(1) Wong,Santy (2011) - Marmont,Ben (2080)
Game of the Month: February (3)
17.02.2008 [E18] [Marmont,Ben]
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There were many interesting and well played games to consider for this month's award, but in trying to choose a game that had the most overall merit to the player's tournament, the choice was easy. Benjamin Marmont was a big part of the 2008 U.S. Amateur West Team Chamionship in Los Angeles this February. He and his teammates, Robby Adamson, Landon Brownell, and Jon Cox ran away with 1st place at the event. Lead by Ben and Jon Cox, who both finished with 5.5 out of 6, the Team "We have Cox" dominated every round to finsih with a perfect 6-0 Team Score. As Ben's Coach, I am proud to say that this tournament was enough to push him over the 2100 rating barrier for the first time in his young career. Although Ben's High-School chess career is coming to a close this May, time is not up yet for Ben to try and reach the Master level before Graduation. Ben's comments, which were very good and insightful, are in Italics. Please Enjoy the game and plan on turning in your own Masterpiece at the Next Master Trek on March 8th. (I promise to choose a game from an ACE event for March's Game of the Month!) One final note is the "Rating Level Score (RL-Score)" I will be applying to every Game in Review on our web site. Each game will be given a reccomendation on the "Rating Level" the ideas and instruction most likely apply to within two to three hundred points. RL-Score is 1800-2100 for the following game.
1.Nf3 ***Being somewhat surprised by the my opponent's opening choice, I decided to repeat a line that I played against IM Altounian at the Tucson Open last month.***
1...Nf6 2.g3 b6 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.0-0 e6 This is a move order I can highly recommend for Nimzo-Indian players looking for a solid repertoire against the 1.Nf3 and 2.c4 systems. It is possible that the game could head towards a "Hedge-Hog" type position from here, but as long as Black has experience in the Nimzo and Queen's-Indians, he or she will be comfortable in the ensuing positions.
5.c4 Be7 [5...c5 is the move order I probably would have chosen. Main Line Hedge-Hog Theory is likely to occur after this.]
6.Nc3
6...0-0 7.d4 ***Now the game has transposed to a Queen's Indian Defense. I just happened to have been working on the opening prior to the tournament, so I felt pretty confident.***
7...Ne4 8.d5!? ***An unusual move. The main line begins with*** [8.Qc2 leads to many Queen's-Indian type positions like: 8...Nxc3 (8...f5 ) 9.Qxc3 f5 (9...c5 ) ]
8...Nxc3 9.bxc3 exd5?! ***Not the most accurate response.*** [9...d6 ***is better without the exchange on d5 because it doesn't allow white to undouble his c-pawns.*** I can't say it any better myself...]
10.cxd5 d6 11.Nd4 ***A good square for the knight. It eyes f5 and c6 from this post.***
11...Bf6 ***This bishop gives White much grief on this diagonal, notice how the White knight now cannot move without losing the c3-pawn.***
12.Rb1?! ***Visually this looks like a good square for the rook, but in reality the rook doesn't attack anything and is suseptible to future attacks, especially on the b1-h7 diagonal.***
12...Na6 13.Qc2 ***Sensibly guarding the c3-pawn.***
13...Nc5 14.e4 ***White's position looks good right? He has lots of space and his pieces are active! Unfortunately the reality is White cannot create any sort of initiative whereas Black can take advantage on White's weaknesses (light-squares, c3-pawn, a2-pawn, etc) to sieze the initiative.***
14...Qd7 ***The queen is very useful on this square.***
15.Ba3?! ***A poor square for the bishop. Is White really going to trade his good-bishop for the Black knight? If not, then what is it doing on a3?***
15...Ba6 ***Siezing the weak diagonal.***
16.Rfd1
16...Qa4 ***A strong idea, though it may be better implemented a little later.*** Without elaborating too much (see my comments after 20...Bxa2 for a more detailed description), I think this move is the first step in the wrong direction. Black still had more improvements he could have made like Rfe8 to double rooks on the e-file (Note that Rfe8 prevents Ben's mentioned plan for white: Bf1) , and/or Bc4 hitting the a2-pawn before Qa4. Basically, black should not be in a hurry to trade when white's peices are mediocure at best. The c3-pawn, a2-pawn, and the e4 pawn are all targets that aren't going anywhere. Finally it should be noted that pushing the c3-pawn to c4 doens't help white in the least as it weakens the d4-knight post and brings the pawn under direct attack of Black's a6-bishop. [16...Rfe8 ***Is slightly better, White can't really improve his position.*** I agree. See notes to 16...Qa4.]
