chess game #12 - big fish in a small pond in a giant ocean
After 1988, my chess activity dropped off dramatically. The previous time it dropped off so much was 1983, when I moved to California from Massachusetts. But this time it dropped to almost nil. I only played a handful of tournaments in each of the years from 1989 to 1991, and none at all in 1992. Then in January of 1993, I moved to Hawaii. Wondering what the chess scene was like in the islands, I attended the first tournament that came along, in February of that year. It was not much of a turnout (23 players, all rated lower than me by at least 100 points), so I thought maybe I'd dominate the state chess scene. I was crushed in my second round game by an A-player, and withdrew from the tournament in disgust. It was obviously disgust, because I was not out of prize contention - indeed, first prize in this 5 round event was eventually shared by three players with 4 points each. Perhaps my disgust was not just from losing, but also from realizing that I was spending my weekend playing chess rather than surfing!
I stepped back into the ring again in July, tying for first in a tournament after beating the state's strongest player, Leslie Au, who was rated 2326. Then came the Hawaii State Championship, in September. Besides Au, many (all?) of Hawaii's strongest players were in attendance. While no experts besides me played in that first tournament, the state championship attracted a total of 8 experts plus Au. After 3 rounds, four of us were tied with perfect scores. For the second tournament in a row, I found myself facing Leslie. Unlike the previous tournament, I was playing the white pieces, but Leslie seemed pretty determined to exact his revenge from the previous tournament. I present this game here. I wrote some notes about this game for the Hawaii Chess Newsletter, so I will include many of them here - they will appear in quotes. They provide both greater insight into what was actually happening at the time and some comic relief (when compared with computer analysis).
White: Weideman,T (2144)
Black: Au,L (2319)
Event: Hawaii State Championship (4)
Date: 1993-09-05
(D05 Queen's Pawn Game)
1 Nf3 Nf6
2 d4 e6
3 e3 b6
4 Bd3 Bb7
5 Nbd2 d5
6 O-O Be7
7 c3 O-O
8 Qe2 Nbd7
9 e4 dxe4
10 Nxe4 c5
11 Rd1 cxd4
12 Nxd4 Qb8?
Not sure what Leslie's plan was here, but there are many moves that are more active and effective available in this position for black.
13 Nxf6+ Bxf6
14 Bc2
"This move got me into my eventual time pressure. I calculated and recalculated the many variations which follow after 14 Nxe6?, Re8! After I finally concluded that this loses, I had to start from scratch."
Now that I have the benefit of computer analysis, I can say that in fact 14 Nxe6! does NOT lose, and is in fact the computer's move of choice. After 14 Nxe6, Re8, 15 Bxh7+, Kxh7, 16 Rxd7, Kg8 (16... Rxe6, 17 Qh5+, Kg8, 18 Qxf7+, Kh8, 19 Qxe6; or 16... fxe6, 17 Qh5+, Kg8, 18 Qf7+, Kh8, 19 Rxb7), 17 Bf4, Rxe6, 18 Qxe6, fxe6, 19 Bxb8, Rxb8, and it is a tough ending of a rook + 2 pawns vs the bishop pair. The computer rates this as a decent but by no means overwhelming advantage to white. My instincts for wanting to play 14 Nxe6 were on track, but this is an awful lot of moves of depth to see.
14... Qe5
15 Qg4 h5!
"White sets a final trap for maintaining the initiative, and black avoids it nicely. On anything besides h5, white gets a big advantage with 16 Bf4! With my advantage gone, I offered a draw after my next move, and Leslie declined."
My computer doesn't feel my advantage is gone here - it still rates my position as quite good. It likes 16 Qh3. The idea is to now go after the extended h-pawn by first driving away the queen with f4. In practical terms, that seems like a risky plan to me.
16 Qg3 Qxg3
It looks now like Leslie was right to decline the draw - the computer has swung the evaluation of the position all the way to a slight edge for black. Strange, because I felt that his queen was more dangerous than mine in this position.
17 hxg3 Nc5
18 f3 Rfd8
19 Be3 Kf8
At the time, I thought this move was very peculiar, and I still don't understand it today. Seems like there are more things that can be done before activating the king for the ending. And whenever a king starts to move into a region that seems attackable, I start smelling blood - I think Leslie underestimates the resources available to white as this position develops, even with the queens off the board.
20 Rd2 e5
21 Nb3 Rxd2
22 Bxd2 Ne6
23 Rd1 Nc7
It seems to me that black needs to challenge the d-file, rather than doing whatever he is doing with his knight.
24 c4!
