Forcing Chess Moves

David Navara 2693 (CZE)

Photo: David Llada http://www.tepesigemanchess.com/navara/

vs Hans Moke Niemann 2637 (USA)

Photo: © Lennart Ootes http://www.tepesigemanchess.com/niemann/

Tepe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament 2022
C50 Giuoco Pianissimo

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. c3 O-O 6. O-O d5 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. a4 a5 9. Re1 Bg4 10. Nbd2 Nb6 11. Bb5 Bd6 12. Ne4 f5 13. Qb3+ Kh8 14. Nxd6 cxd6 15. Ng5 Qc7 16. Ne6 Qf7 17. Ra3 Rfc8 18. Be3 Nd7 19. Bc4 Qe7 20. f3 Bh5 21. Qxb7 f4 22. Bf2 Rab8 23. Qa6 Ra8 24. Qb5 Rab8 25. Nxf4 Rxb5 26. axb5 Bxf3 27. gxf3 Nd8 28. Rxa5 Nf7 29. Ra7 Ng5 30. Bd5 Rf8 31. h4 Nxf3+ 32. Bxf3 Qf7 33. Re4 d5 34. Rea4 e4 35. Rxd7 Qxf4 36. Bd4 Qc1+ 37. Kh2 Qf4+ 38. Kg1 Qc1+ 39. Kh2 Qf4+ 40. Kg1 Qc1+ 1/2-1/2

1.e4 (B00 King’s pawn opening) 1…e5 (C20 King’s pawn game) 2. Nf3 (C40 King’s knight opening) 2…Nc6 (C44 King’s pawn game) 3. Bc4 (C50 King’s pawn game) 3…Nf6 (C55 Two knights defence) 4. d3 (C55 Two knights defence (Modern bishop’s opening)) 4…Bc5 (C50 Giuoco Pianissimo) 5. c3 O-O O-O d5 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. a4 a5 9. Re1 Bg4 10. Nbd2 Nb6 11. Bb5 Bd6 12. Ne4 f5?

Position after 12…f5

(This is a game losing move. GM Niemann cogitated for all of one minute before moving the pawn. Moves this bad simply cannot be played at the very top level of Chess. If the move was prep it was very poor prep. If Hans was unfamiliar with the position he should have taken much more time deciding upon a move before ‘shooting it out there’. Maybe all the recent travel from country to country with little, if any, time to recover from the previous tournament has had an adverse effect. Only GM Niemann can explain what prompted him to make a game losing move in the opening) 13. Qb3+ Kh8 14. Nxd6 cxd6 15. Ng5 Qc7 16. Ne6 Qf7 17. Ra3?

Position after 17 Ra3

When playing Chess one must continually ask and answer questions with the first being, “Why did my opponent make that move?” How does a teacher reply if a student were to ask, “Coach, why did he make that move?” Since you are getting paid you want the student to at least think you have a clue, but honesty compels you to answer, “I have no clue.” Who knows, maybe GM Navara had no clue… The Stockfish program used at LiChess shows 17 f3 as best. At least it is a forcing move. At best the move played in the game is an innocuous move, but still…) 17…Rfc8 18. Be3 Nd7 19. Bc4?

Position after 19 Bc4?

(Again GM Navara plays a less forcing move. 19 Ng5 attacks the Queen and should have been played) 19…Qe7 20. f3 Bh5 21. Qxb7?

Position after 21. Qxb7?

(This move is given in red with this commentary, “Blunder. Bg5 was best.” This is the second time Navara refused to attack his opponents Queen. GM Navara should give some serious consideration to reading this book:

Forcing Chess Moves: The Key to Better Calculation – download book
en.chessok.net

Charles Hertan

In The Last Round Some Gotta Win, Some Gotta Lose

Alex Malekan vs Mel Goss (2180)
27th Space Coast Open (round 5)
B40 Sicilian defence

