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[Event "Jane Addams Memorial"]
[Site "Chicago"]
[Date "2018.01.28"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Jimenez, GM Fidel"]
[Black "Wilson, Matthew"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B41"]
[WhiteElo "2592"]
[BlackElo "2069"]
[Annotator "Wilson,Matthew"]
[PlyCount "75"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3.
c4 e6 4. Nc3 Qc7 5. d4 cxd4 6. Nxd4 Nf6 7. a3 b6 ({I wasn't entirely sure if}
7... Nxe4 8. Nxe4 Qe5 {worked or not; I remembered looking at something like
this a long time ago. I decided to stick to the familiar Hedgehog.}) 8. Bd3
Nc6 9. Nf3 d6 10. O-O Be7 11. h3 O-O 12. Be3 Nb8 13. Rc1 Nbd7 14. b4 Bb7 15.
Nd2 Rac8 16. f4 Rfe8 17. Qe2 Qb8 18. g4 g6 19. Qf2 Bc6 20. Nf3 Qa8 {He plunged
into a deep think for more than 20 minutes. At least I made him work.} 21. e5
Ne4 $2 ({After the game, he showed me an incredible variation:} 21... dxe5 22.
fxe5 Bxf3 23. exf6 Ne5 $3 {(the move I had missed)} 24. fxe7 Nxd3 25. Qh4 Qb7
$1 {He said that White is still better here - and Stockfish agrees - but this
is much better than what happened in the game.}) 22. Bxe4 Bxe4 23. Nxe4 Qxe4
24. exd6 Bxd6 25. Rcd1 Bxf4 ({I had been counting on} 25... Rc6 26. b5 axb5 27.
cxb5 Rc2 28. Qe1 Bc5 $1 29. Bxc5 Nxc5 {and somehow all the tactics have worked
out in my favor. But White shouldn't focus solely on the pin. Too late, I
realized that he can switch gears with 26.Rd4!, trapping the queen in the center of the board. And of
course 25...Qc6 26.Qd2 loses. At least the text move wins 2 pawns for the
piece.}) 26. Bxf4 Qxf4 27. Rxd7 Rxc4 {Give Black a chance to breathe, and ...
Rec8 followed by ...Rc2 could be trouble. But the GM efficiently kills off any
counterplay.} 28. Ng5 $1 {The knight is immune} Qxf2+ 29. Rxf2 f5 30. Nxh7 Rec8
31. Kg2 Rc3 32. Rfd2 Rc2 33. Rxc2 Rxc2+ 34. Kg3 Rc3+ {Is this counterplay?} 35.
Kh4 Rxa3 36. Nf6+ Kf8 37. Kg5 {No, we're just getting mated} Rxh3 38. Kxg6 1-0
He's pretty good at chess.
But let's back up a round. Dimitar Mardov is just 9 years old, but he already has a mighty 2100 rating. Future GM? When I was that age, I had recently discovered that capturing stuff was good while getting captured was bad. The prodigy and the former non-prodigy clashed in Round 2.
[Event "Jane Addams Memorial"]
[Site "Chicago"]
[Date "2018.01.27"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Wilson, Matthew"]
[Black "Mardov, Dimitar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B42"]
[WhiteElo "2069"]
[BlackElo "2105"]
[Annotator "Wilson,Matthew"]
[PlyCount "115"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Qc7 6.
O-O d6 7. Qe2 Nf6 8. c4 Be7 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Be3 Nbd7 11. f4 Re8 12. Rac1 b6 13.
b4 Bb7 14. Nb3 Rac8 15. a3 Qb8 16. Rfd1 Bd8 17. Nd2 Bc7 18. g4 g6 19. g5 Nh5
20. Qf2 Bc6 21. Be2 Ng7 22. Rf1 Qa8 23. Bd4 Qb8 24. Be3 {I had no intention of
taking a draw by repetition. As usual in the Hedgehog, White has burned up a
lot of time on the clock. On every move you have to check long variations with
...b5 and ...d5. By repeating the position, we get closer to the time control.}
b5 $2 {A lot of books on the Hedgehog tell you that Black should try to play ..
.b5. What they usually forget to tell you is that the pawn can become a
weakness if the advance is played prematurely.} 25. cxb5 axb5 26. Nb3 {
And there is no reply to the threat of 27.Nd4} Bb6 27. Bxb6 Nxb6 28. Bxb5 Bxb5
29. Nxb5 d5 30. e5 Nc4 31. a4 Nf5 32. N3d4 Ne7 33. Rc3 Red8 34. Ra1 Nc6 35.
Nxc6 Rxc6 36. Qd4 Qb7 37. h4 Ra8 38. Rb3 Rca6 39. Nc3 Rb6 40. b5 Qc7 41. Rb4
Na5 42. Rc1 Qe7 43. Na2 Rab8 44. Qc5 Qxc5+ 45. Rxc5 Nc4 46. Kf2 Kf8 47. Ke2 Ke7
48. Nc1 Kd7 49. Nb3 Ra8 50. Nd2 Na5 51. Kd3 Nb7 52. Rc1 Na5 53. Rc3 Ra7 54. Nb3
Nc4 {I saw that Nd2 ...Na5 Nb3 ...Nc4 doesn't get me anywhere. But there is an
exchange sacrifice that begs to be played.} 55. Rcxc4 $1 dxc4+ 56. Kxc4 Rb8 ({
The sacrifice is so natural that hardly any calculation is necessary. The only
line I looked at was} 56... Rc7+ 57. Nc5+ $1) 57. b6 Raa8 58. Kb5 1-0
E4stat tied for 2nd place U2300, picking up 14 ratings points along the way. In a few weeks, we will be back to posting forecasts of top tournaments; the Candidates takes place in March.
