Think and Decide - Part 2
India's 31st GM Shyamsundar M launched his website on 30th May 2020. The site is rich of various content, one of the main features of the site is 'blog' where Shyamsundar himself explains various chess themes with illustrative games and diagrams. Shyamsundar is an accomplished player and a successful trainer. He has been a second to the Indian Men's team in Batumi Olympiad 2018 and also one of the seconds for Women's World Championship 2018 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In his second blog post, Shyamsundar talks about Sticking to our playing style in the critical moments of the game by showing an example from his game with fantastic explanation mentioning the decisions he took along with the tournament situation. Photo: Shahid Ahmed
Sticking to our playing style in the critical moments
My opponent was one point ahead of me and he was leading the event together with Bernadskiy of Ukraine. Prior the game I felt my opponent wouldn’t hesitate much for draw and also at the same time if he gets a chance to win, he might take the risk. I anyways wanted to have a full blooded fight irrespective of my final standings. So I decided to play a double edged line and got the following position.
Bosiocic - Shyamsundar, Tsaghkadzor 2017
I was desperate to complicate the position and after a long thought I played 15…Ng4. Game continued 16.e5 dxe5 17.hxg4 exf4 18.Rxe8+ Nxe8 19.Nb3 and we got the below mentioned position
When I played my 15th move, I knew that I would get this position and had planned two different ways to continue the game.
A) 19...hxg4 20.Bxf4 gxf3 21.Bxb8 Bg4 22.gxf3 Qb8 with atleast a draw after Qg3. However tournament situation demanded me to play for win.
B) So I played 19...g5 20.gxh5 Nd6
This was the position I had in my mind when I played my 15th move Ng4. I stopped my calculation around here. I felt that the position is more dynamic and double edged, the kind of position I was hoping for. White has to watch out for c4, Bd4 etc. After few moves we got the following position
This was the position white was aiming for when he played his 23rd move Nc6, since he managed to control all the key squares and also simultaneously create threats as well. My rook on b8 is under attack and I don't have time to move that as it gives time for white to consolidate his position by developing his pieces. So considering all these factors my next move is quite obvious. I played Bd7 here, attacking the c6 knight, to gain control over the key ‘d4’ square.
We both had less than 30 mins left on our clock. When he was pondering over his next move, I was also calculating certain variations. I felt most of my pieces are placed where exactly they need to be. If any minor changes happen in the piece placements, then certain tactics may not work in my favor. I was thinking what could be the best way for white to disturb my piece co-ordination. Then I found 28.h6. I cannot take the pawn with any of the 3 pieces as they are perfectly placed by controlling the key squares. So, I have to play Bh8 to maintain the bishop in the important h8-a1 diagonal. Then white has 29.h7+ and forcing my king to leave the g8 square where it felt very safe.
During the game I could just intuitively feel that there could be some difference and when I was about to evaluate the difference between these two king placements, my opponent played 28.Nxb8 and I was a bit relieved.
May be readers can try and figure out the difference between the following and above mentioned position
Analysis
Position after 29...Kh7
30.Nxb8 works here! Why is that?
Here white played 31.Bf4 which turns out to be a blunder. Can you find out why? What is the best move for white here?
To conclude the article on this subject, I believe sticking to our playing style in critical game/tournament situation would help us fetch better results. However we should also be very strong in what we are good at. We have to keep strengthening our strong points simultaneously overcoming our weak spots as well.
About the author
Shyamsundar started playing chess at the age of eight and became an IM in 2006 by winning silver medal in Asian Juniors and became India's 31st GM in 2012. Most of the times he used to work by himself to reach this level. He was one of the seconds for Indian Olympiad Men's team held at Batumi, Georgia in 2018 and also one of the seconds for Women's World championship in 2018 at Khanty Mansysk, Russia. Personally his best achievement was drawing the game against legend and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik at Qatar open in 2014.
Links
The article was edited by Shahid Ahmed
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Think and decide
@ 12/07/2020 by Shyamsundar M (en) |