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d3 Nc6 4. g3 Nf6 5. Bg2 d5 6. Nbd2 dxe4 7. dxe4 e5 8. O-O Qc7 9. c3 Be7 10. Re1 h6 11. Nc4 Be6 12. Qe2 O-O 13. Nh4 Rfd8 14. Ne3 Rd7 15. Nef5 Bf8 16. Qf3 Nh7 17. Bf1 Rad8 18. Be3 a6 19. g4 b5 20. Qg2 Ng5 21. Bxg5 hxg5 22. Nf3 f6 23. h4 gxh4 24. g5 Ne7 25. Qg4 Nxf5 26. exf5 Bd5 27. g6 c4 28. Qh5 Bc5 29. Qh7+ Kf8 30. Qh8+ Bg8 31. Re4 Rd1 32. Rxd1 Rxd1 33. Kg2 Qd7 34. Nxh4 Qd5 35. f3 Qd2+ 36. Be2 Re1 0-1
   https://live.followchess.com/#!27th-space-coast-open-2022/-1809779182

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 (Interesting is that Stockfish 14.1 @depth 65 will play the game move, but Stockfish 14.1677, a new one to me, will play 2 Nc3, which was the move I played when facing a Sicilian) 2…e6 3. d3 Nc6 4. g3 Nf6 (Both SF 14.1 and Komodo play 4…d5) 5. Bg2 (SF 14 plays 5 Qe2! And so does the AW. In 16 games the move has scored 66% against 2430 ELO averaged players. Just sayin’…) 5…d5 6. Nbd2 (SF 14.1 plays 6 Qe2. SF 141221 @depth 60 castles, but @depth 61 changes its something or other to 6 Qe2) 6…dxe4 (SF 14.1 @depth 57 will play 6…Be7 as have 1493 other players according to the CBDB) 7. dxe4 e5 (Deep Fritz likes this move, but SF 14.1 will play 7…Be7) 8. O-O (Deep Fritz castles, but Fritz 17 and SF 14 will play 8 c3, a move not contained in the CBDB. Ten games can be found at 365Chess ) 8…Qc7 9. c3 Be7 10. Re1 (This move has been most often played but the Stockfish 14+NNUE program at LiChess shows 10 Nc4 best) 10…h6

Siegfried Klausner (2120) vs Dieter Blaickner
Event: AUT-chT3 9899
Site: Austria Date: 11/06/1998
Round: 4
ECO: A07 Reti, King’s Indian attack (Barcza system)
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.O-O Be7 5.d3 c5 6.Nbd2 Nc6 7.e4 dxe4 8.dxe4 Qc7 9.Re1 e5 10.c3 h6 11.Nc4 Be6 12.Nfd2 Rd8 13.Qc2 O-O 14.a4 Rfe8 15.b3 b6 16.Ne3 Bf8 17.Bb2 a6 18.c4 Nd4 19.Qc3 b5 20.axb5 axb5 21.Nd5 Bxd5 22.exd5 b4 23.Qd3 Bd6 24.Ra6 Ra8 25.Rea1 Rxa6 26.Rxa6 Qd7 27.Qb1 Qe7 28.Qa1 Nc2 29.Qa4 Ne1 30.Ne4 Nxe4 31.Bxe4 Rf8 32.Qc6 f5 33.Bb1 Bb8 34.d6 Qg5 35.Qd5+ Kh8 36.Kf1 Qg4 1-0
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?back=1&gid=906476&m=22

