Swindling the Lost Game'

Tue, 2014-09-16 15:15 -- IM Max Illingworth

[pgn][Event "41st Olympiad Open 2014"]
[Site "Tromso NOR"]
[Date "2014.08.03"]
[Round "2.3"]
[White "Illingworth, Max"]
[Black "Movsesian, Sergei"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E94"]
[WhiteElo "2439"]
[BlackElo "2672"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "139"]
[EventDate "2014.08.02"]
[Source "Max Illingworth"]
[SourceDate "2008.10.04"]
[WhiteTeam "Australia"]
[BlackTeam "Armenia"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "AUS"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ARM"]

{Hello! Now that my European tournaments are over, blogging should be back to
normal with the usual weekly posts. When you are playing a major tournament
you tend to 'zone out' of everything outside doing as well as possible in the
tournament, much like you put all your efforts into finding the best
continuation you can on each move of your chess games. This post is about
swindling - the legal form of stealing in chess! If I recall correctly, I
mentioned in a previous blog post that I would cover how to convert winning
positions at some point, but learning how to save lost positions is really not
that different - basically we're following the opposite of what we do when we
are winning! Since I have plenty of fresh games to share, I'll treat you to
three of my own encounters in Europe, concentrating on the part where the
losing side managed to slowly (or not so slowly!) turn the tables or at least
swindle a draw.} 1. d4 {I already analysed this game for a major periodical,
so I'll be giving a quite different perspective in my notes here.} Nf6 2. c4 d6
3. Nc3 Nbd7 4. Nf3 g6 5. e4 e5 6. Be2 Bg7 7. O-O O-O 8. Be3 Ng4 9. Bg5 f6 10.
Bh4 Nh6 11. d5 Nf7 12. Ne1 h5 13. f3 Bh6 14. Bf2 f5 15. Nd3 Nf6 16. c5 fxe4 17.
fxe4 Ng5 18. Bh4 Qe8 19. cxd6 cxd6 20. Nf2 Ngh7 21. Bg3 a6 22. Qd3 Bd7 23. a4
Qe7 24. a5 Ne8 25. Nfd1 Nc7 26. Bf2 Rac8 27. Qg3 Bg5 28. h4 Bf4 29. Qxg6+ Kh8
30. Ne3 Rg8 31. Nf5 Bxf5 32. Qxf5 Qg7 33. Bf3 Rcf8 34. Qxh5 Ne8 35. Ne2 Bh6 36.
Ra3 Nhf6 37. Qf5 Nxd5 38. Qh3 Ne7 39. Ng3 {Things have settled down and it is
clear that White is winning - he is up a pawn with the bishop pair advantage,
and Black doesn't have any obvious counterplay or compensation.} Ng6 40. Nh5 $6
{At this, the last move before the time control, I rejected Nf5 because I
didn't want to put my queen on a sad square like h2 or h1, but it will not be
there forever:} (40. Nf5 Nf4 41. Qh2 {and now what would you play here as
Black if you were going for the swindle? That's right, keep the initiative,
even if it means giving up more material!} Rxf5 $1 42. exf5 Nf6 {I was afraid
of this continuation as I thought there were good ideas of ...e4 to come, but
it's just pie in the sky and any decent move will win - probably} 43. g3 {is
the most practical. All the endgames will be winning for White too.}) 40... Qe7
41. g4 $2 {I had this idea of playing g5 and using the pawns as an advanced
shield for the king to constrict Black's pieces, but this was totally
impractical. Some helpful advice: don't try to play in genius mode when you
are winning - keep things simple by maintaining control of the position
(especially by safeguarding your king) and then your extra material and
positional trumps will decide much more easily!} (41. g3 {was the simple move,
stopping ...Nf4 (well, I can take it in response) and if} Nxh4 42. Be2 {leaves
the h4-knight in trouble, and after a later} d5 {(what else? Bc4 was a big
threat)} 43. Kh2 {the knight has to move again, back to} Ng6 44. exd5 {and
White has opened things up for the bishop pair, making Black's weak king even
more apparent.}) 41... Bd2 (41... Ng7 42. Nxg7 Rxg7 {is given as objectively
better by the endgame, but then Black doesn't have real threats and so White
will find it a lot easier to consolidate. Movsesian's move is a lot more
annoying as it sets me more problems. Even in the computer era, that's what
wins games of chess - setting the opponent problems they can't solve. When
we're losing, we want our opponents to have all the tough decisions to make!})
42. g5 Ng7 43. Qg4 Nf4 44. Ng3 $2 {Unfortunately, I had completely lost my
sense of danger. I wanted to put my knight on f5, but it is too late for that!
