Author Archives: Martin Stahl

A Small Tribute to Paul Keres

by Ken Jones

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Estonian grandmaster Paul Keres.  While circumstance and politics may have prevented him from becoming World Champion, he nevertheless defeated everyone who held that title from Capablanca to Fischer! He deeply investigated opening systems that are still popular today, from the Nimzoindian to the Ruy Lopez, and several variations carry his name. A superb tactician, Keres provided many examples for combination puzzles. And while solving “Black to play and win” problems are extremely useful, in this column I would like to show how a great player creates the opportunity for a tactical finale.

The diagrammed position is from Euwe-Keres, 1948 World Championship Match/Tournament.

 

Euwe VS Keres 1948

Euwe VS Keres 1948

 

Let’s begin by evaluating this position. White has two pawns controlling the center, all his pieces are active, and has an attack on the weak Q-side. Black, who is on move, is also fully developed. The move f2-f4 has weakened the white squares around White’s King, which Black’s N can attack but the Bishop cannot defend. Keres spots a tactic that immediately increases his control of the both the center and the white squares:

28…Rxe4! 29. Rxe4 d5 30. Qxa6

Of course, 30. Qd3? dxe4 wins a piece.

30…dxe4 31 Be3

Logically trying to keep control of the d2 square, yet the Bishop is vulnerable here. But after 31. Bc3 Qf5! (threatening …Qc5+) 32. Qc4 Nxf4! wins a pawn: 33. g3 Nh3+ 34. Kg2 Qg4 with …Ng5 to follow.

31…Qg4!

Probing the white square weaknesses on the K-side.

32. Qc4 Rd3 33. Bc1 Nh4!!

To me, this is the best move of the game. The obvious 33…f5 gives Black a solid plus, but Keres sees that he can give away a pawn with check while allowing White to guard g2 in the process!

34. Qxe4+ f5 35. Qb7 c6?!

A minor blemish. In time pressure Keres goes with a forcing line, but he could’ve delivered the
same combination without giving away this pawn with 35…Rc3! (threatening both …Rc2 & …c6) 36. Qd5 c6 37. Qd2 etc.

36. Qxc6

It is here that the “Black to play and win” exercise begins.

36…Rc3! 37. Qd5 Rc5! 38. Qd2

White is still guarding g2 and prevents …Rc2, but now comes an unexpected shot.

38…Rxc1!

Black wins a piece because 39 Rxf1? Nf3+ picks up the Queen. White struggled on but eventually lost in 56 moves.

Finegold vs Jiminez, St. Louis Open 2013

Here is a game between Ben Finegold, as white, against Fidel Corrales Jiminez, as black, from the 3rd round of the 2013 St. Louis Open. Annotations by Selden Trimble (ST) and NM Ken Jones (KJ).

[ctpgn layout=”left” id=”FinegoldvsJiminez2013″]
[Event “St. Louis Open”]
[Site “Chess Club in St. Louis”]
[Date “2013.04.13”]
[Round “3”]
[White “Ben Finegold”]
[Black “Fidel Corrales Jiminez”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2569”]
[BlackElo “2669”]
[ECO “E38”]
[EventDate “2013.??.??”]
[Annotator “ST–Selden Trimble; KJ–Ken Jones”]

1.d4 {This is one of most exciting games I ever witnessed. I was playing in the same tournament and in the same room as GM Finegold and GM Corrales Jiminez.–ST} 1…Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5 Bxc5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bg5 O-O 8.e3 h6 9.Bh4 Be7 10.Be2 b6 11.O-O Bb7 12.Rad1 {Black has developed solidly but must now find a way to counter White’s pressure on the d-file–KJ.} 12…d6 {After this natural move, White is able to force new concessions. Perhaps 12… Rc8 13. Rd2 Na5 (Yermolinsky-Rensch 2011) is a better way to get counterplay–KJ.} 13.Rd2 Rc8 {Passive, but maybe necessary is 13…Qb8 14. Rfd1 Rd8–KJ.} 14.Rfd1 a6 15.Bxf6 gxf6 16.Ne4 {Also good is 16. Qe4 to get at the weakened K-side, but White’s move forces the play–KJ.} 16…Nb4 17.Qb1 Bxe4 18.Qxe4 Nxa2 19.Nd4 Nb4? {Black has to try 19…f5–KJ.} 20.Nxe6! {From Finegold’s blog–ST.} 20…fxe6 21.Qg6+ Kh8 22.Qxh6+ Kg8 {At this point, I looked at the game and assumed it was a draw–ST, but I have no doubt GM Finegold saw the fine Bishop manuever that follows when he played 20. Nxe6!–KJ.} 23.Qg6+ Kh8 24.Bg4! Qd7 25.Bf5! {This threatens mate. If 25. … B8, then 26. Rd4 (renewing the mate threat) Rf7 27 Rh4+ forces mate — KJ} 25…exf5 26.Rd4 f4 27.Rxf4 f5 {At last the bishop gets in the play, but too late!–ST} 28.Rdd4 Qd8 29.Rf3 f4 30.Rxd6!! {From Finegold’s blog–ST; A splendid culmination of White’s imaginative play–KJ.} 30…Bh4 31.Qh5+ Kg8 32.Rg6+ Kf7 33.Rxf4+ Ke7 34.Qe5+ {Black resigned. After the game, six grandmasters sat around a board and analysed it: Finegold, Seirawan, Robson, So, Corrales, and Hoyos. That was something to watch–ST.} 1-0
[/ctpgn]

