Beyond the horizon

Come the fifth round of the Major Open and I was feeling thoroughly miserable. Despite feeling motivated and well prepared at the start of the tournament, it was clear that things just weren't working for me and I found myself languishing on only 1½/4. Sometimes you are simply not on form, and there isn't much you can do about it except look ahead to the next game.

I now had white against a junior, 1744-rated Michelle Chan. I didn't find this an easy game to prepare for, as courtesy of Lichess I could tell she has a fairly good repertoire with 1. e4 e5, and left the final decision on what to play to gut instinct at the board. Chan apparently found it even harder though, since she chose to run away from that repertoire! I'm always happy when that happens, and as usual in such circumstances her unfamiliarity with the resulting positions told against her. My awful form was still there though, and it proved necessary to win this game more than once:

[Event "Major Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "2022.08.17"] [Round "5.28"] [White "Young, Daniel J"] [Black "Chan, Michelle Ngo Yu"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C79"] [WhiteElo "2020"] [BlackElo "1744"] [Annotator "Young,Daniel J"] [PlyCount "121"] [EventDate "2022.??.??"] 1. e4 {(1:30)} e5 {(1:30)} 2. Nf3 {From the database I was expecting an Archangelsk or similar ...b5/...Bc5 line, which I don't have a good score against. I dutifully prepared for it anyway, but was quite seriously ready for a King's Gambit as well and only took a sensible pill/chickened out (delete to taste) at the board.} Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O d6 {So, no Archangelsk. In the postmortem I asked my opponent about this and she said that "you seemed to know a lot about openings!" - scaring people away from their own repertoire by reputation isn't something I had really considered, but it's a strength worth keeping in mind.} 6. Re1 Bd7 7. c3 g6 8. d4 Qe7 {Here it looked quite convenient to play} 9. d5 Nb8 10. Bxd7+ {(1:27)} Nbxd7 {(1:27)} 11. c4 $14 { , with the intention of reaching a Classical King's Indian where Black has been deprived of her light-squared bishop, so the grand kingside attack is a lot less powerful.} Bg7 12. Nc3 O-O 13. Rb1 h6 14. b4 Nh5 15. Be3 {(58)} Qe8 $6 {(1:25) From this move I got the impression that Black either didn't know what to do or didn't realise the danger she was in. The move aims to defend the h5 knight after ...f5, exf5 and ...gxf5, but this was not necessary.} (15... f5 { was more worrying to me, not giving me time to regroup with Nd2, f2-f3 and Bf2 as in a real Classical KID. However, White can just keep pressing ahead on the queenside.} 16. c5 (16. exf5 $2 gxf5 {My opponent thought I could play 17. Nxe5, but it fails because of the hanging knight on c3. Instead I was wondering about} 17. Ng5 $2 {, but} Nf4 $1 18. Bxf4 hxg5 19. Bd2 g4 $17 { casts doubt on that idea.}) 16... dxc5 17. exf5 gxf5 18. bxc5 Nxc5 19. Nxe5 Bxe5 20. Bxc5 Qxc5 21. Rxe5 $16 {Opening the centre can only benefit White given the state of Black's king.}) 16. Nd2 {Now I was happy.} f5 17. f3 f4 18. Bf2 g5 19. c5 Qg6 20. Nc4 {(53)} Rab8 $6 {(1:12) This didn't seem right - Black cannot hold the queenside together in the long run so has to seek her fortune on the other wing. But I was struggling to see exactly how to break through.} 21. Na5 $6 Ndf6 22. h3 Ng3 23. cxd6 cxd6 $2 24. b5 (24. Bxg3 $142 { I was reluctant to give up the f4 square to Black, but this is the whole point of the early bishop trade! Black cannot break the carapace of pawns on light-squares.} fxg3 25. Ne2 Nh5 26. Nc4 Rbc8 27. Ne3 $18) 24... h5 {Now Black has genuine counterplay on the kingside.} 25. bxa6 {(31)} bxa6 {(31)} 26. Nc6 $6 (26. Rxb8 $142 Rxb8 27. Nc6 {Centralising with tempo.} Re8 28. Bxg3 (28. Qd3 $143 $6 g4 $132 {would give me cause to regret delaying the capture on g3 for so long.}) 28... fxg3 29. Ne2 h4 30. Qd3 $14 {and the a-pawn will be lost.}) 26... Rbe8 27. Rb7 $6 {Again, Bxg3 was necessary, before Black has time to play ...g4. Neither side picks up on this!} Rf7 $2 28. Rxf7 Kxf7 29. Qd3 g4 30. Bxg3 $6 {(22) Much too late.} (30. Kh2 $142 $1 {unexpectedly covers everything. } Qh6 (30... gxh3 $2 31. gxh3 Qh6 32. h4 $18 {and Black is at a standstill whilst the kingside opens to White's advantage (the g-file!) and the queenside is no improvement.}) 31. Qxa6 Kg8 32. Rg1 gxh3 33. gxh3 Ng4+ $1 34. Kg2 $1 Nxf2 35. Kxf2 Qg5 36. a4 $16 {Black has managed to anchor the knight on g3, but needs something fast against the march of the a-pawn. The light-squared bishop is very much missed.}) 30... fxg3 $6 {(1:00)} (30... gxh3 $142 $1 {I only realised the strength of this in the postmortem - thankfully for me, Black really played far too fast and missed the chance altogether.} 31. Ne2 fxg3 32. gxh3 Nd7 33. Kg2) 31. fxg4 $6 {Nervy.} (31. Qxa6 $142 {Black doesn't actually have a threat, and} gxh3 32. Qa7+ Kf8 33. gxh3 $16 {leaves White in command thanks to the a-pawn.}) 31... hxg4 32. Qxg3 gxh3 $6 33. Qxg6+ $6 {Played quickly, but this ending is not as simple as I thought.} Kxg6 34. gxh3 Rh8 35. Re3 {(19)} Bh6 {(57)} 36. Rf3 Bf4 {(Black draw offer)} 37. Ne7+ Kf7 $2 { As earlier in the game, Black is too willing to passively defend.} (37... Kg5 $142 {allows} 38. Nf5 Nxe4 $1 39. Nxe4+ Kxf5 40. Nxd6+ Kg6 $11 {and White struggles to make progress as the knight cannot find a stable square.}) 38. Nf5 Rd8 39. Kf2 $2 Bd2 {I missed this completely. Now I have to play artificially to defend e4.} 40. Ng3 {(12)} Bxc3 $2 {(53)} (40... Kg6 $142 41. Nd1 Rc8 $11 { and Black gets active.}) 41. Nh5 $6 {This seemed very clever: with Black's central pawns on dark squares I wanted to exchange off her knight and leave her with a bad bishop. The issue is the pesky rook, which is given more scope this way.} (41. Rxc3 $142 Rb8 42. Kf3 Rb4 43. Ra3 Rc4 $8 44. h4 $16 {offers no such luxury.}) 41... Bd4+ 42. Ke2 Kg6 43. Nxf6 Rf8 $2 {In combination with the next move, this is decisive - Black wants to exchange rooks, but this allows me to reach the promised land and a pure good knight vs. bad bishop ending with an extra pawn.} (43... Rc8 $142 {the rook must play!}) 44. Ng4 $6 Rxf3 $4 45. Kxf3 {(9)} Kg5 {(52)} 46. Kg3 Bc3 47. Ne3 Be1+ 48. Kf3 Bb4 (48... Kh4 $143 $4 49. Ng2+) 49. Nf5 a5 50. a4 {(29) Fixing the last pawn on the same colour as the bishop.} Bc5 {(1:16)} 51. Ke2 Kf4 52. Kd3 Bb4 53. h4 {The winning method - White uses the extra pawn as a decoy to draw Black's king away from the e-pawn, allowing the white king to infiltrate the queenside.} Kg4 54. Kc4 Be1 55. Nxd6 {(23)} Kxh4 {(1:06)} 56. Nf7 Kh5 57. d6 Kg6 58. d7 Bh4 59. d8=Q Bxd8 60. Nxd8 {(21)} Kf6 {(1:03)} 61. Kd5 {Despite the now-habitual array of missed opportunities on both sides, I at least understood both the opening and the endgame better than my opponent, and I was happy to have ground out what had become a difficult ending, though in hindsight it needed a lot of co-operation.} 1-0