"This keeps the knight off b5 and d5, and opens the diagonal for the deployment of my dark-squared bishop. With my queenside majority, I have a very slight edge here."
My computer gives the slight edge to black, but it is VERY slight, and that edge has dropped a lot in the last few moves. I also recall dreaming up a surprise mating attack when I made this move, though I didn't think it would ever materialize into anything.
24... Ne6
25 Bb4+ Ke8??
This loses instantly. I just assumed he would go back to g8 with his king or interpose with 25... Be7, never dreaming he would actually fall into the mating net I conceived a couple moves earlier.
26 Na5!
"I had the possibility of this shot in mind back when I played 24 c4, but I never thought it would actually happen! How Leslie missed it is a mystery. He told me later that he saw the idea of mate starting with Ba4 but he didn't see any useful squares for my knight. [24 Nc5 threatens the bishop too, but then black just takes my knight with 24... Nxc5 and the a4 square is guarded]."
26... Nd4
"Leslie puts up an imaginative defense, designed to make me think during time pressure. On 26... Nc5, 27 Nxb7."
27 Ba4+ b5
28 cxb5 Bd5
29 b6+ Kd8
30 b7 Rb8
31 Nc6+
The computer prefers 31 f4 much more. There's no way I'm finding this move in time pressure, or for that matter, probably any other time. Once I have this kind of initiative, I find it very hard to find quieter moves that are more crushing than other, more "direct" moves that also win. It is surprising how big of a difference there is between these moves, however.
31... Kc7
32 Nxb8 Kxb8
33 a3
This computer just won't shut up about f4!
33... Bxb7
34 f4
Okay, the irony here is just too funny not to share. I finally make the move my computer has been screaming about, and now it prefers 34 Bd6+. What is more, in the notes I wrote for the game years ago, I gave my f4 move an exclamation point, heh.
34... e4
35 Bd6+ Ka8
36 Be5 Bxe5
37 fxe5 Ne6
38 Bd7 Nc5
39 Be8 Ba6
40 Bxf7
"Time control was made with about a minute to spare."
40... e3
41 Re1 1-0
After winning this game, I went on to win the final round game with black against Reynolds Takata, finishing the tournament with a perfect 5-0 score, and capturing the title. I played a very good tournament, and I really like being able to tell people I was a state champion in 1993, but it's clear that Hawaii is one of only a handful of states for which this goal was achievable for me. That is not to take anything away from the players there - I have found them to be quite strong, and their forays into tournaments on the mainland and against mainland players that come to Hawaii confirm this - but the fact that there are so few of these strong players is critical. It is much easier to get lucky against a few good players who are equal or slightly better than me than it is to get lucky enough to rise to the top of dozens of players, many of whom are much stronger than me.
I stepped back into the ring again in July, tying for first in a tournament after beating the state's strongest player, Leslie Au, who was rated 2326. Then came the Hawaii State Championship, in September. Besides Au, many (all?) of Hawaii's strongest players were in attendance. While no experts besides me played in that first tournament, the state championship attracted a total of 8 experts plus Au. After 3 rounds, four of us were tied with perfect scores. For the second tournament in a row, I found myself facing Leslie. Unlike the previous tournament, I was playing the white pieces, but Leslie seemed pretty determined to exact his revenge from the previous tournament. I present this game here. I wrote some notes about this game for the Hawaii Chess Newsletter, so I will include many of them here - they will appear in quotes. They provide both greater insight into what was actually happening at the time and some comic relief (when compared with computer analysis).
White: Weideman,T (2144)
Black: Au,L (2319)
Event: Hawaii State Championship (4)
Date: 1993-09-05
(D05 Queen's Pawn Game)
1 Nf3 Nf6
2 d4 e6
3 e3 b6
4 Bd3 Bb7
5 Nbd2 d5
6 O-O Be7
7 c3 O-O
8 Qe2 Nbd7
9 e4 dxe4
10 Nxe4 c5
11 Rd1 cxd4
12 Nxd4 Qb8?
Not sure what Leslie's plan was here, but there are many moves that are more active and effective available in this position for black.
13 Nxf6+ Bxf6
14 Bc2
"This move got me into my eventual time pressure. I calculated and recalculated the many variations which follow after 14 Nxe6?, Re8! After I finally concluded that this loses, I had to start from scratch."
