The World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad has just concluded in Hungary with the top Canadian team placing 5th. In the 8th round, the seventh seeded Canada faced the Hungarian team (ranked 5th). In that round, IM Richard Wang from Edmonton won a crucial game with the Black pieces against his opponent IM Gergely Kantor to help the Canadian team tie the match - a great result against a chess powerhouse such as Hungary.
[Event "World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2014.12.19"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Kantor, Gergely"]
[Black "Wang, Richard"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D15"]
[WhiteElo "2385"]
[BlackElo "2363"]
[Annotator "MacKinnon,Keith"]
[PlyCount "138"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5 {The Slav is always a solid choice} 5.
Nc3 a6 {At first glance, it is hard to understand this move. Why not play ...
e6 immediately? There are several reasons Black may choose 5...a6 first. The
move is prophylactic in that it plans to counter Qb3 with either ...b5 or ...
Ra7. Another benefit is that it renders 6.Nh4 somewhat useless as Black could
just play Be6.} (5... e6 6. Nh4 {is the main line. White generally enjoys a
slight plus}) 6. Qb3 (6. Bd3 Bxd3 7. Qxd3 e6 8. O-O Be7 9. e4 {is another way
to play the position, but things tend to simplify quite quickly here}) 6... Ra7
$5 (6... b5 {leads to a different type of game. Black needs to be booked up to
enter into some of the comlications after} 7. cxd5 cxd5 8. a4 b4 9. Qxb4 Nc6
10. Qc5 Na5 {for example}) 7. a4 e6 8. a5 Nbd7 9. Nh4 Be4 10. Nxe4 {Not really
in the spirit of the position. The game is relatively closed yet White trades
his Knight for Black's bad Bishop under favorable circumstances for Black (due
to the tempo gained on the White Knight hanging on h4 after 10...Nxe4)} ({
Shabalov won a nice game with White employing a similar idea (to trade N for B)
with the difference that he wanted to open the game up} 10. cxd5 Bxd5 11. Nxd5
cxd5 12. Nf3 Bd6 13. Bd3 O-O 14. O-O Qe7 15. Ra4 Ne4 16. Bxe4 dxe4 17. Nd2 f5
18. Nc4 Nf6 19. g3 Bc7 20. Bd2 Qf7 21. Bb4 Re8 22. Bd6 Qd7 23. Bxc7 Qxc7 24.
Nb6 Qf7 25. Rc4 Qh5 26. Rc8 Kf7 27. Rxe8 Nxe8 28. d5 {1-0 Shabalov,A (2624)
-Zhang Pengxiang (2550)/Shanghai 2002/CBM 091/[Huebner,R]}) 10... Nxe4 11. Nf3
Bd6 12. Be2 O-O 13. O-O f5 $5 {enterprising play. Richard shows he is not
afraid of a fight} (13... Bc7 {is computer suggested, but the position just
looks equal and it's tough to come up with concrete plans for either side
without making concessions}) 14. g3 h5 {This might be too much, however.} 15.
h4 $6 {I see this move as validating Black's risky play.} (15. Nh4 $5 {with
the interesting idea of defending with the Knight on g2}) 15... Qb8 $1 {The
threat of taking on g3 is very real.} 16. Ne1 g5 $5 (16... Bxg3 17. fxg3 Nxg3
18. Rf2 Nxe2+ 19. Rxe2 Qg3+ 20. Kf1 $8 (20. Ng2 f4 $1 $17 {and White can't
stop f3}) 20... f4 $15 {was also very promising looking. It's tough to play
such sacrifices when there are good alternatives as in the game, however.}) (
16... Ndf6 $11) 17. hxg5 Bxg3 18. fxg3 Qxg3+ 19. Ng2 h4 20. Rf3 Qg4 21. Kh2 (
21. cxd5 h3 22. Rxh3 Qxh3 23. dxe6 Kg7 $3 $19) (21. Kh1 Nxg5 22. Nf4 Nxf3 23.
Qd1 $13 {White might actually be taking over from here}) 21... Nxg5 22. Qd1
Nxf3+ 23. Bxf3 Qg3+ 24. Kh1 e5 $1 {the correct way to keep up the pressure} 25.
dxe5 $2 Nxe5 ({There was a difficult combination which Richard missed} 25...
Qh3+ $1 26. Kg1 Nxe5 27. Bh5 b5 $1 {swinging the rook over to g7 will prove
decisive} 28. axb6 Rg7 29. Qf1 f4 30. exf4 Qf5 $3 {The key move. White is
helpless to the threat of ...h3 and to his hanging Bishop}) 26. Be2 Ng4 $2 {
Watching the game live, I became slighly worried here as Richard throws away a
significant portion of his advantage with this move.} (26... Qh3+ 27. Kg1 b5
$19 {and White won't survive due to ...Rg7}) 27. Bxg4 fxg4 28. Nf4 $8 h3 29.
Qe2 Re8 30. Nh5 {White aims to simplify - a reasonable thing to do} (30. Qf1 b5
$13 {the major idea here to activate that rook on a7}) 30... Qh4 31. Qxg4+ Qxg4
32. Nf6+ Kf7 33. Nxg4 Re4 34. Nh2 (34. Nf2 {keeps the Knight more active than
on h2} Rxc4 35. Bd2) 34... Rxc4 $15 35. Bd2 Ra8 (35... Rc2 36. Rf1+ Ke7 37. Nf3
c5 {White should hold after something like} (37... Rxb2 38. Bc3 Rb5 39. Kh2 $11
) 38. b4) 36. Rf1+ Ke7 37. Bc3 c5 38. Rf5 {White must have badly misevaluated
the position after the "tactic" he plays on the next move} (38. Nf3 {guarding
against d4 but perhaps he was worried about 38...Rf8}) 38... d4 39. Rxc5 $4
Rxc5 40. Bb4 d3 41. Bxc5+ Ke6 42. Nf3 Kd5 (42... Rg8 {may have been even more
accurate to keep the White King out of the game}) 43. Bd4 Rf8 44. Nd2 Rf2 45.
Bc3 Re2 46. e4+ Rxe4 47. Kh2 (47. Nxe4 Kxe4 48. Kh2 Ke3 49. Kxh3 d2 50. Bxd2+
Kxd2 $19) 47... Re3 48. Bb4 Ke5 {bringing the King to g4 perhaps with the idea
of ...Re2+ and possibly Rxd2 Bxd2 Kf3-Ke2-d2} 49. Nc4+ Ke4 50. Bd2 Re2+ 51.
Kxh3 Rxd2 52. Nxd2+ Ke3 53. Nb1 d2 54. Nc3 Kd3 55. Kg4 Kc2 56. Kf4 Kxb2 {The
last move where Black needed to be careful. It's smooth sailing from here} 57.
Nd1+ Kc1 58. Ne3 d1=Q 59. Nxd1 Kxd1 60. Ke5 {White could have resigned here.}
Kc2 61. Kd6 Kb3 62. Kc7 Ka4 63. Kb6 Kb4 64. Kxb7 Kxa5 65. Kc6 Kb4 66. Kd5 a5
67. Kd4 a4 68. Kd3 Kb3 69. Kd2 Kb2 {A nice bounce-back win by Richard after a
tough defeat the previous day} 0-1
