Flogging the Fajarowicz

After three rounds of the Greater Midwest Classic this past weekend, Greg Bungo was the sole leader of the top section with 3-0. I was one of five players a half-point behind. We met on Board 1.

Greg surprised me - pleasantly - with the Fajarowicz Gambit, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4?! The regular Budapest with 3...Ng4, though rarely played by top GMs, borders on respectability. Black usually regains the gambit pawn and it's hard for White to get much advantage if Black plays well. The Fajarowicz, on the other hand, has never made much sense to me. There are a fair number of traps at Black's disposal, but if White avoids them Black doesn't get much for the sacrificed pawn. His knight on e4 often ends up retreating to c5, and then sometimes to e6.

IM Timothy Taylor writes in his excellent book The Budapest Gambit (2009), p. 225, "I don't understand this gambit. Black is a pawn down but, unlike in the regular Budapest, has no threat to get it back and no significant lead in development." "[M]y recommendation for Black is simple: don't play it!" But it has its fans. GM Lev Gutman wrote a whole book on the thing. In the Chicago area, its adherents include NMs Steve Szpisjak and Bungo, as well as Dean Arond.

Greg recovered well from this debacle with a win in Round 5. Unfortunately, a last round loss kept him out of the major prize money. I drew in Rounds 5 and 6 to tie with David Peng, Aaron Jing, Karthikeyan Pounraj, and Maggie Feng for second prize, each of us earning $700. Audrius Macenis, whom Greg beat in Round 2, won his other five games to win the $1500 first prize outright.

NN triumphs!

Contrary to the impression you may have gotten from my prior posts, I also fall into opening traps and lose games, occasionally spectacularly. And sometimes NN is the router, not the routee. In the game below, he selects the tricky Budapest Gambit. It gives White a small advantage in the main line, but he must also reckon with trappy lines like the Fajarowicz Variation, 3...Ne4!?, beloved by Dean Arond, and gambit lines with ...d6 and ...f6. The last of these proves my undoing here.

A final installment of games from TJWO

....as well as the crucial game from December's Illinois Class, in which Dr. Tansel Turgut beats eight-year-old Awonder Liang (whose name makes him a Wünderkind in more than one sense).

Dr. Turgut annotates his game (only the introduction was written by me).  I annotate my game with Patrice Connelly, in which two reasonably competent players each cram their share of mistakes into a short game: the Marshall Attack demands precise play.  All other annotations are by FM Albert Chow, who's covering the games of the 2012 Illinois Tour.

Other featured players include Dean Arond, Avinash Rahendra, NM Greg Bungo, Jiahua Zhang, Andy Applebaum, and NM Ken Wallach,


Games are here!

More games from Tim Just's Winter Open

TJWO part three games are here: featured players include tournament winner NM Tenzing Shaw, NM Alexander Velikanov, David Peng, Dean Arond, Vince Hart, NM Sam Schmakel, and Avinash Rajendra.

2012 Illinois Tour commentary is provided by FM Albert Chow.

Beginners' trap?

Local Class A player Dean Arond plays many objectively dubious openings.  But he knows them very well, he has fun playing these sharp lines, and more than one master has fallen into his snare.  In the following game, Dean equalizes against Whitney Young's Sam Schmakel with an opening best known as a beginners' trap.

White to play

Sam Schmakel-Dean Arond, Skokie 2011

I thought the ending was interesting, too!  You can play through the game on the interactive board below: