Getting Better

Slav Defence

It is looking like my plan to cut back on the number of blitz games is starting to work out. I have been spending more time doing the tactics training on Chess24 and Lichess as well as running through Chess Informant’s Encyclopedia of Combinations this has helped me in my correspondence games as well as the slower time control games on-line. I am trying to not play a lot of blitz but playing 15+2 games or slower time controls. 

Today’s game is from the Classic Arena Tournament on Lichess so it is a g/10 game. The one thing the studying of two openings, English and Slav, has allowed me to do is to cut down the number of mistakes and blunders. In most games online I am down to maybe one or two blunders per game, a huge improvement, and has allowed me to nearly eliminate blunders for my correspondence chess. I have had a string of draws and a few wins recently, my ICCF rating is nearing 1600 and my USCF correspondence is up 200 points in the last two months.  Progress is happening which is really encouraging, however I still need help in some position analysis. As a posted a month or so again I offered a draw from a clearly wining position and in today’s game I was wining but allowed threefold repetition in a time scramble.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H

DonQyf 1644 - KCchessc6 1573

1/2-1/2 (Hourly Classical Arena) 2016.07.02

[#] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 D10 Slav Defense: Exchange Variation 3...cxd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 The Exchange Slav, can lead to some boring positons or a lively game this one was somewhere in the middle of that. 5.Bg5 The main move here is Nf3 or Bf4 Bg5 is the third option and one i dont remember playing against in the past Eugene Pereelshtyn 2500ish rated player likes this line as white he has several of the more recent games in my database, none with coments or annotation. 5...e6 6.Bxf6 seems to early to give up the Bishop and the pin, allows for development of the Queen to the kingside instantly applying pressure to f2.

[6.a3 Be7 7.e3 O-O 8.Bd3 a6 9.Nge2 Nbd7 10.Qc2 h6 11.Bh4 b5 12.b4 Nb6 13.Nc1 Ne8 14.Bxe7 Qxe7 15.Nb3 Nd6 16.Ne2 Bb7 17.O-O Rfc8 18.Qd2 Ndc4 19.Bxc4 Nxc4 20.Qa2 Bc6 Gac,S (1457)-Devoille,H (1932) France 2012 0-1 (76)]

6...Qxf6 7.e4 I dont really understand the thought behind this move, is he planning e5, or exd5 which doesnt do too much and opens the file to the kings.

[7.e3 Nc6 (7...Bb4 8.a3 Bd6 9.Bd3 Nd7 10.Nf3 O-O 11.Qc2 h6 12.h4 a6 13.g4 Qxf3 14.Rg1 Nf6 15.g5 hxg5 16.hxg5 Bh2 17.Rf1 Nd7 18.Kd2 Rd8 19.Rh1 Qxf2 20.Ne2 Kf8 21.g6 f6 22.Raf1 Eustratriou,H (1370)-Ruble,L (1317) France 2011 0-1 (52); 7...Bd7 8.a3 Be7 9.Nb5 Bxb5 10.Bxb5 Nc6 11.Rc1 Rc8 12.Qa4 O-O 13.Bxc6 Qg6 14.Ke2 Qxg2 15.Nf3 Rxc6 16.Rcg1 Qh3 17.Rg3 Qf5 18.Rd1 Rfc8 19.Rd2 a6 20.Ne1 Bh4 21.Rf3 Qg6 22.Kf1 Scheib,E-Damm,G Bad Woerishofen 1992 0-1 (33)) 8.Nf3 Bd6 9.Bd3 O-O 10.Rc1 Bd7 11.a3 Rac8 12.O-O Na5 13.Bb5 Bxb5 14.Nxb5 Bb8 15.Qa4 Nc6 16.Nc3 Qd8 17.Qb5 Qd7 18.b4 Rfd8 19.Qd3 h6 20.g3 Ne7 21.Nb1 Rc6 Thapa,K (2126)-Abu Sufian,S (2325) Dhaka 2004 0-1 (45)]

7...Bb4

[7...dxe4 8.Bb5 Nc6 9.Nge2 ]

8.exd5 exd5 9.a3 White threatens to win material: a3xb4 9...Qe6 wanted to see how he would gaurd the king.

[9...Bxc3 10.bxc3 O-O 11.Bd3 ]

10.Be2 Bxc3 I should have retreated the Bishop back to d6 or e7 this is going to be an open positiion and the two Bishops would have made it better for me. 11.bxc3 O-O 12.Qc2 Re8 Dubble up on e2, after a Nf3 and 0-0 maybe some play on e2. 13.Nf3 Bd7 14.Ne5 I missed this move all together, Nc6 seems the only logical move here, I did not want that Knight to last long on e5. 14...Nc6 15.O-O Nxe5 16.dxe5 Qxe5 Rook is coming to e1 with the idea of picking up the bishop on d7, or possibly lining the biship and queen to go after a7, meanwhile i am planning the same attack on a3 after Qg5 17.Rfe1 Qg5

[17...Rac8 18.Rac1∓ ]

18.Bd3 Rxe1

[18...g6 19.Bf1∓ ]

19.Rxe1 g6 I wasn't sure what would happen after 20. Bxa7+ Kg7 21. Bd3 Rh8 22. g3 I didnt see anything here. 20.f4?? Qxf4 21.Rf1 Qg4

[21...Qe5 and Black can already relax 22.c4 Be6 23.cxd5−⁠+ ]

22.c4 Rc8

[22...Be6 seems even better 23.cxd5 Bxd5−⁠+ ]

23.h3 Qg3

[23...Qd4!? keeps an even firmer grip 24.Qf2 Qxf2 25.Kxf2 dxc4 26.Be4−⁠+ ]

24.Qe2 Re8

[24...Be6 makes it even easier for Black 25.cxd5 Bxd5−⁠+ ]

25.Qa2?? Qxd3 26.cxd5 Qe3

[26...Re2 27.Qxe2 Qxe2 28.Rb1 Qe3 29.Kh1−⁠+ ]

27.Kh1 Bb5 28.Rf3 Qe1

[28...Qc1 29.Kh2 Re1 30.h4−⁠+ ]

29.Kh2 Qe5 30.Kh1 Be2 31.Rf2 Qg3?? I missed a mate in here somewhere and i gave back the bishop, looking like this is going to be a draw at this point. after i realized the terrible results from Qg3 my plan is to push the a and b pawns and to quickly take the a3 pawn, i was confident that the worst i could do in this position would be a draw.

