We are back with another game from my recent tournament in St. Louis! Previously we looked at my round 5 game from this event, where I was white against a young expert. Here we will look at the game I played in round 3 against an also young, slightly higher rated master-strength player. I was white this game.
Paciorkowski, Lev (2446) - Tkachenko, Erik (2185)
2026 Mid-America Open, St. Louis, MO (Rd. 3)
40/80 SD30; d30
From my reading of Erik's USCF rating history, it looks like he crossed 2200 at some point last year (deservedly so). Erik and I have played several times by now, with him winning one of those encounters in a game I analyzed on my YouTube channel.
1.Nf3 (Of course) 1. ... Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.0-0 0-0 5.d4 d5 (D)
The first interesting moment in the opening. Those of you reading who might be more familiar with my repertoire probably know that I really like 6.c3!? (D) here:
I have been able to use this seemingly innocuous line to great effect against players in the 2000-2200 rating range. The most common alternative by far (that black is usually prepared for) is 6.c4, which is objectively white's best try for a (small) advantage.
What is the purpose behind 6.c3 then? Actually, it is a devious bit of prophylaxis against black's symmetrical plan of c7-c5. If black now tries 6. ... c5?!, white's point is to take this pawn: 7.dxc5!+=, when it turns out that c2-c3 will be quite useful in making black's life harder as he tries to regain this pawn. There are some details, but white ends up with an edge, and black must play precisely to limit this to a small edge.
In my experience playing this as white, actually 6. ... c5 is one of the most commonly played moves under around 2400 - above that rating, players with black usually seem to know this nuance and play something else.
Now you might wonder, why can't black just play 6. ... c6 and follow in copycat fashion? Then white reveals his real plan - to break with e2-e4 before black is ready for e7-e5: 7.Nbd2 Nbd7 8.Re1 Re8?! (this is already inaccurate from black) 9.e4! dxe4 10.Nxe4 Nxe4 11.Rxe4+= (D)
White has a lasting edge in this structure. Although it doesn't necessarily look that bad, I can tell you from experience it is hard to play black here, and I've won countless blitz/rapid and classical games from this position (which may be a subject of a different post).
Back to the game. After 6.c3!?, my opponent played the somewhat unusual 6. ... Bf5!? (D)
This is a logical idea which I was familiar with, although from my experience black usually first starts with 6. ... c6, and then after 7.Nbd2 plays 7. ... Bf5. Then after 8.Re1 (hinting at Nh4 followed by e2-e4), most people play the natural 8. ... Ne4?!, which is inaccurate, since white just gets a great position with the bishop pair after 9.Nh4 Nxd2 10.Nxf5! gxf5 11.Bxd2+=. I've also had a lot of blitz games like this.
The way my opponent played, starting with 6. ... Bf5, black still has the option to play c7-c5 in one move, instead of putting the pawn on c6. But somehow the queenside feels looser, since white could consider 7.Qb3 here, when black cannot yet react with the desirable ...Qb6.
In the game I just quickly played 7.Nbd2, continuing with my plan of Re1, then Nh4 and e2-e4. The main alternative indeed looks like 7.Qb3, when it seems most people (going by the Lichess online database at least) defend the b-pawn with 7. ... Qc8 (D)
If white were to now continue with the typical 8.Nbd2?!, it will be black who gets a good position after 8. ... c5!, intending 9.dxc5 Na6=-. But instead of that, white can switch gears and play 8.c4! (that's modern chess for you, taking two moves to put the pawn on c4 after all...) After 8. ... c6 (the immediate 8. ... dxc4!? should also be considered) 9.Nc3 dxc4 10.Qxc4+= (D) we get the following structure:
This line can continue, but it looks to me like black needs to be careful not to allow white to achieve e2-e4, which would give us a great position. Indeed, online this position scores about 60% for white.
After 7.Qb3, instead of 7. ... Qc8, the only other reasonable move is 7. ... b6!? (D)
This of course looks much riskier as it opens the h1-a8 diagonal for my own bishop. Here 8.Ne5 looks promising, intending to increase the pressure on this diagonal with c3-c4. After 8. ... c6 9.c4 (9.Nd2!?) black has some problems to solve. For example, the seemingly natural 9. ... Ne4? would run into 10.cxd5 cxd5 (10. ... Qxd5? 11.g4! Be6 12.Qe3! f5 13.gxf5 gxf5 14.Nc3+- wins material for white) 11.Nc3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Be6 13.Rd1! +/- when it is clear that black will struggle to complete development comfortably, with c3-c4 looming. Instead, black should prefer 9. ... Be6 when white can try 10.cxd5 Bxd5 11.Bxd5 Qxd5 (11. ... cxd5!? 12.Nc3+= is just nice for white) 12.Nc3! Qxb3 (12. ... Qxd4!? is playable for black, but white has 13.Nxf7! there, when black has to find some only moves to stay in the game after 13. ... Rxf7 14.Rd1 Qc5! 15.Rd8+ Bf8 16.Bh6) 13.axb3=, reaching an imbalanced endgame that is objectively equal, but I wouldn't mind continuing to play white there.
