There was no motto… or clever insult… on the board for Boston’s second match of the season against the Carolina Cobras. So, I offer the title of this article as a post match banner. Of course, I stole it from an NFL commercial that stole it from an unknown humorist… the thought goes like this… “In a bacon and egg breakfast, the Chicken is involved but the Pig is committed.”

I think this motto best describes our players… they are committed… or eventually will be. I also wanted to set the record for most farm animals in consecutive chess article titles… two should do it. Ok guys, you see what happens when nobody writes on the board.

This match was worrisome in that, after the first board, the players were very close in rating and IM Milman is no push over… If Milman could draw, the match could be up for grabs.

GM Larry Christiansen vs. IM Lev Milman – Board 1

This game began with a surprise…

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+…

The anti-sicilian 3.Bb5+… (Moscow Variation) has been gaining in popularity among GMs. It is certainly not a desirable opening to face… especially if GM Christiansen is your opponent.

3… Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.O-O Nf6

Much more common is 5… Nc6, probably just to avoid White’s next move.

6.e5 dxe5 7.Nxe5 Qc8 8.Nc3 Nc6 9.f4…

I couldn’t find any games with this move by White; but, I must admit, it does seem to be
stronger than many others, such as, 9.Nxc6.. or 9.Re1…. Let’s credit GM Christiansen with a good
novelty here.

9… e6 10.b3 Bd6 11.Bb2 O-O 12.Nb5 Be7 13.Qf3 Rd8 14.Rad1 Nd4 15.Nxd4 cxd4 16.c4 a5 17.a4 Qc7 18.Rde1 Nd7

White has had a small positional edge throughout this game and his plan seems simple now. He will advance on the Kingside, and Black’s counterplay will be minimal. IM Milman’s move sacks a pawn for dynamic play and although White’s advantage grows a bit, Black frees his pieces. It seems that mixing things up on the Queenside distracts White from a Kingside attack and gives Black the type of game that is usually in GM Christiansen’s comfort zone.

Now, after 19.Bxd4… I thought that IM Milman intended 19… Nc5 which seems to get the pawn back. Fritz gives this as best with the wild variation 20.Ba1 Rxd2 21.Nxf7!? Kxf7 22.Qc3 Bf6 23.Qxd2 Bxa1 24.Rxa1 Nxb3 25.Qe2 Nxa1 26.Rxa1… with drawish position. The move 19… Bc5!? keeps the game alive.

20.Bxc5 Nxc5 21.Qe3 f6 22.d4 Nxb3 23.Qxb3 fxe5 24.dxe5 Rd4 25.c5 Re8 26.Rc1 Qc6 27.f5 Rb4 28.Qd3 Qd5 29.Qxd5 exd5 30.e6 Rxa4 31.Rfd1 g6 32.Rb1 Rb4 33.Rxb4 axb4 34.Rxd5 gxf5 35.Rd4 Rxe6 36.Rxb4 Re7 37.Kf2 Kf7 38.Kf3 Ke6 39.Kf4 Kd5 40.Kxf5 Rf7+ 41.Kg5 Kxc5 42.Rb1 b5 43.g4…

Somehow, Black has managed to become the aggressor and now has very slight winning chances if White does not play accurately. Fritz gives 43… Rg7+ to slow White’s progress, followed by 44… b4 and White still has to make a few more good moves to achieve a draw. Black played 43… b4 and after White’s 44.Kh6… a draw is inevitable. A nice game by both players and a good one for theory. I’ll spring 9.f4!?… at our local club one night. Boston (0.5 – 0.5)

FM Oleg Zaikov vs. SM Denys Shmelov — Board 2

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. Nc3 g6 7. h3 Bg7 8. e4 O-O 9. Bd3 Nh5 10. O-O Nd7 11. Bg5 Bf6 12. Be3 Re8 13. Nd2…

After the game, Denys pointed out that in this position he could now have played the very Benoni-like move 13… Bd4!? The point is that after 14.Bxd4 cxd4 15.Ne2 Ne5 and Black has play for the impending loss of the pawn. However, he saw that here White could play 16.Bb5… hitting the rook, but there is definite compensation…

Consider, for example, this variation given by Fritz…

16… d3 17.Nc1 Bxh3 18.gxh3 Nf4 19.Nf3 Ne2+ 20.Kg2 Nxf3 21.Kxf3 Nd4+ 22.Kg2 Qg5+ 23.Kh1 Rxe4 and Black continues the attack rather than win his piece back. Now that’s compensation for a pawn. Auugh, as Charlie Brown used to say… the Benoni hangs on such threads. (he didn’t say that… I did)

13… a6 14. f4 b5 15. g4 Ng7

This position is, to me, the most interesting of the game. White needs to find a way to improve his position. He controls the center and Black’s demonstration on the Queenside is less threatening than it looks. To that end, he could play 16.a4!?… with the idea of clearing the c4 square for the Knight or Bishop… or he could play 16.Qf3… in order to bring the Queen’s Rook to e1 and the c3 Knight to e2 (after driving the f6 Bishop away) to concentrate on the Kingside.

