Wednesday, May 14, 2008

What would Anderssen do?

My wacky Wednesday entry today:

I was black this week at the club and happened upon this horrible position that had White's bishops coming down on my kingside like a meteor shower. I was impressed with the Lasker like Bishop sacs to open my position which was reached via a Blackmere gambit gone wildly like a Caro-Kan:


1.d4 d5 2.e4 c6 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 e6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Be3 Bd6 9.Bd3 0-0 10.Qe1 Qc7 ( better would have been a Nbd7. I totally underestimated the power of Qh4) 11.Qh4 h6 12.Bxh6 Nbd7 13.Qg5 g6 14.Bxg6

(for easy viewing click here)

I was in a tight spot and by rights I should have given him the point. But being who I am and the tenacious personality in a seemingly lost position... I played:

Kh8 15.Bh7 Nh5 This was a hard one to see but I figured exchanging the bishops was necessary. Time to liquidate the forces and bear down for a endgame with a rook versus minor piece.... I hoped.

16.Qxg4 Ndf6 17.Qh4 Kxh7 18.Bxf8 Rxf8 19.Ng5+ Kg6 20.Nge4



I thought about this awful predicament I got myself into knowing my opponent was 200 points lower rated than I but tactically sharp and more awake than I.

I bucked up and figured what the hell, " What would Anderssen DO?" I could liquidate even more but at the cost of a bishop and be a whole rook down. However, my opponent's second rook isn't active yet and I would have my minor pieces all over on the exposed king. He may have some tactical acuity, but I had TIME and calculation skills that were this shy of mediocre. ( duelling patzers). I played the following moves:

Bxh2+ 21.Qxh2 Qxh2+ 22.Kxh2 Ng4+ I calculated up to this juncture and saw that if the king tried to attack my knight on g4 I had f5 and could now set up a mating net!


Ilya Krasik of the Boston Blitz, during post game analysis, humbled me by saying " What are you so excited for? You are down a rook and should lose! All White should do is Play Kg1. Otherwise he loses."


Since I wasn't playing Ilya ( rated 2100+), the game went according to plan:

23.Kh3 f5 24.Rae1 Rh8 25.Rxf5

He panicked. This was not a Greek gift this time. This just gave me back the game. It happens to all of us. He was running short on time. exf5 26.Nd6 Nf2+ 27.Kh2 Nf6+ 28.Kg1 N6g4 29.Re6+ Kg7 I can't go to g5 because of the forking checking on f7.

30.Nxf5+ Kf7 31.Re2 Rh1# *

A wild ride indeed. As ugly as this duckling was... here was the swan that got me the point:







3 comments:

transformation said...

lovely.

blunderprone = experience times fun squared.

drunknknite said...

Hehe, I agree with Ilya, but it was a nice idea in spite of this. You don't have much going for you in that position.

Way to take lemons and make lemonade.

Anonymous said...

so nice, so so so nice...