Now that I have the benefit of computer analysis, I can say that in fact 14 Nxe6! does NOT lose, and is in fact the computer's move of choice. After 14 Nxe6, Re8, 15 Bxh7+, Kxh7, 16 Rxd7, Kg8 (16... Rxe6, 17 Qh5+, Kg8, 18 Qxf7+, Kh8, 19 Qxe6; or 16... fxe6, 17 Qh5+, Kg8, 18 Qf7+, Kh8, 19 Rxb7), 17 Bf4, Rxe6, 18 Qxe6, fxe6, 19 Bxb8, Rxb8, and it is a tough ending of a rook + 2 pawns vs the bishop pair. The computer rates this as a decent but by no means overwhelming advantage to white. My instincts for wanting to play 14 Nxe6 were on track, but this is an awful lot of moves of depth to see.
14... Qe5
15 Qg4 h5!
"White sets a final trap for maintaining the initiative, and black avoids it nicely. On anything besides h5, white gets a big advantage with 16 Bf4! With my advantage gone, I offered a draw after my next move, and Leslie declined."
My computer doesn't feel my advantage is gone here - it still rates my position as quite good. It likes 16 Qh3. The idea is to now go after the extended h-pawn by first driving away the queen with f4. In practical terms, that seems like a risky plan to me.
16 Qg3 Qxg3
It looks now like Leslie was right to decline the draw - the computer has swung the evaluation of the position all the way to a slight edge for black. Strange, because I felt that his queen was more dangerous than mine in this position.
17 hxg3 Nc5
18 f3 Rfd8
19 Be3 Kf8
At the time, I thought this move was very peculiar, and I still don't understand it today. Seems like there are more things that can be done before activating the king for the ending. And whenever a king starts to move into a region that seems attackable, I start smelling blood - I think Leslie underestimates the resources available to white as this position develops, even with the queens off the board.
20 Rd2 e5
21 Nb3 Rxd2
22 Bxd2 Ne6
23 Rd1 Nc7
It seems to me that black needs to challenge the d-file, rather than doing whatever he is doing with his knight.
24 c4!
"This keeps the knight off b5 and d5, and opens the diagonal for the deployment of my dark-squared bishop. With my queenside majority, I have a very slight edge here."
My computer gives the slight edge to black, but it is VERY slight, and that edge has dropped a lot in the last few moves. I also recall dreaming up a surprise mating attack when I made this move, though I didn't think it would ever materialize into anything.
24... Ne6
25 Bb4+ Ke8??
This loses instantly. I just assumed he would go back to g8 with his king or interpose with 25... Be7, never dreaming he would actually fall into the mating net I conceived a couple moves earlier.
26 Na5!
"I had the possibility of this shot in mind back when I played 24 c4, but I never thought it would actually happen! How Leslie missed it is a mystery. He told me later that he saw the idea of mate starting with Ba4 but he didn't see any useful squares for my knight. [24 Nc5 threatens the bishop too, but then black just takes my knight with 24... Nxc5 and the a4 square is guarded]."
26... Nd4
"Leslie puts up an imaginative defense, designed to make me think during time pressure. On 26... Nc5, 27 Nxb7."
27 Ba4+ b5
28 cxb5 Bd5
29 b6+ Kd8
30 b7 Rb8
31 Nc6+
The computer prefers 31 f4 much more. There's no way I'm finding this move in time pressure, or for that matter, probably any other time. Once I have this kind of initiative, I find it very hard to find quieter moves that are more crushing than other, more "direct" moves that also win. It is surprising how big of a difference there is between these moves, however.
31... Kc7
32 Nxb8 Kxb8
33 a3
This computer just won't shut up about f4!
33... Bxb7
34 f4
Okay, the irony here is just too funny not to share. I finally make the move my computer has been screaming about, and now it prefers 34 Bd6+. What is more, in the notes I wrote for the game years ago, I gave my f4 move an exclamation point, heh.
34... e4
35 Bd6+ Ka8
36 Be5 Bxe5
37 fxe5 Ne6
38 Bd7 Nc5
39 Be8 Ba6
40 Bxf7
"Time control was made with about a minute to spare."
40... e3
41 Re1 1-0
After winning this game, I went on to win the final round game with black against Reynolds Takata, finishing the tournament with a perfect 5-0 score, and capturing the title. I played a very good tournament, and I really like being able to tell people I was a state champion in 1993, but it's clear that Hawaii is one of only a handful of states for which this goal was achievable for me. That is not to take anything away from the players there - I have found them to be quite strong, and their forays into tournaments on the mainland and against mainland players that come to Hawaii confirm this - but the fact that there are so few of these strong players is critical. It is much easier to get lucky against a few good players who are equal or slightly better than me than it is to get lucky enough to rise to the top of dozens of players, many of whom are much stronger than me.