Day 16: First game First win!

"Здравствуйте, дорогие зрители! С вами за пультом управления вновь гроссмейстер Сергей Шипов - работаю для вас из своей московской берлоги ... ". In this way starts his analysis my favorite chess commentator - gm Sergey Shipov. After exactly half year and the special tournament in Istanbul I sat again behind the board, this time some 3000 km away from Turkey. The drawing said my opponent was a very friendly(as every Dutch I've met until now) old man - Mr Jan van de Donk. We exchanged a few words, drank a coffee and then started the game.

Lyubomir Mishkovsky(BUL) - Jan van de Donk(NED)
Delft, March 2007

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 Mr Donk chose French defence as a reply to my 1. e4 and looked happy of life. After 3. .. Bb4 I stopped for a while and decided to continue with a rare variation I know from the game Alekhine - Nimzovitch: 4. Ne2?!(see diagram 1) de 5. a3 Bc3 6. Nc3 f5 7. f3 ef 8. Qf3 ... so far we repeat the afore mentioned game. White is a pawn dawn but with active pieces. Now it's dangerous for black to take pawn 8. ..Qd4 because after 9. Bg5 and 10. Rd1 white is clearly better. 8. ..Nf6 9. Bf4 c6(9. ..Qd4 10. Nb5) 10. O-O-O O-O(see diagram 2)

Another intersting point - now I was thinking over 2 variations. First 11. Re1 Nd5 12. Bd5 ed 13. Re5 Re8 14. Rde1 Re5 15. Re5 with some positional advantage for white and chances for kingside attack or 11. Bxa6 ba 12. Qxc6 Bd7 and gaining back material. Took the second line 11. Ba6 ba 12. Qc6 ... and missed the move 12. ..Qb6. It's quite a simple move but I totally excluded it from calculations, had in mind only 12. ..Bd7 13. Qa6 with an advantage for white. With 12. ..Qb6 black offers his two rooks for the white queen 13. Qa8 Bb7 14. Qf8 Kf8 ... and a win for someone at move 95 :)) I declined this unclear position and found a beautiful place on c5 for my knight.

13. Qc4 Bb7 (13. .. Bd7 14. d4 Rac8 15. Qd4 Qd4 16. Rd4 ed 17. Nd5 Nd5 18. Rd5 Bc6 =) 14. Na4! Qc6 15. Nc5 Nd5 16. Bd2 Kh8 17. Rde1(the right rook!) Rfe8 18. Rg1(not only defending g2 pawn but preparing an attack with g4) 18. ..Rac8(better to place rook directly at b8 since the c-file is well blocked by the knight and leave the c8 square for the bishop defending the e6-square). 19. Qb3 Ba8 20. Re5!(see diagram)


As Nimzovich says: "The object of your attack must be fixed!". So lets fix the e6-pawn. This move prevents black's e5 and undermining the white's knight at c5. Also after c4 and g4 combined with queen on h3 this rook can attack through h5 the black's king position. 21. .. Rb8 22. Qa2(22. Qh3 Qb5 23. b3 a5 24. a4 must be checked) 22. ..Rb5??(решаюшая ошибка) 23. c4 Rc5 24. dc Qc5 25. Rge1 Qd4 26. Rd5(see diagram)


After calculating for several minutes 26. cd and 26. Rd5 decided that the later is the closest path to victory. 26. .. Bd5 27. cd Rc8 28. Bc3 Qf2(28. ..Rc3 29. bc Qc3 30. Kd1 Qd3 31. Qd2 +-) 29. Re6 Qf1 30. