winning? I didn't really see the ending as better for White because of Black's play with the King side pawns.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

soheil_hooshdaran wrote:How I managed to ruin a winning position!

When did you think it was winning? I didn't really see the ending as better for White because of Black's play with the King side pawns.

The Q-side majority was a plus in my position

Some positional mistakes I noticed.

1. Letting him trap your rook on a8 which led to...

2. Moving your queenside pawns up early, unsupported by the king - you need the king to be very active in such an endgame to stand good chances of winning.

3. Blundering a bishop, letting it get pinned (Ke3 would have got your king back to defend against the passed pawn.

4. Not bringing your king back onto the queenside to defend - the position COULD be a draw if the rooks came off, as his bishop is the wrong colour to promote the a pawn.

soheil_hooshdaran wrote:The Q-side majority was a plus in my position

Well, maybe, but not a significant one - black had a perfectly mobile majority too. Just an ending If anything his king round move 26 looks a tiny bit more useful than yours.

Calling the position winning seems like a dramatic misevaluation, which (as per sundry books) rather tends to lead to awful play as you end up looking for (fabricating!) lines to justify the mistaken evaluation.

I lost to a girl, some 350 rating point less than me, in a rapid game:
[Event "16th Rapid Farvardin cup"] [Site "Fars Chess assdociation"] [Date "2016.04.14"] [Round "?"] [White "Vatan, Parmis"] [Black "Houshdaran, soheil"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 4. Bc4 e6 5. d3 Ne7 6. f4 d5 7. Bb3 Nxb3 8. axb3 d4 9. Nce2 Nc6 10. Nf3 Be7 11. O-O O-O 12. Ng3 f5 13. exf5 exf5 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15.fxe5 Bg5 16. Qh5 Bxc1 17. Raxc1 g6 18. Qh6 Qe7 19. Rce1 Be6 20. Ne2 Qg7 21.Qxg7+ Kxg7 22. Nf4 Rae8 23. Ra1 a6 24. Rfe1 Bc8 25. Ra5 b6 26. Raa1 g5 27. Nd5 Re6 28. Nc7 Re7 29. Nxa6 Bb7 30. b4 Ra8 31. b5 g4 32. b4 cxb4 {and Black went on to lose}

I know I wasn't lost, but was 15...Bg5 a good move or was anything wrong with it? How can I use the weakness of the dark squares around the White King, or as I own the two Bishops, how can I put the light-squared Bishop to use?

I would have played 15...Qd5 and seen how she was going to defend her e-pawn before doing anything else. By my reckoning, you want your queen and bishop lined up on the long diagonal, and your QR on e8.

I agree, and would add another thing which is frequently overlooked: keep the two bishops! Two bishops are generally much stronger v bishop and knight than is one bishop against one knight. (Of course there are exceptions but this does not look like one of them).

Also, if you don't want to lose to lower graded opponents, don't play juniors in rapid games
(or any kind of game really but certainly not rapid!).