Source: http://blog.sandiegochessclub.org/2006/06/the-insane-ravings-of-class-player.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 05:10:05+00:00

Document:
...in which I post each Wednesday's game that I play, with my own (doubtless horrificly flawed) annotation, for all to laugh at/critique/offer improvements on.
This week, in my return to the SDCC after four long years away at college, I played against Allen Burke, who made an opening error on the White side of the French Advance and could not quite recover despite fiery attempts to get some counterplay.
I’ve never been a very big fan of this move and am now prepared to call it refuted. Black has a lot of excellent options when White chooses this very fleeting pin. He can play 5…Bd7 which releases the pin, moves the bad bishop to a somewhat better square, and sets a clever little trap based on the knight releasing the pin, for instance 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. Nf3? (or some such) …Nxe5. 7. Nxe5 Bxb5 or 7. Bxd7+ Nxd7; in either case, White has lost an important pawn for nothing.
Still, petty traps aside, I think the best way to deal with this ghost threat is 5…Qb6, which comes right back at White by kicking the bishop and putting more pressure on d4.
Also not a very good move, but White has nothing better. The only other real option is 6. Ba4?, which concedes a critical tempo to Black, which the second player will use to develop overwhelming force against d4 with moves like Ne7-f5. In the long term, White will have to waste more time getting the bishop off the queenside, where Black will eventually start to eat up lots of space. Still, the text is not that healthy either, as we see.
Now Black has a very strong game. The bad bishop can now rain the proverbial fire on the White kingside from a6, preventing White from castling Kingside, the former black b-pawn can eventually be used as another attacker on d4 after the elder c-pawn takes on d4 (fully replacing the attacking power of the knight), Black retains the two bishops and White loses them in a position increasingly likely to be forced open, and White has lost his light squared bishop, a critical piece in any White attack on Black’s Kingside, usually White’s best plan in the Advance. This is about as good as Black can possibly be coming out of the Advance variation.
Black also contemplated an immediate center-crushing c5, but decided that it was best to keep White from castling first.
Now White cannot prevent Black from effectively isolating the d-pawn and wresting away control of the center (not to mention taking aim at the c-file). Further, if White trades bishops, Black gains a tempo on the recapture by the knight; he wants to play this knight to either e7 or (as events develop), h6, both of which allow movement to a square that attacks the soon-to-be-weakened e5 pawn.
White sees Black’s plan to add the knight as an attacker (either against d4, or against e5 if the d4 pawn is terminated) and decides to strike first. 10. Bb2, despite the admission of a wasted tempo, still seems better; White can gain a little more time to defend himself while Black brings out the knight, although it’s unclear how White will do this. The best plan would probably involve Nd2 followed by Rc1 while Black plays Nh6, Nf5, and then initiates combat on d4. Rc1 after whatever mayhem takes place on d4 would prevent Black from completely dominating the c-file, as he does in the text.
If 15. Qd4??, then 15…Qe2 mate. Such is the power of Black’s light-squared bishop, which has been transformed from a pathetic non-piece in most French advance lines into a terror that is killing a good deal of White's defensive possibilities.
Now Black owns the c-file.
Even though it’s ultimately doomed to failure, White should get credit for going down swinging. This move activates the only piece that can possibly be activated in the position, and also scares Black into wasting a bit of time.
Black was afraid of the White pawn moving to h5, and so decides to block it. Black should not fear 18. h5, though. Though the knight is prevented from executing the Ne7-Ng6 maneuver, Nh6-Ng4 works just as well for the purpose of threatening the e5 pawn now that no pawn can cover the g4 square. Black also fails to see that White probably had no intention of ever playing h5. White’s intention was probably to play Rh3 (which finally frees the f3 knight, since the White rook can now intercede on the e-file after the knight moves) as soon as possible; though Black saw that White wanted to play Rh3, he was a bit overly scared of h5. Though 17…h5 is hardly fatal, an immediate Nh6 was much better; the text loses a tempo, and if White's coming attack had more sting to it, this would have been critical.
White is valiantly trying for some play on the Kingside, and, as is soon made clear, is willing to give up significant material for any amount of freedom from the crushing immobility he has been suffering since move 14.
Threatening either mate or fatal loss of material, but White still has one last gasp.