I'll be stuck with this horrible knight on f4 for the rest of the game, and I
should have instead played} (44. Nxf4 Rxf4 45. Qh3 {as then Black has no
threats at all against my king. He can't even arrange a good sacrifice on g5 -
after I recapture with the pawn, it will be check along the h-file! Well,
after coming up with such an awesome idea, it's a pity I didn't stick to it!})
44... Nge6 45. Bd1 Qh7 46. Nf5 $2 {People get dizzy when they are winning.
They get so excited, nervous, unfocused, or whatever else, that they forget
how to play good chess once they are winning. And that's what happened to me
here - I was so focused on proving that I was 'winning' that I managed to talk
myself out of good moves and play a lemon. And yet, this could only have
happened by my opponent giving me every possible chance to go wrong.} ({Your
computer will tell you that} 46. Be3 Bxe3+ 47. Rxe3 {is more or less winning
for White, but as I said before, Black will always have tricks with that
knight on f4, which White can't get rid of. If White tries to swap it off,
another knight will take its place.}) 46... d5 $1 {Movsesian takes his chance
to destroy my control of the position, and furthermore take the initiative!
The rest of the game is interesting but not so important to our theme, as
Black is already back in the game. Let's go on to our next one!} 47. Nh6 Nxg5
48. hxg5 Rxg5 49. Qxg5 Ne2+ 50. Bxe2 Bxg5 51. Nf5 Bf4 52. Ng3 Qh3 53. Rd1 Rg8
54. Bf1 Qh4 55. Kg2 Bxg3 56. Bxg3 Qxe4+ 57. Kg1 Rg5 58. Bg2 Qg6 59. Rdd3 d4 60.
Rab3 e4 61. Rxd4 Rxg3 62. Rd8+ Kg7 63. Rxb7+ Kh6 64. Rb6 Rxg2+ 65. Kf1 Rxb2 66.
Rxg6+ Kxg6 67. Rd6+ Kf5 68. Rxa6 Kf4 69. Rb6 Ra2 70. Rb3 1/2-1/2 [/pgn]

[pgn][Event "41st Olympiad Open 2014"]
[Site "Tromso NOR"]
[Date "2014.08.10"]
[Round "8.3"]
[White "Dzhumaev, Marat"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B91"]
[WhiteElo "2510"]
[BlackElo "2439"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "152"]
[EventDate "2014.08.02"]
[Source "Max Illingworth"]
[SourceDate "2008.10.04"]
[WhiteTeam "Uzbekistan"]
[BlackTeam "Australia"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "UZB"]
[BlackTeamCountry "AUS"]

{This game shows pretty much all the mistakes one can make when you have a
winning position. For that reason, it's a great example of what types of
mistakes you can provoke from your opponent when you seem to be going down.} 1.
