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Scholastic ChessSteve Goldberg
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Sam the Man It was expected that GM Ray Robson and IM Sam Shankland would battle for the 2010 U.S. Junior Championship, and indeed, it came down to a playoff game between the two. However, the way they got there was anything but expected. Everyman Quiz of the Month
We will accept all contest answers for two weeks following the appearance of this column, then randomly select our three winners from this group. In order to meet the two-week deadline, please e-mail your responses to me by August 25, 2010. Send your answers to scholasticchess@chesscafe.com. Good luck! Problem #1
It is White to move. What do you suggest? Problem #2
It is White to move. What should he do? The 2010 U.S. Junior Championship was held in July, concurrent with the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship, both at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. The events were hard-fought – of the forty-five games in the Women's tournament, thirty-eight were decisive, while thirty-four of the forty-five regular games in the Junior Championship produced a winner. At the start of the Junior tournament, the clear favorites were GM Ray Robson and IM Sam Shankland, whose ratings were well above the rest of the field. Both players were surprised in the first round, however. Robson drew his game with Eric Rosen, a talented player, but the lowest rated of the ten participants, while Shankland was upset by Parker Zhao.
Robson recovered in round two with a victory over John Bryant, but Shankland again suffered a loss, this time at the hands of the surprising Warren Harper. Shankland was understandably frustrated and dejected. He described his mood at this time as "Not good. I was very down in the dumps, feeling like I was playing terribly in what would likely be my last major tournament. I'm very grateful to my friends, both the players from the U.S. Women's there in St. Louis and those back home, for providing moral support." I happened to be in the commentary and interview room when Shankland and Harper walked in together after their game. Commentators Hikaru Nakamura and Ben Finegold had been analyzing the game shortly beforehand and were under the impression that Shankland had the upper hand. When he and Harper walked in, it wasn't clear who had won. When asked, Shankland replied that Harper had captured the point, and it was clear that Nakamura and Finegold were surprised. It turned out that the position they had been analyzing was in fact not the actual position on the board. Unfortunately, there had been an error in the move transmission. By the end of the third round, Harper was the sole player who stood undefeated, half a point ahead of Zhao and Robson. Shankland had finally won his first game in round three, while upstart Rosen defeated Conrad Holt, who has had a phenomenal year. Round four saw the highly anticipated encounter between Robson and Shankland. It was a Caro-Kann with opposite-side castling, but the game ended in a draw after the players repeated the same position three times by move thirty-one. After round five, Parker Zhao stood atop the pack with a score of 4½/5, after his third consecutive victory. A point behind were Darwin Yang and Ray Robson. Rosen won again in this round, against Warren Harper. Shankland was back in the victory column and stood at 2½/5. Both Zhao and Yang lost in round six, while Robson and Shankland won, producing a first-place tie between Zhao and Robson at 4½/6, with Shankland and Yang at 3½. Steven Zierk won his third game of the tournament to move up in the standings, with a score of 3/6, tied with Rosen and Harper, who was suffering a tough stretch, having lost his third consecutive game. Following a rest day, the tournament resumed and in round seven, Robson beat Zhao and Shankland defeated Rosen. At the end of the day, Robson was alone in first place with 5½/7, while Shankland, Zhao and Yang all stood a point back. In round eight, the penultimate round, Robson drew his game with Yang, and Shankland drew against Zierk. Zhao defeated Harper, so that Robson was still in first place, but only half a point ahead of Zhao, with Shankland and Yang another half-point back. For the final round, Robson was matched against Harper, who at that point had suffered five consecutive losses following his 3-0 start. It seemed that Robson certainly had the upper hand in attempting to win his second straight U.S. Junior championship, although a Robson draw and a Zhao win would produce a playoff between the two of them for the title. Instead, in a stunning turn of events, Robson lost the final-round game to Harper. Robson had two pawns reach the seventh rank, but Harper's advancing a-pawn proved more dangerous and produced the victory. Meanwhile, Yang drew his game, while Shankland won his game against Holt. Thus, after the regulation nine rounds, there was an incredible three-way tie among Robson, Yang and Shankland. Rather remarkable considering Shankland's 0/2 start. The unique tiebreak system then went into effect. As explained at the website of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, "Robson, by virtue of being first on tiebreaks, has elected to receive a bye in the first round of the playoff. Zhao and Shankland will play a game to determine who will play Robson for the championship. "In this game, both players will bid on how much time they are willing to start with, between one minute and forty-five minutes. Whoever bids the lesser amount of time has the option to choose his color, with the black pieces getting draw odds (meaning that in the case of a draw, black is declared the winner). Whoever loses the bid will receive a full 45 minutes, with both players receiving a five-second increment for each move. "The winner of that game will have his choice of color in the championship game, with black again having draw odds. In the championship game, each player will have forty-five minutes with a five-second increment for each move." Shankland described his strategy for this time auction. "I called up my friends GM Josh Friedel and IM David Pruess, both of whom know me as a player probably even better than I do, and they both suggested somewhere between thirty-two and thirty-five minutes. Thirty-one is my lucky number for fortune cookies (thirteen backwards!)." So Shankland bid thirty-one minutes, but was "beaten" by Zhao's bid of twenty-nine minutes, fifty-four seconds. Zhao selected the black pieces, forcing Shankland to win in order to play Robson for the championship. As Shankland explained, "I tried to play aggressively against Parker, putting the pressure on him to defend. I felt that my position was slightly better throughout, and my time advantage began to tell. I was fortunate that he played a line that I have done a bit of work in and he didn't seem to know." After the thirty-sixth move, the victory was his.
