Play the Sicilian Wing Gambit?!

     Last post took a brief look at the Staunton Gambit; in this one we will take a brief look at the Sicilian Wing Gambit. It's not very popular and in my database it was played only 36 times, but white scored a whopping +27 - 6 =3!!! 

     One advantage of the gambit is you don't have to worry about black rattling off a long string of book theory! 

     Besides taking you opponent out of the book, luring black's c-Pawn away allows white to occupy the center with d2-d4 which hopefully will work to his advantage. Additionally, white gets speedy development which should be sufficient compensation. Of course, black can decline the gambit, but almost nobody ever does. 

     Kamran Shirazi (born November 21, 1952) is an IM who was born in Tehran and won the 1972 Iranian Championship. He moved to the United States in 1979 and quickly became one of the most active players in the country. He was a fixture on the NY chess scene in the 1980s and was known as a dashing, enigmatic, figure. 

     Thanks to his success in U.S. events plus the fact that the 1980s were a time of rating inflation, his rating rose rapidly and he became one of the highest rated players country. However, when he qualified for he 1984 U.S. Championship based on his results in the 1983 Church's Fried Chicken Grand Prix he finished dead last with a lone draw (against GM Roman Dzindzichashvili) out of 17 games. In that tournament he also achieved the dubious distinction of losing the shortest decisive game in the history of the Championship. Oddly, in that gane he played the Wing Gambit, one of his specialties, which we're looking at today! He earned $37.50 for his efforts. 

     When asked to explain the debacle Shirazi only said, “I was very restless at the time and I hadn’t been sleeping.” Asked what he had been doing, he said he had been playing games and added that for him that was a "form of partying."

     Robert Byrne wrote that Shirazi could "produce a novel and original way of looking at a position, and quite often he plays with a certain freshness, but his eccentricities work against him as well as for him." Byrne added, "He can think of a new way of going wrong every time he sits down and plays a game." 

     Shirazi made an appearance in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer where he was introduced as Grandmaster Shirazi. In 2006, he moved to France and changed his FIDE federation from the US to France. 

     Known for playing strange and unorthodox openings, Shirazi is known for his flamboyant and innovative style of play as well as Byrne's previously mentioned amazing ability to somehow lose. Byrne wrote of the necessity of making use of fantasy if you want to be a greta player, but he cautioned that "you have to have control over it. You can’t be fantastic every time the itch gets to you.” 

     Shirazi was one of the best Blitz players in the U.S. and in today's game we'll take a look at how he demolished a GM playing one of his favorite lines against the Sicilian, the Wing Gambit. 

     It was played in a Game 20 in a strong rapid tournament in Livry-Gargan, near Paris, back in 2009. The tournament was won by GM Murtas Kazhgakeyev of Kazakhstan. Shirazi and his opponent, GM Pavel Tregubov of Russia, tied for places 25-30 (342 players).

 