This looks a little scary, but White has nothing. The White Queen cannot penetrate further into Black’s defenses, and Qg6 is easily met by Rhg8. White needs more force into this attack, and Black will have far too much time to attack the White King if White tries to bring anything else into position to attack the Black King (if indeed he can). It’s now clear that White is doomed, and the end soon follows.
Intending what? This just makes it very easy for Black.
Retreating the King to the first rank loses immediately to …Rc8+, after which many a mate is possible. Kh2 is also possible, though it works no better than the text does.
At the very least, Black can trade Queens and simplify to an easily-won endgame, all the mating nets that Black probably missed aside. Given how White’s game turned out, I think that playing 6. Ba4 instead of 6. Bxc4?! is better, despite the tempo it cedes to Black. In either case, this game goes to show that 5. Bb5 is a very bad idea for White in the main line French Advance.
Before I get to this week's game, last week's game! Last week I played the talented Jason Qu, who caught me making a tactical oversight, then proceeded to grind me into the dirt for the win. Anderson vs. Qu 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 White does not enjoy playing the Sicilian on either side of the board, and especially dislikes the ambuguity of the Najdorf variation. 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Nf3?! White is following the somewhat questionable plan of pushing the e-pawn. Usually White's ideas involve solidifying the center with the bishops and bringing the just-moved knight back to b3 instead of f3. Importantly, on f3, the knight prevents the option of f4, usually a viable attacking weapon for White in such Sicilians as this. 6. ...d6 7. Bd3 Nf6 8. O-O Be7 9. Re1 Nbd7 10. Bf4 e5 White would simply not let up on the idea of playing e5, so Black decides to do it himself. White now fixates on the weakened d5 square and decides that he'll stick a knight there come hell or high water. 11. Bg5 O-O 12. Nd2?! White's plan now is the painfully-long knight tour Nf2-d2-f1-e3, at which point the knight will be aiming at d5. This gives Black a goodly number of tempi, though. 12. ...b5 13. a3 Bb7 14. Nf1 Rfe8 15. Ne3 Qb6 White is having trouble with his d5 plan. Assuming that White either retreats his dark-square bishop or exchanges it for the f6 knight first, White still can't play a knight safely to d5- Black will be able to trade off two pairs of pieces and leave White with a very weak pawn on d5, one on which Black will be able to put significant pressure. Unfortunately, White never got as far as that, seeing only "Hey, I can play a knight there NOW, because if he tries to recapture with the knight, I'll exchange off the dark-squared bishops and have a pretty good game." 16. Ned5? Bxd5 17. Nxd5?? It was bad enough to drop a pawn, but White, happily blitzing along through his moves, doesn't see the problem and dives right in. 17. ... Nxd5 Oops, now White sees it. The knight now guards the bishop, and White's dark-squared bishop is hanging. If White takes the knight, he loses the bishop, and if he takes the bishop, Black recaptures with the knight and has gotten away a knight up. Instead of retreating the bishop and trying to tighten things up, White makes yet another mistake. 18. Bxe7? Exchanging when down is rarely a good idea. 18. ...Nxe7 19. Qf3 Now White adopts a "mate or die" attitude, something that doesn't work very often. 19. ...Ng6 20. a4 bxa4 21. Bc4 Rf8 22. Rxa4 Qxb2 23. Rea1 Qxc7 24. Bd5 Rb8 25. g4 Rb1+ 26. Rxb1 Qxb1+ 27. Kg2 Nf4+ 28. Kg3 Nxd5 29. exd5 Nc5 30. Ra3 Qg6 31. h4 f5 32. g5 h6 33. Kh3 hxg6 34. h5?? Boldly continuing the Kingside attack (and unlearningly playing too quickly) to the end. 34. ...g4 35. Resigns. White is lost even WITHOUT dropping the queen. The young Mr. Qu plays an error-free game and punishes White's repeated oversights with precision.
