Sunday, April 22, 2007

Budapest Defense, Fajarowicz Variation

Recently I purchased The Fighting Fajarowicz [Chess Digest, 1996, 228 pages] by Tim Harding. Until yesterday at the Hamilton NJ Quads, I had tried the Fajarowicz twice against lower rated players with one win and one draw. Both were played at time controls of game/30.

What I like about the quads in Hamilton is that there are no sudden death time controls. The games are played at 40/80 followed by 15/30 ad infinitum. I once had a third-round game that ended near midnight! But better a lengthy game than one that concludes with a mad time scramble.

In yesterday's event, I tested the Fajarowicz against a national master at a slow time control. And the variation came through with flying colors!

These three games are fairly recent. Consequently, I have not studied them in much depth. So I present them here without annotations.

Game One

Craig Gross (USCF 1932) - Jim West (USCF 2211), Cherry Hill NJ 3/10/2007

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4 4.a3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bf4 g5 7.Bg3 Be6 8.e3 Nxg3 9.hxg3 Nxe5 10.Nd4 Qd7 11.Nxe6 Qxe6 12.Qc2 O-O-O 13.Nc3 Kb8 14.Be2 h5 15.Nb5 Qg6 16.Qb3 a6 17.Nd4 c5 18.Nf3 Be7 19.O-O-O g4 20.Nxe5 dxe5 21.Rd5 Rxd5 22.cxd5 c4

23.Bxc4 Rc8 24.Kd2 Ka7 25.Rc1 Qf5 26.Rf1 b5 27.Be2 e4 28.f3 gxf3 29.gxf3 Rc7 30.fxe4 Qxe4 31.Qd3 Qe5 32.Qd4+ Qxd4+ 33.exd4 Bd6 34.Bxh5, draw.



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Game Two

Kenneth Sasmor (USCF 1609) - Jim West (USCF 2203), Polgar Chess Center 3/18/2007

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Nbd2 Nc6 6.a3 Nxd2 7.Bxd2 Bxd2+ 8.Qxd2 Qe7 9.Qc3 O-O 10.e3 Re8 11.Bd3 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 Qxe5 13.Qxe5 Rxe5 14.O-O d6 15.b4 Bf5 16.Bxf5 Rxf5


17.Rfd1 a5 18.Kf1 Kf8 19.h3 h5 20.e4 Re5 21.f3 Ke7 22.Rdb1 b6 23.Rd1 h4 24.b5 Rh8 25.Rd5 Rh6 26.Rad1 Rhe6 27.a4 g6 28.Kf2 f5 29.Rxe5 Rxe5 30.exf5 Rxf5 31.Rd4 g5 32.Ke3 Ke6 33.Re4+ Kf6 34.Rd4 Re5+ 35.Re4 Kf5 36.Kd4 Rxe4+ 37.fxe4+ Kf4 38.Kd5 Kg3 39.Kc6 Kxg2 40.Kxc7 g4 41.Kxb6 gxh3 42.e5 dxe5 43.c5 h2 44.c6 h1=Q 45.c7 Qc1 46.Kb7 h3 47.c8=Q Qxc8+ 48.Kxc8 h2 49.b6 h1=Q 50.b7 Qc1+ 51.Kb8 e4, White resigns.


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Game Three

Mark Kernighan (USCF 2215) - Jim West (USCF 2200), Hamilton NJ Quad 4/21/2007

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Nbd2 Nc6 6.Qc2 d5 7.exd6 Bf5 8.Qd1 Qxd6 9.e3 O-O-O 10.Be2 Qf6 11.Qb3 Nc5 12.Qd1 Nd3+ 13.Bxd3 Bxd3 14.a3 Bxd2+ 15.Nxd2 Ne5 16.f4 Nxc4 17.Nxc4 Bxc4 18.Qg4+ Kb8


19.Kf2 Rd6 20.Re1 Rhd8 21.Qf3 Bb3 22.e4 Rd3 23.Re3 Bd1 24.e5 Qb6 25.Qg3 g6 26.h4 a5 27.Kg1 Bc2 28.Qf2 Rd1+ 29.Kh2 Bf5 30.a4 Qc5 31.b4 axb4 32.Qb2 R8d3 33.Rxd3 Qg1+ 34.Kg3 Rxd3+, White resigns.