By Julien Kloeg
Julien is a 17 year old from Poortugaal, Netherlands and rated 2265 on www.schemingmind.com - Here Julien treat us to a sparkling tactical miniature from a blitz game. If you have any questions about his game you can contact him at julienkloeg@orange.nl
Here follows a game I much enjoyed playing. I have chosen not to mention my opponent’s name as he was quite sore when the game reached its conclusion and of course it’s the game that matters, not the players. I hope you like it and I also hope that my annotations will be of help to you. My intention is that it will increase your tactical awareness both offensively and defensively, so that you know both how to expoit your opponent’s mistakes and what kind of mistakes you, yourself should avoid.
1.d4 c5 2.e4!?
The Smith-Morra Gambit. This anti-sicilian pawn sac’s key position is reached mostly via [1.e4c5 2.d4!?]. White’s intention is not to recapture with his queen if black plays [2..cxd4] which explains the name (“gambit”). Instead, white will play [3.Nf3] when [3..e5 4.c3] would be a proper gambit which is commonly known to give white good chances of obtaining an interesting tactical game and an advantage. If black knows what he’s doing, however, there’s nothing for him to be afraid of. So why did I choose to play this opening if it doesn’t promise white anything if black responds properly? Just for the fun of it. No matter what black does, an open, tactical game will ensue. Furthermore, there are a lot of traps to fall for, which I will not discuss here, but perhaps in another article. [2.d5 This move would probably lead to a Benoni or Benko Gambit and is objectively better. White loses his advantage immediately if he takes the pawn, when black will develop very quickly and has, in my opinion, a nice initiative ] 2…Nf6 [2...cxd4 3.Nf3 Nf6÷ white cannot claim an advantage ]
3.e5 Nd5 4.c3
Transposing to an anti-sicilian line that I like. [1.e4c5 2.c3Nf6 3.e5Nd5 4.d4, Alapin Sicilian] Theoretically this might not be best, as black’s choice of move order doesn’t seem optimal, but it seemed like a good practical choice at the time and it certainly turned out well. [some off-hand analysis of what is probably the best move: 4.c4 Nb4 5.dxc5 Qc7 6.Nf3 N8c6 7.a3 Na6 8.Nc3 Nxc5 9.b4 Ne6 10.Nd5 Qb8 11.Bd3!? Nxe5 12.0–0²] 4…e6 5.Nf3 Be7 6.Bd3 this structure is reminiscent of the French Defense. Note, however, that white has pawns on central squares and a significant space advantage. Black’s d5-knight is actually in the way here: he would like to have his pawn there. In these types of positions, the development of black’s king’s knight is usually postponed. Viz. for instance the Milner-Barry Gambit in the French Advance. The plan black chooses is certainly not the best. As the individual moves look alright, I decided not to put an “?!” behind the moves but rather give the plan a ‘dubious’.
6…Nc6 7.h4!?
Stopping black from castling, as we will see.
7…0–0?
White’s whole play has been aimed against this move. As it turns out, he has taken rather effective measures against it. However, what is black to do if he can’t castle? If anyone has suggestions, I would like to hear them.[7...cxd4 8.cxd4 (8.0–0?! dxc3 9.Nxc3 Nxc3 10.bxc3 Qa5 11.Qe2 Qxc3) 8...Ndb4 9.Nc3 Nxd3+ (9...0–0 10.Bxh7+) 10.Qxd3 Nb4 11.Qe4 d5 12.exd6 Bxd6 13.a3 Qa5 14.0–0 0–0 15.Bd2 Nd5 16.Rfe1÷]
8.Bxh7+!Kh8
[8...Kxh7 the acceptance of the sacrifice would be immidiately fatal. I’ll just let the analysis speak for itself: 9.Ng5+ Kg6 a) 9...Kh6 10.Qd3! (10.Nxf7+ Kh7 11.Nxd8 is also quite sufficient ) 10...f5 11.exf6 g6 12.h5! Rxf6 13.Nxe6+! Kh7 14.hxg6+ Kg8 15.Rh8+! Kxh8 16.Qh3+ Kg8 17.Qh7#; b) 9...Kh8 10.Qh5+ Kg8 11.Qh7#; c) 9...Kg8 10.Qh5 Bxg5 11.hxg5 f5 12.g6 Qh4 13.Qxh4 Rf6 14.Qh8#; 10.Qd3+ f5 11.exf6+ Kxf6 12.Qf3+ Kg6 13.h5+ Kh6 14.Qe4 Rf5 15.Nxe6+ Kh7 16.Qxf5+ Kg8 17.Nxd8 Nf6 18.Nxc6 dxc6 19.Qg6+-]
9.Ng5!!
A lot of tactics have to be seen in order to justify this move. I might have played it instantly, though, for it was the first move my intuition showed me. Intuition is in my view a strangely underrated aspect of chess. Everyone knows how important pattern recognition is. I think that the goal of all chess work concerning tactics and the point of gaining experience is that you learn to recognize certain tactical patterns, sometimes subliminally. And this subliminal recognition of tactical patterns is precisely what intuition in chess is mostly about. The same goes for studying complicated endgames: at some point you just ‘know’ what the best move in a given position is because you have seen something similar before and thus spare yourself the necessity of calculating everything, which would be humanly impossible. Here I instantly recognized that I could offer another piece to open the h-file. A two-minute calculation confirmed this. It’s important to always back up your tactics with solid calculation to make sure there is no refutation. There are exceptions. Examples of such exceptions are for instance the famous Kasparov – Topalov ‘king hunt’ game and the incredible tactical displayTal – Vooremaa (many of Tal’s combinations were impossible to calculate to the end).
9…g6 10.h5!
9…Bxg5 11.hxg6 Bxc1
My opponent might as well have resigned here. This move makes it clear that he, now, too, appreciated the tactical possibilities this position would give me. It is even possible that he wanted to give me the opportunity to display the most beautiful finish my concept offered. I assume that he wasn’t just eager to grab as much material as possible which would be the bonehead approach.
12.Bg8+! Kxg8 13.Rh8+!
[13.Qh5] 13…Kxh8 [13...Kg7 14.Rh7+ Kg8 15.Qh5 Nxe5 16.dxe5 Bd2+ 17.Nxd2 Qf6 18.exf6 Nxf6 19.gxf7+ Rxf7 20.Qxf7#]
14.Qh5+ Kg8 15.Qh7# 1–0
Checkmate. As can readily be understood, I was very excited with this game and I was at that point already looking forward to analysing it at home. And I can tell you that I really enjoyed it, so I sincerely hope that you liked my annotations as well as the game itself.