[Event "Livry Gargan (France) Open (Game 20)"] [Site "Livry Gargan"] [Date "2009.05.10"] [Round "6"] [White "Kamran Shirazi"] [Black "Pavel Tregubov"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B20"] [WhiteElo "2404"] [BlackElo "2628"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "69"] [EventDate "2009.05.10"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "FRA"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceVersion "2"] [SourceVersionDate "2009.07.15"] [SourceQuality "1"] {Sicilian Wing Gambit} 1. e4 c5 2. b4 cxb4 (2... e6 3. bxc5 Bxc5 4. d4 { is seldom seen. Black can retreat the B or play ...Bb4+, but he has no more than equality.}) 3. a3 (3. c4 e5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Bb2 d6 6. d4 exd4 7. Nxd4 Nf6 8. Nd2 Be7 9. Bd3 O-O 10. O-O {Hector,J (2500)-Kudrin,S (2570) Palma de Mallorca 1989. Black is a solid P up and went on to win.}) (3. Bb2 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bc4 Nb6 7. Bb3 e6 8. O-O Be7 9. c4 Na5 10. Qc2 Nxb3 11. axb3 O-O 12. Rc1 a5 13. d4 f5 {Black gets into serious trouble after this. Correct was either 13...d4 or 13...d6} 14. d5 exd5 15. c5 Ra6 16. cxb6 Qxb6 17. Nd4 Qg6 {Rogers,I (2545)-Douven,R (2405) Groningen 1991 1-0}) 3... d5 {This along with 3...bxa3 and 3...e6 are the most popular replies. All are of about equal value.} (3... e6 4. axb4 Bxb4 5. c3 Be7 6. d4 d6 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. Be3 {Black has a solid position and went on to win. Marshall,F-Tarrasch,S San Sebastian 1912}) (3... bxa3 4. d4 d6 5. f4 g6 6. Nf3 Bg7 7. h3 Nc6 8. Nc3 Nf6 9. e5 {Better was 9.Bd3} dxe5 10. fxe5 Nd5 11. Nxd5 Qxd5 12. c4 Qa5+ 13. Bd2 Qb6 14. c5 Qb2 15. Rb1 Bf5 16. Rxb2 axb2 17. Bh6 b1=Q {0-1 Savchenko,B (2567)-Yeletsky,I (2438) Voronezh 2019}) 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nf3 (5. axb4 Qe5+ {0-1 Shirazi-John Peters, US Championship, 1984.}) 5... e5 6. c4 Qe6 7. d4 exd4+ (7... e4 {was a reasonable alternative.} 8. Ng5 Qg6 {A strange position. Stockfish 15 suggests either 9. c5 or 9.h4 as equalizing.}) 8. Be2 d3 {Returning the P for no reason seems a strange decision. 8...Qg6 and black is slightly better.} 9. Qxd3 Nf6 10. O-O Nc6 11. Re1 Be7 12. axb4 {This looks reasonable, but the advantage swings in black's favor.} (12. Bd1 Qf5 13. Qxf5 Bxf5 14. axb4 Nxb4 15. Ba4+ {The point of move 12. White will play Ba3 next move and the chances will be about equal.} ) 12... Nxb4 {It seems odd, but taking with the B was actually better.} (12... Bxb4 {There is no way for white to utilize the fact that black's Q is standing between the R and K.} 13. Bd2 O-O {leaves black slightly better.}) 13. Qd2 O-O {[%mdl 8192]} 14. Bf1 (14. Bd3 {was better} Qd6 15. Rxe7 Qxe7 16. Ba3 {wins the N and white has what should be a winning advantage.} Ne4 17. Qxb4 Qxb4 18. Bxb4 Re8 19. Nc3 Nxc3 20. Bxc3 {Stockfish evaluates this position as winning for white, but I didn't believe it so ran a Shootout and white did score +4 - 0 =1, so it's true. However, the dames were very long, 100 moves or more, so in human play a draw seems like a likely outcome.}) 14... Qd6 {[%mdl 8192] The losing move.} (14... Ne4 {This saves the game and even leaves black slightly better, but who is going to voluntarily walk into a pin when moving the Q out of danger looks so logical?} 15. Qb2 {There is just no way to take advantage of the pinned N on e4.} (15. Qd4 Bf6 {wins}) (15. Qf4 f5) 15... f5 16. Nc3 a5 17. Be3 Bf6 18. Bd4 Rd8 {and things fizzle out to equality after} 19. Nxe4 fxe4 20. Bxf6 Qxf6 21. Qxf6 gxf6 22. Rxe4) 15. Rxe7 {[%mdl 512] Decisive.} Qxe7 16. Ba3 Rd8 17. Qb2 {This can be considered the decisive move because the logical looking 17.Qxb4 allows black to equalize.} (17. Qxb4 Qxb4 18. Bxb4 Rd1 {paralyzing white's pieces. Chances are equal.}) (17. Bxb4 {is much worse. After} Rxd2 18. Bxe7 Rd1 19. Bxf6 gxf6 20. Nfd2 Bf5 {black has a winning position.}) 17... Rd1 {And now ...Nd3 would win.} 18. Bxb4 Qd8 19. Qc2 Rd7 ( 19... Bg4 {is tougher.} 20. Bd2 Bxf3 21. gxf3 Qd4 22. Qxd1 Qxa1 {Technically the position favors white, but in practical play it's quite unclear. In Shootouts white scored +3 -0 =2, but the games were long, one going over 150 moves!}) 20. Nc3 {[%mdl 32] White has established a winning position and Shirazi plays the rest of the game with great precision.} b6 21. Nb5 Bb7 (21... Rb7 22. Ne5 Be6 23. Rd1 Qb8 {When compared to white's, black's pieces have little in the way of prospects. In Shootouts from this position white scored five wins as all black could do was sit passively while white ground him down to a winning ending. Still, this seems like black's best option.}) 22. Ne5 { Black's R comes under relentless fire.} Be4 23. Qc1 Rb7 24. Nd6 Re7 25. Nxe4 Rxe5 {So, black has saved his R, but white is winning.} 26. Nxf6+ gxf6 27. Bc3 Re6 28. Qf4 Qd6 29. Qg4+ Kf8 30. Rd1 {[%mdl 32]} Qa3 31. Qh3 Ke8 32. Rd3 Qc5 33. Qxh7 Ke7 34. Rd5 Qa3 35. Qh3 {Black resigned. It looks like there is plenty of play left in the position, but Stockfish puts white's advantage at over 9 Ps.} (35. Qh3 {Not being a Grandmaster I don't see a clear way of winning here, so here is Stockfish 15's continuation.} Qa4 (35... Re5 { Practically speaking this may be black's best chance.} 36. Rd7+ (36. Bxe5 Qxh3 37. gxh3 fxe5 38. Rxe5+ {would win, but it's more difficult.}) 36... Ke8 37. Rc7 Re6 38. c5 {There's no really good answer to Qh8+} Kd8 39. Re7 Rxe7 40. Qh8+ Kd7 41. Qxa8 Qxc3 42. Qd5+ Ke8 43. Bb5+ Kf8 44. Qd8+ Kg7 45. Qxe7 bxc5 { Engines give white the win here, but with humans who knows?!}) 36. Bb2 Rc8 37. Ba3+ Rc5 38. Qc3 Qe8 39. h4 f5 40. Rxf5 a5 41. Rd5 f6 42. Bxc5+ bxc5 43. Qxa5 Kf7 44. Qxc5 Re1 45. Qc7+ Re7 46. Qg3 Qg8 47. Qf3 Qg6 48. g3 Re1 49. Kg2 Qc2 50. Qh5+ {and wins.}) 1-0