Both these plans keep a very nice advantage for the White side. After the game continuation, things become unclear… but, I can’t say I blame FM Zaikov, it is realistically very difficult for Black to defend as the Boston team’s analysis after the game confirmed… however, the attack is not so easy either.

16. e5 dxe5 17. f5 Bb7 18. Nde4!?…

White is a pawn down, but has compensation. However, White’s last gives Black a chance to keep things under control with 18… gxf5 19.gxf5… when White’s pawn is in the way of the attacking Bishop and things are not so easy. Instead, 18.Qf3… is Fritz’s move and seems to keep things about equal as now Black’s gxf5 can be answered by Bxf5 keeping the attacking lines open.

18… b4? This is a mistake. Black should have exchanged on f5 as previously mentioned. 19.Qb3… Similarly, this is not accurate. White should play 19.fxg6 hxg6 and then 20.Qb3… when his attack is much stronger due to the open lines.

19… bxc3? But, this is a serious error giving White close to a winning advantage. 19… gxf5 20.gxf5 Nh5 seems to give good counterplay. 20.Qxb7… gives only a slight advantage… again, Fritz gives 20.gxf5!… with a +.8 as if Black saves the b7 Bishop, White will win his piece back on the Kingside with gxf7+ due to the pin.

20. Qxb7 gxf5 21. gxf5 cxb2 22. Rab1 Kh8 23. Be2 Rg8 24. Kh2 Ne8 25. Qxb2 Qe7 26. Qb7 Nd6 27. Nxd6 Qxd6 28.Qc6 Be7 29. Rb7 Rad8 30. f6!…

During the game this looked like the move to fear and FM Zaikov didn’t miss it. Fritz agrees. But, scary as it is, after 30… Bf8, the game is only a draw from here on out. A very interesting game. Denys’s reputation as a good squirmer remains intact. Boston (1 – 1)

Next to finish was, in my opinion, Boston’s best game of the match.

NM Charles Riordan vs. FM Ron Simpson – Board 3

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Nf3 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 c5 10.Nd3 Ne8 11.Rb1!?…

Up until this move, I felt we were in “normal” theory. After this, I had my doubts. In 1953 James Sherwin beat the great Bent Larsen with the very “normal” 11.Be3 f5 12.f3 f4 13.Bf2 g5 14.b4 cxb 15.Nxb4 Rf3 16.c5… Just another King’s Indian. However, I know Charles is up on the latest and I anxiously awaited the on board evolution.

11… f5 12.f3 Nf6 13.b4 b6 14.bxc5 bxc5 15.Be3… At this point, I knew that a sack on c5 could be the winner. But, it’s all so unclear… that is, until Black decided to move his King Knight back and forth. 15… Kh8 16.Qa4 Nd7?! 17.Nb5 Nf6? 17… Nb6 was a must. 18.Nxd6! Qxd6 19.Bxc5 Qd8 Fritz gives this position a +2.8 for White after 20.Bd6… and the pawns advance. 20.Qa3 Nfg8 21.Bb4 Qb6+ 22.Bc5 Qf6 23.Bd6!… Well, alls well that ends well I guess. At least the Bishop is in the right place. The rest is really just waiting to see how Charles will win his piece back with a winning game. 23… Qg5? This just makes things worse. 24.f4! exf 25.e5!… all given as best by Fritz. The ad is now +-3.5 and the rest seems easy.

There is nothing Black can do from here… Great game Charles. Boston (2 – 1)

Somehow, I felt this was the best game of the night for Boston… Sacking a piece is always nice… and on 4th board Marc just was coasting to victory after his opponent sacked.

NM Craig Jones vs. NM Marc Esserman – Board 4

This game was, to say the least, amazing. It began like any other Najdorf…

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 e6 8.Qe2 Qa5 9.Bd2 Qb6 10.Nb3 Qc7 11.O-O-O?!…

As Captain Kirk would say… Why?… Why?… He always repeated questions twice.

11.O-O… is standard here. Castling queenside with b5 coming is too much to give.

11.O-O-O b5 12.Bxb5?… Ok, so you touched the queens Rook and castled on the wrong side… but, Why?… Why?… 12… axb5 13.Nxb5 Qb8 14.Qc4 Ne5 15.Qe2 Bd7 Fritz thinks 15… Rxa2 is even more crushing +3.9 or so… but, we, the audience, all thought that developing a piece was nice… and a developing crushing move is easier on human nerves.

16. Nc3 Be7 17. f4 Nc6 18. g4 O-O

Now, I must ask the viewing audience… Is this position resignable?… Is it?… Sorry, I am watching an old Star Trek as I write.

Well, I must admit that NM Jones did his best to make Marc work. The game lasted 47 moves… a game that was lost on move 12, was the last game to finish. Nice debut Marc. Boston (3 – 1)

What an inspired performance by the team… What dedication… what spirit… what commitment… what a great bunch of Pigs!