Kosintseva plays Isolated Pawn to beat the French

Here are a couple of games that illustrate how White can opt into standard IQP structure against the French defence – this method was used effectively by Nadezhda Kosintseva to beat a couple of strong players:

Kosintseva, Nadezhda - Vysochin, Spartak
   2004 , C07

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. c3 cxd4 5. cxd4 Nc6 6. Ngf3 dxe4 7. Nxe4 Bb4+ 8. Nc3 Nf6 9. Bd3 O-O 10. O-O Be7 11. a3 b6 12. Re1 Bb7 13. Bc2 Rc8 14. Qd3 Qd6

( 14. ... g6!? 15. Bh6 Re8 16. Rad1 )

15. d5 exd5 16. Bg5 g6 17. Rxe7! Nxe7 18. Nb5 Qe6 19. Nfd4 Qe5 20. f4

20. ... Qe4 21. Bxf6 Qxd3 22. Bxd3 Nc6 23. Nxc6 Rxc6 24. Bd4 a6 25. Nc3 Re6 26. Na4 Rfe8 27. Kf2 Bc6 28. Nxb6 Bb5 29. Bxb5 axb5 30. Nxd5 Re2+ 31. Kf3 R8e6 32. Rc1 f6 33. Rc8+ Kf7 34. Rc7+ Kf8 35. Nxf6 Rd2 36. Be5 h6 37. h4 Rd8 38. h5 gxh5 39. Ke4 b4 40. axb4 Rb6 41. Kf5 Rd2 42. g3 Rxb4 43. Kg6 1-0

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Kosintseva, Nadezhda - Xu Yuhua
   2009 , C07

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Ngf3 dxe4 6. Nxe4 cxd4 7. cxd4 Bb4+ 8. Nc3 Nf6 9. Bd3 h6 10. O-O O-O 11. a3 Be7 12. Bc2 Re8 13. Bf4 a6 14. Qd3 Bf8 15. Rad1 Ne7 16. Ne5 Bd7 17. Rfe1 Bc6 18. Qh3

18. ... Bd5 19. Re3 Qb6 20. b4 Rec8

21. Rg3

Kingside threats are now impossible to defend against without material losses.

21. ... Rxc3

( 21. ... Kh8 22. Nxf7+ )

22. Rxc3 Nc6 23. Bxh6 Nxd4 24. Be3 Ne2+ 25. Kf1 Qd6 26. Ng4 Ne4 27. Bxe4 1-0

Korchnoi – Udovcic – A Wrench in the French

White to move.

I would describe the spirit of White’s attack as “he can only take them one at a time”; several of White’s pieces are being attacked, and he keeps sacrificing … In this game Korchnoi shows that he is not only a great defender, but is also able to attack with vigour when necessary. The video has the solution and goes over the whole game (you may notice that this line of the French defence had also occurred in one of my recent games). The game is also discussed on the chessgames forum.

Keres Memorial 2010 games - with Videos

Keres Memorial 2010 was held last weekend in Richmond, British Columbia. While last year I wrote up a summary with diagrams, this time I instead captured fresh impressions of my games into several Youtube videos:

Round 2 game - A complex middlegame in the Sicilian Dragon, with Black throwing multiple sacrifices at my position to keep his initiative going. This turns out to be an effective strategy in time trouble! Part 2 shows how the game concluded.
 

Round 3 game - White sacrificed the d4 pawn in the well known variation of the French Defence. In return he gets faster development, and soon - the material advantage. A fairly simple and somewhat instructive game (I say “simple”, but of course just like any game - took a lot of effort over the board).
 

The last round game where both players needed to win. Black's king was a bit more exposed and that allowed me to create an unexpected attack. Black overlooked a very unexpected defensive resource and soon had to resign because his queenside collapsed, and dark squares around his king were catastrophically weak.

PS. My Youtube channel now has 40 chess-related videos, feel free to watch more clips and subscribe :-)

Missed Sacrifice in Kortchnoi – Dreev

Kortchnoi – Dreev, 1992

White to move r2q2k1/pp1nrp2/2pb1n1Q/8/2BPp3/8/PPPB1PPP/R3R1K1 w - - 0 19

Having invested one piece into opening up Black’s king, Viktor Kortchnoi should have thrown in another one!
19. Bb4 would have won the game, since after 19… Bxb4 20. Re3, the rook threatens to swing both to g3 and to h3.

Instead Viktor the great must have overlooked the idea completely and settled for perpetual check! Click here for the complete game.

Piece sacrifice against French defence

Black delays castling, and that backfires as his pieces are not ready to deal with White's attack. Against pawn advances on the flanks - White responds with attack in the center. Diagrams with the key moments of this game in my blog entry.

Jiganchine - Niksic, BC Closed 2001

Replay Game

Roman Jiganchine - John Niksic

BC Closed/Vancouver (4.1) 2001

14... h5 Black has pushed both of his rook pawns. Now if if White succeeds in opening lines in the center, Black is going to be in trouble. 15. Ng5 g6 16. Qf3 Nf5 I was more worried about 16... Rf8 17. Nh7 Rg8 and it was not clear to me how White should develop his initiative 17. Bxf5 gxf5

18. Rfe1!? The move I was proud of during the game. It prepares the sacrifice on f5, followed by e5-e6. The immediate 18. Nxf5 looked a bit risky to me, but after 18... exf5 19. e6 fxe6 20. Nxe6 White's position seems to be very promising too 20... Kf7 21. Qxf5+ Nf6 22. Ng5+ Kg7 23. Rae1 Rae8 24. Ne6+ Kf7 25. Nf4 Rh6 26. Rxe8 Kxe8 27. Re1+ 18... Nf8?! It is hard to advise anything better 18... cxd4 19. Nxf5 19. Nxf5 I cannot even call it a sacrifice. 19... exf5 20. Qxf5 Now Black is unable to castle long, as he would have been in the case of immediate 18.Nxf5 20... Rh7 21. Nxh7 Nxh7

22. e6 As expected, attack in the center refuted Black's strategy. The black queen from a5 was never really able to join the party in this game, as Y.Seirawan would say. 1-0 [Roman Jiganchine]