2007 New England Open, Last Round Game

Back on Labor Day weekend I tied for 1st with IM Igor Foygel at the 67th New England Open which was held it my hometown, Manchester, NH. This is my first New England Title, which meant a lot to me. I have won the New Hampshire title 4 times, but usually there are only a couple other people from NH that have a chance. This tournament had lots of strong players who were eligible, some of the big names were: GM Alexander Ivanov, IM Igor Foygel, IM David Vigorito, NM Denys Shmelov, IM Joseph Fang, FM Paul Macintyre, IM Justin Sarkar, NM Hal Terrie.

I got good pairings in the first couple of rounds. In round 1 I won a nice game against the up and coming junior Andrew Wang on the black side of a Caro-Kann. In round 2 I was lucky to get paired with the lowest rated player in the tournament, Craig D Shaw, who had just upset local National Master Hal Terrie. In rounds 3-5 I drew my games against IM Fang, FM Macintyre, and IM Sarkar.

Going into this round I was tied for the lead with Foygel, Vigorito, Macintyre and Sarkar with 3.5/5. Denys was a half point back with 3/5 after losing a tough game to Foygel. I was very hungry to get revenge for the game I lost to Shmelov at the Massachusetts Open back in May.

Bournival,Braden (2387) - Shmelov,Denys (2391) [B44]
New England Open Manchester, NH (6), 03.09.2007

1.e4 c5 A surprise from Denys! I had gone home 2 hours before the round to prepare for Deny’s French Defense. He knew I was going home to prepare so he must have decided to avoid my preparation. I was actually somewhat pleased to see him play Sicilian even though it came as a surprise, since I was sure he wasn’t as familiar in the resulting middlegame positions. 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5

Back in early 2007 when I prepared to play the Open Sicilian with white, I decided to play this line against the Taimianov Sicilian, but this was my first chance to test it out in a real tournament game. More common is 5. Nc3 which is the classical way of playing against the Taimianov 5…d6 6.c4 a6 This move is considered a slight inaccuracy by theory, since now white has the extra option of developing his b1 knight to the d2 instead of a3. I’m not so sure this is such a big deal, but at the very least it gives white extra options. If instead black played: [6…Nf6 It forces: 7.N1c3 a6 And now this forces the knight back to a3. 8.Na3] 7.N5c3 Nf6 8.Be2 Be7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Be3 b6

I thought for awhile on this move, since I needed to decide whether to transpose back into the main line with Na3, or try to take advantage of this 6th move inaccuracy by black. Since I knew the main line so well, I decided it would be my best bet just to transpose back into it. I had remembered that even Karpov had done this, so it can’t be that bad! 11.Na3 Bb7 This move is fine, but recently strong players have been trying: [11…Ne5 The idea behind this move is to relocate the knight to d7, which is a much more fluid square for it in this typical hedgehog structure.] 12.Qb3 During the game, I was torn between this move and 12. Ra1-c1. I remembered that both were very valid lines against Bb7, but finally opted for this just because I remembered the theory better. The idea behind this move is to force the f6 knight to go to d7, where it will not be ideally placed, this is why the new main line is 11.. Ne5 instead of 11.. Bb7 12…Nd7 13.Rfd1 Qc7?! This natural move is dubious. Black needs to try and make the most out of his knight retreat to d7 by attacking the queen immediately: [13…Nc5! 14.Qc2 Qc7 And here the queen is on the much more awkward square c2. (14…Bf6!? This is an interesting try too, black is threatening Bxc3 and Nxe4. 15.f3 Be5 With an interesting position.) ] 14.Rd2!

This is where my specific preparation ended, I had remembered if anything other than Nc5, white should do Rd2! to clear the d1 square for the queen. 14…Nc5 15.Qd1 Rfd8 Black now threatens Bf6! with the dual threat of Bxc3, which shatters white’s pawns, and also Bxc3 with the idea of Nxe4. Therefore white must defend either the c3 knight or e4 pawn. 16.f3 Bf6 17.Rc1 Be5 18.Kh1

