Hart House Round 1

In the first round of the tournament I was playing the black pieces against Dalia Kagramanov (1983). This was scheduled to be the longest tournament game I had ever played, with time controls of 90min for 30 moves and one hour sudden death after the 30 moves. Coming into the game I was unsure what to expect, because the environment in the playing hall was very new to me, and I had never been among such a large volume of chess players.

Dalia Kagramanov(1983) - Patrick O'Sullivan (1818)
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 e6?- I cannot believe I played this move. The main line is Bf5, to activate the bishop before playing e6, and my error ended up resulting in an uncomfortable position for the better part of the game. I have played Bf5 in many games before, but I think my inaccuracy stemmed from the fact that I was preparing the Fantasy variation for my last tournament, an opening in which the bishop is locked in with e6. What I have effectively done with this move is transposed into a French Defense Advance Variation, where white has an extra tempo because my c-pawn takes 2 moves to get to c5. Now I have to play resourcefully, and I am in new waters having never been on either side of the French Advance.
4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Ne2?!- Usually solid play, preparing f4 with an attack, but in the line that I managed to stumble into, the light square bishops have not been exchanged. My opening inaccuracy has paid minor dividends with this move. I think better is 6.Nf3, temporarily suspending kingside attacking plans in search of a slow strategic victory based on the advantage in central space.
6....Bd7 7.Be3 cxd4- I do not have to take this awn because my knight is eying e5, but I wanted to attempt to punish the decision to play Ne2.
8.cxd4 Nb4!- I give this an exclamation mark not because it is a very special move, but because after long thought, I saw that I could catch up in development (I am way behind after this move) and it fit my new strategy of counter-attacking on the queenside. When I say counter-attacking, I do not mean an all-out push, but perhaps slowly utilizing that side of the board with my pieces.
9.Nbc3 Nxd3 10.Qxd3 Qb6- I take aim on the queenside, understanding that my queen cannot be harassed by the dark square bishop, permanantley pressuring d4 and attacking b2.
11.O-O Ne7- I cannot take on b2 because Rab1 will hit b7 and suddenly my opponent will be the one controlling the queenside
12.Ng3- If there ever was a time to play f4, this would be it. I believe white is accomplishing her attacking goals with 12.f4 Nf5 13.g4 Nxe3 14.Qxe3 when a rook lift and a pawn push could spell disaster for me.
12....h5!- Very uncharacteristic of me, as I am a defensive player in the truest sense of the word, yet this move preares to jostle the knight and begin my own version of an attack.
13.h4
In this position I hold the queenside and I am suddenly no slouch on the kingside, with plans of potentially exchanging dark square bishops and pushing g5.
13....g6?- A slight inaccuracy. My plan was to play Bh6 to get the bishopps off, but I completley overlooked my opponent's reply.
14.Bg5 Bg7- I must prevent penetration on f6
15.a4!- With my kingside optimism I've been beaten to the punch on the queenside. Now my queen begins to look very bad.
15....a6- I did not like the looks of 15....a5 because I would be creating a major hole on b5, and her bishop may eventually return to d2 to target my a5 pawn. Nc6 seems best here, but I did not want to pull my knight away from the kingside. I knew that by not making this move, I would be surrendering my queenside play.
16.a5 Qa7- I thought of playing Qb4, but I did not want to take on a practically isolated pwan on c4 after 16....Qb4 17.Bd2 Qc4 18.Qxc4 dxc4. I did not feel that the new outpost on d5 was worth the concession.
17.Rfd1 Nc6- It was here that I realized my knight had no future on the kingside, and I did not want to have to be ever-vigilant for the possibility of Bxe7.
18.Nge2 Bf8- Castling was a good possibility here, but I felt my king would be best in the centre and planned for the bishop exchange on e7.
19.Nf4- Sacrifices are now possible on both d5 and g6, so I take the time to deal with both.
19....Nb4 20.Qb1 Rg8 21.Qc1 Rc8- Here I offered a draw because for the most part I have parried the attack and I was down to 14 minutes, while my opponent was down to only 8. I think this was the perfect moment for the draw offer because she is struggling to find attacking options and pondering over my offer would eat up her clock.
22.Qd2 Qb8- Curiously, in the time pressure, I completely forgot about my plan to exchange dark square bishops, and instead opt for a plan involving doubling up on the c-file.
23.Nfe2 1/2-1/2
Draw agreed
I think there must be better in this position, such as Rac1 planning to combat my coming c-file pressure. However this is an excellent move o make in time pressure, because it gives extra support to the bishop via the queen and it waits to see what I will do. If need be, the knight can quickly jump back into f4. This move came coupled with a draw offer, and after brief thought I happily accepted. I was glad to survive a potential opening disaster, and although the computers may not agree with my moves for the most part they were well-reasoned and practical. This was a fun game and I believe it shows that I belong above 1900. Hopefully sometime in the near-future I will assume that position and be a serious threat in upcoming tourmaments.