This set the stage for the final playoff game against Robson. After all the fireworks and the surprises in this tournament, in the end, it was Ray Robson against Sam Shankland for the championship, as initially expected. Because of the playoff format in which Robson selected a first-round playoff bye, Shankland had his choice of color in this game. He selected Black, meaning Robson would have to defeat him due to the draw odds playoff system. After a ten-minute break, the game began. "Against Ray, I planned on playing solidly, employing the Caro-Kann again," Shankland said. "To my knowledge, he only plays the main line with Nc3, but he tried the Fantasy Variation, and I had done some work there and the line I played I think is fine for Black and not very popular. Sure enough, Ray did not know it very well and he was close to lost just fifteen moves in." Indeed, after thirty-nine moves, Robson resigned, handing the 2010 U.S. Junior Championship to Sam Shankland. I asked Sam if he had ever experienced such a tournament, starting poorly but roaring back to win. "I never had a terrible start like this one," he said, "but at the 2008 World Youth I had 3½/4 and then lost two games in a row, essentially eliminating me from contention. I then scored 4½/5 with a last round victory over Le Quang Liem, who is now nearly 2700 (at the time he was 2600) to tie for first and take the Bronze Medal." I was curious if he changed his tournament strategy after his losses in the first two rounds. "I decided to stop playing what I felt was best and just to try to have fun," he explained. "Up till that moment I was exclusively a Sicilian player and I had good results with it, but I was sick of getting attacked and the games being decided by who knew more opening theory, so I played the Caro-Kann for the rest of the tournament, a line which I found to be more enjoyable, even though I wasn't nearly as well prepared there as I would have liked to be." He offered the following advice to players going through a similar tough stretch. "You just have to remember that there's always another game, and it has nothing to do with any of the previous ones. I've lost plenty of games in my life so I've gotten good at bouncing back and putting the previous game behind me, but not nearly as good as I'd like to be. It often helps to relax or find some kind of distraction like working out, watching bad TV, etc." Interestingly, it wasn't until the end of the ninth and final regulation round, when Zhao and Bryant drew, that Shankland allowed himself to seriously think about winning the championship. "I don't judge my chances when they are out of my control - even just after round five, it was clear I would need people I had already played to lose in order to have any chance," he said, "and I would have to rely on others to do that, making it out of my control. Once I tied for first, I was ninety percent sure that I would win the tiebreak because momentum was on my side and I'm a strong rapid player."
