There’s really nothing in the world like sitting down at the board to play a nice slow game of tournament chess. The world collapses around you, and all that’s left is the board, your opponent, and the variations inside your head1. Before I had kids I was playing 40-50 tournament games a year; these days I’m down to 5-10, so I’m extra grateful when the opportunity to play presents itself.
My one (and probably only) tournament this year is the Tuesday Night Marathon at the Mechanic’s Institute in San Francisco. It’s one of my favorite places to play, a place that’s overflowing with chess history.
Playing on Tuesday nights has a couple other advantages: the games go late, so the chances of running into a severely unrated kid are much lower and there’s only one game per week, meaning that my lack of sleep and stamina will be less of an issue. I’ll be writing a weekly update for each of the seven rounds to capture my thinking during and after each game. Here’s round one:
Andy Lee (2328) - Nick Casares (1600), Tuesday Night Marathon (1), 7/9/24
Sometimes the TNM is split into a few rating categories; this iteration is just one big open. When I’m playing hundreds of points down, as in this game, I try to stay focused by using the game as a test of my form: how well am I calculating and evaluating variations? How rusty am I really? The game began 1 b3 e5 2 Bb2 Nc6 3 e3 d6. I’ll admit that my opening preparation ended here. I’d focused on a couple of sharper variations and figured I could work out the other stuff at the board, particularly in the first couple rounds. 4 Nf3 g6 5 d4 Bg7 6 Bb5?!
Black has played sensibly so far, and I didn’t want to play 6 dxe5 myself (which felt too drawish) or allow 6 Nd2 exd4. The problem is that I briefly forgot that black can now play 6… e4! 7 Nfd2 Qg5 8 Bf1 with a pretty serious initiative. Fortunately, he immediately returned the favor, playing 6… Bg4? This deals with white’s pressure on e5 by setting a small trap2 but fails to deal with white’s threat to the queenside pawns: 7 Bxc6+!
I generally have trouble playing moves like this. My default setting is to treat each tempo as precious and to play for the initiative at all costs; thus I want to wait for black to play a6 before taking on c6. The problem is that black can weather the storm after 7 h3 Bxf3 8 Qxf3 Ne7 (black’s queenside will remain intact) 9 dxe5 a6 10 Bxc6+ Nxc6 11 e6:
My first reaction upon finding this move was “what a lovely tactical shot.” Black’s only saving move is rather obvious from one move away, but it took me a while five moves out to remember that black could safely castle. Once I saw that 11 e6 doesn’t win, the decision to take on c6 was much easier. Back to the game: 7 … bxc6 8 h3 (threatening to win the e-pawn if the bishop retreats) 8… Bxf3 9 Qxf3 Ne7 10 dxe5 dxe5 11 e4 00:
Getting to this position felt like a sign of good form, as I’ve been trying to train myself to play this way: little concrete ideas that lead to small advantages. White’s eleventh move shut in both of black’s minor pieces while also avoiding dropping a piece (after, say 11 Nd2?? e4!).
This position also exemplifies a typical middlegame dynamic that is really important to learn how to navigate properly. I’ve gained a long-term structure advantage, but I didn’t get it for nothing. In exchange, I lost some time and will now have to do some work to resist black’s attempts to seize the initiative as I finish my development. This would have been a good place to think about black’s ideas in greater depth, but I decided instead to save time, guided by the belief that castling is never wrong: 12 00?! This leaves black with a trick: 12… Nf5!, taking advantage of the tactics on the long diagonal. 12 Nc3 would have shut the whole idea down, transposing to the game or better, since I can throw in Rd1 whenever I want as well. We both missed that this was possible, so the game continued as expected: 12 … f5?! 13 Nc3 I wanted to cover d5 (although white is doing well after 13 Na3 fxe4 14 Qxe4 Qd5 15 Rfe1), but I had to work through an answer to 13… Qd2:
The queen sortie is annoying, as white doesn’t really want to give up the c-pawn. 14 Rac1 is passive, and I didn’t find the computer’s slightly awkward 14 Rae1 Qxc2?? 15 Re2, trapping the queen. Instead I planned for 14 Qd1, aiming to trade black’s only active piece, increasing the value of my better structural. If 14… Rad8? 15 Nd5! Qxd1 16 Nxe7+ Kf7 17 Raxd1 Kxe7 18 Ba3+ picks up the exchange. It’s true to that black can play 14… Rfd8 instead, but even here 15 Nd5 is pretty good, and I was starting to feel like I my tactical vision, honed through a bunch of practice over the past few weeks, was on point.
Black played instead 13… fxe4 and the game continued 14 Qxe4 Rf4:
I had a brief thought of 15 Qe3 (why put the queen on a square where it can be hit by either Nd5 or Nf5?) 15… Nd5 16 Nxd5? cxd5 17 Bxe5?? until I saw 17… Re4, picking up the bishop. It was time to improvise, but instead of playing something straightforward like 15 Qe2, I decided that it was first time to take over the d-file: 15 Rad1!? Qe8 (15… Rxe4 16 Rxd8+ Rxd8 17 Nxe4 is the choice of the computer, perhaps objectively best, but without the queens black is going to get slowly ground down) 16 Qe2 Nf5 17 Ne4:
I fully expected 17… Nd4 18 Bxd4 exd4 19 Rfe1 Kh8 20 Nc5 and black’s position hangs by a thread. The problem is that each exchange makes it a little more difficult to cover all the weaknesses, so black instead tried a move I hadn’t considered, 17… Nh4?, that actually hastens the end. After 18 Bc1 Rf8 is forced, since 18… Rf5 19 Bg5 and 18… Rf7 19 Ng5 Re7 20 Qc4+ both pick up the loose knight. There followed 19 Ng5 Nf5 20 Qc4+ Kh8 21 Ne6 Rf7 and I had a final decision to make:
From a distance, I assumed that I would take the bishop and then go to work on the long diagonal3. Then I saw 22 Nd8 Rd7 23 Rxd7 Qxd7 24 Nf7+ Kg8 and got very excited. Unfortunately, as I looked a move or two deeper, I found nothing: there’s no smothered mate, and 25 Nxe5+ Qd5 is underwhelming. I eventually rejected 22 Nd8 without even finding black’s best response, 22… Rf6, embarrassing the too eager steed. Instead, after 22 Nxg7! Kxg7 23 Bb2 Nd6 24 Qc5 Rf5 25 f4 it’s pretty much over thanks to the pressure on the long diagonal:
Black resigned after 25… Kg8 26 fxe5 Rxf1+ 27 Rxf1 Nf5 28 Qc4+ Kf8 29 g4. Despite a couple hiccups early on, this felt like a pretty smooth win. I was happy to find that I made good choices thanks to accurate evaluations of different variations on moves 13, 17, and 22. At no point did I feel like I had to rush or play against the grain of the position; it was nice to just make nature moves and put pressure on my opponent.
I’ll likely have the black pieces against an A-player next week in round two, then it should be experts and masters for the rest of the way. I don’t feel super rusty, so hopefully it will be a good event!
And the guy coughing across the room, and the jerk who didn’t turn off their cell phone.
7 dxe5 Bxe5 8 Bxe5 dxe5 9 Bxc6+ bxc6 10 Qxd8+ Rxd8 11 Nxe5?? Rd1# Oops!
It’s an interesting feature of white’s advantage that either trade of minor pieces, the bishop for the knight as in the 17… Nd4 variation, or the knight for the bishop after 22 Nxg7, leaves black with a much worse minor piece.