French Game in Alekhine Memorial 2013

A French Defence game was played during the Alekhine Memorial 2013 tournament:
Direct Link to the game @ chessgames.com: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1715459

The game was played between Peter Svidler and Nikita Vitiugov, and was played in the Winawer variation of the French Defence

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4  
Standard moves in the Winawer variation. Black now put pressure on Whites center because of the absolute pin on the knight.

4. e5 c5
Whites center is still under attack, attacking the d4 (regular occurring theme in French Defence).

5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3
Some pressure off from center and Blacks "good" bishop has been traded.


6...Ne7 7.Qg4 cxd4 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7
Poison Pawn variation


9.Qxh7 Qc7 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 dxc3 12.Nxc3
White has more space and blacks king side is open. Blacks only castling option is queen side.

12...Nd4 
Threatning Kc2+ and winning the rook, but the queen is defending the c2 square. White can't move the queen of this diagonal before the threat of Nd4 is gone. 


13.Bb2 Bd7 14.O-O-O
White removes the threat of Kc2+ and get his king in some type of security.

14...Qb6 15.Qd3
Threats to win the knight at d4 since white attacks the knight twice (Queen and Rook) but black defending with just one piece (Queen).

 ... Ndf5 16.Nb5 Rc8 17.g3 a6 18.Nd4 Ba4 19.Rd2 Rc4 20.Bg2 Nxd4 21.Bxd4 Qb5 22.Bf1 Qc6 23.Qe2 Nf5 24.Bb2 Rh8 25.Qf2 Nxg3 
White can't take the Knight since 26.Qxg3 Rxc2+ 27.Kb1 (27. Rxb2?? Qxb2#) Rxd2


26.Bxc4 Nxh1 27.Qa7 Qxc4 28.Qb8+ Kd7 29.Qxh8 Bxc2 30.Rxc2 Qf1+ 

31.Kd2 Qf2+ 32.Kd3 Qf3+ 33.Kd2 Qf2+ 34.Kd3 Qf3+ 35.Kd2
and the game was drawn by Threefold repetition rule. My analysis engine declares white as leader here with +3.39. but after 35...Qf2+ 36.Kd3 Qf3+ 37.Kd4 Qe4+ 38.Kc3 Qxf4 the computer says 0.00 and the draw is correct.

Chess Training game 1

I've started a new way of training chess:

Playing through high rated players games.

So I started out with a french game which can be seen here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1581622
Play through the first moves until you reach a key position (a key position to you!), and start guessing the moves for one of the players.
Give yourself one point if you select the correct move, 0 if you choose the wrong move.

Important here is that you are honest to your self, and if you choose wrong move, try to understand what was wrong with the move and why the correct move was better in this case


8...Qb6Nf50
9...Be7Be71
10...O-OO-O1
11...Nxe3Nh40
12...Nxf3+Nxf3+1
13...f6Qb60
14...f6Rac80
15...f6Nb40
16...Rxc1Rxc11
17...Nc6Nc61
18...f6Rc80
19...f6f61
20...fxe5fxe51
21...Bg5Nxe50
22...Nc6Ng60
23...Bg5Qd60
24...Bg5Rf81
25...Bxf8Bxf81
26...Be7Be71
27...Bg5Bf60
28...Bg5Bc60
29...e5Bg50

Out of 21 move I guess on, 10 was correct.  

Next game will be http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1035168