Sam described some of his surprises from the tournament. "I was surprised that Conrad Holt had a subpar result after playing like a monster for the last few months. Warren Harper going 3-0 then 0-5 then beating Ray also seemed unexpected. And of course, Parker Zhao's unbelievable result shocked everyone." Lastly, I had to ask Shankland about his previously announced retirement from chess following this tournament, except for his current obligations. In an interview at Chess Life Online, he described his frustration at essentially obtaining four grandmaster norms, although only two of them actually count due to FIDE rules. Was this his primary reason for deciding to withdraw from chess? "That is a big one, but certainly not the only one. I started playing chess because I believed it was a game where my fate was completely in my own hands, but this view has changed. I'm seeing other players my level and weaker getting more invitations and paid much better for the same work, based on the fact that they are grandmasters (which clearly is something I only have a limited control over) or because they are female (which I have no control over at all). Of course, money isn't everything and in the grand scheme of things doesn't mean much to me, but it does represent a certain lack of respect to be paid less based on these grounds and it does change my lifestyle (I have to teach more, rather than study and I can't afford a coach, which makes it much harder to improve, plus the lack of invitations). "There are many other reasons, but the GM one is the biggest. I already miss chess despite having only taken a few weeks off from serious work so far, but the other factors are too much for me to deal with at the moment. I hope that someday my love for the game will overpower the frustration and anger toward the surrounding politics, but for now I have no intention of playing anything other than the pending agreements I made before deciding to quit. I'll be reassessing my decision when the U.S. Championship rolls around, but that's still almost a year away." In the meantime, Shankland will be attending Brandeis University (in metropolitan Boston) in the fall. We look forward to what we hope will be his return to chess. He was kind enough to annotate four of his games in this event, including the two tense playoff games. Yang, Darwin (2396) – Shankland, Sam (2513)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 This is often used as a transpositional trick. 3.Nf3 is the main move. 3...dxc4 4.e3 b5 5.a4 b4 6.Na2 e6 7.Bxc4 Nf6 Yang also reached this position against Holt in round two. 8.Nf3 Nbd7 Deviating from Holt, who played Be7. 9.0–0 Bb7 10.Bd2 a5 11.Nc1 c5
Black strikes back in the center and equalizes. The resulting middlegame is very interesting, with Black having more active bishops and a space advantage on the queenside but a weak a-pawn and b5-square. 12.Nb3 Bd6 13.Qe2 13.dxc5 Nxc5 14.Nxc5 (14.Bb5+ Ncd7! a sample line could go: (14...Ke7?! 15.Nbd4 And White has some pressure) 15.Nfd4 0–0 16.Rc1 Qb6=) 14...Bxc5 15.Bb5+ Ke7 16.Qe2 Qd5 17.Rac1 Rhd8 Black is fine. 13...0–0 14.Rfd1 Qb6 14...Bxf3!? 15.gxf3 (15.Qxf3? cxd4 16.Nxd4 Bxh2+ 17.Kxh2 Qc7+ Black is better) 15...cxd4 16.Nxd4. White's weaknesses on the kingside are well compensated by his active pieces and bishop pair. The position is very unclear. 15.Be1! White plans a Nd2-c4 maneuver. 15...Rac8 16.Bb5 Nfd2 is on the agenda, targeting Black's a5-pawn. 16...cxd4!? Releasing the tension. 16...Bd5 17.Nfd2 Rfd8 18.Rac1 with the position unclear. 17.Nfxd4 Ne5 18.f3! Planning Bf2. 18...Ng6 19.Bf2 h5! Black starts a kingside attack. 20.e4?! 20.Kh1 I preferred this move during the game, although still after 20...h4 21.e4 Qd8 Black has plans to play moves like Nh5-g3 (or f4) and has a strong kingside initiative to compensate for White's play on the queenside. 20...Qc7 21.g3 h4 The attack starts. 22.Rac1 Qb8 23.Rxc8 Rxc8 24.Qe1 Bc7 Black simply defends his pawn. 25.Nc5? Bb6! 26.Nxb7 Qxb7 White's counterplay was based on the a5-pawn. Now that is gone, and he has traded off Black's passive b7-bishop for a strong knight. Black is better. 27.Be2 Ne5 28.Nb3 Rc2 29.Rd2 Bxf2+ 30.Kxf2
