Speelman Attacks

    Jon Speelman’s Best Games, published in 1997, is the most recent addition to my library. For those who don’t know, Jonathan Speel,am was born in London, England in 1956, and was awarded the IM title in 1978 and the GM title in 1980. He was the British Champion in 1978, 1985 and 1986. 

    After qualifying for the World Championship cycle in the 1987 interzonal tournament held in Subotica, Yugoslavia. He defeated Yasser Seirawan in his first round 4–1, and Nigel Short in the second round 3.5-1.5 and then in the semi-finals he lost to Jan Timman with a 3.5-4.5 score. In the 1990–93 championship cycle, he lost to Nigel Short in the firt round with a 4,5-5,5 score. 

    Speelman has a highly original style and has a wide opening and in the book his comments are quite instructive. All 38 games are fun to play over...here’s one of them. It’s am amazing tactical display by the 15-year old Speelman. 

    In the introduction to the game he modestly calls the game, “some hackery from a county match.” It’s interesting to note that auto-analysis with Stockfish assigns Speelman’s play a Weighted Erro Value of 0.14 which means almost every move he played was Stockfish 16.1’s top choice! 

    Speelman makes what I think is a serious mistake though...he wrote, “...although I blundered in the early middlegame, (the game) is memorable for the spectacular ,if somewhat obvious, sacrificial attack which I was able to whip up after he let me back into the game…” 

    The “blunder” to which he refers is 15...Ng6. While the move might be a “blunder” at Speelman’s level of play, it’s not really one at the level at which most of us play! Stockfish 16 evaluates the position at -0.10 (almost dead equal) before the move and at +0.44 (slightly in white’s favor) after. A swing of about half a Pawn would mean almost nothing to most of us.

 

[Event "Cambridge-Middlesex Team Matcj"] [Site "?"] [Date "1971.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Rory O'Kelly"] [Black "Jonathan Speelman"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E63"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "58"] [EventDate "1971.??.??"] {E63: King's Indian: Fianchetto: Panno Variation} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. O-O a6 8. h3 e5 9. d5 Ne7 10. c5 {The standard move here is 10.e4. The text is aggressive and best be described as interesting.} Nd7 (10... b5 11. cxb6 cxb6 12. e4 b5 13. b4 Bd7 {equals. Marovic,D (2475)-Smejkal,J (2575) Vrsac 1977}) (10... e4 11. cxd6 Qxd6 12. Ng5 Nexd5 13. Ngxe4 Nxc3 14. Nxd6 Nxd1 15. Nxc8 Raxc8 16. Rxd1 c6 {with equality. Grabarczyk,B (2260)-Zimmerman,Y (2280) Polanica Zdroj POL 1992}) 11. cxd6 cxd6 12. e4 h6 13. Ne1 f5 14. exf5 gxf5 15. Kh2 Ng6 {According to Speelman this is a blunder that loses a Pawn and should have lead to a deci- sive disadvantage. That assessment seems too harsh as white's advantage is minimal...about half a P.} (15... Nf6 {is slightly better though.} 16. a4 Bd7 {and neither side can claim an advantage.}) 16. Qh5 {After this white does have the initiative, but no distinct way of forcing an advantage.} Kh7 17. Nf3 {Speelman wrote that he probably saw white's last move, but missed this one. While white has no way of forcing a breakthrough on the K-side any misstep by black is likely to gave serious consequences.} Qe8 {This gives white the edge.} (17... Ne7 18. Ng5+ Kg8 19. Ne6 Nf6 20. Nxd8 Nxh5 21. Ne6 Bxe6 22. dxe6 e4 23. g4 Nf6 24. Bf4 {White's piece activity gives him slightly the better of it.}) 18. Ng5+ Kg8 {[%mdl 32]} 19. Ne6 Nf6 20. Nxg7 {Logical as it eliminated the B, but 20.Qxf5 was even better.} (20. Qxf5 {is quite complex and OTB it would also br quite unclear!} Ne7 21. Qc2 Bxe6 22. dxe6 d5 23. Qb3 Qc6 24. Be3 {with a active position.}) 20... Kxg7 21. Qxh6+ {This, not the previous move as suggested by Speelman, is the one that lets black off the hook.} (21. Bxh6+ Kf7 22. Qf3 Rh8 23. Bg5 Nh7 24. Bd2 Nf6 25. Rac1 {White has completed his development and gotten both Rs into play and so here he stands better.}) 21... Kf7 22. Qe3 Rh8 {[%mdl 2048] While theiretically the position might be equal, in practice black is more active.} 23. Qb6 {This puts the Q out of play and so 23.Qe3 woulf have been safer.} f4 {This clears the way for the B.} 24. Qxd6 {This is a serious mistake. In his notes Speelman states that black is now able to launch a vicious attack, but admitted that he played in on instinct and did not remember exactly how he intended to followup the sacrifice.} (24. Rh1 {This prevents the sacrifice on h3.} Bxh3 (24... Qe7 25. Kg1 Bf5 {is black's correct line and here he stands somewhat better.}) 25. Bxh3 Qd7 26. Kg2 f3+ 27. Kxf3 Rxh3 28. Rxh3 Qxh3 29. Qxb7+ {is to white's advantage.}) (24. Qc7+ {This is also a reasonable try.} Bd7 25. Bd2 Qe7 {and with the sacrifice on h3 looming white still has to play his R to h1 and here, topo, black has the more promising position.}) 24... Bxh3 {Black has a winning attack.} 25. Bxh3 Rxh3+ { This is the only followup that results in success. Anything else puts white back on an equal footing.} 26. Kxh3 {This leads to forced mate, so he had to try 26.Kg2. Speelman's original instinctive reaction was to dismiss this move out of hand as "grim'; but white would still be lost.} (26. Kg2 Qh8 27. Rg1 ( 27. Qc7+ Kg8 28. Rg1 fxg3 29. fxg3 Rf8 {is fatal for white.} 30. Qxb7 (30. Kf2 Nxd5+) 30... Rxg3+ 31. Kxg3 Ne4+ 32. Nxe4 Qh4+ 33. Kg2 Qxe4+ {mates in 2}) 27... Re8 28. Kf1 Rh1 29. Rxh1 Qxh1+ 30. Ke2 Qg2 31. Kd1 fxg3 32. Bg5 Qf3+ 33. Kc2 Qf5+ {Black is winning.}) 26... Qh8+ 27. Kg2 {Black could play 26...f3+ and still have a winning position, but there is a mate in 11} Nh4+ {[%mdl 512]} 28. Kg1 (28. gxh4 Rg8+ 29. Kh3 {Now black wins with a Q sacrifice.} (29. Kf3 Qh5#) 29... Qxh4+ 30. Kxh4 Rh8+ 31. Kg5 Rh5#) 28... Nf3+ 29. Kg2 Qh2+ {White resigned.} (29... Qh2+ 30. Kxf3 Qh5+ 31. Kg2 f3+ 32. Kg1 Rh8 {White can only delay mate by giving up material.}) 0-1