Season's Successful Debut

Hello Fellow Chess players, 

A bit late but here's Cristian Chirila's analysis of his win in week 1. Enjoy! 

"The first game of the season started with a clean victory against the Seattle Sluggers, by a coincidence I had to play against a fellow Romanian.  1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c6 This is the first surprise, previously he used to play the King's Indian Defense for which I was prepared. 3.e3 [3.Nf3 d5 4.e3 Bg4 Entering a popular line of the Slav defense] 3...g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Be2 0–0 6.0–0 d6 7.Nc3 Nbd7 [7...Bg4 This is the mainline which usually leads to very complicated positions. For example 8.h3 Bf5 9.b4 Qc7 10.Bb2 Re8 11.Nd2 e5 12.e4 exd4 13.exf5÷] 8.b4 a6 9.a4 Re8 10.Ba3 Aiming my bishop towards his future weakness on d6 [10.a5!?] 10...e5 11.b5?! A little too over optimistic, I severely underestimated his response [11.a5 exd4 12.Nxd4 c5 13.Nb3²] 11...exd4 12.exd4 [12.Nxd4?! axb5 13.axb5 c5 14.Nc2 Nb6³ My c4 pawn will be prove to be an important weakness in the future] 12...axb5 13.axb5 c5 14.Re1 b6 [14...cxd4 15.Nxd4 Nb6 16.Qd2 Ng4³ /µ White already has to think about solving the problem of the c4 weakness if he wants to stay in the game] 15.Bb2 Bb7 [15...Rxa1 16.Qxa1 Nh5 17.g3 cxd4 18.Nd5 d3 19.Bxd3 Rxe1+ 20.Nxe1 Bxb2 21.Qxb2 Nhf6 Black solved all his problems and the game will most probably head towards a peaceful result] 16.Rxa8 Bxa8 17.d5

                                            Position after  17. d5

White already is enjoying a comfortable space advantage which guarantees him a risk free game 17...Bb7 18.h3 h6 19.Qd2 Nf8 20.Bd3 White's plan in this structures is to change the heavy piece in order to be able to use his king and king side pawns in order to create a breakthrough inside blacks camp. 20...Rxe1+ 21.Nxe1 Bc8 22.Nc2 Ne8 23.Ne3 h5?! I think this can be considered as an inaccuracy as it will prove to be a potential target in the endgame. 24.Ne2 Be5 25.f4 Bxb2 26.Qxb2 Qe7 27.Nf1 The start of a wrong plan 27...Ng7 28.Neg3 Nh7 [28...h4! 29.Ne4 (29.Ne2 Bf5 30.Qc2 Nd7=) 29...Nh5³ I completely overlooked this move, black has grabbed the initiative and white is the one on the defending seat] 29.Qa1 Nf6 30.Qa8 Qb7 31.Qxb7 Bxb7 I have reached this endgame thinking that it is most probably a draw, but I was going to try and pose as many problems as I could for my opponent before agreeing to it. 32.Nd2 Bc8 33.Nge4 Nxe4 34.Nxe4 Ne8 35.Nc3 Nc7 36.Na4

                                           Position after 36. Na4

36...Na8 37.Kf2 Kg7 38.Kf3 Kf6 [38...h4 39.Nc3 Nc7 40.Ke3 f6 41.Ne4 Ne8 42.Nd2 g5 43.Kf3²] 39.g4 With the pawn on h6 I think the position would have been much harder to convert. 39...hxg4+ 40.hxg4 Kg7?! [40...Ke7 41.Kg3 Bd7 42.Kh4 Bc8 (42...Kf6 43.Nc3 Nc7 44.Ne4+ Ke7 45.Kg5±) 43.Kg5±] 41.f5 Black is already in trouble 41...gxf5 42.Bxf5+- Bxf5 [42...Bb7 43.Kf4 f6 44.Bd7+-] 43.gxf5 f6 [43...Kf6 44.Kf4 Kg7 45.Kg5 f6+ 46.Kh5 transposes] 44.Kg4 Kg8 45.Kh5 Kh7  

                                          Position after 45...Kh7

White cannot make any progress using his king, therefore its time to redirect the knight to a more powerful square 46.Nc3 Nc7 47.Ne2 Ne8 48.Nf4 Ng7+ 49.Kg4 Kg8 50.Ne6 Kf7 51.Nc7 1-0"

That's it for now. We will have Puchen Wang's analysis of his win in week 2 soon(ish).

Good luck to the team tonight against the mighty Sharks!

Sal