Chess Room Newsletter #993

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Scholastic Chess Bulletin

The scholastic news is covered in a dedicated publication:
Mechanics' Institute Scholastic Chess Bulletin

Fresh New 
Scholastic Chess Bulletin #6 is out!

In this issue:

• Monthly Scholastic In-Person Tournament - 2021 October Report with Player Highlight: Justyn Klot
• Chess Enrichment Highlight: Alta Vista School
• Chess Camps on October 11 - Report
• ChessKid Style by Andrew Ballantyne 
• Special Event: Halloween Tournament @ Mechanics' Institute on Oct 30
• Understanding Tournaments - Tiebreaks
• Upcoming Tournament Schedule
• Tournament Results & Featured Games analyzed by GM Nick de Firmian

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Alireza Firouzja and the ghost of Mikhail Tal

FM Paul Whitehead

[email protected]

The FIDE Grand Prix is underway in Riga and the phenomenal 18 year old Alireza Firouzja leads with 6.5 – 1.5 with three rounds to go.  He seems assured of a spot in the next Candidates Tournament in 2022.  There’s a large group tied a full point behind, a group that includes Americans Fabiano Caruana and Samuel Sevian.  The second place finisher also gets a spot in the Candidates, so there’s a lot at stake.

This tournament was originally the fabled Isle of Man tournament – cancelled because of Britain’s strict Covid quarantine.  Ironic then that Latvia also went into a strict lockdown, yet decided to hold the event anyway.  Some top Grandmasters bowed out due to concerns about Covid, including Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Grischuk.

With Firouzja on a tear in Mikhail Tal’s hometown of Riga, it’s only fitting that the fearless play of this rising star resembles, in no small manner, the artful power of the 1960 World Champion.

The transplanted Frenchman (Firouzja is originally from Iran) made an early statement in round one:

Firouzja – Abasov, Riga Grand Prix. Round 1.

Despite an early exchange of queens white has piled on enormous pressure.  He broke through with 24.e6! eyeing the rook at b8 and the f7 square. Black tried 24…Rab7 but 24…fxe6 25.Rxc5! Bxc5 26.Nxe6! would have been no better. 25.exf7+ Kf8 26.Be5! Calmly defends b2. Black is 2 pawns down and desperate: 26…Nd7 27.Rxd7! Bxd7 28.Rh1! 1-0.

In round two the American Darius Swiercz was overwhelmed in a freewheeling tactical slugfest that came down to this:

Swiercz – Firouzja, Riga Grand Prix. Round 2.

With 57…Re4! Black finally got through to the white king. 58.Qc7 (58.Qxe4 Qxh2#) Nxh2! 59.Kg1 (59.Qxh2 Ng3+ 60.Kg1 Ne2+ 61.Kh1 Qxh2+ 62. Kxh2  Rh4# - Anastasia’s Mate) Nxf1 60.Rxf1 Rxc4 61.Qe5+ Qf6 0-1.

In round three he ground out a nice endgame:

Firouzja – Predke, Riga Grand Prix. Round 3.

53.Nc6! Counter-intuitive. 53…g3 The opposite colored bishop ending would also lose for black. 54.b5 Bc7 55.Kc5 Kg5 56.e5! Kf4 57.Bf3 Ke3. If 57…Bxc6 58.Kxc6 and the b-pawn will cost black his bishop. 58.b6 Bb8. Desperation. 59.Nxb8 Bxf3 60.Nc6! Very cute. 60…Bxg2 61.b7 Be4 62.b8=Q g2 63.Qb2! Not the only winning move, but good enough. If 63…g1=Q 64.Qd4+. 1-0.

Alireza drew his next 3 games: with black against Yu Yangyi, with white against Vachier-Lagrave, and with black against the ageless Alexi Shirov.  Then another couple of wins, first a lucky break in a rook ending:

Firouzja – Najer, Riga Grand Prix. Round 7.

Black erred with 50…f1=Q? Black gives up the f-pawn for nothing, when instead the simple 50…Kg6! (heading for the h-pawn) would have drawn: 51.a8=Q Rxa8+ 52.Kxa8 Kg5 53.Rf1 Kh4 54.Rxf2 Kxh3 55.Kb7 h5b 56.Kc6 h4 57.Kd5 Kg3 =. Instead this happened: 51.Rxf1 Rb2+ 52.Ka8 Rb3. Perhaps black thought this was drawn, but… 53.Rc1! Kg6 54.Rc7 h5 55.Rb7 Rxh3 56.Rb6+! Kg5 57.Kb7 Ra3 58.Ra6! Rb3+ 59. Kc7 1-0. The Rook runs out of checks when the king reaches h7.

And today superior opening preparation seems to have made the difference in White’s crushing victory over co-leader Sasikaran:

Firouzja – Sasikaran, Riga Grand Prix. Round 8.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 O-O 6. O-O d5 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. Re1 Bg4 9. Nbd2 Nb6 10. h3 Bh5 11. Bb3 Kh8 12. Ne4 Nd7 13. Bd5 f5 14. Neg5 h6 15. Ne6 Qf6 16. Nxf8 Rxf8.

White has won the exchange, and soon sacrifices his queen for a decisive material advantage.

