My opponent opted for a setup where he fianchettoes his king's bishop, which I can't recommend because of all the weak dark squares in his position. In the diagram above, I had to decide whether to play 8.Ba3 to take advantage of his opening choice.
8.Ba3 would be a mistake because of 8...e5! I saw this variation and wisely decided that since I opted for a slow setup (beginning with Nbd2, b3, etc), I should stay on that path and simply finish developing. I also noticed other variations, such as 8...Ne4 (when the knight can't be taken with Nxe4 due to the queen check on a5) that looked annoying for me to deal with, but Rybka points out that the only cause for concern was black's central play with ...e5.
19.Nb1!
I am quite fond of this move because it seems unnatural, but it does everything that white needs - protects the bishop, threatens to move into b5, and activates a rather passive piece all at once. My opponent wasn't so obliging as to take on a3, and instead the following was played
19...Bb4 20.Bxb4 axb4 21.Nbd2 e5?
As is often the case when one person has been defending passively for a long time, lashing out is not to be recommended. Black's central break only accentuates his weaknesses.
22.dxe5 Nxe5 23.Nxe5 Rxe5 24.Nf3 Re8 25.Nd4! Ne4 26.Nc6 Nc3 27.Kf1
All of black's pawns will now fall and Vladimir could have resigned with a clear conscience. As I already discussed, though, it seems that these days resigning just isn't cool anymore. 1-0.
Gardner, Robert VS Gluckie, Jamin
In this game I was worse for a long time after making a couple dubious decisions in the middlegame, and the diagrammed position is critical. If black doesn't make the right move he is lost.44...Rxa3??
I didn't spend enough time calculating this move (it was the culmination of a preceding variation) and in that line I thought that I was fine after the following forced sequence.
45.Rxg7 Ke5 46.Rg6
And it suddenly became apparent that white would play Re6+ next, forcing my king away from the pawn, and he would reach the Lucena. I had overlooked this intermezzo check, and after playing a few more moves I resigned.
I'm still not sure if this endgame could have been saved on move 44, but I certainly would have had better chances with something like Rg2+ or Kd6.
Gluckie, Jamin VS Wang, Harris
The position after 6.Bd3 is shown above.6...dxc4?
Black fails to realize that white's setup is different from the regular Meran lines where dxc4 is the automatic reply to white moving his f1 bishop because in this case white has the option of recapturing with the knight.
7.Nxc4 b5 8.Nce5 Bb7 9.0-0 Qc7 10.Qb3!? Bd6?
Black didn't sense the danger, or understand the point behind white's tenth move. To be fair, though, the tactics in this position are not very common to a 1.d4 opening, let alone the seemingly solid Semi-Slav.11.Nxf7! Bxh2+!
After 25 minutes of thought my opponent finds the best defense. To understand why it is important to get the bishop off d6, I encourage the reader to spend 5 minutes working out the variations after 11...Kxf7 12.Ng5+.
You didn't work out the variations, did you? Seriously, it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to work through, and you'll learn a lot more by doing this than by reading alone.
11...Kxf7 12.Ng5+ Kf8 13.Nxe6+
11...Kxf7 12.Ng5+ Ke8 13.Qxe6+ Be7 (13...Kf8 14.Qf7#) 14.Qf7+ Kd8 15.Nd6+
11...Kxf7 12.Ng5+ Ke7 13.Qxe6+ Kd8 14.Nf7+ Kc8 15.Nxd6+ (this is why the bishop shouldn't be on d6)
12.Kh1 0-0
The best practical try.
13.N7g5 c5!?
14.Qxe6+!Keeping things simple. Other moves also win for white (as the complications favour him in almost every line), but when your opponent is desperate to complicate matters it's nice to be able to proceed with minimal risk.
14...Kh8 15.Nxh2 c4 16.Bc2 Rae8 17.Qh3 h6 18.Ne6 Bxg2+
I was happy to see this move because black's light-squared bishop was the pride of his position, and my king's safety was the only factor that might have made the win difficult. It is difficult to suggest anything else for black, though, because he can't afford to lose much more material.
19.Qxg2 Rxe6 20.e4 Nh5
What is the most efficient way for white to proceed?21.f4!