Black was potentially threatening d6-d5 when the h2 pawn hangs with check. Kh1 is a very common prophylactic move in this kind of structure, to move off the g1-a7 diagonal. This also makes room for the queen to go to g1, where it can eye the somewhat weak b6 pawn again. 18…Ne7? When I saw this move during the game, I felt that it just HAD to be incorrect. I’ve studied lots and lots of grandmaster games in these positions, and never once did I remember this knight maneuver to the kingside. Better was: [18…Rac8 With the idea of Qb8-Qa8 and possibly nc6-b4 with the idea of playing either d6-d5 or b6-b5, which are the must needed breaks in the hedgehog structure.] 19.b4! This move is best, but I was somewhat nervous making it since it weakens a lot of stuff on the queenside. I realized at this point that I must play very accurately, because if black ever gets in his d5 break, my queenside pawns will be sitting ducks. 19…Nd7 20.Na4! This somewhat unnatural move is very strong. White has lots of potential ideas like f3-f4 which might win the d6 pawn, Qg1 which hits the b6, and c4-c5 which might blow the position open for white’s better placed pieces. At the time I wasn’t sure which one I’d do, but whenever you have lots of options, you know your position is getting good.. During the game I could feel Shmelov’s body language change quite a bit. It was now that he realized how much pressure his position is under. 20…Ng6 21.Qg1 Bf4

22.Rdd1? [22.Nxb6! I considered this move, but rejected it after: 22…Bxe3 23.Nxa8 Bxg1 24.Nxc7 Be3 25.Rcd1 Bxd2 26.Rxd2 Rc8 And white’s knight is trapped, But I missed that I could desperado the knight and get 3 passers for the piece: 27.Nxa6! Bxa6 28.Rxd6 Nb8 Only move 29.Kg1! And this position has to be winning for white, I can’t imagine black being able to stop these 3 connected passers on the queenside.; 22.Rcd1 I considered this move, but attack the d6 pawn didn’t seem to lead anywhere, for instance: 22…Bc6 23.Nc3 Be5~~] 22…Rab8 23.Bf1 This move is intended to get ouf of the way of any Ng6-f4 stuff. This is also a very typical move in these positions, so I felt it should be correct. I also had foreseen that Shmelov next move would be a blunder. This walks into a common tactical motif that arises in the Maroczy bind. 23…Bc6? 24.Bxf4 Nxf4 25.Nb5!

This move is completely winning. 25…Qb7 If black takes the knight, then: [25…axb5 26.cxb5 Qa7 27.bxc6 Qxa4 28.c7!+-] 26.Nxd6 Qa7 It was around here that the game Macintyre-Sarkar ended in a draw. Now I knew if I was able to convert this winning position I’d only have to share 1st with 1 other person at the most, either Vigorito or Foygel.. They were involved in a tough unclear battle on board 1. [26…Qc7 27.b5 Ba8 28.bxa6+-] 27.Nc3 Not only is white up a clear pawn in this position, but the knight on d6 is just dominating the entire board. 27…Ng6 Now my objective is to simply improve all my pieces other than the d6 knight. 28.Qe3 Ndf8 29.Rd2 Qc7 30.Rcd1 Rd7 31.e5 This move makes a lot of sense now that my queen and rooks are all on the best possible squares. It is time to improve the c3 knight and f1 bishop. This e5 move also solidifys the knight on d6. 31…Rdd8 32.f4 Qe7 33.Kg1!

This is the type of move I only recently learned to make in such positions. White is in no hurry at all, his position is great and he’s up a clear pawn to boot. The more you make these little improving moves that stop all counterplay, the more likely your opponent will just get discouraged and do something stupid. 33…Nd7 34.Bd3 Nh4 35.Be4 Exchanging off black’s only active piece and allowing the c3 knight to get into the game. 35…Bxe4 36.Ncxe4 Nf5 37.Nxf5 exf5 38.Nd6 g6 I had about 3 minutes left here to make my next 2 moves, but I realized this is a very important position. All of white’s pieces seem to be on the best possible squares. My intuition told me to go c4-c5 at first, but this seems wrong since it gives black counterplay on the B file and also black can blockade the passer with Nf8-e6, which controls the c7 square. 39.Qg3! Kh8 Originally my plan was just to do Qc3 to make time control, but then I spotted this nice idea: 40.Qg5

And here Shmelov resigned because: [40.Qg5 f6 (40…Qe6 41.Nb7! Wins.; 40…Qf8 41.Nxf5!) 41.exf6 Nxf6 42.Nf7+ Wins the exchange. In the end, Foygel was able to beat my good friend Dave Vigorito on board 1 in a long tough battle to tie with me for 1st.] 1-0