An Opening Novelty on Move 20

    A few days ago it was dark and it drizzled rain off and on all day, so it was a good day to play around with my seldom used ChessBase 16 program. Let me reiterate that this is a truly outstanding program, but it's way more than an amateur who no longer plays tournament chess nor is interested (or even capable of) improving needs. For me the simpler Fritz program is perfect.

    While looking through the database of My Games I stumbled across the following long forgotten game I played in 1984. 

    There were a few notes to the game, but I did not remember my opponent and could not find his name when I Googled it and chess. It was played on a long defunct site called Flying Knights Postal Chess Club which I suspect was actually an e-mail club, and the game was published in a magazine named Chess Express, whatever that was. It was annotated in my database by a program called Virtual Chess, but I do not remember anything about the program. 

    What was interesting was that the opening was, at the time, a popular line in the Najdorf Sicilian. A note in the game said that the only analysis I had was Albrec O'Kelly's "Sicilian Flank Game” which was published in 1969 and an article by Gligoric that had appeared in a recent issue of Chess Life. There was also a note stating the two sources gave completely different evaluations of the line. Needless to say, today Stockfish renders most of the published analysis of those days obsolete. 

    Up until white’s move 13 we were following a famous Fischer-Geller game that was played in Monte Carlo in 1967 that was theoretically important. I was a little surprised to see that the moves we played were following a Grandmaster game up to move 20 that was played in 1981. My notes didn't mention it, so it was unknown to me at the time. My opponent’s 20...Be7 was both a novelty and a game losing blunder. 

 