2015 Missouri Class Championships

Used by permission of Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis; originally posted at http://saintlouischessclub.org/blog/state-championships-break-century-mark-1st-time

State Championships Break Century Mark for 1st Time

Attendance at the Missouri Novice and Class Championship broke the century mark for the first time this year as 124 players competed for the chance to become a state champion between the two events. The winner of each class was awarded a plaque and earned the right to call themselves a Missouri State Champion. The extra participants meant exciting chess, a blitz playoff, and a controversial last round ruling in the Class E section.

The Missouri Novice Championship, a four round tournament, took place on Saturday, June 7. Two players tied for first with a perfect 4/4 score and there was a remarkable nine way tie for third. Owen Hill (unrated) and Austin Roth (950) were the only two to win all of their games and a blitz tiebreaker was used to determine who would go home with a plaque and the title of Missouri Novice Champion.

Roth won the coin toss and selected the White pieces for the five minute blitz game. It was the first time either player had ever sat down to play an over-the-board blitz game and they were both anxious and excited. The game was an up and down affair that could have gone either way until White hung mate in one and Hill became the 2015 Missouri Novice Champion.

“That was pretty intense,” Hill said after the game.

Hill played a nice attacking game in the third round as seen below:

The Missouri Class Championship took place over the same weekend as the Novice Championship but was a five round two day affair with longer time control.

Only two players that qualified for the Master section attended the tournament – NM Iskandar Aripov (2326) and FM Doug Eckert (2294) – so the section was combined with ten players in the Expert section.

Master/Expert Class Winner, Tomislav Juricic // photo: Austin Fuller

Master/Expert Class Winner, Tomislav Juricic // photo: Austin Fuller

Ultimately, it was an expert that took first place in the Master / Expert section. Tomislav Juricic (2144) scored an impressive 4.5/5 points in his first standard rated game since 1999. Juricic had good results against the tournament’s top players, recording a draw against Aripov and a win against Eckert.

Juricic was losing for most his game against Eckert, but he accomplished the surprising idea of trapping the White queen in the center of the board with 44. … Rd5. Eckert assumed he was losing at that point but was stunned to learn after the game that White should still be playing for a win; Eckert’s coordination of his pieces and very strong passed pawn trumped his huge material deficiency.

In Class A, Steven Bange (1910) took first place with a 4/5 score. Bange took down the top two highest rated players in the section with his typical solid style of play. In second place was Kaleb Gosdin (1916), who drove up from Georgia to play at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis for the first time. Gosdin enjoyed his stay and promises to return to the chess club in the future.

Class B Winner, Darian Turner // photo: Austin Fuller

Class B Winner, Darian Turner // photo: Austin Fuller

In Class B, Darian Turner (1719) had an exceptionally strong performance and won the section with 4.5/5 points. Turner didn’t seem to make any mistakes in any of his games and he made winning his section look easy. His was the first game to finish in the last round due to an unfortunate opening blunder by his opponent.

Eric Hoffner (1523) won the Class C section with 4/5 points followed by a three way tie for second. In round four, Hoffner played the very unorthodox rook maneuver Rh8-h5-h8-h5. The peculiar rook moves turned out to be a game winner after 24. … Nxe3 as the White queen was unable to take the knight in view of 25. Qxe3 Re5, making sense of the position of the rook on h5.

Class D was won by the section’s highest rated player, Sacchin Milli (1357). Milli scored 4.5/5 points with his only draw coming in the last round to the second place winner David Dong (853). Dong had a phenomenally strong performance as the section’s second lowest rated player by scoring 4/5 points and winning clear second. Dong received an impressive 246 rating point boost for his effort.

In Class E, a very controversial ruling in the final round may have determined the winner of the section. Aaradhya Diwan (1165) had the White pieces against Brandon Stanfield (1050) in round 5 and both players had a chance to compete for first place.

Early in the game, Diwan reported to the tournament directors that Stanfield had touched his queen. Stanfield claimed that he only brushed the piece and never intended to move it, but a witness confirmed that the Black queen was grasped with his fingers and Stanfield was forced to make an undesirable queen move.

Stanfield was on the back foot for the remainder of the game but managed to draw a king and pawn verses king endgame. The draw meant Diwan and Stanfield were guaranteed second place. Kevin Powell (1189) won the section with a score of 4/5.

Join us next month on July 18 as the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis celebrates their seventh anniversary with the Saint Louis Premiere and Amateur – a one day, four round tournament with a prize fund of $1,600 unconditionally guaranteed. Select items will be on sale throughout the Club and members will be treated to free cupcakes.

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