Monday, November 12, 2012

KCC Consultation Game, Part One

Adjourned position, White to play.
Can Black survive?

I have annotated the first thirty moves of the Kenilworth Chess Club's 2012 Consultation Game, which we began last Thursday night and will conclude this coming Thursday.  It is generally a fun event, one of my favorite in the calendar.  But it was a bit more nerve-racking than usual this time, as I was thrust into the role of team captain and expected to know my theory in the King's Indian, Fianchetto Variation.  I'm not sure I could have led us better, though, since the crowd was resistant to lines like the Gallagher Variation and the more traditional Panno (with a6, Rb8, and b5) where queenside play is the order of the day.  We instead followed older lines that had been discussed and played by Gufeld, where Black plays e5 and meets d5 with Ne7, going for a quick f5 attack.  I think we did not play too badly, except for one critical mistake that left us in a difficult situation in the ending when we could have had a much safer position.  The question is whether the game can still be saved?  Tune in next week to find out.

No comments: