KNOWING WHEN TO MAKE EXCHANGES

by Peter Long

In the course of the Intchess Mixed event, I played against as many as three 14 year old girls and scored 2.5 out of a possible 3 points! The next time (unless I can avoid it) it would more likely be the other way around and I would be happy with getting even 0.5 point!

For sure Cheradee Camacho from the Philippines, Nguyen Thi Mai Hung from Vietnam, and Myat Thiri Aung Khaw from Burma are all very talented and currently the best of their countries young talent.

Here I would like to share my game with Camacho whose results in the event can be partly explained by her experimenting with 1. e4 instead of her usual 1. d4. That lack of fear is a characteristic I keep seeing in the best young players.

The following position arose from a Sicilian where the Grand Prix Attack (1. e4, 2. Nc3 and 3. f4) has gone badly wrong. But even in an advantageous position I had to work hard and be alert and flexible in my approach to take home the full point.


Camacho, Chardine Cheradee-Long, Peter
Intchess Mixed - ASEAN Masters Circuit - Singapore

Here, instead of 16. ... b4 as originally planned, I instead chose the following forcing sequence.

16. ... d4 17. cxd4 cxd4 18. Nc1

18. … Nxd2 19. Qxd2 Ne3 20. Rf2 Rc8 21. Ne2 Rc2 22. Qe1

My first piece exchange takes control of the e3 square. Because the White Knight has shifted to c1 and blocking her Rook I critically also gained time to put my Rook on the c-file.

White was hoping to play 23. Nexd4. But after 23. … Nxg2 24. Kxg2 (24. Rxg2 fails to 24. … Rxg2 25. Kxg2 Qxd4 winning a piece as the Knight is pinned) I have the nice choice of 24. … Rxf2 25. Qxf2 Bc5! or even 24. … Qxd4 25. Rxc2 Qxd3!

22. … b4 23. Qg1

White is now actually threatening to take the pawn on d4. But with my pieces in their optimum positions it was time for me to demonstrate my advantage in concrete fashion. This required a second and more difficult to see piece exchange.

23. ... Bxf3 24. Bxf3 Ng4+ 25. Bxg4 hxg4 26. h4

Now that the h-file does not matter it was all important to get the Rook, my remaining undeveloped piece into play. Note that 27. Nxd4 fails to 27. … Rxf2 28. Qxf2 and 28. … Bc5!

26. … O-O 27. Rg2 Rd8 28. Qd1 b3 29. Qf1 Rdc8 30. Rc1 Rxc1 31. Nxc1

White's last moves were pretty bad but it is hard to give good advice. I now chose a forcing sequence based on the following tactical shot which wins a pawn and more importantly stamps out any hope at all of counterplay.

31. … Bxa3 32. Nxb3 Qxb3 33. bxa3 Qxa3 34. Qe2 Rc1 35. Qb2 Qxb2 36. Rxb2 a3 37. Ra2 Rc3 38. Kg2

Black is of course totally winning but I think everyone would appreciate the asthetics of the finish!

38. … Rb3 39. Kf1 Rb1+ 40. Ke2 Rb2+ 0:1

So what lessons can this game offer? I think for one that when playing Black, after White had allowed me to reach equality, that was really all. I did get an easy game from the opening but it was only around move 14 with thanks to my young opponent's ambition that I was able to play for a win.

Key was understanding which pieces I needed to keep and recognising when to exchange them and with that I was able to improve my position to the point that I gained a winning advantage.

To do so I also had to commit my pawn structure and delay castling, all of which were risks that needed to be taken. And I had to calculate the tactics properly and fortunately each time they went my way.

Finally, I did not make the same mistake as in my 1st round game with Graham (this was the 10th and penultimate game so I must have been getting better!) so I had no trouble finding and playing 23. … Bxf3 and then 24. … Ng4, giving up both my main attacking pieces from with which I had conducted most of my earlier play.

The ability to recognise when to make the right exchanges is very important in chess and here it proved to be all important.

WON GAMES MUST BE WON

by Peter Long

In the ASEAN Master Circuit Intchess Mixed Event, I surprisingly finished second with 8/11, with a total of 5 wins and 6 draws, unbeaten and apparently still playing to my old 2350 FIDE rating.

Of course, with the usual inherent optimism of all chess players, I must say that I could perhaps have had two more wins but then again rather more objectively I also do know that I should have lost at least three and one of these even turned into a rather fortunate win!

