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- This game is a master vs. John Coffey
- in the first round of the 1989 U.S.
- Open in Chicago.
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- Moving the king pawn up two squares
- is one of the more popular openings.
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- Developes a piece and forces black to
- defend the e5 pawn.
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- The Petroff Defense is a simple
- attempt at counter-attack, but it
- leads to drawish positions because it
- is too symetrical. I played
- this opening for 15 years with poor
- results, so I finally switched to the
- Sicillian which is much more
- dynamic.
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- Unlike the first game, White chooses
- to take the pawn.
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- In theory Black should not take the
- e4 immediately. White's extra move
- gives him an advantage in a
- symetrical position. Black could
- easily fall for a trap that goes 2.
- ... Nxe4 3. Qe2 Nf6?? 4. Nc6+
- winning the Black Queen. Instead
- Black could try to play "The Daring
- Damino" with 2. ... Nxe4 3. Qe2
- Qe7!? 4. Qxe4 d6 getting his knight
- back with a loss of a pawn. Black
- can only hope for weak play on
- White's part that might go 5. d4
- dxe5 6. Qxe5?! Qxe5 7. dxe5 Nc6
- 8. Bf4 Bf5 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. cxd3
- O-O-O with some counter chances
- because of the backward pawn on d3.
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- The knight is forced back. Playable
- is Nc5 but the knight is more likely
- to be a target there.
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- Black gets his pawn back.
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- White forces Black to defend his
- knight on e4. This leads to a very
- symetrial position. A more popular
- alternative is to play d4 instead.
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- This is the only good way to defend
- the knight. If instead d5??, then d3
- wins the knight.
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- White tells the knight to go away.
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- So he does.
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- This moves gives white a slight
- advantage. The immediate threat is
- to take the knight and force Black to
- have doubled pawns on the f file.
- Note that Bg4 would note be a very
- good response for Black because of
- Bxf6! doubling the pawns. If Black
- follows with the symetrical Bxf3??
- then Qxe7+!! wins a piece.
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- Black's choices are not very good
- here. He can play Nbd7 but all his
- pieces are cramped. The "book line"
- is to play Qxe2+, Bxe2 Be7 leaving
- Black a move behind in developement.
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- White devlopes a piece and prepares
- to castle queenside.
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- Probably black should play Nbd7 and
- prepare to castle himself. Instead
- he becaomes obsessed with the g5
- bishop and as a result he starts to
- loosen the pawns on his kingside.
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- There is no reason for white to
- capture. Not only would he be giving
- up a bishop for a knight, but he
- would be giving up the pin on the
- knight (meaning the knight can't
- move) and he would be helping black
- to free his cramped position.
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- Black gets rid of the pin on f6 but
- at the cost of loosening the pawns on
- his kingside. Now castling on
- the kingside would be out of the
- question as his position there is too
- open.
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- There is no choice but to come here.
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- This move does Black no good at all.
- Not only does he move a piece that is
- already developed (when he should be
- worrying about his other undeveloped
- pieces) but his threat of Nxg3 is a
- very empty one.
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- White does the right thing. He
- chooses to finish his developement.
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- Playing Nxg3 would do very little
- good as White could capture hxg3
- giving his rook on h1 an open file
- for free with an attack on a backward
- pawn on h6. So Nxg3 would be a waste
- of time that helps improve the White
- position.
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- White needs some more room for his
- pieces.
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- Here black starts to panic. He sees
- that the pawn on d4 could move to d5,
- and although it is not much of a
- threat, Black decides to move his
- bishop out of the way. This is a
- mistake because for the second time
- Black moves a piece twice in the
- opening before he has finished his
- other developement or castled.
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- White sees that d5 would be a good
- square for his knight, so he moves
- here attacking the Black Queen and
- threatening to take on c7 with
- check.
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- No choice here as the Queen was both
- pinned and threatened.
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- Since it cost black a move to take
- the Queen, this developing move
- comes
- "for free" for White.
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- No good was Na6 to protect c7 as
- White would play Bxa6 removing it.
- But much better would have been
- Kd8 where Black lacks in developement
- but still has not lost yet. CAN YOU
- FIND THE WINNING MOVE FOR WHITE?
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- The purpose of this apparent knight
- sacrifice is to uncover the attack on
- the bishop on g4 by the bishop on
- e2.
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- Not much choice here. Black has a
- bishop hanging on g4.
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- White not only gets his piece back,
- but he gets check and a fork on the
- knight on h5. (Notice that the
- knight on h5 is looking very
- misplaced.)
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- Black does not want to lose a piece,
- so he tries desperately to counter
- attack the knight with his king.
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- But the knight can move away with
- check.
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- Again the desperate monarch attacks
- the knight.
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- Now the knight moves away again with
- check. Black could continue to try
- to counter-attack with Ke6, but White
- would play Nxg7 double check and
- Black has lost a piece. So here
- Black resigned the game. The lesson
- to be learned here is to not move
- pieces twice in the opening unless
- there is a really good reason for
- it.
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