17.Qxa4 Nxa4 ***The queen trade has shown what a weakness the c3-pawn really is.***
18.Rbc1 Bc4 ***Increasing the pressure.***
19.Rc2 Rfe8 20.f3 ***Now here White wants to play Bf1 to release the pressure, which explains my rash decision.***
20...Bxa2?! In my opinion, and as I told Ben upon our review of this game, this move is more than just slightly dubious. Not only does white's position get much better after this trade, but, even more importantly, 20...Bxa2 was a very bad psychological decision. By playing this move, Ben is succumbing to a common Amatuer (meaning most players below 2200-Master Level) mistake: He is growing impatient with "HIS OWN" winning chances. That doesn't even sound right, does it? To put it simply, when someone is in control of the game like Ben was here, there is no, no, no reason to make drastic changes. The theme of the game up to this point has been that White is the one struggling to defend his c3-pawn, a2-pawn, and akward piece placement all at the same time. Black can easily improve his position before deciding to make such an game-changing move. Remember that most "Blunders" are made when a player is in a bad position to begin with. So a GM would have kept White in this bad position as long as possible so as to give him the opportunity to make that "big mistake". This bad habit of always "trading once you have the advantage", starts from a young age.This philosphy is misleading because as a player matuers and begins recognizing advantages that are much smaller in nature, it becomes important to kick this bad habit of "trading" to increase the advantage. In fact, strong players would all tell you that when converting the most minimal and precise advantages, unnecessary trades usually make your winning chances worse. Furthermore, I believe that the best "mindset" when converting advantages both big and small is the phrase "Keep it simple". This approach can allow both Beginners and Advanced players to understand that converting winning advantages doesn't always mean to trade. Hey, if you're up a rook I'm sure that just about every trade helps, but when converting more minimal advantages, maintaining the basic structure and theme of the position can only frustrate your struggling opponent! [20...b5 21.Bf1 a6 ***refusing to release the bind, if*** 22.Bxc4 bxc4 ***followed by ...Rab8 and Black is fine.***]
21.Rxa2 Nxc3 22.Rad2 Nxd1 23.Rxd1 Bxd4+ ***Forced as Black cannot allow the knight to blockade the passed pawns with something like Nc6.***
24.Rxd4 b5 25.Bf1 a6 ***A critical position, if White can blockade the passed pawns he will have winning chances (Two bishops are better than a rook).***
26.Bb4?! ***After this move White loses any chance at an advantage.*** This is true, and White's reasoning for playing this move could only be that he miscalculated the variation occuring after 27.Bxb5 below. [26.Rb4! Rab8 (26...Reb8!? 27.Kf2 a5 is Black's best practical shot in my eyes, despite the conclusion of these variations favoring White. 28.Rxb5 Rxb5 29.Bxb5 Rb8 30.Bc6 (30.Bc4 is also possible, and the best evaluation I can give is unclear. White will begin mobilizing the central pawns to breakthrough on e5 (followed by the plan of Be7-d8Xc7) while Black continues his rush of the a-pawn.) 30...a4! 31.e5! dxe5 32.Be7 This sacrifice on e5 followed by this manouver with the bishop is the one plan that exploits the power of the two bishops over the rook. 32...Rb2+ 33.Ke1 (33.Ke3 a3!-+ ; 33.Kg1 Rb1+ 34.Kg2 Rb2+ 35.Kh3 Ra2 36.Bd8 a3 37.Bxc7 f6 38.d6 Rd2 39.Bb5 only move (39.d7 a2-+ ) 39...Kh8! eliminating the constant check along the a2-g8 diagonal. The game would most likely continue: 40.Bc4 h5 41.Be6 g5 42.g4 (42.d7 Rxd7-+ ) 42...h4 43.Bd8! Rxd6 44.Bxf6+ Kh7 45.Bf5+ Kg8 (45...Kh6? 46.Be7+- ) 46.Bxe5 a2 47.f4 gxf4 48.Kxh4 f3 (48...Kf7 49.g5 Rd5 50.g6+ Ke7 51.g7 Rxe5 52.g8Q a1Q 53.Qg5+ Where again, as soon as the smoke clears, white looks to have very good drawing chances at the very least. The one constant through out the analysis is that the two bishops are able to create chaos for black while at the same time guarding the a-pawn. Black, on the other hand, is forced to play an extremely accurate game with the tactics favoring white at every turn. ) 49.Kg3 where white can't lose anymore even if he had to sacrifice the bishop on a1.) 33...Ra2 34.Bd8 a3 35.Bxc7 Rxh2 (35...f6?? 36.d6+- ) 36.Bxe5 a2 37.d6 Rh1+ 38.Kd2 Kf8 39.d7 Ke7 40.Bc7!! Rd1+ 41.Kxd1 a1Q+ 42.Kc2 Qa2+ 43.Kc3 Qa1+ 44.Kc4 White's king is beginning an unstoppable march to the c8-sqaure, and Black will run out of checks inevitably... 44...Qa2+ 45.Kb5 Qb3+ 46.Ka6 Qd3+ 47.Bb5 Qa3+ 48.Ba5 Qd6+ 49.Ka7 Qc5+ 50.Bb6 Qa3+ 51.Kb8 Qd6+ 52.Kb7 Qd5+ 53.Bc6 Qxd7+ 54.Bxd7 Kxd7 55.Bd4 and white's winning chances are sufficient.) 27.Kf2 Rb6 (27...a5 -to 26...Reb8 above.) 28.Rb2 c5 29.dxc6 Rxc6 30.Rd2+/= where White's bind on the queenside pawns, potential domination of the open board with the bishops, and Black's weak d-pawn all suggest that Black might be better served trying to make the crazy variations after 26...Reb8 work.]
26...a5
27...Reb8 28.Bc1 b4 29.Rc4 b3 30.Ba3 b2 ***A very tense game, that helped our team beat "The Dream Team".*** In review, even Ben's big mistake on move 20 was an aggressive, pressuring move which, in the long run, is a recipe for success. Although the analysis shows that the Two-Bishops for the Rook could have backfired big time for Black, when you look at the game on the whole, Ben did exactly what he needed to do to win: Put pressure on his opponent to calculate clearly in the critical moments. His opponent was unable to accurately deal with the connected passed pawns, and White's miscalculation on move 26.Bb4 was all Ben needed. As mentioned before, this was just one of many well played games by Ben in L.A. and I think it was certainly deserving our Game of the Month award for February... 0-1