[Event "Flying Knights Postal Chess Club"] [Site ""] [Date "1984.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Tartajuboe"] [Black "Opponent"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B97"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "45"] [EventDate "1984.??.??"] [WhiteTeam "India"] [BlackTeam "England"] [WhiteTeamCountry "IND"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] {B97: Sicilian Najdorf: Poisoned Pawn} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 8. Qd2 Qxb2 {The Poisoned Pawn Variation. One of the pioneers was David Bronstrin who playing it with great success.It was most famously played in two games in the 1972 World Championship match between Fischer, as black, and Spassky.} 9. Rb1 Qa3 {White now has two main ways to to continue. He can try to open as many lines as quickly as possible against black K with either 10.f5 or 10.e5. Earlier tries were 10.Bxf6 and 10. Be2} 10. f5 Nc6 {The main line. 10...e5 has been played in the past, but now it is considered positionally unsound.} (10... b5 {was another popular line at one time, but it was evaluated by the books as too risky. When this gane was player it was evaluated by Virtual Chess it as playable and today Stockfish gives white only a slight advantage.}) 11. fxe6 fxe6 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. e5 { This is a major part of white's plan to open lines. After 13.Bxf6 gxf6 white would have no good followup.} dxe5 {In the mid-60's this move was given a ?? by all the analyst, saying that 13....Nd5 was correct, but in a famious Fischer - Geller game, Monte Carlo, 1967, it was shown that the move ....Nd5 was unsound even though Fischer lost the game. Today 13...dxe5 is preferred by engines and has cecome the main line.} (13... Nd5 14. Nxd5 cxd5 15. Be2 dxe5 16. O-O Bc5+ 17. Kh1 Rf8 18. c4 Rxf1+ 19. Rxf1 Bb7 20. Bg4 dxc4 21. Bxe6 Qd3 22. Qe1 Be4 23. Bg4 Rb8 24. Bd1 Kd7 25. Rf7+ Ke6 {0-1 Robert Fischer-Efim Geller Monte Carlo 1967}) 14. Bxf6 {Eliminating Black's developed piece.} gxf6 15. Ne4 {Black, whose main disadvantage in this position is his displaced Q, gets it back into play after 15.Be2 Qd6!} Be7 {This is about the only move that is played today, but in his Chess Life article Gligoric drew attention to the fact that by 15....Qxa2 black can get his Q back into play and that practice had not yet refuted that move.} (15... Qxa2 {does, indeed, lead to full equality.} 16. Rd1 Be7 17. Be2 O-O {The majority of game played from this position have been drawn.}) {The engine's preferred move.} 16. Be2 h5 {The correct choice!} (16... O-O {This routine move is a serious mistake.} 17. Rb3 Qa5 18. c4 Kh8 19. O-O Ra7 20. Qh6 f5 21. Rg3 Bb4 22. Nf6 {1-0 Black resigned. Gipslis-Korchnoi, 31st Soviet Championship, 1963}) (16... Qxa2 {I's interesting that my old Virtual Chess gave a continuation that lead to a very favorable position for white, but it missed the mate in 9 that Stockfish spotted instantly!} 17. Bh5+ Kf8 18. Qh6+ Kg8 19. O-O Qxb1 20. Rxb1 Ra7 21. Rb8 Bc5+ 22. Kh1 Rf7 23. Nxf6+ Rxf6 24. Qxf6 Be7 25. Qf7#) 17. Rb3 {At the time this was a controversial move. O'Kelly's book gave 17.c4 stating that 17.Rb3 is of no use. Gligoric's article claimed 17.Rb3 is the only move and Stockfish concurs.. 17.Bf3 has been tried without success.} (17. c4 {somewhat favors black after} f5 18. Rb3 Qa4 19. Nd6+ Bxd6 20. Qxd6 Qa5+ 21. Kf2 Ra7 22. c5 Qc7 23. Rd1 Qxd6 24. Rxd6 Ke7) 17... Qa4 {White can now play 18.c4 which leads to complications and is it is quite playable. At the time I had analysis by O'Kelly, Gligoric and the Soviet Master Alvis Vitolinsch and threading my way through the analysis was quite a task. It was done using a book and magazine and shuffling pieces on a real chessboard.} 18. Nxf6+ Bxf6 19. c4 {This is another critical point. White is a piece down, but his pieces coordinate well. Black, on the other hand, has his Q out of play and his K is vulnerable. 19.c4 is necessary because, if at once, 10.O-O Qd4+ exchanging Qs and elimiating white's attacking chances while leaving black with the better ending. From Black's point of view, he can either get his QR into play by 19....Ra7 and 20.. .Rd7, or he can play as in the game to bring his Q back into play as quickly as possible.} (19. Rf1 {is a losing movr.} Be7 20. c4 Ra7 21. Rb8 Rc7 {Black is winning. Linford,C (2142)-Gibbs,D (1956) Coulsdon 2007}) (19. O-O Qd4+ { see note above....This why white has to play 19.c4 before castling/} 20. Qxd4 exd4 21. Rxf6 Ke7 {Black is slightly better.}) 19... c5 {At the time there was a lot of analysis available which is, no doubt, obsolete now. My opening book offers 5 possible moves for black. Seen most often are 19...Ra7 and 19...Bh4+ whicj is Stockfish's choice. 19...c5 is evaluated as equal.} (19... Ra7 20. O-O Rf7 21. Qd6 Be7 {with full equality.}) (19... Bh4+ 20. g3 Be7 21. O-O h4 { also with full equality.}) 20. O-O {Black should now return the material by 20. ...Qd7, when probably best for White is 21.Qxd7+ followed by Rxf6} Be7 { [%mdl 8192] A routine and natural looking move, but a fatal error. By a series of Q moves white manages to fork black's Rs.} (20... Qd7 {equalizes.} 21. Qxd7+ Bxd7 22. Rxf6 Ke7 23. Rg6 Rad8 24. Re3 Be8 25. Rg5 Rd2 26. Rgxe5 Rh6 27. Ra3 Bc6 28. Rxa6 {is equal, but in Beliavsky,A (2620)-Mikhalchishin,A (2535) Moscow 1981 black soon blundered and lost quickly.}) 21. Qd3 $18 Rh6 {He could not allow 22.Qg6+} 22. Qe3 Rh7 (22... Rf6 {offers a little hope after} 23. Bxh5+ Kd8 24. Rd3+ Bd7 25. Rxf6 e4 (25... Bxf6 26. Qh6 Be7 27. Qh8+ Kc7 28. Qxa8) 26. Qxe4 Bxf6 27. Qxa8+ {White is much better.}) 23. Qe4 {Black resigned. } 1-0