Hart House Winners

Congratulations to IM Nikolay Noritsyn, IM Leonid Gerzhoy, and Andrei Moffat for finishing 1st and 2-3 respectively in the open section. A surprise came when Arthur Calugar defeated Bator Sambuev in the thrid round. Congratulations to Arthur as well!

In my section the results were: 1. Geordie Derraugh, 2-3. Leon Perelman, 2-3. Yelizaveta Orlova

In U1800: 1. Jim Zhao, 2-3. Richard Yam, 2-3. Mike Ivanov

In U1500: 1. Adrian Botescu, 2. Qiang Li, 3. James Denis Dylan Martin

Congratulations to all of the prize winners!

I intended to mention in my last post that I don't think a single opponent of mine on the weekend was over 20 years old. This is a good sign, as it is important to see youth in Canada playing chess. I hope to be competing against these people for years to come.

Hart House Standings

The standings of the tournament are finally up. Sorry I did not post my results earlier but I wanted to wait for the standings and my new rating. Before I get into that though I would like to say that it was a good tournament, with a lot of chess and a lot of chess players (117!). I figure I got about 16 hours of chess on the weekend, some of which very poor, but after all was said and done I finished with 3.0 out of 5 which put me in places 6-8 out of 26. Now that seems like a fair showing, however I assure you the world has not yet seen my best chess. My results were as follows: Draw with black against Dalia Kagramanov (1983), Loss with white against Leon Perelman (1954), Draw with black against Michael Song (1809), win with white against Micheal Zaghi (1726), and a win with white against Dennis Khaiter (1686). I finished with a performance rating of 1916 and my new rating is now 1859.

I think I will annotate a game tomorrow (it will be difficult because none of my games were any good). Looking towards the future, I believe that I should achieve a 1900 rating without much trouble, and I will move along from there.

New Chess Book

A teacher at my school just gave me a chess book called "The Best Move" written by GM Vlastimil Hort and GM Vlastimil Jansa. It is like a multiple choice tactics book, but deviously difficult. It looks like it was written in the 1980s, and in fact, upon inspection, I just learned it was copyrighted in 1980! Anyways, It is a good book, and it has good annotaions, so if you ever come across it, be sure to pick it up.

Another Tournament

I am looking at entering the Hart House winter tournament next weekend in Toronto. I had planned to enter the U1800 section and really push for the top spot, but due to my large rating jump I will end up in the U2100 section. No worries though, as I was well on my way to victory with black against a 2075 before I blundered in time pressure. I think if I can come off with two wins my rating will yet again improve.

