DD Den Haag Open Kampioenschap 2024, I round

 

My favourite chess venues, places with soul, with old chessmen, with showcases filled with old photos, cups and diplomas, with lockers filled with old chess magazines and bulletines. With noticeboards on which tables from ongoing tournaments has been filled with hand.

I have been on reservation list for a couple of weeks and I found out I'm in at noon on the Day 1. I made an itinerer based on Google map, but wasnt really sure if I can walked there without geting lost. 2 hours before the I round I got irritating e-mail from my Belgrade bank: it seems they botched a minor transfer on my account and I was left cardless and almost pennyless here. I got a lift to the venue, but how to get back?! I never walked through the itinerer in order to memorize it! Those two things were bugging me all the time. One always must find a good excuse before a chess game...

I round

Ngangbarn, Shingthang vs I

During a Malta tournament in 2022 I discussed playing again kids with an Englishman who also took part. „No one liks playing against kids. If you lose you are an archloser, if you win, you are a monster“, said the Englishman. Specially discouraging is when one or both parents are standing all the time looking at you with hatred. You feel like football team of Yugoslavia in Montevudeo in 1930, when local policeman helped the Uruguayans to win.

Siclian defence, Najdorf variation

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. f3

 Here is 8. ...h5 recommended engine move, but I still have in mind Fischer's games from 1971's blitz tournament in New York in Marshall CC. I love to have Knight on h5 with an old trap on f4 etc. If we are of equal strength it can be an exciting and fair game

 8. ...Be7 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. Nd5

This prevented the game from entering the most frequen variations in which everyone attacks opponent's king. Now I couldn't remember which is better. Altzheimer. Better was 10. ... Nxd5 11. exd5 Bf5 and black has an edge.

10. ...Bxd5?! 11. exd5 b5? 12. Na5

When I saw 12. Na5, I got sick. (How am I going to find way home in unknown city? What the hell is my bank doing again?) I thought I made a stupid blunder. All my knowledge about Najdorf vanished. In fact better from 12. Na5 (who would say that?) was 12. a4! And that was the reason why 11. ...b5 was premature, and I should have castled instead. Well, in this position I had 12. ...Nxd5! and white only can try to give his Queen for three pieces: 13. Nc6 Qc7 14. Qxdt Nf6! (that I missed over the board) 15. Nxe7!? Nxd5 16. Nxd5 and it is always exciting to play these games: who is stronger: Queen or 3 pieces? On Malta in 2022. I lost a game with a Queen against three pieces...  

12. ...Nb6? 13. Nc6 Qc7 14. Bxb6 Qxb6 15. g4?

Here I was afraid of 15. a4 and I asked myself what was I thinking when I played 11. ...b5? Well, it only shows how much I evaluated the position in this game wrongly. I remembered what Lev Polugaevsky said once: „My most difficult opponent is myself. When I am playing I often involuntarily make a world champion out of a candidate master!“ I was convinced that I would be lost after 15. a4, and was pleased to see that my opponent looked to the right (his right, my left) and when he played 15. g4 I was quite relieved. After 15. a4 bxa4 16. Rxa4 I „calculated“ that I am lost „because I don't have time for 16. ...Qxb2“ I saw deadly attack on my king in the center. In fact, white would have to play 16. c4 and after 16. ...Nd7 I would have had an edge. What should white have played then, one might ask. 16. O-O-O said public engine for the Third World.   

 15. ...Rc8 16. Nxe7 Kxe7 17. g5? Nh5 18. O-O-O Nf4 19. Re1

 

Here I was proud of myself when I founded 19. ...Qc5 and hereby set the trap which worked quite well. However, I should of been concerned with safety of my King and 19. ...Kf8 was better. Then after 20. h4 I have 20. ...h6!!

 

19. ...Qc5 20. Rd1

Believe it or not, in this position 20. ...Nxd5, that I proudly played, is bad move. I thought of ...h6 on several occasions, all right, but I wasn't consequent enough. 20. ...h6! was winning here because black does everything with one and single move: gets his Rook into the game, stops attack on his King who now can safely stay in the center, and prepare exchange of Queens, after which white pawns are bound to fall one by one.

20. ...Nxd5?!  21. Bh3 Rc7 22. Rhe1 Nf4??

 And again wrong evaluation of the position. And again 22. ...h6 was better. Then white must play 23. Re2 hxg5!  

 23. Bf5 Ne6 24. f4!

When I saw this move, I thought I was playing against Kasparov. And this move is beautiful, stylish, Keres-like, and... not too bad. But I was not lost after it as I believed. It is now an equalish position. Cold-blooded 24. ...Rhc8 was now good enough.

  24. ...Rd8?! 25. Kb1 g6?

 

25. ...Qd4! After 26. Qa5 black can play further. But I've  already berried myself.  

26. Bxe6 Kxe6 27. fxe5 d5 28. Rf1 d4 29. Qf2 Qd5 30. Qf6+ Kd7 31. e6+

Black resigned.

After such a defeat, one needs a refreshing and cheerful piece of literature to lift him up:::