Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein!

[Hans Jung]

Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein for drawing as Black against the tournament leader GM Bacrot! I really enjoyed that game.

[Ron Livshits]

Re: Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein!

I would like to reiterate what a phenomenal talent Mark is. Having played a couple of very strong GM's recently, I think that Mark's play is of the same caliber. He always used to be super strong tactically but now he has added the positional dimension as well. Possibly the only area where there is a difference between him and 2650+ players is in the opening. Mark will graduate from York shortly, I hope someone can step in and support his further progress.

Here is my game with Mark from the closed.

Livshits - Bluvshtein

1. Nf3 - Nf6 2. e3!? (A strange move but I had in mind a couple of things) - g6
3. c4 - Bg7 4. Nc3 - 0-0 5. Be2 - d6 6. 0-0 - e5 7. d3 - Nc6 8. Rb1 (Strangely enough I was quite certain that this unusual position would occur after I played 2. e3. In the database there are a half dozen games in which black usually plays d5 at some point and then a sicilian like position is obtained with colors reversed) 8... Bf5!? (This move was not in the database and I had to start thinking) 9. Nd2! (Preventing e4) 9... Ne7! (Very deep. Now if 10. b4 - d5! with an equal game. Nevertheless I should have went in for this continuation) 10. e4?! (Overlooking Black's powerful 12 move) 10... Be6 11. b4 (Now I was expecting 11. Nd7?! 12 . Nb3 - f5 13.Bf3! with an advantage but...) 11... Nc6!! (This unexpected move is extremely strong, the knight which 2 moves ago moved away from c6 unexpectedly comes back with the intention of nicely settling in on d4) 12. Re1!? (I thought it was important to preserve the bishop from exchange since in that case black would have the 2 bishops) 12...Nd4 13. Bf1 - c6! (Another strong move, protecting the d5 square) 14. Nb3 - N:b3! (Black should not allow white to capture on d4 and eliminate the weakness of the d4 square) 15. Q;b3 - Nh5 (The critical moment of the game. Afterward mark suggested 16. b5 as the natural way to seek counter play. During the game I felt that this is too slow but probably Mark is right) 15. Be3? - f5 16. e:f5 (otherwise f4 is too strong) 16...g:f5 17. Rbd1 (I considered 17. d4 but as Mark pointed out 17...F4 wins a pawn for black) 17...Qd7! 18. f3? (Unable to find any counter play my position quickly goes down hill) 18...d5 19. Bc5?! - Rf7 20. Bf2 - d4! -+ and the rest was an agonizing massacre which I don't especially want to reproduce :)

[Hans Jung]

Re: Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein!

Thanks for posting your notes Ron. Its nice to know what is going on in the minds of strong masters in the opening -preparation and actual play. (Its certainly not just repetitive theory - like a lot of lesser players think)

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein!

Thanks for posting your notes Ron. Its nice to know what is going on in the minds of strong masters in the opening -preparation and actual play. (Its certainly not just repetitive theory - like a lot of lesser players think)

I absolutely agree Hans. I much more enjoy notes where the player reveals what ideas he had and how he was feeling. Coughing up variations (usually via Fritz?) is boring and something I can do - understanding what the player was thinking about is priceless...

[Ron Livshits]

Re: Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein!

Here is a little bit more on openning preperation.

When you are facing a strong player, they usually have multiple opening systems in their repertoire. For instance when preparing for Mark if I would play 1. d4 I would have to br eady for the Nimzo, Benoni, Semi-Slav or even some other openings. I actually thought he would play the Nimzo and would prepare some line there very thourghly. Afterwards he told me it would have been the Benoni which he extensively prepared before the game. Had I known this I would have happily engaged in a sharp benoni battle where me and Mark hold different opinions regarding the virtues of this defence :)
1. e4 which I don't really employ very frequently anymore was also considered but I couldn't guess if it would be the Petroff or the Rauzer Sicilian, and I didn't want to play against either opening. One game that caught my eye was from the Dreseden Olympiad where mark played an inferior line (in my opininion) against the bird\dutch. I very much wanted to repeat the following position

1. Nf3 - Nf6 2. b3-d5 3. Bb2-c5 4. e3-Nc6 5. Bb5 - e6 6. Ne5-Qc7 7. 0-0 - Bd6 8. f4 - 0-0 9. B:c6 - b:c6 And here simply 10.d3 with an advantage (In the Olympiad Mark's opponent played the dubious 10 d4. 10. Rf3 is also often seen here but in my opinion it is not good. 10. Qf3!? was played by Miles and is interesting). My analysis went 10...Nd7 11. Qh5 - f6 (I was also naively hoping for 11 ... f5?! 12. N:d7 - B:d7 13. Nd2 - e5 14. Nf3! - e:f4? 15. Ng5 - h6 16. Qg6! with mate) 12. N:d7 - B:d7 13. Nd2 +=

Now if I would have played 2. b3 I was fairly certain that a red light would go in Mark's head and he would not repeat this variation. So I played 2. e3 hoping to transpose. After 2. e3 the move 2... g6 is very natural so I prepared for it as well and the first few moves are so natural that I was certain that the opening from the game would occur. This position suited me because it entailed a slow manouvering game would occur. This indeed occured but I was not prepared for the Nc6-e7-c6 manouvere :)

[Hans Jung]

Re: Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein!

One thing that is not talked about much on this forum is how lucky we are to recently have strong masters share their thoughts - regularly I can think of particularly Ron Livshits and Lawrence Day (Lawrence especially on www.chessgames.com) and recently Kevin Pacey comes to mind. Of course there is the other Kevin (Kevin Spraggett) and his excellent and frequent game analysis on his blog and of course Jean Hebert and his excellent ezine and Stephen Wright and his BC newsletter. Recently we have been blessed with quite a few Canadian masters contributing. Thanks again Ron!

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Congratulations to Mark Bluvshtein!

...understanding what the player was thinking about is priceless...

hmmmm.....and sometimes when I explain what I was thinking, it apparently is quite humourous :o:o:o:D