Driving up and down to and fro KL to Singapore every couple of days to play 2 games a day several days in a row is bad enough but 3 games are quite impossible, especially when out of practice and not exactly as young as the razor sharp 12 year old boys and 14 year olds girls whom we had to play with.


Peter Long-Enerose Magno
Intchess Mixed - ASEAN Masters Circuit - Singapore

This is my last round game against the 21 year old Filipina who was rusty after a year of inactivity but who picked up after a horrible start.

Out of the opening I had played rather casually and offered a draw as I was already second and could not be first and I intended to have a more leisurely drive home to KL at 5 p.m. on Sunday as opposed to 8 p.m. 

But she refused and from that point on I have been completely outplayed, her Knight on c5 massively superior to my bad Bishop and her Rooks active while mine are stuck defending the b-pawn.

Enerose has been trying to win without risks and now she is forced to commit to a breakthrough.  

34. Rc3 fxg3 35. Rxg3 Rh6 36. Rg7+ Kd8

With a Rook finally active I now set a trap with my next move. I had of course already made this decision after 36. Rg7+ because the alternative would have been 36. h3 and passive defence.

37. Rf7 Rxh2

My next move came as a compete shock to her.

38. b4!

38. ... axb3 39. Rg1 Nd7 40. Rgg7!

Now it is over. I was so embarassed to be actually winning that I offered a draw but she was too proud to accept and so the many moves that were then played were clearly as a result of inertia.

40. ... Kc8 41. Rxd7 Rh4 42. Rc7+ Kd8 43. Rxb7 Rxb7 44. Rxb7 Rh3 45. a4 Rc3 46. a5 Rc2+ 47. Kf3 Ra2 48. Rxb3 Rxa5 49. Rb8+ Ke7 50. Rb7+ Kf6 51. Rxh7 Ra3+ 52. Kg4 Ra2 53. Kh5 e4 54. Rf7+ Ke5 55. Re7+ Kf6 56. Rxe4 Rxf2 57. Kg4 Rg2+ 58. Kf4 Rf2+ 59. Ke3 Rh2 1:0


Next up is my game with the young Singapore National Women's Champion Victoria Chan. Victoria plays easily and very naturally, seems to have a well worked out openinng repertoire, and has many victories over well known players to her credit.

But she sometimes lacks confidence in her ability at critical moments and so loses heart or takes too long over simple moves and gets into time trouble.

My only excuse (all chess players have them!) is that I had driven down from KL at 5 a.m. in the morning, struggled through a morning game after arriving 45 minutes late where I was lucky to draw, and after 4 hours of sitting around with nowhere to go before playing Victoria with my mind was a complete blank and exhaustion was setting in.

How else do I explain playing 1.e4?


Peter Long-Victoria Chan
Intchess Mixed - ASEAN Masters Circuit - Singapore

Here my attempt at a quick win against her Sicilian has gone wrong. With some ease Victoria had refuted my blunt attempts and now my attack is going nowhere. My pieces are horribly uncoordinated and her Bishops rake my position.

30. Nc4 Bxe3+ 31. Ndxe3 Bxe4

A pawn down but one Bishop less to fight against and my Knights are much better than a few moves ago.

Now to nicely untangle my Queen and get the Rooks into play.

32. hxg6 hxg6 33. Rd1 Qg7 34. Qh2 Rea8 35. Rh3 Ra1 36. Qd2 Rxd1+ 37. Qxd1 Ra7 38. Qd6 Rb7 39. Rh2 Qc7 40. Qd4 Qg7 41. Qd6 1/2: 1/2

With Victoria having two minutes to go and with not so much time left myself, a repetition of moves seemed a nice and friendly enough way to indicate a draw! 

And I was told that night I snored loudly throughout!


I hesitate here to share the lessons to be learnt from these two games.

Perhaps one is that a game is only lost when it is clearly lost. But for my unlucky opponents, the lesson is clear – do not try and win without risk. You have to play the position as it is and as is needed.    

YOU MUST BE ABLE TO CALCULATE

by Peter Long

In the Intchess Mixed, the Singapore Leg of the ASEAN Masters Circuit, Daniel Chan finished joint third but could so easily have been second and even had chances to be first.

Like Graham Chua, Daniel is also 12 years old and is a typical young player, always attacking or looking to attack. He is very sharp tactically and always looking to sacrifice for the initiative so material is often unbalanced. 

He is very talented and has no weaknesses except one and as you will see that was fully exploited when I played him.


Daniel Chan-Peter Long
ASEAN Masters Circuit - Intchess Mixed - Singapore

In this position Black has to move his Queen and after that 24. g5 will come and lines will be opened up against his King so there is no going back.

