Not so drawish

GM Mesgen Amanov and IM Florin Felecan are not only two of the strongest players in Illinois, they're two of the nicest people in Chicagoland chess.  Over the board, however, no quarter is given or expected.

Opposite-color bishop endings are not nearly as drawish as some assume they are, especially when a pair of major pieces remain on the board,  Make the enemy bishop irrelevant, and you're attacking with an extra piece!  In achieving this end, a well-timed pawn sacrifice is useful: activity trumps materialism.

Barber Invitational, Round 1

Here's yet another Najdorf nail-biter. In the position below, should Bryce McClanahan play 26...Bxe5? If not, what's Black's best move?

David Peng is becoming a problematic opponent for many of us :-)

Girls' Invitational, Round 1

Closer to home, here's some action from the North Shore Chess Center in Skokie. The Denker, Barber, and Girls' Invitationals will complete play later today.

It's a Najdorf, and White has done well out of the opening: is it OK to take on c5 and play Bxa6? 

Miranda Liu demonstrates why not....

Thanks to Vince Hart for sending game scores!

Morris Giles, 1953-2012

Story on The Chess Drum.  I am just stunned.  FM Morris Giles was a genius and a gentleman: I will miss him.

Much more to follow. For now, here's Giles's masterpiece (and arguably the most brilliant game ever played by a Chicagoan): he beats six-time U.S. Champion Walter Browne on Browne's home turf, the Najdorf Sicilian, with a positional piece sacrifice for an enduring light-square attack, then a queen sacrifice leading to a smothered bishop mate.

Giles,Morris (2451) - Browne,Walter (2617) [B98] 
U.S. Open, Boston, 1988
[GM Robert Byrne]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 

The most aggressive attack against the Najdorf Sicilian is 6 Bg5, which inhibits the original intention of this sharp, counterattacking defense - 6...e5? - which would yield White a hammerlock on the center after 7 Nf5. Nevertheless, the criterion of 6 Bg5 is whether it leads to more victories than the almost-as-ambitious 6 f4 or 6 Bc4 or the conservative 6 Be2 or 6 Be3 or 6 a4. The verdict is not yet in.

6...e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Nbd7

Developing with 8 . . . Nbd7?! has been considered so bad that the leading texts on the Najdorf refuse to analyze it. The unanimous opinion is that Black must prevent the potent 9 Bc4 by 8...Qc7 Yet Browne had played it at least twice before, against the grandmaster Nick DeFirmian in last year's [i.e., 1987's] United States invitational championship and also against the international master Patrick Wolff in Philadelphia last year. It is remarkable that on both occasions, his opponents chose the forgiving 9 O-O-O, allowing him to reach regular lines of play with 9 . . . Qc7.

9.Bc4 

Giles was not so generous, but played 9 Bc4 with the intention of breaking up the black formation.

9...h6

9...Qc7 10.Bxe6 fxe6 11.Nxe6 followed by 12 Ng7 and 13 Nf5. On 9 . . . h6, Giles, of course, could not make any immediate sacrifice.

10.Bxf6 Bxf6 

Browne could not recapture with 10...Nxf6 11.f5 e5 12.Nde2 which gives White a hammerlock on the d5 square.

11.0–0–0 Qb6 

White to play

12.Nxe6!? fxe6 13.Bxe6

It is more than likely that Browne had prepared and relied upon 10 . . . Bf6 11 O-O-O Qb6 to get him through the opening without incident. But he must have minimized Giles's sacrifice with 12 Ne6!? fe 13 Be6, opening the black king position and achieving a powerful grip on the light squares.

13...Nf8

 Browne could not play 13...Ne5, as 14.Qh3 Nd7 15.e5 Be7 16.Nd5 is overwhelming.

14 Bb3 Be6

What is remarkable is that even after Browne had plugged the worst gaps in his position with 13...Nf8 and 14...Be6, Giles was still coming.

15.e5! dxe5 16.fxe5 Bg5+ 17.Kb1 Rd8 18.h4 Be7 

19.Ba4+! 

A devastating shot, one point being that 19 . . . Bd7? would be smashed by 20 Rhf1 Qg6 21 h5!

19...Nd7 20.Nd5 Qa5

It was futile to play 20...Bxd5 21.Qxd5 Qc7 because 22.e6 b5 leads to mate after 23.Qh5+.

21.Rhf1 Rf8 22.Qh5+ Rf7 23.Bb3 g6 24.Qxg6 Nf8 

Now Giles abruptly ended the struggle:

White to play

25.Nc7+! Qxc7 26.Qxf7+

 In the face of 26 . . . Bf7 27 Bf7 mate, Browne gave up.

1–0

A great game to lose

IM Angelo Young grinds nine-year-old FM Awonder Liang in a bishop ending. Better to get painful losses out of the way early!

Game of the tournament

When two geniuses with a reputation for disdaining opening theory finally get around to playing an Open Sicilian, this is what happens.   Michael was effusive in his praise of Jon's play: both winner and loser had a lot of fun!

Take the darn pawn, Gauri!

Here's the game featured at the end of yesterday's YouTube coverage of the Whitney Young - Glenbrook South match.

The caption for this blog post is of course tongue-in-cheek. 8...Qxb2 is the famous Najdorf Poisoned Pawn: objectively, it's the best move in the position, but players who haven't done their homework are asking for trouble.

For more coverage of the tournament from a frankly biased CPS perspective (I'm cool with that!) and for some quality trash-talking in the comments, see the Chicago Public League Sports Blog.

Board 4: Xiong 0 - Schmakel 1

FM Jeffrey Xiong of Dallas is only 10 years old! Sam Schmakel may be the first to get his GM title, but I'd put my money on Jeffrey to win the World Championship first.

This Najdorf is a wonderful theoretical battle that does credit to both young players.  All of this has been played before until Sam's novelty 23...Na4!?

Latvian-American beats six-time Russian champion

Lest we be accused of overhyping the nationalism card, we should note that the genial 1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008, and 2011 Russian champion watches more Showtime series than either Andrew or I do.

Board 2: Friedel - Molner ½-½

Josh Friedel overpresses a bit, too, and is objectively busted after 25.Nc6.  But Molner does not find 25...Rc2!, after which Friedel saves the game with 26.Ne7+!  In the final position, Black can save the rook on a2 with 29...Qf7.  White must then play 30.Qc8+ Qf8 31.Qc4+, repeating the position.

I have no clue what happened

In the last round of the Chicago Open, I kibitzed this wild Najdorf between Tatev Abrahamyan (who was just awarded the WGM title) and our own Adarsh Jayakumar. After move 24 or so, I thought Adarsh was simply winning, but perhaps it's not so clear. In fact, Abrahamyan brought home the full point. Ouch!

P.S. The FIDE ratings of both players substantially lag their USCF ratings; Abrahamyan is around 2450; Jayakumar, 2260.

Board 3: Creative attack and counterattack

Florin Felecan played the Sozin against the Najdorf, and had very good practical chances to break through with the attack.  But all credit to the opponent: Marcel Martinez was a cool customer!

wow

Via Jon Burgess & Maret Thorpe: Gata Kamsky just played this amazing game in the ongoing Philadelphia Open.

 After 13...Qc7: White to move

After 22...Be7: 

how does White to play justify the piece sacrifice?

After 48...Nb6:

White to play and win