And I'm back. Law school, sadly, takes up even more time than chess. I'm way behind, and this game was played on June 20th. However, it was not played at the SDCC. I used to belong to the La Jolla Chess Club in my more youthful youth (where I garnered my somewhat sandbaggish 1270 rating), and that club was run by NM Alex London, a great guy and an excellent player who never tires of telling the story of his victory over a middle-period Bobby Fischer. Back in June, my best friend Theron and I went to Alex's apartment and played a three-hour game against him; Theron and I discussed the situation on the board and came to a consensus about the move to make. Theron has brilliant tactical flair and I love playing quiet, strategic positions, so it was thought we might eke out a nice result against the master (indeed, we had obtained a more or less winning position from the White side of a Ruy Lopez from an earlier visit to Alex before that game was mysteriously "adjourned." No one can now find the scoresheet). This time, we volunteered to take the black pieces. NM London v. Anderson & Pummer 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 Theron knows the King's Indian Defense better than I know my standard 1.d4 responses, so we decided to go with it. 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f4 London plays the Four Pawn Attack variation of the KID and dares us to do our worst. 5. ...O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Bd3 c5 Challenging the White center and begging White to play e5, which would turn his center into a more static target. 8. dxc5 Nxc5 9. Bc2 Re8 10 .O-O Qb6?! This creates a discovered check threat and puts pressure on the White b-pawn, but much better moves are available. Significantly, this move blocks Black's own b-pawn, which should be used to challenge White's center even further via b5. 11. Be3! Blocking the discovered check and daring Black to take the knight's pawn. 11. ...Qxb2?! It is highly questionable whether accepting White's pawn offer is worth it. Black's Queen is off balance and White will build up positional advantages as his price for the pawn. 12. Bd4 Qb6 Like a car thief making for the state line. 13. e5! Rending the position open and showing the superiority of the White pieces. 13. ...Nfd7 14. Nd5 Qd8 15. exd6 Bxd4+?! 16. Nxd4 exd6 17. Nb5 Uh-oh. Because of Black's bishop exchange, White is in position for a deadly fork. 17. ...Nb6 Black goes for broke and tries to eat more White pawns instead of wasting tempo saving the exchange. 18. Ndc7 Nxc4 19. Nxe8 Ne3? A fork of one's own, but it is illusory. 20. Qxd6 Qxd6 21. Nbxd6 Nxc2 22. Rac1 Black can't save both knights. 22. ...Ne3 23. Rf3 Resigns 1-0 Black's anti-positional 12th move caused White to offer a pawn in exchange for massive positional compensation. Black greedily accepted and ceded permanent initiative to White. The tactical error on move 15 only accelerated an inevitable process.
Next up is my game against Anthony Harbone. This one left me feeling tired at the end. I've faced off against Mr. Harbone several times- all of them have been long, drawn-out battles, and none of them have scored me even half a point. Mr. Harbone is quiet and unassuming in person, and he carries the deceptive rating of 1600, but he is utterly merciless over the board. Beware. Anderson vs. Harbone d4 Nf6 c4 c5 d5 e6 Nc3 exd5 cxd5 d6 e4 g6 Bg5 Bg7 Bb5+ Nbd7 Nf3 O-O O-O a6 Bxd7 Bxd7 e5 dxe5 Nxe5 Bf5 Qb3? What does the Queen hope to accomplish here? There is no real threat to the b-pawn, and Qd2 would have worked much better if Rd1 was White’s goal. On b3 the lady is out of play. 14. …Qc7 Bf4? Pins cut both ways, and though White has a threat in 16. Nxg6, it is easily dispelled. 15. …Nh5 Nxg6 Nxf4 Nxf8 Rxf8 White had little choice after his error in calculation but to take rook and pawn for two pieces. White has a passed pawn, but must find a way to tame black’s scud-like bishops. Rfe1 Be5 g3 Nh3+ Kg2 Kh8 Making way for the rook. Re3?! After 21. Nd1 White can hold off Black’s tactical threats, though his long term chances still seem pretty bad. Now a forcing combination allows White’s rook and poorly-placed Queen to be forked. 21. …Bd4 Rf3 Bg4 Rd3 Rg8 Rf1 c4 d6? White is apparently a member of the “hope they blunder right back” school of thought. White could have done better by letting go of the Queen and Rook in exchange for the remainder of Black’s minor pieces, but it’s almost certainly a lost game either way. 25. …Qc6+ Resigns 0-1 Not a fun game for yours truly.