Returning a pawn to trade some pieces and finish developing. The "natural" 21.e5? lets black keep the initiative with 21...Nxe5! when black's activity looks dangerous. I have no doubt that white is still winning, but why make it harder than it has to be?
My opponent traded a bunch of times on f4, and later when I played e5 he sacrificed his knight for two pawns on that square, but in the end I had a bishop and knight for one of his pawns, and he resigned when mate was no longer avoidable.
Haas, Sven VS Gluckie, Jamin
Even though my opponent was rated 1511, he finished the tournament with a 2000+ performance rating. After playing him in this game I don't believe that he is expert-strength, but that's not to say that he can't be dangerous. In the last tournament I played in (February Sectional) I watched Sven play Peter Kalisvaart (~2130) in blitz and beat him convincingly, so I took my game with him seriously.
I'm going to deviate from the game snippet format and post this one in its entirety. I'm doing this partly because I think the entire game is instructive, but mostly because my opponent wouldn't resign when he was down a queen and knight in a K+P endgame, and I've been told that it is more constructive to show these types of games to as many people as possible than to bitch about my opponent's chess etiquette on my blog :-)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5
The dreaded exchange variation - dreaded because I obviously would not be happy with a draw, and so the onus was on me to force the issue in order to win. I used to fear playing the black side of the Exchange French against lower rated players, but now it doesn't bother me too much. If my opponent can maintain the balance despite everything I throw at him, be it in an Exchange French or some other opening, then he deserves a draw regardless of what his rating is. If he cracks under the pressure though, like in this game, then it's even more satisfying than if he would have chosen another variation.
3...exd5 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.g3?!
I don't like this move for white, but I was very happy to see it nonetheless!
5...Nc6 6.Bg2 Qd7 7.0-0 0-0-0 8.Bf4
8...f6!I wonder how many readers would play this move. To me it seems very natural, but when I showed this position to a 1750 he suggested many other tries, but none of them involved attacking the bishop with f6 and g5.
It's obvious to me that black needs to storm the white king with pawns (due to opposite-side casting), and 8...f6 makes the bishop on f4 a target.
9.Na3 g5 10.Be3 h5 11.Qd3 h4 12.Nxg5?
The definition of "cracking under the pressure". Granted, white's position was uncomfortable and those advanced kingside pawns looked menacing, but opening up lines to the white king can't be recommended.
12...fxg5 13.Bxg5 Be7 14.gxh4 Bxg5 15.hxg5 Nge7 16.f4
What is the best way for black to continue the attack?16...Rh5!?
16...Nf5 looked promising as well, but I rejected it because after 17.h3 my bishop had to retreat to h5, where it interfered with the coordination of my attack on the h-file. Also, even if white didn't play h3 immediately, I didn't like that after I played Qh7 white could then play h3 and I would have to exchange queens and light-squared bishops. Rybka points out that the line with Nf5 is winning for black, but the play is very sharp. The continuation I chose keeps all of black's trumps and also prepares an attack on the h2-pawn that is difficult to meet.
Incidentally, Rybka prefers 16...Rh4, but I rejected that line because I wanted to keep the h4 square open in case I ever did get a knight to f5.
17.c3 Rdh8 18.Qg3
18...Rh4!Very precise! Now Nf5 can't be stopped and the h-pawn will fall, along with white's king.
The more forcing variation with 18...Be2 19.Rfe1 (19.Rf2? Nf5 and the queen is trapped) Nf5 20.Qf2 Bg4 21.Bh1 didn't look as clear to me as the game continuation.
19.Bf3 Bxf3 20.Rxf3? Rg4!
My opponent could have, and should have, resigned here.
21.Re1 Rxg3+ 22.Rxg3 Nf5 23.Rg2 Qd6 24.Rf2 a6!
The queen is on her ideal square, and is not to be disturbed by the offside knight.25.Nc2 Rh4 26.Ref1 Nce7
The last piece is brought into the attack.
27.Re1 Rxf4 28.Rg2 Nh4 29.g6 Nxg2 30.Re2 Rg4 31.Rxg2 Rxg2+ 32.Kxg2 Qxg6+ 33.Kh1 Qxc2
34.h4 Ng6 35.h5 Nf4 36.h6 Qg2# 0-1
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