e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. Nge2 Nf6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6 6. g3 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Bg2 b5
9. a4 b4 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. Qxd5 Ra7 12. Be3 Be6 13. Qd3 Ra8 14. O-O Nd7 15. f4
exf4 16. gxf4 Bg4 {I'm pretty sure I'm just lost here, but as my opponent
quickly returned the favour, I'll skip to the more painful part.} 17. Bd4 O-O
18. Qg3 h5 19. h3 Bh4 20. Qd3 Be6 21. Nd2 Nc5 22. Qe2 Rc8 23. f5 Bd7 24. Rad1
Bxa4 25. b3 Bb5 26. Nc4 Nd7 27. e5 dxe5 28. Be3 Qe7 29. Qxh5 Bxc4 30. bxc4 Rxc4
31. Qe2 Rfc8 32. Bd5 Rxc2 33. Qxa6 Bg5 {Black is up two pawns, has a much
safer king, a strong initiative, and far better pieces. I'd rate failing to
win this as one of the most epic fails of my chess career, but one of the
advantages of being a coach is that someone other than the opponent can
benefit from your failures.} 34. Bf2 (34. Bxf7+ {is the sort of cheap trick
some of you might play, hoping to confuse the opponent, but my general advice
when you are losing is not to play these sorts of 'cheap trick' moves unless
the alternative is to get mated by force. You'll pose your opponents many more
problems by finding the most resilient defensive moves possible, where the
opponent can't finish you off right away.} Kf8 {kills the idea, for instance.})
34... Bf4 {Not bad, threatening ...Qg5, but if I'd played} (34... e4 {followed
by ...e3, you would perhaps instead be reading about how to make 29 games
worth of GM norms in Europe.}) 35. Kh1 e4 36. Qg6 Ne5 {This is still winning,
but makes the win a lot trickier.} ({Of course, my opponent had no threat, so
there was no need to kick the queen away and just pushing the passed pawn with
} 36... e3 {wins. The only trick left in White's hat is} 37. Bxf7+ (37. Rg1 Qf6
{just wins; for some reason I had a panic attack and thought White had some
tricky move here.}) 37... Qxf7 38. Qxf7+ Kxf7 39. Rxd7+ Ke8 40. Rd4 Rxf2 41.
Rxf4 Rxf1+ 42. Rxf1 b3 {and this is so easily winning that I would resign
against anyone on the planet, were I in White's shoes.}) 37. Qh5 Nd3 (37...
R8c3 {would again be more efficient. I made the practical mistake of attacking
White's pieces instead of trying to just improve my position and finish him
off. The nice thing about ...Rc3 is that Bh4 isn't a move any more.}) 38. Bg1
Bg5 39. Qg4 Ne5 {It's unfortunate that I had to give up e4 - I'm still dead
won but I've given my opponent some hope.} 40. Qxe4 R8c3 41. Bh2 b3 {This is a
great move according to the engine, threatening ...Rxh3, but it gives my
opponent some chances to complicate the game.} ({I saw the simple} 41... Bf6 {
, cutting out all counterplay and leaving Black two pawns ahead, still with
time to push the b-pawn and mate White's king (or win material). Unfortunately,
I suddenly became a perfectionist out of nowhere and tried to find the very
best moves. While I have played as well as a computer before, trying to do
this here was completely laughable.}) 42. f6 $1 {The only chance to turn the
game around.} Rxh2+ $1 {It took a long time to come up with this move - it's
weird how sometimes one can miss the really obvious and find something
absolutely brilliant in the one game. I think the club players reading this
will know what I mean!} (42... Bxf6 43. Bxe5 Bxe5 {is dead won for Black, but
I hallucinated that I was losing here. Well, that can happen when the opponent
gets an attack out of nowhere, though it's still inexcusable for a titled
player, especially without time trouble being a factor.} 44. Bxf7+ (44. Rxf7
Rxh3+ 45. Kg1 Bh2+ {I'm not sure I even saw this.}) 44... Kh8 {and from memory
I thought White was mating with} 45. Qa8+ {and completely missed the crushing
answer} Rc8 {.}) 43. Kxh2 Qc7 $1 44. Kg2 Rc2+ $2 {All exchanges do is make the
White king safer - going for this check was therefore ridiculous. You can add
that to the list of errors people make when winning - premature exchanging
away of their advantage.} (44... Re3 45. Qf5 Re2+ 46. Rf2 (46. Kh1 Rh2+ $1 47.
Kg1 Be3+ 48. Kxh2 Nf3+ 49. Kg2 Nh4+ {is a nice touch.}) 46... Qc2 $1 {is the
execution I was looking for.}) 45. Rf2 Rxf2+ 46. Kxf2 Qc2+ 47. Qe2 Bxf6 48. Be4
{From here the game becomes too painful, both for the viewers and for me. Well,
I've kept the final moves if you want to try and play better than me for the
rest of the game (and in all frankness it should be a piece of cake). Consider
it your homework - improve on the coach's play somewhere in the rest of this
GM-norm costing game :P} Qc3 49. Qe3 Qb4 50. Kg2 g6 51. Rf1 Bg7 52. h4 Ng4 53.