Throughout this short game, I became more and more confident. I thought I was slowly building up a nice, solid advantage against my opponent, Mark Lawless, and indeed I was. Sadly, slow build-ups of small advantages do not always guarantee victory, for reasons that will be clear. Lawless v. Anderson- C00 French Defense 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 I don't really like 2. Nf3 much in the French Defense. It just seems boring. 2. ...d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. h3?! Mr. Lawless, during this game and in the post-mortem, revealed a phobia of pins of any sort. A truly irrational fear is the only explanation for this tempo-wasting move. 4. ...Nf6 5. b3 Bd6?! Not the best idea. Black wants to put the Queen on e7 and bust White's fianchetto with Ba3, but this will take a long time. 6. Be2 O-O 7. O-O Bf5 8. Bb2 c5 I decided not to follow through with my Qe2 plan, figuring that if I could enable the d4 push, I'd have a nice positional advantage. 9. d4 Nc6 Black just has to stack pressure on d4 and forceWhite to cede the center by capturing on c5. 10. dxc5? Immediate capitulation. The pawn is already adequately protected, and though Black will continue to develop threats, White can take some time to bolster the d-pawn. 10. ...Bxc5 Black has superior development and a d-pawn that is cramping White, especially if it can stationed and secured on d4. 11. a3? Intending b4, but who cares? 11. ...Re8 12. b4 Bb6 13. Bb5 Along with the pin-phobia, a pin-mania exists, it would seem. 13. ...Qd6? Bad move. This allows c4, and Black has to retreat the Queen to either d7 or d8 anyway. 13. ...Qd7 would have allowed Black to respond to 14. c4 with 14...d4! 14. c4 dxc4?? Ha-ha! Now, Mr. Lawless, when you recapture, I'll simply place a rook on the d-file and crush you to death along that file! And then I'll-- 15. Qxd6 Oh. Right. Hanging queen. 15. ...Resigns 1-0 Look before you leap, folks.
Don't worry, I'm coming back soon with some more unbelievably puerile analysis from this most prolific of class players (Class B now, woohoo!) And I'll be back to the club soon as well to add some more games to my database so you all can analyze my horrifyingly bad style if you've got me up on the pairings page. Coming soon: Anderson v. Borges, 1/2-1/2, a cut and thrust center-counter battle. Anderson v. Castaneda, 1-0, a well-played game by Luis; he had me on the ropes until he stepped into an endgame cheap shot that was my last hope. Lower v. Anderson, 1/2-1/2, a very intense battle where both sides played aggressively (but not perfectly) until wearing each other out into an agreed draw. Wijaya v. Anderson, 0-1, the redoubtable Mr. Wijaya exposed a bad hole in my favorite French defense, but then opened himself up to a nasty tactical combo. Anderson v. Jensen, 1/2-1/2, Rich and I fight it out to a tough King, Knight, and Pawns endgame, where both of us blow several wins before agreeing to a draw. Aiello v. Anderson, 0-1, the infamous game from the Reserve Championship. Roberto had completely busted me in the endgame, but I lashed out with a dubious (or more accurately, should-have-been-losing) sacrifice and shook things up enough to steal a win after an exhausting Queen v. Rook and Bishop endgame with a bunch of pawns still on the board. Anderson v. Broman, 1/2-1/2, with everything on the line, Vincent, who had an incredibly strong tourney, simply parries my assault and virtually guarantees his 1st place finish. Anderson v. Sweitzer, 0-1, Mr. Sweitzer cuts through a confusing middlegame quite skillfully and ends my slim hopes of stealing the Reserve trophy from under Mr. Broman's nose. Lower v. Anderson, 1-0, Marty deals with me quickly and efficiently in this rematch; he seemed to have a much better time of this opening the second game around. Anderson v. Kuhn, 1-0, Tom puts up an excellent fight after fumbling some material, but can't make up the difference.
It seems that h4 leads to good prospects and that you had all the chances here. Yes, it's almost certainly a draw with best play but I think you should have pushed here given your favorable position -- I remember being surprised when I was watching the game at the club and seeing the final position.
Yep, I've got it. I agree that the winning chances are mostly mine, but at the time I calculated that no matter what pawn pushes I executed over on the Kingside, Black would be able to just plant his King over there and prevent any trouble. I can't tell yet what kinds of positions flow if I had continued this game, but you're right; it is very hard for me to get in much trouble.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.