Monday, December 24, 2007

Wolfson - Liu

Here is the final round draw from the ICA Early Winter 2007 tournament that enabled Ziping Liu to tie for first place in section 4. Both sides made mistakes in this game.

Round Four: King's Indian Defense

Ben Wolfson (USCF 1456) – Ziping Liu (USCF 1362), Hackensack NJ 12/16/2007

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Bf4 Bg7 4.e3 d6 5.Nc3 O-O 6.Nf3 Bg4



A better move is 6...Nbd7.

7.Be2 Bxf3

Black should wait for White to spend a tempo with 8.h3 before making this exchange.

8.Bxf3 Nc6 9.O-O e5

Now 10.Bxc6 is worth considering.

10.dxe5 dxe5 11.Bg3 Re8 12.e4


Blocking in the bishop is a positional error.

12... Nd4 13.Qd3 Nxf3+ 14.Qxf3 Nh5

Black needed to played 14...c6.

15.Rfd1 Qg5

Now 15...Qe7 would allow 16.Nd5. The best that Black can do here is 15...Qc8.

16.Rd7 Re7


White can win a pawn by force after 17.h4 Qf6 18.Qxf6 Bxf6 19.Bxe5.

17.Rxe7 Qxe7 18.Nd5 Qc5 19.Rc1 Nxg3 20.Qxg3

Preferable is 20.hxg3.

20...c6 21.Nc3, draw.

No better is 21.Ne3 because, with White's queen on g3, 21...Qd4 snares a pawn. In the final position, Black still wins a pawn by 21...Qxc4. But he may have been worried about 22.Rd1.