Qd3 Qb6 54. Kg3 Nf6 55. Bf3 b2 56. Rd1 Qc7+ 57. Kg2 Qf4 58. Kh3 Nh7 59. Qe4 Qc1
60. Qe1 Bh6 61. Qe8+ Nf8 62. Qb8 Kg7 63. h5 Qc3 64. Kg2 Ne6 65. hxg6 Qc2+ 66.
Kf1 Be3 67. Qe5+ Kf8 68. Qxe3 b1=Q 69. Qh6+ Ke7 70. Qh4+ Kf8 71. Qh8+ Ke7 72.
Qh4+ Kf8 73. Qh8+ Ke7 74. Qh4+ Kf8 75. Qh8+ Ke7 76. Qh4+ Kf8 1/2-1/2 [/pgn]

[pgn][Event "First Saturday September GM"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2014.09.14"]
[Round "8.1"]
[White "Santos Ruiz, Miguel"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A13"]
[WhiteElo "2331"]
[BlackElo "2450"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "84"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]
[Source "Max Illingworth"]
[SourceDate "2008.10.04"]

{Although our last game doesn't really fit our category of lost positions as I
was only lost for a small number of moves, my opponent did a good job of
setting me problems when he was in trouble and in a way he was unlucky that I
managed to solve them with machine-like accuracy.} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 a6
4. Bg2 b5 5. b3 c5 {For what it's worth, I suspect the way my opponent played
nearly refutes this move, and that} (5... Bb7 {is correct, intending to meet
Nc3 with ...b4.}) 6. Nc3 Qb6 7. O-O Bb7 8. Re1 $1 d6 9. e4 $1 {This is a
really nice idea and I didn't understand it at all until my opponent played
his 10th move.} Nc6 {It's easy to criticise this move and I felt like a total
idiot after my opponent's reply, but otherwise he gets in d4 and I am
suffering a lot from my bad development.} 10. Nd5 $1 {It was pretty bad to
miss this, especially when I knew my opponent plays the Morra Gambit!} Qd8 (
10... exd5 11. exd5+ Ne7 {is unsuprisingly how the computer wants to defend,
but after} 12. d4 {I don't see a way for Black to ever untangle his pieces
(castling queenside sees you get mated, in case you were wondering) and if
that's the case, White is probably winning.}) 11. d4 $1 {This shattered any
illusion that I could bail out of trouble.} cxd4 12. Nxd4 Nxd4 {Around here I
was very excited, as after Qxd4 I thought that I could take the knight, exd5
would be forced, and I would consolidate my extra piece...} 13. Qxd4 exd5 14.
e5 $1 {Unfortunately I saw this only after playing ...exd5. I was so disgusted
with all my oversights that I felt like resigning here, but I have an
unwritten rule that I never lose in under 25 moves, to avoid appearing in the
list of 'miniatures' in Mega Database, and also I needed to win to stay in
contention for a GM norm, so I sat down, and after silently mouthing some
expletives for about five minutes, found the best defensive try.} dxe5 15.
Rxe5+ Kd7 {It's ridiculous to have the king out like this, but around here I
couldn't see a forced mate for White, so I had some hope that my opponent
wouldn't continue playing like a tactical genius.} 16. Bf4 Bd6 {White to play
and win. Warning: this is not easy!} 17. cxb5 $2 {My opponent had a long think
here and in the end I suspect he got confused by the ton of tempting
possibilities. Indeed, giving your opponent lots of good looking options is
not a bad way to make them burn lots of time and perhaps pick a bad one!} (17.
Rae1 $1 {is just winning. The threat is Bh3 Kc7 Re7.} Bxe5 (17... bxc4 18. Bh3+
Kc7 19. Re7+ Kb8 20. Rd7 $1 Nxd7 21. Bxd6+ Kc8 22. Qc5+ {is a beautiful finish.