White has ignored the fact that Black had easily equalised out of the opening and instead chose to point as many pieces at he could on Black's King to begin attacking. In doing so he even allowed Black to put a Rook on the second rank, trusting instead on his ability to create sufficient threats and get his attack in first.

But obviously I too had spent a great deal of time calculating variations before allowing this position to be reached and had
also prepared my own sacrifices and counter attack while ensuring Black had sufficient defensive resources.

23. … Qc6 24. g5 Nd5 25. gxh6 Rxb2

Here it is. Black ignores the capture with check on g7 by White's Rook. He is in fact threatening 26. ... Nc3 followed by 27. ... Rxa2 mate. If 26. Kxb2, then 26. ... Ba3! wins.

26. Rxg7+ Kh8 27. Rh7+ Kxh7 28. Qd3 f5 29. Kxb2

Now 29. ... Nb4 would fail to 30. Qb1 so Black has to take the Rook and accept the resulting complications. And this position and the variations that follow had to be worked out long before.

29. ... Nxe3 30. Qxe3 Qxh1 31. Qxe6

In my calculations I had reached this position and I think my young opponent missed my next move.

31. … Ba3+ 32. Kc2 Rc8+ 33. Kd3 Qc6

Now everything holds together!

34. Qxf5+ Kxh6 35. Ne4 Qc2+ 36. Ke3 Bc1+ 37. Kf3 Qd1+ 38. Kg2 Rg8+ 39. Ng3 Qg4 40. Qf6+ Kh7 41. Kf1 Bf4 42. Qe7+ Rg7 43. Qe4+ Kh8 44. Ne2

My next move eliminates White's last attacking resource. Again I had to calculate all this.

44. ... Qxh5 45. Ke1 Bd6 46. Qa8+ Rg8 47. Qxa5 Re8 48. f3 Qxf3 49. Qxb5 Bb4+ 0-1

One of my hardest games in terms of having to work hard calculating varaiation after variation. But being an opening I knew well I was helped by knowing where the pieces should go.



So what are our lessons learnt? I should perhaps start by explaining that Daniel's weakness is not liking to defend. This is very serious because I could almost guess his move because if there was an option to sacrifice or attack he would certainly do so even if it was the poorer choice.

From this game you would have seen that in chess you can't run away from the reality you have to calculate variations and if you can't do that well, all your fine understanding, brilliant strategy, etc. will come to naught.

Many years ago, even after becoming National Champion, I was so weak tactically in comparison to my peers internationally that I had to make a conscious effort to go back to basics and work hard to rectify this to stop embarassing myself. 

What more then when faced with complex analysis involving calculation of many variations together with the need to evaluate and decide which is correct?

Of course I needed to know how and where to put the pieces and to understand what was most important but at the end of the day it is I go here, you go there, I go here! And who does it better usually wins!

Remember, Fritz can't play for you and chess is not a computer game where you get another life!

IT'S ABOUT MAKING DECISIONS

by Peter Long


ASEAN chess today is led by four countries who together agreed to organise an ASEAN Masters Circuit to give their players opportunities to gain rating points and to make international title norms.

Each of these countries are therefore organising GM, IM, and Mixed events, all 12 player round robins, with 6 players from each host country and 2 players each coming from the other 3 participating countries.

Indonesia started the ball rolling in Tarakan early this year in grand fashion with simultaneous GM, IM (upgraded to GM “B”) and Mixed events while Singapore recently more modestly held just the Mixed event.

Despite not being one of the four, Malaysia was given two places by Indonesia in Tarakan and so Singapore decided to extend the same courtesy to Myanmar for on place and to help make up category and title requirements, they also provided two senior players to join Chia Chee Seng and I (both long retired and expected to be easy pickings for the young players!).

Actually not only did our participation help the women and girls playing get a chance at making WIM norms, but our relatively high ratings meant those with talent but with low ratings could also take part.

I would like to share some lessons from my first game in 12 years (or more) and it could not be more difficult as it was against 12 year old Graham Chua, eventual winner of the event!


Peter Long-Graham Chua
ASEAN Masters Circuit - Intchess Mixed – Singapore

We reached this complex position after 22 moves. White would like to activate his Bishops but on the other hand has lost control of d5 as the result of the e-pawn capturing to f5 and it seems that Black can block both the d-file and the long diagonal a2-g8 by putting a Knight on d5.

