Chess Improvement

Chess Strategies: Philipp Ponomarev – Brian Wall; Tiger Modern Defense

April 9th, 2009

[Event "ICC 3 0"]
[Site "Tivoli Center, Denver, Colorado Room 320"]
[Date "2009.03.27"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Philipp Ponomarev"]
[Black "B-Wall"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "2368"]
[BlackElo "2208"]
[Opening "Robatsch (modern) defense"]
[ECO "B07"]
[NIC "QO.17"]
[Time "19:25:38"]
[TimeControl "40/2 Game/30"]
2009 Colorado Closed
Tivoli Center, Denver, Colorado
March 27, 2009

Round 1
Opening – Tiger Modern
White – Philipp Ponomarev 2368
Black – Brian Wall 2208

1. d4 d6 2. e4! g6 3. Nc3! Bg7! 4. Bg5 a6

Philipp has won practically every game I ever saw after 4 … Nf6
so I tried the Tiger Modern that worked so well in the 2007 Colorado Closed (wins against James Hammersmith and Randy Canney, clear first by a point)

5. a4

8 prophylactic minutes spent. Fritz 9 likes 5 … Nc6!! best now
but I am not used to playing that way.

5 … c5

10 minutes spent – seems like a logical answer to Bg5
to make my bishop better than his

6. dxc5! Qa5! 7. Qd2!! Bxc3

It took me 6 minutes to decide that my dark square holes
after 7 … Q:c5 8 Nd5!! had to give me a bad game.
I was heavily influenced by a very similar position
Keres had won against Westerinen in Tallinn 1973
and analyzed for Chess Life. I had played over every
note in that game at least twice. Westerinen lost
without even weakening the b6-square like I had.
On to the endgame! It basically took me an hour
from this position to finally find one good idea.

8. Qxc3

8 bc is not bad either but to me, the four scariest endgame players
in Colorado are GM Dashzeveg Sharavdorj, IM Michael Mulyar, Duwayne Langseth with his 6 piece database turned on and Philipp Ponomarev.

8 … Qxc3+! 9. bxc3! dxc5! 10. Be3 Nf6!

11. f3! Nfd7! 12. a5! Nc6! 13. Ne2! e5

The Grandmaster thought this move was horrible and
I should play 13 … b6 but I showed him

14 ab Rb8 15 Nc1 R:b6 16 Nb3

and I lose a pawn for starters

14. Nc1! Kd8 15. Bc4! f6! 16. Nb3 Kc7!

17. Nxc5? Nxc5!! 18. Bxc5! Nxa5!! 19. Rxa5! b6!!

———————————————————-

Now I can talk about the game. In general, Philipp and I
do not look at Chess positions the same way, we exist in
different dimensions. He surprises me, I surprise him.

I have played Philipp and his father 100,000 blitz games.
Somehow Philipp figures out what you want to do and makes that move bad.

That’s his Method of Operation.

Essentially I have hated my position since 7 Qd2!! where I had a bad
choice between a dominating middle game White Kight on d5 eyeing
everything and an equally miserable endgame where Philipp enjoys -

A – The two bishops

B – Pressure down the b-file

C – Pressure on my c5-pawn

D – the annoying a5 move to lock in my QB or undermine … b6

E – His KN and KR which are ready to join the Queenside party eventually

F – His King in the center

The more I looked the more it seemed he would just overrun my Queenside with massive pressure and there was nothing I could do about it.

After essentially an hour of thought I came up with one plausible
cheapo which he really didn’t have to fall into, he could have
built up his game more with say, Ke2 and Rfb1 before taking on c5.

Once I get as far as 19 … b6!!

with 26 minutes to his 70 minutes it seems I should be drawing -
I don’t see any endgame where his extra doubled c-pawn should be decisive.

Philipp took his first real think, 21 minutes
and decided to confuse me by refusing to trade
either bishop of his for either rook of mine.

Instead of getting an endgame where all I had
to worry about was one extra doubled c-pawn now
I have to worry about my undeveloped bishop and
rooks and a King that is spit on by everyone.
I kept imagining bishops on d5 and d6
with pawns on c5 and c4 and a rook on b1.

I was OK if I could just trade any rook for any bishop
but he wouldn’t allow that. He knew that’s what I was
aiming for. Frustrating what you want to do is a
Ponomarev specialty. Everything became extremely
murky and I was running out of time.

Whether it works objectively or not, I thought his idea
was brilliant and creative and took me by surprise.

20. Bb4

Dr. Mikhail Ponomarev and Ian McClellan were analyzing

20 Be7 ba 21 B:f6 Re8 22 Bf7 Bd7

and even the computer puts 23 B:e8 R:e8

as White’s 12th best choice.

Notice the theme -

I want Philipp to win the exchange back but he refuses.

