Post by Morrison

Posted: 8/25/2006 5:44 AM

Post subject: Interesting Chess Game

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xebra

Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203

I saw an interesting ~master level chess game recently. I know some of you guys are chess buffs, so enjoy! Varagona, S (2090) - Reeder, A (2180) Queen of Hearts, Montgomery, AL, 2006 1.d4 d5 Already a blunder from black, as 1...Nf6 is the only response. 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 An exercise for the inexperienced: why can't white follow this with 6.Nxd5? 6.e3 c6 7.Bd3 Bd6 8.Nf3 O-O 9.O-O Re8 10.Re1 Nf8 Probably better was 10...Bf8. 11.e4 dxe4 12.Nxe4 Be7 13.Bxf6 Bxf6 14.Nxf6+ gxf6 15.Rxe8 Qxe8 16.Qd2 Ng6 17.Re1 Be6 18.h4 Qb8 19.h5 Nf4 20.Bb1 Kh8 21.g3 Bd5! Clever. 22.Nh4 Nh3+ 23.Kh2 Ng5 24.Qd3 Qc8 25.Qf5? White is probably irrevocably lost here. 25...Qxf5 26.Bxf5 Ne6 27.a3 Nxd4 28.Re7 c5 29.Rd7 Nxf5 30.Rxd5 Nxh4 31.gxh4 Pay attention, these doubled rook pawns will get some action later ;) 31...b6 32.h6 Kg8 33.Rf5 Not that it matters since white is just forestalling the inevitable, but 33. Rd7 was better. 33...Re8 34.Rxf6 Re6 35.Rxe6 fxe6 36.Kg3 Kf7 37.Kf4 Kf6 38.a4 e5+ 39.Ke4 Ke6 40.h5 a6 41.f4 exf4 42.Kxf4 Kd5 43.Kf5 b5 44.axb5 axb5 45.Kf6 b4 46.Kg7 Ke6!! Woo! 47.Kxh7 Kf7 48.Kh8 b3 49.h7 c4 50.h6 c3 Here white resigned, but here is an interesting continuation: 51.bxc3 b2 52.c4 b1=N 52...b1=Q would be so passé! 53.c5 Nc3 54.c6 Nd5 55.c7 Ne7 56.c8=Q Ng6# 0-1. Here's a pgn if you want: http://www.geocities.com/xebranick/pgn.zip

Posted: 8/25/2006 5:51 AM

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Zurreco

Former player

Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA

Is there any way someone who isn't LagDotCom to show me what I need to view this file? I'm a big useless internet tough guy when it comes to .pgn files. Better yet, someone should make an animated .gif!

hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine

Posted: 8/25/2006 7:04 AM

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SXL

Joined: 2/7/2005
Posts: 571

pgn is a chess movie extension, yet I don't know what program to use it with. xebra, could you please post it on some chess games archive, where we could watch it within a classical, online java player ? if it were possible, it'd be great. (I'm thinking about this site whose address was posted once on those forums)

I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death - NAS

Posted: 8/25/2006 7:26 AM

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xebra

Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203

You can view it in notepad, it's just a plaintext record of the moves and the names of the players and some other facts if you care to stick them in. Any program that has anything at all to do with chess can view PGN files. Blitzin, (the ICC software), any chess frontend like WinBoard or XBoard, any chess engine like Fritz, Junior, Tiger, or Chessmaster ... they can all read PGNs. If you do a Google search for PGN, the third search result has links to a billion different programs that can read PGNs.

Posted: 8/25/2006 9:55 AM

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duu

Joined: 3/26/2006
Posts: 6
Location: Suomi

Quite a game it was. Nice variation in the end, though.

Posted: 8/25/2006 2:25 PM

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hopper

Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 804
Location: Canada

I haven't looked at the game yet, but the commentary certainly got my attention. The Dutch Defense is the only response to d4 now? I'm pretty sure that the Queen's Gambit hasn't fallen out of favor for black. Calling it a blunder is a ridiculous exaggeration.

TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.

Posted: 8/25/2006 2:53 PM

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xebra

Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203

I suggested the KID, not the Dutch. (The Dutch is 1.d4 f5.) Anyways, that was obviously tongue in cheek. It's well known that Kasparov and Fischer favor(ed) the KID.

Posted: 8/25/2006 5:53 PM
(Edited: 8/26/2006 9:25 PM)

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Saturn

Player (209)

Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451

Sure, 1....Nf6 is currently the most popular response to 1.d4 though I agree with hopper, 1....d5 is a absolutely solid and good one as well which in no way does decrease blacks winning chances. The only advantage 1....Nf6 has is black can delay it's defense and either go Kings Indian Defense or still switch to Queens Gambit or whatever. As for the Game, a really nice one. I did expect a stalemate situation but I didn't expect black will win that way. :-) Remembers me on this nice Study of J. Timman which has a similar winning structure:

White moves and wins For those who are interested good luck to find the correct line(s)! EDIT: Note that Black's King is standing on a1 and not h8.