30…Qc6?? 30...Qc7 with Black slightly better. 31.Bb5?? 31.Nd4!+- Rxd2 32.Nxc6 Nd3+ 33.Ke3! The move I overlooked. 31...Qb6+–+ Black is strategically winning. 32.Ke2 32.Kg2 h3+ 33.Kxh3 Nxf3. 32...Rxd2+ 33.Nxd2 33.Qxd2 Qg1 or 33.Kxd2 Nxf3+. 33...Qd4 34.b3 Qc3 White's pieces are horribly tied up. 35.Qf2 hxg3 36.hxg3 Nh5 37.Kf1 37.Qh2 Qxd2+. 37...g5 38.Kg2 g4 39.f4 Nd3 40.Bxd3 Qxd3 Zugzwang. 41.f5 e5 42.f6 Nxg3 43.Qe1 Nh5 0–1 Shankland, Sam (2513) – Holt, Conrad (2402)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Nh4 6.e3 and 6.Ne5 are the main moves. 6...Bg4!? A sharp variation, employed twice by myself. 7.h3 Bh5 8.g4 Bg6 9.Nxg6 hxg6 10.e4!? Much more aggressive than the timid 10.e3. 10...e5 Black strikes back in the center. 11.Bxc4! Sacrificing a pawn for a strong initiative. 11...exd4 12.e5
12…dxc3?? In a position as sharp as this one, one mistake throws it all away. 12...Bb4! and the position remains extremely complicated. I won't divulge any more of my preparation here or give my final assessment. 13.Bxf7+ Ke7 14.exf6+ gxf6 15.Qb3!+- Black's king won't survive too long. 15...Bh6 15...Qd7 16.0–0 followed by Re1+ and Rd1; 15...Qc7 16.Qe6+ Kd8 17.Qe8#; 15...Qd6 16.bxc3 Nd7 17.Ba3 c5 18.Bxg6. 16.Bxh6 Rxh6 17.Rd1 Qc8 17...Qc7 18.Qe6+ Kf8 19.Qe8+ Kg7 20.Qg8#; 17...Nd7 18.Qe6+ Kf8 19.Rxd7. 18.0–0 Kf8 18...Nd7 19.Qe6+ Kd8 20.Qxf6+ Kc7 21.Qf4+ Kb6 22.Qxh6. 19.Rfe1 c2 19...Kg7 20.Re8 Qc7 21.Rg8+ Kh7 22.Rdd8; 19...Nd7 20.Re8+. 20.Bg8! Qc7 20...Kg7 21.Qf7+ Kh8 22.Qxf6+ Kxg8 23.Rd8+; 20...cxd1Q 21.Qf7#. 21.Rd8+ Kg7 22.Rde8
With threats of Re7 and Black's queenside pieces being permanently passive, he has no chance to save the game. 22...c1Q Distracting one of the white rooks. 23.Rxc1 Rh8 24.Rce1 Kh6 25.Qe3+ g5 26.Re7 Qd8 26...Nd7 27.Be6 Rad8 28.Bxd7 Rxd7 29.Qe6 Rxe7 (29...Qd6 30.Qxd7) 30.Qxf6+; 26...Qf4 27.Qd3 With mate on h7. 27.Qe6 1–0 And Black resigned. One sample variation might go 27...Rxg8 28.Qxf6+ Rg6 29.Qxg6+! Kxg6 30.R1e6#. Shankland, Sam (2513) – Zhao, Parker (2267)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Deviating from my game with Holt, where I played Nc3. 4...Bg4 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Nh4 An interesting new move, played by the likes of Topalov and Aronian and recommended in Boris Avrukh's 1.d4 series. 7...Be7 I would prefer Nbd7, because in a lot of cases White will play g5 and then it is nice to have the e7-square for the knight (to go to f5). 7...Nbd7 8.h3 Bh5 9.g4 Bg6 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.g5 Ng8 followed by Ne7-f5. 8.h3 Bh5 9.g4 Bg6 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.Bg2 Nbd7 12.g5 Now we see why it was better not to play Be7. 12...Nh5 12...Ng8 13.e4 is messy, but probably a bit better for White. 13.h4
Now Black's h5-knight will be passive for a very long time. 13...Qc7?! I wasn't sure about this move; Black probably should not actively try to avoid a queen trade. 14.cxd5! The time is right, now that Black can't respond with Qxb3. 14.Bd2 Nb6 With Nc4 coming, this seemed unconvincing. 14...exd5 14...cxd5? 15.e4!+/-. 15.Qc2 Qd6 16.Bd2 0–0 16...Nb6 first was more accurate. 17.0–0–0 Nb6 18.Kb1! The difference. White does not need to weaken himself with b3, as Nc4 Bc1 and Black has not achieved much. 18...Rfe8 19.Bc1 Prophylaxis against Nc4 and possibly planning Bf3 and Qe2. 19...Rad8 20.Bf3 Bf8 21.Rhg1! Preparing for Bxh5 followed by g6 as well as other mischief. 21.Qe2 Nf4 22.Qf1 Nh5. 21...Nc4 22.e4?! Unnecessary. It's easy to praise this move seeing how the game finished, but really opening the e- and d-files and the f4-square justifies Black's setup. 22.b3 Na3+ 23.Bxa3 Qxa3 24.Bxh5 gxh5 25.g6 I doubt Black will survive long. 22...dxe4 23.Nxe4? 23.Bxh5! gxh5 24.Nxe4 Qb4 (24...Qg6 25.Nf6+) 25.b3 with the knight on c4 hanging and Nf6 and g6 in the air, the tactics favor White. 25...Nd6 26.Nf6+. 23...Qb4 24.Ka1