Annotated Game

Here is one of my two losses from the Victoria Park tournament I played in recently. I was playing the black pieces against Jesse B. Wang (2075), and I tried an opening line which I hadn't played before. I mysteriously got an advantage out of the opening but I managed to blow it in partial time pressure.
Jesse B. Wang (2075)-Patrick O'Sullivan (1678)
1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 Nf6- I knew this was the book move here, and I had already been beaten in a previous tournament when playing 4....Qxd5, but nevertheless I spent a lot of time on this move making sure that 5.Bb5+ would not allow him to maintain the extra pawn. I didn't look through the whole line, but after about 4 min (this was only a 45 min SD game) I played the text. The line that I found in analysis was after 4....Nf6, 5.Bb5+ Bd7 6.Qb3 Bxb5 7.Qxb5+ Qd7 8.Qxd7+ Nbxd7 9.Nc3 Nb6 10.d6 e6 11.Nb5 Nbd5 12.Nf3 a6 13.Nc7+ Nxc7 14.dxc7 Rc8 and black finally regains the pawn, with advantage.
5.Nc3 Nxd5 6.Nf3 e6 7.Bc4 Nb6!?- out of book, but the book recommends 7....Nxc3 which I didn't want to play because it makes his pawns better, and 7....Be7, which I didn't want to play because of the isolated pawn after 8.Bxd5
8.Be2 Nc6 9.O-O Be7 10.d4 Bf6?!- I should have castled, because it is often unwise to move the same piece in the opening twice without reason, and my attack on d4 doesn't really mean anything after 11.Qc2 because the pawn is immune in view of 11.... Nxd4 12.Nxd4 Bxd4 13.Rd1 pinning my bishop to my queen or 12....Qxd4 13.Nb5 and the threat on c7 decides.
11.Be3 O-O 12.Bd3 h6- preparing to take on d4 (I can't take immediately because of the discovery Bxh7+ exposing the whit queen to d4)
13.Bc2- I spent a long time here trying to cope with his crude attacking plans, and at this point I was emotionally unstable because I hadn't seen this possibility.
13....Ne7- perhaps better was 13.....Nb4
14.Qd3 Ng6 15.Ne4 Nd5 16.Nxf6+ Qxf6 17.Ne5?- Just the mistake I was hoping for when I played 15....Nd5. Now I win a pawn and finally claim an advantage
17.....Nb4 18.Qc3 Nxc2 19.Qxc2 Nxe5 20.dxe5 Qxe5- I spent more time than I had to on this move. Now my plan is to consolidate my extra pawn by centralizing my rooks.
-position after 20....Qxe5
21.Rfe1 Qf6 22.Rad1 Rd8 23.Qc7 Re8- after this sequence I was not so confident about my extra pawn, but I soon turned things around
24.Bd4 Qe7 25.Qg3- he can't trade queens here or my extra pawn will begin to tell
25....f6 26.Be3 Kh8 27.Rd4 g5- here e5 was much better, but I couldn't see an answer to Rh4 and sacrifices on h6. After 27....e5 28.Rh4 Bf5 is good, preparing to play Bh7 if he sacrifices on h6
28.Qh3 Kg7 29.Qh5 Qf7- once again e5 is much better according to the computer
30.Qd1 e5- finally I play e5 and now I am much better. Rybka gives -0.75
31.Ra4 a6 32.h4 Be6 33.hxg5 hxg5 34.b3 Rad8- I am now fully developed and I should coast to victory, but here I have approximately 10 min on my clock, while my opponent has approximately 35
35.Qf3 Bd5 36.Qg3 Qh5 37.f4 exf4 38.Rxf4- I should have inserted 37....Bc6 to avoid potential pins in the future to my rook on d8
38....Re5??- I had 8 min left, and was getting a bit too comfortable with the position. I lost focus and made the losing move
39.Rxf6!

-position after 39.Rxf6!
39....Kxf6??- This is just dumb. I played it immediately without thinking, but Rybka gives 39.....Rh8 40.Kf2 Rhe8 as equal. My pen stopped working here, but I think the game continued:
40.Bd4 Re8 41.Bxe5+ and I resigned a few moves later.

I played this game well overall, but I think I could have managed my time better so I could have spent more time ensuring a safe ending. This game just goes to show that you should never be content with a win before you actually get it, because a player who is losing is more resourceful than ever. Who knows, if I won this game I might be around 1900. As it stands I am now rated 1816.

Tournament Thoughts

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, I have been busy with schoolwork. The Saturday tournament went fairly well for me; I scored 3 points out of 5, with wins over two kids rated approximately 1400 and a win against Richard Douglas (1885). If you're wondering why there were 1400 rated kids there, it is because three master players didn't play, so they combined the top two sections into one. My two losses came against IM Nikolay Noritsyn (2542) and Jesse B Wang (2075). I lost quickly to Noritsyn, blundering right in the opening, and I was comfortably one pawn up and winning against Wang when I made a horrible blunder in slight time pressure. I plan to annotate my games against Richard Douglas and Jesse B Wang in the near future.

There was a tie for first place between IM Noritsyn and Arthur Calugar (2329) at 4 points out of 5. Bill Peng (2142) finished third.

Tournament Today

Well, today is the day of the tournament that I'm going to. It seems that Aman Hambleton has been taken of the list of players (perhaps he didn't pay) so we are down to nine. That's too bad because now byes will take effect. I don't want to sit out a round but chances are good that I will. Anyways, I am prepared to lay good, solid chess, and I will annotate some of my games here.

More Talent!

Looks like the Saturday tournament just got tougher. FM Aman Hambleton (2308) is registered, so there are now an even ten players. This is looking like it will be a very instructive weekend for me, I just hope my rating doesn't get killed!

Saturday Tournament

I am attending a tournament in Toronto on Saturday December 5th. It is a small but very strong field that I will be up against. I do not expect to win more than at most 1 game, and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't win any. The field so far looks like this:
1. IM Noritsyn, Nikolay 2542
2. NM Martchenko, Alexander 2340
3. NM Calugar, Arthur 2329
4. WIM Yuan, Yuanling 2304
5. Peng, Bill 2142
6. Wang, Jesse 2075
7. Wu,Kevin 1930
8. Douglas,Richard 1885
9. O'Sullivan, Patrick 1678

Clearly, I will be over matched, but I do expect to gain a lot of experience here an I may take a game or two If I can play solid positions against aggressive opponents. The only deciding factor involved in the success of this tournament for me is whether or not I have fun. And those strong players should be on their toes, because I am working hard to prepare for tough fights.

Chess Position Program

It looks like I found a program that allows me to create chess positions and post them here. It is called Diag Transfer. To test the program, I will upload the position after 12.Nxf7 in Topalov-Kramnik at Corus 2008.
From here it looks like it worked. I sure hope so!

Tournament Game- Caro-Kann

I thought since I mentioned the Caro-Kann yesterday, I would share a game that I played in the Hamilton Summer Open 2009 in the U-1900 section. Unfortunately, this is the Panov-Botvinnik attack, not the Cappablanca variation. And I still am unsure about the procedure of inserting diagrams.
Gillis, Doug (1656)-O'Sullivan, Patrick (unr.)(at the time)
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 -The Panov-Botvinnik attack
4.... Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4 -I particularlly like this move. It allows me to keep an indirect eye on d5, with a potential Bxf3
7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qb3 -This is in the Rybka opening book, but I think my response justifes the exclusion of this move
8.... Bxf3! -Still book, but I found it over the board and was very pleased with the resulting position
9.gxf3 Nb6 10.Bb5?! -Out of book now, Rybka gives Be3 with the idea of O-O-O and d5
10.... e6 -stopping the threat of d5, and preparing to develop my dark bishop. I did not want to venture out with 10... Qxd4, because after Be3 followed by Rd1, I am getting pressured. A quick check with the engine confirms my suspicions
11.Be3 a6 -I decide that if I can get off the queenside pressure from the exchange, and the isolated c-pawn that results will bolster my control of d5, allowing my b6 Knight to reside there permanently
12.Bxc6+ bxc6 13.O-O-O -Nothing much better as far as I can see
13... Nd5 -In my opinion, the best move. The computer likes Rb8, eying the white Queen
14.Nxd5? -I assign a "?" because this move, although it removes my best piece, locks in his dark bishop, and fixes my pawn structure. Qa4+ does not worry me, as the Queen exchange is favourable for me. I want a good bishop vs bad bishop ending. Rybka likes Nxd5 and still thinks white has a slight edge, but I can't see it
14... cxd5 15.Rd3 Bd6 -Puts pressure on h2, making the rook deployment undesirable
16.Qa4+ Qd7 17.Qxd7+ Kxd7 18.f4? -Anti-strategy, locking in the dark bishop. I now have an edge, and my next idea is to make sure the f-pawn stays put
18.... Rc8+ 19.Kb1 g6 -activating a rook before locking in the pawn. I chose g6 instead of f5 because I was concerned about rook pressure on g7. When you have a strategic edge, do not harm your structure, and force the opponent to give ground in order to create ideas.
20.h4 -another pawn on a dark square, his bishop is bad. He is struggling to create an attack
20.... h5! -I do not miss the opportunity to fix this pawn
21.Rb3 Rb8 22.Rxb8 Rxb8 23.Rc1 Rc8 24.Rxc8 -in my eyes an admission of defeat, but to my surprise this move is coupled with a draw offer. I decline and coast to victory...
24.... Kxc8 25.Bd2 Be7 -wins h4, my passed pawn will be unstoppable
26.f5 exf5 -adding to my pawn mass
27.Bf4 Bxh4 28.Bg3 Bxg3 29.fxg3 f4 -a nice shot, the King can't stop the pawns
30.gxf4 h4 0-1 -A nice game in which I use the Caro-Kann as it was meant to be used- a slow eventual squeeze in the endgame. The key idea used in the game was limiting the dark squared bishop. I made moves designed to worsen my opponent's mobility and structure, and earned a win in my first official tournament game.
If you have comments or questions, please don't hesitate to write them. Sorry f I was too biased or if my analysis lacked enough concrete variations. I hope you enjoyed my analysis. My next step will be to figure out how to insert diagrams of positions.
"The tactician must know what to do when something needs doing; the strategist must know what to do when nothing needs doing" (Savielly Tartakower)