Ever since 19 … b6!! it’s been a struggle to see

whether Philipp can make any use of his passed c-pawns.

20 … bxa5! 21. Bxa5+! Kd6

Honestly I had no idea where to place my King every time
Philipp checked me and I had no idea how to evaluate the
position. I was 100% confused. I comforted myself by
analyzing various endings where Philipp wins back the
exchange. I had no idea how to play if he ignored my
rooks. It was as unpleasant as it was unclear.

22. Bb4+ Kc7

Where do I go? -
even the worst moves giving back the exchange with

22 … Kc6 or … Kb7 23 Bd5+

seemed OK for me

23. Ba5+ Kd6 24. Kf2 Bb7!

I was sure Philipp wanted

24 … Ke7 25 Rd1 Be6?? 26 Bb4+ Kf7 27 Rd7+!!

25. Bb4+! Kc7 26. Ba5+ Kd6 27. Bb4+ Kc7 28. Rd1! Rad8?? 29. Ba5+!

1-0 Brian Resigns

ponomarev-wall.pgn

Losing a rook.
I had seen this earlier but forgot it.
I had 4 minutes left and played my blunder instantly.
I thought I was forcing one of the many pawn down
endings I thought I could draw after

29 Ba5+ Kc8 30 B:d8?? R:d8 31 R:d8+ K:d8

but I quickly remembered 29 Ba5+! Kc8 30 Be6+!

wins the house.

I was proud of me for setting up 18 … N:a5!! in a

very difficult situation after much thought and I was
proud of Philipp for continuing to go for the win after

20 Bb4. Objectively I suppose I should have drawn it but
in a practical game with little time, it was very tough
to hold out.

In the other two games, IM Michael Mulyar positionally
squeezed Mitch Anderson off the board while Tyler Hughes
sacced a piece to try and run the Grandmaster off the board
with a Full Metal Jacket 8 pawn wave. While Tyler huffed
and puffed and got down to 10 seconds plus delay the
GM calmly and quickly traded down to Rook, Bishop and
one wrong colored rook pawn versus Tyler’s Rook and
3 pawns. Tyler felt sure he must have a draw somewhere but
sickenly, inexorably the whole room watched the GM
annex all three Tyler pawns and avoid the trade of rooks.
I once saw GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz do the same thing -
he had rook and minor piece versus rook and three or
four pawns. Wojtkiewicz ate all the pawns and then won
the drawn rook and minor piece versus rook endgame. A
sick way to lose and Tyler probably felt the same way.

———————————————————-

[Event "ICC 3 0"]
[Site "Tivoli Center, Denver, Colorado Room 320"]
[Date "2009.03.27"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Philipp Ponomarev"]
[Black "B-Wall"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "2368"]
[BlackElo "2208"]
[Opening "Robatsch (modern) defense"]
[ECO "B07"]
[NIC "QO.17"]
[Time "19:25:38"]
[TimeControl "40/2 Game/30"]

1. d4 d6 2. e4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Bg5 a6 5. a4 c5 6. dxc5 Qa5 7. Qd2 Bxc3 8. Qxc3 Qxc3+ 9. bxc3 dxc5 10. Be3 Nf6 11. f3 Nfd7 12. a5 Nc6 13. Ne2 e5 14. Nc1 Kd8 15. Bc4 f6 16. Nb3 Kc7 17. Nxc5 Nxc5 18. Bxc5 Nxa5 19. Rxa5 b6 20. Bb4 bxa5 21. Bxa5+ Kd6 22. Bb4+ Kc7 23. Ba5+ Kd6 24. Kf2 Bb7 25. Bb4+ Kc7 26. Ba5+ Kd6 27. Bb4+ Kc7 28. Rd1 Rad8 29. Ba5+
1-0 Brian Resigns

———————————————————-

[Event "Tallinn (02)"]
[Site "Tallinn (02)"]
[Date "1973.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Paul Keres"]
[Black "Heikki M J Westerinen"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "59"]

1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Bg5 c5 5.dxc5 Qa5 6.Qd2 Qxc5

7.Nd5 Be6 8.c4 Nd7 9.Rc1 Ngf6 10.f3 a5 11.Be3 Qc8 12.Ne2 Qb8

13.Nd4 Nc5 14.Nb5 Nxd5 15.cxd5 Bd7 16.Rxc5 dxc5 17.d6 exd6

18.Nxd6+ Kf8 19.Nxf7 Be6 20.Ng5 Bxa2 21.Bxc5+ Kg8 22.b4 Bb3

23.Qd3 Bf7 24.Nxf7 Qf4 25.Ng5 Qc1+ 26.Kf2 Qb2+ 27.Be2 Bf6

28.Qd5+ Kg7 29.Qxb7+ Kh6 30.Nf7+

1-0

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