}) (17... Kc8 {is the defence I was counting on, but} 18. Re7 $1 {refutes it.})
18. Qxe5 Ne8 19. cxd5 {followed by Bh3, and it's all over. Had my opponent
found this continuation, this would surely have been the most beautiful (and
brutal) game of the tournament.}) (17. Bh3+ Kc7 18. Rae1 {is also quite good,
though it's rather strange to chase the king away from the centre with the
bishop check. When you're hunting the opponent's king, you have to be careful
that you don't check them out of the mating net and back into relative safety.}
) 17... Bxe5 18. Re1 $2 {My opponent played this move instantly and at first I
was quite impressed and even somewhat pleased by the beauty of this queen
sacrifice, but unfortunately for him it doesn't work. Another way you could
look at it is - after 17.Rae1 Bxe5, would you really play 18.cxb5?} (18. Qxe5
Qe7 19. Qc7+ Ke8 20. Qb6 $1 {would still have drawn for White - it's a long
story so I'll leave you to work out the details with your engine if you are
really curious (and I hope you are!).}) 18... Re8 $1 {Now comes the run of 20
accurate defensive moves (well, the engine points out one faster win in this
time). My idea becomes obvious with the next move.} 19. Bh3+ Re6 {Blocking the
check, and if White isn't careful I'll just run back to the kingside with my
king!} 20. Qxe5 Qb6 $1 (20... Qe7 {was the other move I was calculating, but
eventually I saw that} 21. bxa6 Raxa6 22. Qc7+ Ke8 23. Qb8+ Qd8 24. Bxe6 Qxb8
25. Bh3+ Kf8 26. Bxb8 Rxa2 27. b4 {would be quite promising for White, thanks
to the bishop pair and my weak king.}) 21. a4 $5 {A decent practical try to
confuse me - it actually did for a while!} (21. bxa6 Bxa6 {is how the computer
wants to play, but then it's quite easy for me to consolidate my extra piece.})
21... axb5 22. a5 $1 {Quite a clever idea to lure my rook away, but it just
falls short.} Rxa5 23. Qg5 ({For some weird reason it took me ages to see the
defence of ...Ne8 in the line} 23. Rc1 Ne8 {.}) 23... Ne8 $5 (23... Ne4 $1 {
was a simpler win, and I wanted to play it, but I wasn't entirely convinced of
the variations and played the safe move.} 24. Bxe6+ Ke8 $3 {This is the most
efficient, though the king and queen recapture also win.} 25. Rxe4 dxe4 {and
Black will convert his extra exchange and pawn. He even has ...Ra1 Kg2 e3
threatened to start the big counterattack!}) 24. Qh5 Ke7 25. Bg5+ Kf8 26. Bxe6
fxe6 27. Qf3+ Kg8 28. Be7 {This forced sequence had me worried for a while,
but eventually I remembered a variation from a really painful experience I had
some months ago and applied the same idea I'd found in my analysis (of
shuffling with the king back to safety on the queenside).} Nf6 $1 (28... h6 29.
Qf8+ Kh7 30. Qxe8 {might only be a draw, not so much due to the opposite
coloured bishops as White's counterplay.}) 29. Bxf6 gxf6 30. Qxf6 d4 $1 {This
move prevents the capture on e6 due to back rank mates, and in fact is the
only way to win.} 31. Qg5+ Kf7 32. Qh5+ Ke7 33. Qg5+ (33. Qxh7+ Kd6 $1 34.
Rxe6+ Kxe6 35. Qg6+ Ke7 36. Qxb6 Ra1# {would be a pretty epic finish!}) 33...
Kd7 34. Qg7+ Kc8 35. Qf8+ Kc7 {Now if White checks me again, I can run away to
b8 and a7. Remember this 'staircase king' technique when you are trying to
escape from enemy checks!} 36. Rc1+ Bc6 37. Qe7+ Kb8 38. Qxe6 Kb7 {Now I've
consolidated, and once you see ...Qc7-d7-d5, you will even beat the computer
from this position.} 39. Qh6 Qc7 40. Re1 Qd7 41. Rd1 Qd5 42. Qxh7+ Ka6 {White
is about to get mated, so he resigned. In a nutshell, when you are losing: a)
Set problems for the opponent b) Don't let them take or keep control of the
position c) Activate your pieces, even if you have to sacrifice material d)
Offer exchanges that are in your favour e) Play on their complacency (by
slowly generating threats) or their nerves (by making lots of threats quickly).
The hardest game to win is a lost game...and with these tips, you should win
more of them! It's especially nice when you get a reputation for being a
swindler, as then you'll swindle draws and wins just from your reputation!} 0-1 [/pgn]