FM Zdenek Ramik 2288 (CZE) vs IM Ladislav Langner 2398 (CZE)
Tatry Open 2002
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d3 d5 4.Nbd2 Nf6 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Be7 7.O-O h6 8.Re1 Qc7 9.c3 dxe4 (9…0-0 SF 14.1 & SF 15) 10.dxe4 e5 11.Nc4 Be6 12.Qe2 O-O-O 13.Nfd2 h5 14.Nf3 Nd7 15.Ng5 Bxg5 16.Bxg5 f6 17.Be3 h4 18.Red1 hxg3 19.hxg3 Nb6 20.Rxd8+ Nxd8 21.Nxb6+ axb6 22.b4 g5 23.bxc5 Qh7 24.g4 b5 25.Qxb5 Bxg4 26.c6 Nxc6 27.Rb1 Qh2+ 28.Kf1 Rh7 29.Qb3 Bh3 30.Qg8+ Nd8 31.Bxh3+ Qxh3+ 32.Ke2 Qg4+ 33.f3 Rh2+ 34.Bf2 Qe6 35.Qxe6+ Nxe6 36.Rb6 Nf4+ 37.Kf1 Rh3 38.Rxf6 Rxf3 39.Rf8+ Kd7 40.Rg8 Rxc3 41.Rxg5 Rc1+ 42.Be1 Nd3 43.Ke2 Nxe1 44.Rxe5 Ng2 45.Rd5+ Kc6 46.Rd2 Nf4+ 47.Ke3 Ne6 48.Rh2 Rc3+ 49.Kd2 Ra3 50.Kc1 Re3 51.Kb2 Rxe4 52.Rh5 Re3 53.Rh6 Kb5 54.Rh5+ Nc5 55.Rg5 Kb4 56.Rg4+ Re4 57.Rg2 Nd3+ 0-1 (From the chessBaseDataBase)

Dedicated to Jim ‘Fingers’ Kraft (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2021/10/25/just-like-bob-dylans-bill-kirchens-and-dr-zwigs-blues/)

Chess Websites

A disgruntled reader took exception to the post, USCF Drops Set & Clock (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2021/08/12/uscf-drops-set-clock/). He defended the USCF for not having posted the last round games along with the other eight rounds. Only seven of those rounds can be found at the USCF website. There was/is an error with the fifth round and when clicks on the round this is found:

This screenshot was taken from the USCF website a moment ago (http://uschess.live/2021USO/round-5/games.pgn).

There are still no last round games posted…

The disgruntled one excoriated the AW for not finding the games at lichess (https://lichess.org/). I will admit to missing the notification in the article by Alexy Root,

Family Chess Challenge in Denton with WIM Dr. Alexey Root …
new.uschess.org

U.S. Open: Chess games, awards, signings, meetings, as I sort of glanced at the pictures on the way to the games, of which there were only three. Although I had previously been to the lichess website, I returned, finding the same page. From what was displayed I thought the website was only for playing online Chess. What do you think

https://lichess.org/

Yesterday while watching the coverage of the Sinquefield Cup

https://saintlouischessclub.org/

I noticed GM Maurice Ashley

https://tim.blog/2020/07/28/maurice-ashley/

using a lichess board to display moves played in the ongoing games, so I returned to lichess and there was the same page as above. I did not want to waste time looking at the website because I was enjoying watching the gentlemen. Frankly, it was excellent having three Grandmasters analyze the games live without having a much lower rated woman onscreen.

There are many Chess websites and they are in competition. Like the Highlander,

From the look of Chessdom (https://www.chessdom.com/) another one has bitten the dust.

The same screen has been up since the conclusion of the TCEC (https://tcec-chess.com/) match, won convincingly by Stockfish over LcZero. Although I visit most every Chess website the surfing begins with The Week In Chess (https://theweekinchess.com/), moving to Chessbase (https://en.chessbase.com/), then on over to Chess24 (https://chess24.com/en), and when there is Chess action, I go to the ChessBomb (https://www.chessbomb.com/), and also use Chess24. The best place to view is TWIC because the board contains only moves, unlike ChessBomb, which color codes moves, and Chess24 which has some ridiculous white strip on the side of the board that moves up or down depending on the current move. It reminds me of a thermometer. Wonder why the two websites did not make the ancillary accoutrements optional? They broadcast most of the same events, but the Bomb has been running all games played in the World Chess Championship matches, and is now up to the 1981 Karpov vs. Korchnoi match. (https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/1981-karpov-korchnoi) I am still enjoying replaying the Bobby Fischer versus Boris Spassky match. (https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/1972-spassky-fischer) Although I like the darker background found at Chess.com I agree with a gentleman with children who said, “Chess.com is geared toward children.” And why should it not be “geared toward children”? Children are the future and the battle rages for their little hearts, minds, souls, and their parents money.