A bit of a digression, but I think this analysis is enough to conclude that after 6. ... Bf5!?, 7.Qb3 definitely poses some practical difficulties for black, after either 7. ... Qc8 8.c4! or 7. ... b6!? 8.Ne5.
Let's see what happened in the game then. After my 7.Nbd2, black played 7. ... Qc8. This is a perfectly sound move, and black even has several decent alternatives to this. I think for this reason I would prefer 7.Qb3 in the future, as it limits black's options more. I then played 8.Re1 (D)
My opponent now played the natural-looking 8. ... Ne4?!. My intuition during the game was correct that this should be somehow good for white. Instead, 8. ... c5!= is a pretty healthy alternative.
After 8. ... Ne4?!, I continued with the thematic reaction I knew for white, 9.Nh4 (D)
Really black's problem is just that there is now no way to avoid losing the bishop pair, which will be enough of an advantage for white to be seriously happy. My opponent mixed things up here with a good move, 9. ... c5! (D), which at least gives me some decisions to make. (Instead, 9. ... Nxd2?! 10.Nxf5! gxf5 11.Bxd2+/- is a pretty clear advantage for white, especially after 11. ... e6 12.g4! fxg4 13.e4+/-.)
White now has to decide, do we take on f5 straight away or take on c5 first? Or should we take on f5 at all, and instead take on e4? What order would we make these captures in? I don't think there is one right decision, and had my first think of the game here, at 7 minutes. In the end, I decided on 10.dxc5!?
I considered 10.Nxf5 gxf5, but then only with the follow-up 11.Nxe4!? fxe4+=, which did not seem so impressive for white, as black has managed to clog up the diagonal for my light squared bishop. However, instead 11.c4! (D) would actually be quite powerful:
This position would be hard for black to handle. I think it is possible to just intuitively play this for white, even without calculating too many variations. We are just aiming to fully blast open the position for the bishops, even at the cost of a pawn. In fact, the extra pawn would be completely meaningless for black after the compliant 11. ... Bxd4? 12.e3 Bg7 13.cxd5 Nxd2 14.Bxd2! Bxb2 15.Rb1 Bg7 16.e4+-. Black can do better with 11. ... dxc4 but then 12.d5! Nd6 13.e4!+/- keeps opening up the position and gives white a serious advantage.
Anyway, after my 10.dxc5!?, black then made a slightly strange decision in 10. ... Na6?! (D)
This is a dubious move for black, but only because it allows a very strong attacking idea for white that we both didn't see. I was mostly expecting 10. ... Qxc5, when I was intending 11.Nxe4 Bxe4 12.Be3 Qb5 13.f3 Bf5 14.Nxf5 gxf5 15.Qb3 Qxb3 16.axb3 Nc6 17.Red1+=, when I thought white would keep at least an edge with the bishops. (In case of 10. ... Nxc5?, I was correct in thinking that 11.Nxf5 Qxf5 12.e4+- would be very good for white, since black is just not prepared for the position to open up there.)
Here I played the "normal" 11.Nxe4?! and we will see what happens in the game. I rejected 11.Nxf5! gxf5 12.Nxe4 dxe4 (D)
I saw this kind of position and thought black should be OK because my bishop on g2 is blocked in now. Even if I get the break f2-f3, that will weaken my kingside. However, white has a killer idea here that is quite advanced: 13.Qd2!! What's this about? 13. ... Nxc5 14.Qg5! e6 15.Be3! (D)
I don't blame myself at all for missing this queen maneuver, but it is still instructive to point out. Black's kingside simply comes under too much pressure. The immediate threat is g3-g4, which black would not have a good answer to. However after 15. ... Nd7 16.Bd4! forces the ugly 16. ... f6, when white just plays 17.Qh5+/- and breaks with f2-f3 next. Black's king is vulnerable and his central clump of pawns is very fragile in the face of white's powerful bishops.
In the game, after 11.Nxe4?! Bxe4 (11. ... dxe4?! 12.Nxf5 gxf5 13.Qd2!!+/-) 12.Bxe4 dxe4 I tried the ambitious 13.Qd5!? (D) (white could still play the position with equal material arising after 13.Be3 Nxc5 14.Qc2 f5 15.Ng2+= and try to use the queenside pawn majority long-term.)
My opponent played 13. ... Qc6!? I did see that black also could have played 13. ... Nxc5 14.Be3 Na4!=, when he has enough counterplay, but thought I might still "figure something out" once we got to that position.
