Tweet
Dave Gordon (1854) -- Frank Dixon (1939)
Kingston 2002, played Jan. 28
Kingston Chess Club Championship, top section, round 2 of 10
TD: Dr Dilip Panjwani; Assistant TD: Frank Dixon
Time controls: 30/90', SD/60'
Black Knights' Tango / Nimzo-Indian Defense, E20
Clock times in brackets
Notes by Frank Dixon
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bg5!?
[My opponent here, Dave Gordon, is the older of the two eastern Ontario players with this name, and is a professional artist. David Gordon, the younger and stronger, is an NM in Ottawa. In 40+ years of games with Kingston Dave, I have never seen him open with anything other than 1.d4. He is always a tough opponent, playing strategically in the style of World Champions GM Botvinnik and GM Petrosian. He has been a multiple champion in KCC events, and I think that over the years, I have tried virtually every single sound Black defense to 1.d4 against him! We had a previous game in this variation, which I won, and some buzz and chatter about my Tango line was building around KCC by this juncture. With this move, 4.Bg5, White avoids the challenging 4.e4, as played in our first game, and Black, for best results in my opinion, now needs to send the game more into Nimzo-Indian channels, as I do here with my next move. I did try 4...Be7 against NM Dr. William Doubleday at the Ontario Open, Brantford 2004, and eventually lost a fascinating game, to the veteran competitor, who was born and raised in Kingston, won the first-ever Ontario HS Championship, Kingston 1964, earned his undergrad degree in Math, Queen's class of 1969, and subsequently completed his PhD in Math in the U.K. Bill played in the 1975 Canadian Zonal in Calgary. After retiring as a senior civil servant, he returned to tournament chess after many years absence from it. He then performed some very important governance work for the CFC in the mid-2000s. Bill and I co-wrote the winning bid for the highly successful 2007 Ottawa Canadian Open, when Gordon Ritchie turned into a force of nature in leadership, to help make it one of the very best Opens!!]
4...Bb4 5.e3 h6 6.Bh4 g5 (6,9) 7.Bg3 Ne4 8.Qc2 f5 (7,13) 9.Bd3 Nxg3 10.hxg3 d5 (11,21) 11.g4! dxc4 12.Bxc4 Qf6 13.gxf5! exf5 14.O-O-O! Bxc3 15.Qxc3 Bd7 16.Ne2 O-O-O (29,32)
[We are now well away from any previous games or analysis in my praxis with this line, stretching back to the 1970s, through a variety of move orders. With both sides castling long, it is a different strategic setup to virtually anything I had played before. White has an advantage in the center, and I was concerned about his possible pressure down the c-file. I had to remind myself to slow down; playing too fast is a problem I have often battled in longer time controls.]
17.Ng3 Be8 18.a3 h5 19.Bd3 Ne7! 20.Kb1 h4 (43,52) 21.Rc1! Bc6 22.Ne2 Rd7 23.Rhg1 Rf8
[I spent significant time looking at 23...Nd5!?, for example 24.Qa5 Kb8 25.e4 fxe4 26.Bxe4 Rhd8 27.f3 +/= b6 28.Qa6 Bb7 29.Qc4 Nf4!? 30.Bxb7 Kxb7 31.Nxf4 Qxf4, =/+, but of course White is by no means obliged to play this line.]
24.Qa5!? Kb8 25.Nc3 b6 (56,76)
[Black's draw offer was declined. White has a 20-minute lead on the clock, in a roughly level position, with plenty of play still on the board.]
26.Qb4 Rfd8 27.Nb5 Bb7 28.f3 Nd5 29.Qd2 c5! 30.Rgd1 a6 (83,85)
[We reach the first time control, and the game has gotten somewhat sharper; White slowed down his pace of play in response.]
31.Nc3 Nxe3! 32.Qxe3 cxd4! 33.Qe1 dxc3 34.Rxc3 -/+, 1/2--1/2. (123,98)
[Black is a pawn up, certainly somewhat better now, and I am now 25 minutes ahead on the clock, but was battling a splitting headache, a frequent problem for me once two hours' play has been reached, as well as (far more importantly) during university exams, often sabotaging my results!! Never really found a solution to it. So, I decided to accept White's draw offer. Many times, I have played on in longer games, then erred and lost, due to errors caused by the headaches. Not this time! Still, a creative success, if not a complete competitive one. In this tournament, my student Raja Panjwani posted a very strong second place; he turned 12 years old as the event wrapped up!]