[31...Qd4 and Black can celebrate victory 32.Kg1 Re3−⁠+ ]

32.Rxe2 Rxe2 33.Qxe2 Qxa3 34.Qd2 Qa1 35.Kh2 Qe5 36.g3 a5 here trying to take advantage of the pin on the g3 pawn? 36...Qd6 37.Qd3 a6 38.Qb3 b5 39.Qd3 Kg7

[39...b4 keeps an even firmer grip 40.h4−⁠+ ]

40.Qd4 Kg8 41.Qd3 f6

[41...b4!? makes it even easier for Black 42.h4−⁠+ ]

42.h4 b4

[42...f5 seems even better 43.Qd4−⁠+ ]

43.Kh3 Qd7

[43...Kf7−⁠+ and Black has it in the bag]

44.Kh2 Qd6 45.Kh3 a5

[45...Kf7 and Black can already relax 46.Qd4 Ke8 47.Kh2−⁠+ ]

46.Kh2 a4 47.Qe4 a3 48.Qe8 Kg7 49.Qe4 b3 50.Qd4 b2 looks better 50...a2 51.Kh3 Qd7 52.g4 Kf7 53.d6 f5

[53...h5 54.Kh2 b2 55.Qd5 Kg7 56.Qxa2 Qxd6 57.Kg2 Qd2 58.Kf1 Qd3 59.Kf2 b1=Q 60.Qa7 Kg8 61.Qa8 Kf7 62.Qa7 Ke6 63.Qe3 Qxe3 64.Kxe3 hxg4 65.h5 g3 66.Kf4 g2 67.Kf3 g1=Q 68.hxg6 Qbd1 69.Ke4 Qgd4# ]

54.Qd5 Kg7

[54...Qe6 55.Qb7 Kf8 56.Qa8 Qe8 57.Qa5−⁠+ ]

55.Qd4 Kf7 56.g5 Qf6 is not fun Kg8 or Ke8 not sure if there is anything other than a perpetual in those, I just neet there to be no Check for white and for him to not be gaurding the a1 square 56...f4 57.Kh2 Qe6

[57...Ke6 58.Qf6 Kd5 59.Qc3 Kxd6 60.Qd4 Kc7 61.Qa7 Kd8 62.Qb6 Ke8 63.Qb8 Ke7 64.Qb4 Qd6 65.Qb7 Kd8 66.Qa8 Kd7 67.Qb7 Qc7 68.Qd5 Ke7 69.Qe4 Kd6 70.Qd4 Ke6 71.Qh8 Qc2 72.Kh3 Qd3 73.Kg2 Qg3 74.Kf1 Qf3 75.Kg1 Qd1 76.Kf2 a1=Q 77.Qe8 Kf5 78.Qc8 Ke4 79.Qb7 Qd5 80.Qe7 Qae5 81.Qb4 Qdd4 82.Qxd4 Qxd4 83.Kf1 Qd2 84.Kg1 b2 85.h5 b1=Q# ]

58.Qxf4 Qf5 59.Qc4 Qe6

[59...Kf8 secures victory 60.Qd4 Qc2 61.Kh3 Ke8−⁠+ ]

60.Qc7 Ke8?? with this move Black loses his initiative

[60...Kf8 61.d7 Qe2 62.Kg3 Qe1 63.Kg2 Qe4 64.Kg3 Qd3 65.Kg2 Qd2 66.Kh3 Qe3 67.Kg2 Qe2 68.Kg3 Qe3 69.Kg2 Qe4 70.Kg3 Qe3 71.Kg2 ]

61.Qb8 Kd7 62.Qc7 White skewers: h7 62...Ke8 63.Qb8 Twofold repetition 63...Kd7 64.Qb5 Kxd6 took any hope of white wining a way with that pawn. 65.Qa6 Kd5 66.Qa5 Kd6 67.Qb4 Kd5

[67...Kc6 68.Qa4 Kc5 69.Qa5 Kc4 70.Kg1 Qg4 71.Kh2 Qe2 72.Kg3 Qd3 73.Kh2 Qc2 74.Kg1 Qd1 75.Kf2 a1=Q 76.Qc7 Kd3 77.Qd6 Qd4 78.Qxd4 Kxd4 79.h5 b2 80.hxg6 b1=Q 81.Kg3 Qdb3 82.Kg4 Qe4 83.Kh5 Qh3# ]

68.Qb5 Kd6 69.Qb4 Kd5 70.Qb5 Kd6 All in all not too bad of a game Qg3 cost me a win but i was able to hold my own while making good progress to promoting the a and b passed pawns, endgame technique is getting better but there is still room for improvement.

[70...Kd4 71.Qb4 Kd3 72.Qb5 Qc4 73.Qa5 Qd4 74.Qb5 Kd2 75.Qf1 a1=Q 76.Qg2 Ke1 77.Qh1 Ke2 78.Qxa1 Qxa1 79.Kg2 Qf1 80.Kg3 Qf3 81.Kh2 Kf2 82.h5 Qg2# ]

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