Here I needed to make a my first serious decision of the game as to how to proceed and I was attracted by a manoeuvre which locks in the Bishop while simultaneously weakening the white squares. But perhaps the simple and logical 23. Rd1 was called for.

23. Bh4 f6 24. Ne3 h5 25. Bc4+ Nfd5 26. Rad1 Kh8 27. Nf1 Rf8 28. Ng3 Nf4

Here I needed to make the second critical decision of the game.

I had originally planned 29. Rxd8 Qxd8 30. Rd1 but after 30. ... Qc7 31. Qd2 Nd5 32. Bb3 with the idea of 33. c4, Black had 32. ... Bh6. Now if 33. Kh1 I did not like 33. ... Kg7! and not only is pawn f6 being defended to free the Rook but my Bishop on h4 could even be lost.

Clearly now moving the Queen to avoid the discovery would give up penetrating down the d-file which would defeat the whole point of the sequence of moves beginning with 29. Rxd8 and 30. Rd1.

But even 12 years of rustiness is no excuse for not finding 31. Be6 Rd8 and now 32. c4 keeps things going nicely. Instead, convinced that keeping control of the white squares around Black's King was necessary, I decided on the following move and in doing so completely missed Black's response.

Very simply, in my mind the d3 square was still under control!

29. Be6 Ned5 30. b5 a6 31. c4 Nb4 32. Qe4 Nbd3 33. Rf1

It now dawned on me that Black had 33. ... Rd4 34. Qe3 Bh6! I would have had to play 35. Kh1 and wait to see what White would do. And I was now getting afraid my queenside pawns would be eaten up one by one!

But Black instead chose what he thought was a simpler way, making safe moves based on winning a pawn by capturing my Bishop on e6 and counting on my playing a piece less thanks to my other Bishop on h4.

33. … Nc5 34. Qb1 Qe7

Instead 34. … Nxa4 35. Qb4 axb5 36. cxb5 is probably winning. Of course 34. Qc2 fails to 34. … cxb5 and 35. … Nxe6 simply winning a piece.

35. bxc6 bxc6 36. Rxd8 Rxd8 37. Qb4 Re8 38. Rd1 Ncxe6 39. Qxe7 Rxe7 40. fxe6 Rxe6

I had anticipated this position and so captured on c6 to break up the pawns, get another file open and also put my Rook on the d-file. Despite White being a pawn up Black now cannot lose and in fact I have the only winning chances!

Why? To start with the Rook is a monster on the 7^th Rank in combination with the Knight. And it is not clear who has the worst Bishop!

41. Rd7 Kg8 42. Nf5 Bf8 43. Ra7 c5 44. a5 Ng6 45. g3 Ne7 46. Ne3 Rd6 47. Rc7 Rc6 48. Rb7 Rd6 49. Rc7 Rc6 50. Rb7 1/2:1/2

Graham had 2 minutes left and I had quite a bit more at this stage (endgames come much easier to the old guys!). With the 30 second time increments time control having been reached I knew I would eventually win on time by creating threats which would force him to think long in order to avoid blunders but decided instead it was correct to allow a draw by repetition.

After all what did I have to play for? This young man had a big future ahead of him and why spoil his tournament in the very first round.

What lessons can we learn from this game? I think the first is that ultimately it comes down to being able to make the right decisions that arise a critical moments of a game. Of course we have to first recognise what these are but assuming we can, it is to important to remember that even in the heat of the battle we have to control our emotions, be objective and select the correct plan.

At the first critical moment of the game I chose what was probably not the best plan but it was certainly playable. But at the second critical moment I allowed myself to be distracted by an ideal based on the need to control the white squares around the King and subconsciously I must also have been worried about the placement of the Bishop on h4 and this affected my judgement.

In fact, this consideration so dominated my thinking that I failed to see that the correct plan where the fight for control of the d-file would necessarily also include this idea of Be6! to support an outpost in Black's position.

A final lesson is more for my young opponent. He chose to simplify, thinking he had found a win, but really I think he was tired and wanted to stop having to deal with complications and so fatally relaxed, thinking his work was done.

With experience comes resourcefulness based on understanding the demands of a position, something you will see repeated in my columns drawn from this event and often embarrassingly illustrated by many escapes from seemly lost positions, but the fact is that each time I was able to see where my only chance was.

In this game it was in breaking up the queenside pawns and in activating my Rook amongst them and in taking advantage of the bad Black King position to win time to do so.

And why do I think my young opponent expected 41. Rd8+ and missed 41. Rd7! which was instead played?