November 9, 2024 Glen Rock Quads

Despite having less than 20 people in the Open November tournament, the competition was very decent and strong. Thus, leader Bobby Qian suddenly lost his first game and withdrew.  There were some other unexpected results. For me this tournament had also begun with many thrilling moments. For example I am a little disappointed by my first game with Jayden Chan. Formally it was a very short game but the tension was large and stressful. It is a game I want to discuss in this report.

     In this game I, playing Back, had applied one of my non-standard openings, Nimzowitsch Defence (do not confuse it with the Nimzo-Indian Defence started with 1. d4). This opening is characterized by the position 11 in the very upper part of the picture.  White in it has three main continuations, given by positions 12, 14, and 16. Position 12 was very easy for me (and I think for everybody playing this opening) since Black can easily develop all his pieces (this continuation has already occurred in my games with Julian Ma and Ari Lukatsky, you may read my reports). Having probably known this fact, my opponent had chosen the more complicated continuation characterized by position 14 (the continuation after moves 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 given by position 16 is for wise grandmasters…).       

     What is so special about position 14? At first glance Black can freely develop his c8-bishop by playing Bc8-f5 (what I did in the game). It looks like the French Defense, only better since the Black’s light-colored bishop is not immured.  But there is an essential defect of this pawn structure compared to the normal French Defense. It is in a location of c6-knight which blocks c7-pawn from moving c7-c5. An active plan “c7-c5 in the French Defense Opening” is an important part of any decent Black’s plan in this opening (more about it  – see the conclusions at the end of this report).

     But in order to execute this plan Black has to do many preliminary things: to relocate his c6-knight, to play e7-e6 (to prevent White from playing e5-e6 after chasing away f5-bishop in case of g2-g4, what happened in the game), to play a7-a6 (to prevent White from giving a check Bb5); somehow to develop his king’s side pieces and make castling.  It appears that such numerous tasks are very hard to perform. I had known that and was constantly looking for any good possibility to execute the tasks mentioned above successfully. 

     Fortunately my partner helped me to perform some of these tasks. He had played a strange move 4. Nc3, which let me relocate   

my c6-knight to b4 attacking c2-pawn.  But such a relocation of my knight had to be supported by some unusual ideas. These ideas are the following intentions or actions – after an obligatory White’s response by Bf1-b5 and Bb5-a4 (after c7-c6 pawn’s covering from a check) I had to play a7-a5 to prevent the White’s a2-a3 move chasing my b4-knight (if a2-a3 had been played I would have played a5-a4 and after a variant 4. Nc3 Nb4 5. Bb5+ c6 6. Ba4 b5 7. Bb3 a5 8. a3 a4 9. axb4 axb3 10. axb3 cxb3 White would have the triple b-pawns with an obvious Black’s compensation). So I came to the conclusion that I might force my opponent to play 8. a2-a4 (instead of 8. a2-a3 like in the variant  above)  which secures my b4-knight for a long time (actually he was good at that square all the game and constantly pressed c2-pawn).

     But almost every phenomenon has a different side. After the White’s move 8. a2-a4 I had to strengthen my b5-pawn. I had contrived a maneuver Ra8-c8 what indirectly defends my b5-pawn (if White had taken it he would have lost his c2-pawn!). However all such complicated ideas, as I said, had a different side, some defects, which Jayden had correctly used. He started attacking my king’s side flunk trying to open my king which, by the way, had not been casted yet since I had the big problems with the development of my g8-knight and b8-bishop.

     I was very concerned and thrilled about this situation and hoped that my creativity would save me. A critical position 17 occurred after I had just made my planned move 16…c5. But while making such a move I had noticed that White could have plenty of good and powerful possibilities in response of it. Some of them are given by the variant in the picture 16… c5 17. dxc5 Bxc5 18. Bxc5 Qxc5

19. axb5 d4 20. Rh3, leading to the Black‘s position 24, which shows the White’s beautiful resources. Thus, suddenly the h1-rook takes its own part in fighting, all other pieces are ready to not only defend a queen side flunk but to attack my king’s side flunk (for example some pieces might sacrifice themselves on e6 square…). Having seen all of these White’s resources and threats I had decided to offer Jayden a draw (so, the variant in the picture and other facts just mentioned give an answer to a question “Why did I offer a draw”).

     It is time to make some conclusions. Some of them are simple and obvious. If you play the French Defense opening and/or something like that, play actively in it, specifically because White has more space due to a strong pawn center which Black has to undermine. Some others are not so obvious. I still do not know where I have made a mistake (if there is such one) but in the process of the game development I really was feeling some problems; offering a draw confirms that. Well… - not all questions have the answers. Chess is inexhaustible!

Congratulations to Yefim Treger for winning our report contest, and a free entry to the tournament. If you want a chance to win a free entry into our Saturday Quads, email a report to icanewjersey@gmail.com, following these guidelines. We hope you guys have had a great week and we hope to see you at our next Quad which is November 16.  Enjoy and we hope to see you soon!

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