September 12th, 2008 
Mark La Rocca As the night wore on, a dreadful silence fell over the audience as the unthinkable became reality and the Monsta (played by Dallas) spoke… “For as long as I can remember, people have hated me. They looked at my face and my body and they ran away in horror. In my loneliness I decided that if I could not inspire love, which is my deepest hope, I would instead cause fear… He! (pointing to Matt) used his body as a guinea pig to give me a calmer brain and a somewhat more sophisticated way of expressing myself.”
Of course, we all thought… “Matt, you traitor.” But, no one said a word until Matt offered… “Hello Handsome.”
The Monsta began to cry.
The score was now Boston (1-1) and things were getting too close for comfort… far too close. The next to finish was fourth board… and what an eerie game it was… right from the introductions…
Ilya: I am Dr. Frankenstein
Bayaraa: I am Frau Blucher
Suddenly, a paralyzing “Neeeehhh!” rang throughout the building… Both team and audience looked around… but the source was not to be found.
WFM Bayaraa Zorigt vs. NM Ilya Krasik
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f3 Qb6 8.Nb3 Nc6 9.Qd2 Qc7 10.Nd4 Be7 11.0-0-0 b5!? A provocative move. During the game, I thought that 11… Bd7 was better so that, if White exchanged the Knight, Black could recapture with the Bishop. White now slightly misplaces Black’s Queen with the exchange although the position is still roughly equal.
12.Nxc6 Qxc6 13.Kb1 Bb7 14.Bd3 0-0 15.g4!?… a return provocative move.
|  |
Position after 15.g4…
Now, Fritz says that Black has a slight advantage after 15… Qc7 This seems to save a tempo or two in variations similar to the game. For example, 16.h4 b4 17.Ne2 a5 18.Bxf6 Bxf6 19.g5 Be7 20.h5 Qc5 and Black’s Queen defends the b-pawn threatening to advance the a-pawn. While if White continues as in the game with g6… Black has a Rook on the f-file and a defendable position.
Right around here Ilya’s opponent made a distracting offer… “Would the Doctor care for a brandy…?”
“No, thank you.” Came the slightly irritated reply… and play continued.
15… Rfe8 16.h4 b4 17.Ne2 Qa4?!
|  |
Position after 17… Qa4?!
This is, perhaps, the beginning of a losing strategy. If Black is worried about losing the b-pawn, it was better to play 17… Qc5!? And if White continues as in the game… 18.Bxf6 Bxf6 19.g5 Be7. White cannot continue with h5… as the g-pawn is hanging. Thus Black has time for an attacking move, such as …a5, and both sides are in the game.
Again, Ilya’s opponent distracted him… “Some warm milk… perhaps?”. Ilya was livid, but restrained… “No… thank you very much. No thanks.”
Frau Blucher (played excellently by Barayaa) smiled wryly and continued… 18.Bxf6 Bxf6 19.g5 Be7 20.h5 Rac8?! Possibly the best, but the position is tough now. Fritz says White is better by .85. But, White gets cautious and plays 21.Nd4?!… cutting the advantage in half… g6… was strong.
21… Qa5! Best. 22.g6 Qb6?! 22… Bf6! Gives better drawing chances. Now White starts to drift a bit.
23.gxh7+ Kh8 24.Ne2 Bf6 25.h6 g6 26.Qf4 Qd8 27.Nc1 Qe7 28.Qe3 Qc7!
| |
Position after 28… Qc7!
White has moved her Knight and Queen around to no avail. However…
29.Qf4 Be5 30.Qd2 Qb6 31.f4 Bc3? This puts Black on the verge of losing. 31… Bf6 keeps him in the game. White continues accurately… 32.Qe2 a5 33.Bb5! … Such a good move in moderate time pressure. 33… Bxe4? … Bc6 was the only move and although White is winning, it is not easy, as Black has some tricks.
| |
Position after 33… Bxe4?
At this point, she made her final distracting offer of the night… “Ovaltine?”… The Doctor was quite disturbed by this… “NOTHING! Thank you! I’m a little…tired!” Maybe this explains the following…
34.Bxe8 Bxh1 35.Bxf7 Bd5 36.Bxe6 Bxe6 37.Qxe6 Bd4
Frau Blucher spoke softly now… “Then I vill say… goodnight.” 38.Qxc8+…
Black played on only to offer a complimentary “Goodnight” a few moves later.
Well, you can’t win them all. This was a tough game for both sides and there were lots of chances for each player. We can only applaud Barayaa for somehow coming out on top. Good game. Boston (1-2).
The violin music was in the air again. Everything hinged on Denys’s game. He had this crazy idea about wanting to play 1.e4… “Where did you get that idea?” I asked (now playing the Doctor). “Abby someone.” Denys (Igor) replied… I was puzzled… “Abby someone?… Abby who?” The reply fell like dusk in a Vampire movie… “Abby… Normal.” A wolf howled in the distance as the violins played on.
Posted in 
Tags: 
After 31…Bf6 black is MUCH better, not just “still in the game”, followed by a4-a5. White will stuggle to hold this position due to dark square weaknesses, I forgot she no longer had e5, I never wanted to play Bc3, i considered playing Bd4, which is also much better than Bc3, i e keeps the edge for Black. In general once her attack was over gh7, h6?, her lack of dark square bishop became a major factor.
Funny and clever. Very well done.
I must disagree with Ilya that 31… Bf6! gives Black a MUCH better game. At best, I think things are unclear. But, I do think that White’s moves are very difficult and, therefore, given the time considerations (around 2 min. each), Black may have better chances. However, given the time to analyze (with Fritz) White maintains the better side of equality… the variations I offer are only examples of what I looked at with Fritz. I didn’t trust either side at the time. So, I just decided to call it a game and leave it at that. Here goes…
31… Bf6! 32.Rhf1 (tough to see) a5 33.e5 Be7 (can’t take due to f-pawn hangs) 34.Qh2! (impossible to see) a4 35.f5! Exf5 36.Bxf5! Rcd8 (If Black takes then Q to the g-file will win something eventually) 37.Qg3 dxe5 38.Bd7 and White is winning. After the best 32… Qd4! 33.e5 dxe5 34.Nb3 Qd5 35.Qf2 e4 36.Bxa6 e3 37.Qxe3 Qc6 38.Bd3 Qz4 39.f5! exf5 40.Qb6 Qc6 41.Qxb4 Qc7 42.Qa5… and as long as White prevents the battery of Q + B on the diagonal, she is on the better side of equal although I think the game is winnable by either side. I didn’t bother to give all this in the above because there are many other variations… but, I didn’t see any that were clearly better for Black. I apologize in advance for any typos in my analysis. It’s getting late. But, you get my drift here… it’s a tough game… not MUCH better for Black.