17. d4 e4 18. dxc5 Nde5 19. Nxe5! Bxd1 20. Nd7 Qd8 21. Bxc6 Re8 22. Rxd1 bxc6 23. Bf4 Qh4 24. Bxc7 e3 25. fxe3 Rxe3 26. Rd4 Qe7 27. Bf4 Re2 28. b4 Qe8 29. Rf1 Qe6 30. Rf2 Rxf2 31. Kxf2 Qxa2+ 32. Bd2 Qe6 33. c4 a6 34. Bf4 Qe7 35. b5 axb5 36. cxb5 Qe6 37. b6 Qb3 38. Kg1 g5 39. Bd2 g4 40. Rb4 Qd1+ 41. Kh2 g3+ 42. Kxg3 f4+ 43. Kh2 1-0.

There must be some old-timers in Riga right now wondering if this Alireza Firouzja is the reincarnation of somebody that they used to know…

Nick de Firmian’s Column

Najdorf

When we say this word in the chess world most players immediately think of the highly respected, fighting opening that has produced many brilliant games in the last 70 years (for both the White side and the Black side). Bobby Fischer was the quintessential Najdorf player – one who plays highly aggressive, daring chess that walks the edge of defeat in pursuit of the absolutely best continuation. Many love the opening for the extremes it compels one to undertake. Garry Kasparov was another Najdorf devotee, as were many others of the very best – Gelfand, Anand, Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and occasionally Magnus Carlsen. In our own Mechanics’ world we see wonderful Najdorf games from Mike Walder and Elliott Winslow.

We take this opportunity to write about the man whom the opening is named after – Miguel Najdorf , who was born Mojsze Najdorf before he immigrated from his native Poland to Argentina during World War II. He was playing in the 8^th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires when World War II began. Najdorf was Jewish and most of his family was killed by the Nazis in Poland during the war. Najdorf became an Argentine citizen in 1944 and would win the Argentine championship 8 times as well as making a great mark internationally. He died in 1997 at age 87, having often said “I hope to die at a chess tournament.”

My own experience with Najdorf was extremely pleasant. He sponsored a tournament in Buenos Aires in 1995 that I played in (he sponsored many chess events since he had made millions in the insurance industry). At 85 years old he would battle the best young international masters of Argentina in blitz, to which I would be a very entertained spectator. Many evenings we would go out to dinner. I remember one time a very distinguished man came to our table, bowed, clicked his heels and presented to “Don Miguel” a fine bottle of Argentine wine. It was then I realized how highly respected he was in the Buenos Aires community. When the man left Najdorf said, “This is too much wine, should we send it back?”  I felt useful when I told him, no Miguel, I don’t want to insult your friend so I will do my best to make use of it. Below we give two of “Don Miguel’s” best games.

(1) Glucksberg - Miguel Najdorf [A85]
Warsaw Warsaw POL, 1929

1.d4 f5 The Dutch Defense is an imbalanced, fighting opening. It can be risky but it will avoid any drawish lines. 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 d5 The Stonewall Variation stakes out the center. It takes the light squares but can leave dark square weakenesses. 5.e3 Somewhat passive. 5. Bf4 is better. 5...c6 6.Bd3 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.Ne2 Nbd7 9.Ng5?

(2) Miguel Najdorf - Robert James Fischer [A72]
Second Piatigorsky Cup Santa Monica, CA USA (7), 27.07.1966

Najdorf was never a world championship challenger, but could beat the best. Here he beats the second best player in the world (at the time, of course Fischer would go on the be arguably the greatest ever). This elite Piatigorsky Cup was a double round-robin of the world's best players. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Nf3 h6 9.Bh4 exd5 10.cxd5 This King's Indian Defense has transposed into a Benoni variation. With two such fighting players the game was bound to be a real slugfest. 10...g5 11.Bg3 b5!? 12.Nd2 [12.Bxb5 Nxe4 13.Nxe4 Qa5+ 14.Qd2 Qxb5 15.Nxd6 Qa6 would be very sharp.] 12...a6 13.0-0 Re8 14.Qc2 Qe7 15.Rae1 Nbd7 16.a4! hitting Black on the queenside gives some squares for the white pieces. Najdorf isn't afraid to sacrifice a pawn. 16...b4 17.Nd1 Ne5 [17...Nxe4?! 18.Bh5 Ndf6 19.Nxe4 Nxe4 20.f3 Bd4+ 21.Nf2!] 18.Ne3 Ng6 19.Nec4 Nf4 20.Bxf4 gxf4

21.e5! sacrificing a pawn to sieze the initiative 21...dxe5 22.Bf3 White has won the opening battle. Black is clearly on the defensive. 22...Qf8 23.Nxe5 Bb7 24.Ndc4 Rad8 25.Nc6 Rxe1?! [25...Rxd5 is relatively best] 26.Rxe1 Re8 27.Rd1! White controls the board. It is very difficult to do anything for Black, even for Bobby Fischer. 27...Rc8 28.h3 Ne8 29.N6a5 Rb8 30.Qf5 Nd6? A blunder, though Black was lost anyway. 31.Nxd6 Fischer resigned since 31...Qxd6 32. Nxb7 Rxb7 33. Qc8+ picks up the rook. 1-0

Solution to Tony's Teaser

1. e7+!!  Kxe7  2. b7  Rf3  3. b8+Q  Rf8+  4. Qxf8  Kxf8  5. Ba2  h3  6. Bg8!! h2  7. Bh7!  h1=B (since making a rook or queen is a stalemate). 8. Be4!  Bxe4 stalemate