National Team Round Five

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • National Team Round Five

    Back in the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the planet and I was on the National Team, there would occasionally be other teams which stacked their players, though I seem to recall some rating cap for the differential. For those who don't know, stacking is when you put your stronger players on the lower boards, normally in a hope of doing one or more of three things: scoring norms; winning board prizes; and/or making better scores in matches. Seems that today's opponent, Yemen, may have done exactly that. This isn't illegal, and modifying the "natural" board order does have some advantages. For example, back in Thessalonika '88 I got a bunch of Blacks so that Roman Pelts could get a bunch of Whites. He was very, very strong with White (I would say even 2600+ back in pre-inflationary times) and he really mopped up for us there. Stylistic reasons can also be a factor. You might put the machine-gunner types (e.g. Lawrence Day or Deen Hergott or in this Olympiad a certain A. Morozevich) on lower boards with the hope/expectation that they could make some really big score which boosts the team's chances.

    Anyway, to today's match. On paper, the game Al-Subaihi-Bluvshtein looked to be a real mismatch. I don't really like White's opening. It looks to me like the manoeuvre B/f1-c5-b3xc4 is simply two tempi worse the the normal English Attack with B/f1xc4. Mark certainly didn't have any problems equalizing as White didn't even attempt to attack on the kingside. Instead, there was a bunch of action in the centre. Rybka didn't like 39.Nxb3, and that is quite understandable. The move does get rid of the dangerous b-pawn, but at the cost of opening the light squares for the B/d7. White's position collapsed surprisingly quickly thereafter. A nice controlled effort from Mark.

    Charbonneau-Al-Zendani was another Najdorf, this one with the relatively quiet 6.Be2. To be honest, I am definitely not qualified to comment upon the early middlegame, but I will hazard to say that Black shouldn't be unhappy. Tossing the N into b2 looked unnecessarily risky, but Rybka seemed to think that everything was still okay for Black. It didn't like 26.Nd5, preferring either R to b1. As the game went, the position looked very drawish. It was hard for either player to do anything on the colour opposite their own B.

    Ahmed-Roussel saw Black decline the Smith-Morra Gambit and head into the waters of the Sicilian Alapin. I happen to play the resulting positon from both sides on occasion, and experience leads me to believe that Black is quite okay here (though I choose the setup with the N on d7 instead of c6). Play became very complicated. I don't like the look of 14...Rf8; I assume Thomas considered ...0-0 and rejected it as too dangerous. White's response 15.Qh5!? (15.Qg4!?) set off a series of fireworks which I guess should have ended in perpetual after 24.Bxa7+. Maybe Ahmed was aiming for more but he should have gotten less if Thomas had found ...Qd5 (centralization!) on either moves 28 or 29. Instead Black soon made a perpetual. Exciting, action-packed game.

    Noritsyn-Al-Qudaimi saw White make a gutsy positional pawn sacrifice. Though he had nothing concrete, Nikolay did have more active pieces. He couldn't make use of them, and Black methodically chopped wood until they reached a major piece middlegame where strangely White's K ultimately was more exposed. Rybka doesn't like many of the moves in the span 35-40 by both players, but that could be a result of time shortages and the general sharpness of the position.

    Rest day tomorrow is a useful time to regroup and forget about chess for the day.
    "Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.

  • #2
    Re: National Team Round Five

    Thanks very much to IM Tom O'Donnell for his incisive and informative summaries of Canadian men's team play from Dresden!! I'll look forward to further commentary from Tom.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: National Team Round Five

      It is possible to rate this thread....click on rating and give our annotator your feedback :)

      ChessTalk, sponsored by the Chess'n Math Association, is exceptionally pleased to have Tom and Hal onboard to provide Canadian chessplayers with a Canadian perspective to this awesome event in Dresden!

      We thank the Canadian chess community for your support over the last 23 years!

      We finance our organization and our activities through the sale of chess related prtoducts as well as other strategy games. Our 2009 chess catalogue is now ready to ship via snail mail...if you would like to receive your copy...please send me an e-mail at bevand@chess-math.org

      Check out our site online at www.strategygames.ca

      THANKS!

      Larry Bevand
      Executive Director
      Chess'n Math Association

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: National Team Round Five

        Originally posted by Tom O'Donnell View Post
        Back in the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the planet and I was on the National Team :) (...)

        For example, back in Thessalonika '88 I got a bunch of Blacks so that Roman Pelts could get a bunch of Whites. He was very, very strong with White (I would say even 2600+ back in pre-inflationary times) and he really mopped up for us there. Stylistic reasons can also be a factor.
        I remember when Mr. Pelts had his chess school in Montréal. One day, he said to me he was more successful with White than with Black. His explanation was that with White he felt more confident, even over confident because of the first move, and so he lost many a game with this attitude. But with Black, he was much more cautious and played more solidly, thus collecting points from those, like him, who were over agressive with White...

        If his records show the contrary, I would NOT say he lied to us.
        I suppose he wanted to give us confidence in the black pieces.
        After all, Mr. Pelts was (still is ?) a chess teacher by trade.

        Besides, Black is OK, isn't it ?

        http://www.amazon.com/Black-Forever-.../dp/0713489421

        JPR

        Comment

        Working...
        X