Monday, June 8, 2020

Never Buy A Queen For Three Pieces

     In 1968 an international tournament was organized in Athens by the Greek Chess Federation known as the “Acropolis” because it was held near the ancient Acropolis. 
     The event was for the benefit of Greek masters, who were being trained by Yugoslav GM Dr. Petar Trifunovic, to gain experience. It wasn’t expected that they would be on equal terms with the foreign GMs, but they showed they could play fighting chess and Triandaffylos Siaperas and Lazarus Vizantiadis became Greece’s first IMs. 
     Other than the two Greek players earning their titles, the tournament was a major disappointment as it produced few intresting or exciting games mainly because the GMs refused to fight each other. The result was the quality of the games was generally quite low. 
     Yugoslavia’s GM Mato Damjanovic, who lost seven games, was a GM exception. It was claimed the reason for his and Romania’s Victor Ciocaltea’s poor showing was that they were more interested in enjoying Athens than playing chess. 
     Tossing out Damjanovic’s results, of the 21 games between GMs, 19 were GM draws, a few in 12-13 moves. Only two GM games were decisive. Kavalek-Tringov who met in the first round and the snide comment was made that they probably forgot to arrange a draw. 
     Czech GM Lubomir Kavalek lead most of the way. For a while he was closely pursued by Bruno Parma of Yugoslavia, but Kavalek got knocked out of the race when he was defeated by Stefano Tatai of Italy. Kavalek’s problem was that he fabricated too many draws. 
     Ludek Pachman, who was coming off a long layoff, got off to a slow start and played timidly, but then scored five successive wins and succeeded in overtaking Kavalek by defeating Mihajlo Mihaljcisi of Yugoslavia in the last round. 

     Thanks to the aggressive, if faulty play of the Greek Master Hristos Kokkoris, Kavalek did produce one of the more exciting games of the tournament when Kokkoris made a bad decision to give up three of his pieces for Kavalek’s Queen. 

     Evaluating positions where a Queen vs. three minor pieces is tricky. Probably the best breakdown of values can be found in this old Chessbase article HERE.

Hristos Kokkoris (2320) - Lubomir Kavalek (2540)
Result: 0-1

Site: Athens GRE

Date: 1968

E67: King's Indian: Fianchetto: 6...Nbd7

[...] 1.d4 Kokkoris almost never played this, but he wasn't keen about meeting Kavalek's Sicilian. 1...♘f6 2.♘f3 g6 3.g3 ♗g7 4.♗g2 O-O 5.O-O d6 6.c4 ♘bd7 7.♘c3 e5 8.dxe5 This is rarely played, but to use one annotator's comment, Kokkoris "doesn't live on good terms with theory" and so opts for a symmetrical P-structure in order to avoid the complication of the K-Indian, an opening with which he is unfamiliar. 8...dxe5 9.♕c2 Normally white plays h3, Be3, Qd2 and Rad1, but Kokkoris decides to play passively...bad strategy against a stronger player. Most strong players recommend that you play openings you are familiar with and play aggressively when you face them. 9...♖e8 10.♖d1 h6 Not the best. Black usually plays the better 10...c6, but Kavalek is trying to take his less experienced opponent out of the book. 11.b3
11.e4 c6 12.b4 a5 13.b5 is equal as in Savic,M (2239)-Jovanic,O (2423)/Rabat 2003.
11...a6 12.e3
12.♗b2 e4 13.♘d2 e3 was considered to be bad for white, but white can probably hold his own with careful play.
12...♕e7 Better was 12...e5, but Kavalek is hoping white will jump at the chance to play 13.Nd5 13.♗b2
13.♘d5 ♘xd5 14.cxd5 e4 15.♘d4 ♘f6 16.d6 cxd6 17.♗b2 ♗g4 18.♖dc1 ♖ac8 is good for black.
13...c6 14.♖ac1 While hardly a mistake white's inexperience with this type of position is showing. It's fa rtoo passive. A good plan was N-d2-e4 forcing black to take action to prevent Nd6. 14...♘f8 With this move Kavalek prepares to launch his attack with ...e5, ...Bf5 and ...h5. Inspit eof his passive play, here white has two reasonable choices thta would lead to equality. Either 15. h3 or 15.Rd2. 15.♘xe5 Trifunovic, who was coaching the Greek players, noted that after he played this move Kokkoris shot him a glance and smiled. Trifunovic was appalled. Theoretically the exchange is equal, but almost any GM would prefer the three pieces because in the long run their mobility is likely to prove superior to the Q. 15...♕xe5 16.♘d5 ♕xb2 This required correct calculation.
16...♗f5 is a little more clear, but the GM prefers the more complicated move against his less experienced opponent. 17.e4 ♗xe4 18.♗xe4 ♕xb2 19.♕xb2 ♘xe4 20.♕c2 cxd5 21.♖xd5
16...♕e6 and white is better after 17.♘c7 ♕e7 18.♘xa8 ♗f5 19.e4 ♘xe4 20.♖e1
17.♕xb2 ♘xd5 18.♕d2 ♘f6 19.♕a5 A good move; it assures white of at least some counterplay. 19...♗f5 20.♖d2 ♘e4 Now white should probably play 21.Rdd1. 21.♗xe4 In his anxiety to simplify white doesn't appreciate the danger involved in the weakening of the long diagonal. Watch how it becomes his undoing! 21...♗xe4 22.♕c7 Kokkoris was unaware of the danger that he is in...mate is even possible. 22...♘e6 23.♕xb7 ♘g5 24.♖d7 In spite of his questionable strategy white's control of the 7th rank gives him some play and no doubt Kokkoris was satisfied with his position. While technically he has sufficient compensation the rest of the game shows how the pieces are actually favorable. 24...♘f3 25.♔f1 ♘xh2 26.♔e1 Not the best defense.
26.♔g1 was much better because white is still kicking after.. . 26...♘f3 27.♔f1 c5 28.♕c7 ♗f5 29.♖xf7 ♗e5 30.♕xc5 ♗h3 31.♔e2 ♘d4 32.♔d3 ♖ad8 33.exd4 ♗xd4 34.♕xd4 ♔xf7 35.b4 ♖xd4 36.♔xd4 In a Shootout black scored +4 -0 =1. There's no doubt that with careful a GM of Kavalek's ability could have won this ending from an ordinary master.
26...♖ad8 Technically not the best, but Kavalek has set a nifty trap. With the text he's hoping white takes the f-Pawn. (26...♗b2 27.♖cd1 ♗c3 28.♔e2 ♗f3) 27.♖xd8
27.♖xf7 ♗c3 28.♖xc3 ♘f3 29.♖xf3 (29.♔e2 ♖d2 30.♔f1 ♖d1 31.♔g2 ♖g1 32.♔h3 ♖h1 33.♔g4 h5 34.♔f4 g5#) 29...♗xf3 30.♖c1 ♖d3 and white has no defense against ...Red8 and ...Rd1+
27...♖xd8 28.♕e7 This attack on both the R and B apparently wins. 28...♗c3 No...black has a mate in 6 and so Kokkoris resigned.
28...♗c3 29.♖xc3 ♘f3 30.♔e2 ♖d2 31.♔f1 ♖d1 32.♔g2 ♖g1 33.♔h3 ♗f5 34.g4 ♗xg4#
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