In the previous post I alluded to Botvinnik's teaching about a narrow repertoire and the "chess horizon"; here we can see other side of the coin. My opponent doesn't normally go anywhere near the King's Indian as Black, but I have dabbled in it through the years and know that a Classical Variation with Black's light-squared bishop removed from the board is something that White should be happy with. Therefore I could more easily assess the merits of 9. d5, forcing this very structure. Equally, in this opening Black has to accept that her queenside is bound to melt in the medium term, and that her fate is tied to the success or otherwise of the kingside attack. Instead she tried to defend, which merely lengthened the ticking clock for White's queenside play even further.

Despite all these advantages, I still came dangerously close to throwing it away. Firstly I couldn't settle on quite how to crown my queenside breakthrough and only achieved mass liquidation. Secondly, and partly the cause of the first factor, for all my alleged understanding of the King's Indian, I had a blind spot for the Bxg3 exchange and just how utterly this halts the attack on my king. Leaving Black with an unopposed dark-squared bishop is not something to be done lightly in a King's Indian, but with the centre closed that is not relevant, as the eventual course of the game makes very clear.

One final point - with good reason I am not renowned as an endgame specialist, but I was pleased with the way I brought home the good knight vs. bad bishop position. Both in round two against Skalski and this game, good technique was almost the only thing I could rely on. Quite a reversal from the usual state of affairs! As we'll see in due course though, this breakthrough has not really survived the return from Torquay.

Back to a 50% score then, and past the halfway point. In round six I received another opening surprise, but of a very different kind.