I was happy to trade queens, and we got the following endgame after 14.Qxc6 bxc6 15.Be3 Rab8 16.Rab1 (D)
Objectively this is about equal, although during the game I was optimistic since I didn't see a way for black to win back the pawn right away, thanks to some tactical tricks.
In particular, I had prepared the trap 16. ... Rb5?! 17.Rec1! when 17. ... Nxc5? 18.c4+- wins a piece for white. Otherwise, if 17. ... Rfb8?! instead, then 18.b4+/- secures my queenside, now that c3 is guarded (the point of 17.Rec1). I also had seen 17. ... Ra5!? 18.a4!? when 18. ... Rxa4? (black should prefer 18. ... Rb8! 19.b3+= when I thought the Ra5 is just trapped, but the engine makes it still playable for black) 19.Ra1!+/- will regain the extra pawn with a serious advantage to white.
In light of this, black played 16. ... Rb7 17.Rec1 Rfb8!? Instead, it would have been better to immediately start with 18. ... Nc7!, intending 19.b4 a5=. Now I get to make both of black's rooks ineffective with 18.b4+= (D)
White is starting to take control of the game, but it's still tricky. Black now continued 18. ... Nc7 and I also got my knight back towards civilization with 19.Ng2!? (D), which although natural, is apparently not the most precise. It was more important to play 19.Bf4!, then if 19. ... Rd8 20.a4!+=, which I did not consider. The point is to prevent black's knight from reaching b5 as it did in the game. (The immediate 19.a4!? a5! is more effective for black with both his rooks still on the b-file.)
The game is reaching a critical moment. During the game I did see black's only good continuation here: 19. ... Nb5! 20.Rb3 Nxc3! 21.Rbxc3 Bxc3 22.Rxc3 Rxb4 (D)
I think I correctly evaluated this position as unclear. Normally you expect minor pieces to outmatch a rook, but in this particular case, my Ng2 is atrociously placed, and black's rooks are very active and can attack my a2 pawn. If white is careless, this is definitely the kind of position that can spiral out of control. That is why to avoid this, I should have preferred 19.Bf4! instead of my 19.Ng2!?.
Unfortunately for my opponent, he had to find this option and correctly judge that this position is OK for him to enter, because otherwise black is worse. After 19.Ng2!?, he instead played 19. ... a5?! 20.a3 Nb5? (D) (relatively best was 20. ... axb4 21.axb4 Nb5 22.Bd2+=, but white is in control, and can kick the knight out with c3-c4 eventually, then think about creating a passed pawn with b4-b5)
A good exercise position. White has an amazing winning idea that almost looks like it comes out of a study. I can see why black was excited here, because if white does not find this idea, then black is indeed much better.
I played 21.bxa5! Nxc3 (21. ... Nxa3 would be similar) 22.Rb6! Nxe2+ 23.Kf1 Nxc1 (D)
It may still not seem clear what white is doing, because 24.Bxc1? Bc3!-+ collects the a5 pawn and even wins for black. However, the whole point of this operation is revealed now after my next move: 24.a6!!+- (D)
I rarely give myself double exclams, but I really do think I deserve this one. This position is just incredible! White has casually sacrificed two pawns and an entire rook, and then rather than recapturing the offending knight on c1, we simply attack black's rook on b7. It's an unusual tactical pattern because the rooks on b8 and b7 are actually trapped! It is pretty clear that 24. ... Rxb6 25.cxb6 is hopeless for black, e.g. 25. ... Nd3 26.b7+- or 25. ... Rd8 26.Bxc1 Bd4 27.Be3+- and there is just no way to stop the pawns.
My opponent tried 24. ... Rd8 25.axb7 Rd1+ but this is not mate! 26.Ne1 The b-pawn costs black a piece. The game ended after 26. ... Be5 27.b8=Q+ Bxb8 28.Rxb8+ Kg7 29.Rb1 1-0 To add insult to injury, even the knight on c1 is lost too.
A good example of how a seemingly quiet opening line does not necessarily lead to a quiet game. That Qd2-g5 idea was very neat and in general is a good attacking method to remember. In fact, it reminds me of a game where Ding Liren found a similar odd-looking but strong queen maneuver and carried out a powerful attack (I am blanking at the moment on who his opponent was).
Really though, the game was more or less in the balance up until my opponent walked right into my pawn promotion idea after 20. ... Nb5?. Similar to my round 5 game we previously looked at, the deciding moment came down to calculation and the spotting of a key tactical idea. So-called "colinear" moves like 22.Rb6! in particular are easy to miss. Then, finding 24.a6!! requires you to first let go of the assumption that you must automatically recapture a piece. Both of these are mental blocks that I feel like I have gotten better at overcoming through training over the years, which evidently served me well this game.
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