24…Nb6?? Throwing the game away. After the correct 24...Nd6!, White does not have much: 25.Nc3 White can press, but Black should be OK. 25.Bxh5!+- gxh5 26.Nf6+ gxf6 27.gxf6+ Kh8 28.Rg5 Rd5 29.Rdg1 Rxg5 29...Bh6 30.Rg7 Bxg7 31.Rxg7 With mate on h7. 30.Rxg5 Qb5 31.Rxb5 cxb5 32.a3 b4 33.Qd1 b3 34.Qxb3 Re1 35.Qxf7 Rxc1+ 36.Ka2 1–0 Black resigned in view of 36...Rc8 37.Qxh5+ Kg8 38.Qg6+ Kh8 39.f7, with mate to follow. Robson, Ray (2563) – Shankland, Sam (2513)
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 A real surprise, the Fantasy Variation! 3...dxe4 4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 Nd7 7.c3
7…Bh5!? Overprotecting f7 makes a lot of sense, as White was threatening Qb3. 8.0–0 8.Qb3 b5. 8...Ngf6 9.Nbd2?! I don't like this move. White later would have trouble developing his queenside. 9.Bg5 Bd6 10.Nbd2 0–0 With an interesting and balanced middlegame. Black is very solid and can build up with Qc7 and Re8, overprotecting e5, and putting pressure on the e4-pawn, while White's bigger center and open f-file promises his share of the fun as well. 9...Bd6 10.Bd3 White protects e4 and prepares Nc4. 10...0–0 11.Qe1?! This move doesn't make much sense to me. The queen will not feel very at home on g3 with exd4 tactics available, and h4 is a better square for the knight. Already, Black is probably a bit better. 11.Nc4 Bc7 12.Qc2 Re8 with an unclear position. 11...Re8 12.Kh1 Prophylaxis. They did not like this move in the commentary room, but Nc5 was becoming a huge issue to deal with. 12.Nc4?! Nc5! The complications favor Black. 13.Bc2 (13.dxc5 Bxc5+ 14.Be3 Qxd3) 13...exd4 14.e5 Bc7 15.Nxd4 (15.cxd4 Bxf3 16.dxc5 Bxg2! 17.Kxg2 Qd5+; 15.Qf2 Bxf3 16.exf6 Be2 This looks scary, but Black is just winning; 15.Qh4 Bxf3 16.exf6 d3 Again, scary for Black, but he is winning 17.Qg5 Ne6) 15...Bg6 16.Bxg6 hxg6 Black's better pawn structure and light square control gives him the advantage. 12...Bc7! Renewing the threat of Nc5. 13.Bc2 exd4! 14.cxd4 c5! Black is better. White's center collapses and Black is left with a big advantage. 15.dxc5 15.d5 Nxd5. 15...Nxc5 16.e5 Ncd7 17.Qh4 Nxe5 18.Nxe5 Bxe5 19.Nc4 19.Rxf6? Bxf6 20.Qxh5 Re1+. 19...Qd4! 20.Qxd4 Bxd4 21.Nd6 Re6 22.Nf5 22.Nxb7? Be2–+ 23.Re1 (23.Rf4 Ba6 24.Bd2 Bb6 25.Na5 Re2) 23...Bf2. 22...Bc5 23.Bb3 Re5 24.Bd2 Ne4 25.Rae1 Rae8 26.Rxe4 Rxe4 27.Ng3 Bg6 28.Nxe4 Rxe4 I can hardly imagine White ever getting more than a draw here, which is not even good enough. 29.Bc3 h5 30.Bd5 Re7 31.b4 Bb6 32.a4 a6 33.a5 Ba7 White made a little progress, fixing the b7-pawn, but his cause is still a nearly hopeless one. 34.Re1 Rd7 35.Bf3 Kh7 36.Re8 Rc7 37.Bd2 h4!
Not letting White's king off the back rank. 38.g3 38.h3 doesn't help - the king does not get any real breathing room and the back rank threats will still be deadly. 38...Bf2. 38...h3 Black is winning pretty trivially here, but there's still some work to be done. However, White makes things easier with his next move. 39.Bg4?? f5 0-1 With both his bishop and rook hanging, White gave up. Answers to Last Month’s Quiz Problem #1
It is White to move, with Black threatening checkmate. What do you suggest? Answer: 1.Qg6+!! Qxg6 (1…fxg6 2.hxg6#; 1…Kh8 2.fxg7+ Rxg7 3.Qxg7#) 2.hxg6#. From Reeve-Huber, Edmonton 2008, in the book Who Dares Wins!. Problem #2
It is White to move. What should he do? Answer: 1.Nxf5! Nxf5 (1…Qxf5 2.Rxg7+ Rxg7 3.Qxf5+) 2.Rf6 1-0 From Karjakin-Jakovenko, Foros 2008, from Who Dares Wins!. © 2010 Steve Goldberg. All Rights Reserved. Comment on this month's column via our Contact Page! Pertinent responses will be posted below daily. |
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