See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun

Posted: 8/25/2006 5:53 PM

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hopper

Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 804
Location: Canada

It's true that Queen's Gambit became less popular in the last 50 years. Originally, it was pretty much the only response to d4.

Wikipedia wrote:

As the merits of 1.d4 started to be explored it was the Queen's Gambit which was played most often; more popular than all other 1.d4 openings combined.

Fischer briefly popularized the KID in the 70s, and Kasarov in the 80s. Chess theory is always evolving, of course, so openings gain and lose popularity all the time. KID appears to be declining in popularity at the moment.

Wikibooks wrote:

At World Class level, there is some concern that Black's concept is very committal, leading Former Champion Garry Kasparov to discontinue his use of the opening shortly before he retired from the game.

I don't personally care for the closed and Indian systems after d4. I realized that the comment was tongue-in-cheek, but a blunder is an immediate substantial loss of material or position, like losing a piece or falling into a mating trap -- that is, a move that one is unlikely to recover from. One could lightheartedly refer to d5 as unwise or ill-conceived, but blunder seemed a bit strong, so I decided to point it out. Far from being a blunder, it may be the most popular response to d5 at the grandmaster level, and it's my preferred move as black.

TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.

Posted: 8/26/2006 12:48 AM

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xebra

Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203

hopper wrote:

KID appears to be declining in popularity at the moment.

I did actually allude to that in my post. Anyways, it was just a bit of hyperbole and you took it seriously the first time. There's no need to come up with some ridiculous semantic justification, just have a good chuckle and let it be.

hopper wrote:

Wikibooks wrote:
At World Class level, there is some concern that Black's concept is very committal, leading Former Champion Garry Kasparov to discontinue his use of the opening shortly before he retired from the game.

That's not really accurate as far as I know. He said in an interview that he stopped playing the King's Indian because he didn't have the time to study it and the Najdorf to his satisfaction, so he started playing less demanding defenses against d4.

Posted: 8/26/2006 7:24 PM

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samurai_goroh

Editor, Player (53)

Joined: 12/25/2004
Posts: 634
Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico

I liked how black feinted & white got trapped & got into a zugzwang position :) For some reason, the PGN didn't worked when black promoted, wonder if it was the faut of the page I used or the file... BTW, I posted the game where I play correspondense chess, you can check it here: http://www.mrfixitonline.com/viewtopic.php?t=2255 Oh and about your diagram Saturn, black's king is in a1, correct? Or is it h8? I think it starts with something like: 1. Nc5-b3 Ka1-b1 2. Nb3-d2 Kb1-c1 3. Ne5-d3

I'm the best in the Universe! Remember that!

Posted: 8/26/2006 8:05 PM

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hopper

Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 804
Location: Canada

Nope, never took it seriously; you clearly knew enough about chess to know what a blunder is. In fact, I'd wager that you're a far better chess player than I am, considering that I'm 1600-1700 USCF on a good day. You were clearly being silly, so I tried to be silly in response by writing "The Dutch Defense is the only response to d4 now?" (the joke was on me, because I confused the Dutch with the KID, which is more absurd than the statement I was trying to make light of). That was going to be the whole post, but then I decided to explain the comment for the benefit of anyone who wouldn't know what I was talking about, so I added that d5 hadn't fallen out of favor. By the time I added that it was "a ridiculous exaggeration", which I was serious about, the post was no longer funny, but I wanted to be the first to respond to your statement about d5, so I left it as it was. I'm just glad that the merits of the move were debated academically and that the lack of emotion (or emoticons) in my objection didn't lead to a flame war. I had never considered using Wikipedia to study chess, but Wikipedia was one of Google's top suggestions when I searched for information about the Queen's Gambit.

TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.

Posted: 8/26/2006 9:19 PM

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Saturn

Player (209)

Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451

samurai goroh wrote:

Oh and about your diagram Saturn, black's king is in a1, correct? Or is it h8?

If not mentioned otherwise it's always displayed from White's side so Black's King is on a1 threatening to convert his a2 and b2 pawns or capturing a5/c5. Sorry for my unclear diagrams...

samurai goroh wrote:

I think it starts with something like: 1. Nc5-b3 Ka1-b1 2. Nb3-d2 Kb1-c1 3. Ne5-d3

In your line Black moves 2....Kc2 instead and since White isn't able to give more checks Black simply converts a new Queen in the next move and wins later. :-)

See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun