Our Canadian Game of the Week is GM Eric Hansen's round 4 win over NM Keith MacKinnon at the 2018 Nanaimo Spring Open.
White plays the Flohr-Mikenas attack, and turns a development advantage into a crushing and thematic attack on the light squares...
The Nanaimo Spring Open took place March 3-4, 2018.
It exceeded their announced maximum number of players, possibly due to the participation of GM Eric Hansen, who was making a rare IRL -- In Real Life -- chess appearance. Eric won with 5/5. Jiri Blaha was second with 4/5; with Zulfikar Sali, Keith MacKinnon and Brandon Zhu tied for 3-5th with 3.5/5.
photo: Hansen - MacKinnon, before White's 16th move.
photos
https://nanaimo-open.ca/gallery
results
http://chess.ca/crosstable?tournament_check_number=201803009
non-IRL Eric:
You can frequently watch Eric playing online on the Chessbrah Twitch channel:
https://www.twitch.tv/chessbrah
Our Canadian Game of the Week is Eric's round 4 win over NM Keith MacKinnon. White plays the Flohr-Mikenas attack, and turns a development advantage into a crushing and thematic attack on the light squares.
..
[Event "Nanaimo Spring Open 2018"]
[Site "Nanaimo"]
[Date "2018.03.04"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Hansen, Eric"]
[Black "MacKinnon, Keith"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A18"]
[WhiteElo "2621"]
[BlackElo "2280"]
[Annotator "John Upper"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "2018.03.13"]
[SourceTitle "CFC Newsfeed"]
1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. e4 {The Flohr-Mikenas Attack -- White's most aggressive way to cross Black's hopes to transpose to a safe QGD with 3...d5.} d5 ({The other main
option is} 3... c5 4. e5 Ng8 {when White gets a development advantage while
Black surrounds and wins the e5 pawn.}) 4. e5 d4 (4... Ne4 {is a playable pawn
sacrifice, hoping for} 5. Nxe4 dxe4 6. Qg4 Nc6 7. Qxe4 Qd4 $1 {with lots of
play.}) ({Instead, after} 4... Ne4 {White gets a good game just by developing
with} 5. Nf3 $14 {as Black's Ne4 will almost always eventually have to take on
c3, leaving White with more space and freer development.}) 5. exf6 dxc3 6. bxc3
Qxf6 {[#]} 7. Nf3 (7. d4 e5 8. Nf3 Nc6 (8... exd4 {used to be the main line,
but has fallen out of fashion after} 9. Bg5 Qe6+ 10. Be2 f6 11. Nxd4 Qf7 12.
Bh6 $3 $16 {a positional bombshell from Simon Williams. The crude point is
that taking the Bh6 loses the Q to Bh5. The subtle point is that Black will
have trouble finding a safe place for his K. White has a huge score from here:
96% and Elo +460!} gxh6 13. Bh5) 9. Bg5 Qg6 10. d5 Nb8 11. h4 h6 12. h5 Qa6 13.
Be3 Nd7 14. Bd3 Ba3 15. O-O Qd6 16. Nh4 O-O 17. Nf5 Qf6 18. Ng3 Qh4 19. Nf5 Qf6
20. Ng3 Qh4 {Black has made eight moves with his Q and hasn't developed his
queenside, but the threat of ...Nf6 and taking the h5-pawn is so serious that..
. ½-½ in Anand,V (2782)-Karjakin,S (2760) London, 2017.}) 7... Nd7 8. d4 Qd8
$5 {It looks wrong to give up a tempo to retreat the Q, but White's threat to
trap the Q with Bg5 and Bd3 requires a response, and Black may have thought
that ...h6 would be a long term weakness and would leave him without good
squares for his minors.} (8... h6 9. Bd3 c5 10. O-O Qd8 $2 11. Bf4 $1 {Look at
White's lead in development.} Nf6 12. Re1 Be7 13. Qd2 Bd7 (13... O-O $2 14.
Bxh6 $18 {shows one problem with ...h6.}) 14. Ne5 Bc6 15. Rad1 (15. Qe3 $1 O-O
$2 16. Bxh6 $18) 15... Ba4 16. Rb1 b6 17. Qe3 Nh5 18. Nxf7 $1 Kxf7 19. Qxe6+
Kf8 20. Bg6 Be8 21. Bxe8 Qxe8 22. Bd6 $18 {(1-0, 32) Grachev,B (2657)-Golubov,
S (2488) Khanty-Mansiysk, 2017.}) 9. Bd3 Be7 10. O-O O-O 11. Bf4 b6 12. Bc2 (
12. Be4 {looks like a obviously good finesse -- luring the R to a square where
the c7 pawn is pinned -- but the computer is unimpressed by my cleverness, and
rates the two moves almost the same.}) 12... Bb7 (12... Bd6 13. Qd3 g6 14. Bg5)
13. Qd3 g6 14. Rfe1 Bf6 15. Rad1 {[#]White has excellent attacking chances,
and can follow the familiar attacking patterns of a standard IQP middlegame,
but without Black having use of d5.} Qc8 $4 {Allowing White's next is
positional suicide.} (15... c5 {was better} 16. Bd6 (16. dxc5 Nxc5 $11) 16... Re8 $14)
(15... Re8 {was also better} 16. Ne5 Nxe5 17. Bxe5 Bxe5 18. Rxe5 Qe7 19. Rde1
$14) 16. Ng5 $1 $16 {After this White will almost inevitably have a winning
sac on the light squares.} Bg7 $6 17. Qh3 $18 Nf6 (17... h6 18. Nxe6 (18. Bxg6
{also wins.}) 18... fxe6 19. Qxe6+ $18) 18. Be5 h5 19. Qg3 $1 ({Just to
demonstrate White's attacking possibilities,} 19. Nxf7 {also wins} Kxf7 (19...
Rxf7 20. Bxg6 Re7 21. Rd3 $18 {and Rg3}) 20. Qg3 Ng4 21. Bxg7 Kxg7 22. f3 $18 {
and Black collapses on the light squares.}) 19... c6 20. Bxf6 Bxf6 {[#]} 21.
Nxe6 $1 fxe6 22. Qxg6+ Bg7 23. Qh7+ Kf7 24. Bg6+ Kf6 25. Bxh5 ({The PGN from
the Nanaimo Open points out that Eric's human move misses a mate in 13:} 25.
Re3 Ke7 26. Qxg7+ Kd8 27. Qxf8+ Kc7 28. Qf4+ Kd8 29. d5 cxd5 30. cxd5 Qd7 31.
Rxe6 h4 32. Rf6 Qe7 33. Rf8+ Qxf8 34. Qxf8+ Kc7 35. Qe7+ Kc8 36. Qe8+ Kc7 37.
d6#) 1-0..