Diagrams

Hi, since I am new to this I do not know how to insert diagrams of chess positions into the posts. I will look around, but if you happen to know how to get a program that will allow me to use FEN to generate a chess position, please let me know in the comments.

Photo Test

I just wanted to see if I could figure out how to post photos (I know its dumb, but there is a first time for everything!). Here is a picture of my favourite chess player, GM Magnus Carlsen (he is only approx. 1.5 years older than me. I wish I was that good).

Caro-Kann Defense

I thought I'd kick off this thing by discussing my favourite opening with the black pieces. The Caro-Kann defense is a super-solid opening that appeals to positional players and endgame specialists. I am no good in the endgame, but I feel strongly positionally rooted. Before I begin the discussion, I would like to address the question: "How do you choose an opening if you are just starting out?".
I have no definite answer, yet to choose an opening for black I can suggest that you first pick a first move with white. Either 1.e4 or 1.d4. Once you have chosen, look at all the main defences to that move. For e4, see the Sicilian, the Ruy Lopez, the French, the Caro-Kann, the Petroff, and the Scandanavian. Of course there are other choices, but I believe beginners benefit most fromm understanding the mainline openings. Choose one that has an appealing look or pawn structure, and run with it. Keep playing it no matter your results, stick to it and you will start to get a sense for the ideas involved.
So, back to the Caro-Kann. The idea of the Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6) is to prepare 2... d5 to counter-attack in the centre. This plan is flexible, because it starts the formation of a strong pawn structure, and it allows for the light-square bishop to move, unlike the French. The most common way the game proceeds in the Caro-Kann is 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3(supporting the pawn) dxe4 4.Nxe4. The initial feel of the position is that white has much more control of the game, so I play here 4... Bf5(the Cappablanca variatrion) This kicks the Knight from the centre, and develops a pice. After this move, black should prepare to be stifled on the kingside by white's plan of h4 and h5 eventually attacking the light bishop, butblack has the better pawn structure and should head to the endgame through sound piece exchanges.
If my overview has not satisfied you, great! This shows that you have a thirst for learning about chess. I encourage you check out an opening database for more information.
"Without error there can be no brilliancy" (Emmanuel Lasker)

Introduction

Hi, I'm Patrick O'Sullivan of Canada (CFC 1678). I have created this blog to share chess ideas and perhaps even games. I am new to this website, so I have a lot of learning to do. My intention is to provide helpful chess advice while improving my game. If you are just starting chess, I hope you take up the game as something more than just a passtime. Be creative, chess doesn't limit you, it allows you to grow. I hope I can help your growing process. I leave this introduction with a quote; Whoever moves his hand and does not draw back is a great man (Chinese proverb- I think).