Kingston 2002, played Jan. 28
Kingston Chess Club Championship, top section, round 2 of 10
TD: Dr Dilip Panjwani; Assistant TD: Frank Dixon
Time controls: 30/90', SD/60'
Black Knights' Tango / Nimzo-Indian Defense, E20
Clock times in brackets
Notes by Frank Dixon
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bg5!?
[My opponent here, Dave Gordon, is the older of the two eastern Ontario players with this name, and is a professional artist. David Gordon, the younger and stronger, is an NM in Ottawa. In 40+ years of games with Kingston Dave, I have never seen him open with anything other than 1.d4. He is always a tough opponent, playing strategically in the style of World Champions GM Botvinnik and GM Petrosian. He has been a multiple champion in KCC events, and I think that over the years, I have tried virtually every single sound Black defense to 1.d4 against him! We had a previous game in this variation, which I won, and some buzz and chatter about my Tango line was building around KCC by this juncture. With this move, 4.Bg5, White avoids the challenging 4.e4, as played in our first game, and Black, for best results in my opinion, now needs to send the game more into Nimzo-Indian channels, as I do here with my next move. I did try 4...Be7 against NM Dr. William Doubleday at the Ontario Open, Brantford 2004, and eventually lost a fascinating game, to the veteran competitor, who was born and raised in Kingston, won the first-ever Ontario HS Championship, Kingston 1964, earned his undergrad degree in Math, Queen's class of 1969, and subsequently completed his PhD in Math in the U.K. Bill played in the 1975 Canadian Zonal in Calgary. After retiring as a senior civil servant, he returned to tournament chess after many years absence from it. He then performed some very important governance work for the CFC in the mid-2000s. Bill and I co-wrote the winning bid for the highly successful 2007 Ottawa Canadian Open, when Gordon Ritchie turned into a force of nature in leadership, to help make it one of the very best Opens!!]
4...Bb4 5.e3 h6 6.Bh4 g5 (6,9) 7.Bg3 Ne4 8.Qc2 f5 (7,13) 9.Bd3 Nxg3 10.hxg3 d5 (11,21) 11.g4! dxc4 12.Bxc4 Qf6 13.gxf5! exf5 14.O-O-O! Bxc3 15.Qxc3 Bd7 16.Ne2 O-O-O (29,32)
[We are now well away from any previous games or analysis in my praxis with this line, stretching back to the 1970s, through a variety of move orders. With both sides castling long, it is a different strategic setup to virtually anything I had played before. White has an advantage in the center, and I was concerned about his possible pressure down the c-file. I had to remind myself to slow down; playing too fast is a problem I have often battled in longer time controls.]
17.Ng3 Be8 18.a3 h5 19.Bd3 Ne7! 20.Kb1 h4 (43,52) 21.Rc1! Bc6 22.Ne2 Rd7 23.Rhg1 Rf8
[I spent significant time looking at 23...Nd5!?, for example 24.Qa5 Kb8 25.e4 fxe4 26.Bxe4 Rhd8 27.f3 +/= b6 28.Qa6 Bb7 29.Qc4 Nf4!? 30.Bxb7 Kxb7 31.Nxf4 Qxf4, =/+, but of course White is by no means obliged to play this line.]
24.Qa5!? Kb8 25.Nc3 b6 (56,76)
[Black's draw offer was declined. White has a 20-minute lead on the clock, in a roughly level position, with plenty of play still on the board.]
26.Qb4 Rfd8 27.Nb5 Bb7 28.f3 Nd5 29.Qd2 c5! 30.Rgd1 a6 (83,85)
[We reach the first time control, and the game has gotten somewhat sharper; White slowed down his pace of play in response.]
31.Nc3 Nxe3! 32.Qxe3 cxd4! 33.Qe1 dxc3 34.Rxc3 -/+, 1/2--1/2. (123,98)
[Black is a pawn up, certainly somewhat better now, and I am now 25 minutes ahead on the clock, but was battling a splitting headache, a frequent problem for me once two hours' play has been reached, as well as (far more importantly) during university exams, often sabotaging my results!! Never really found a solution to it. So, I decided to accept White's draw offer. Many times, I have played on in longer games, then erred and lost, due to errors caused by the headaches. Not this time! Still, a creative success, if not a complete competitive one. In this tournament, my student Raja Panjwani posted a very strong second place; he turned 12 years old as the event wrapped up!]
Comment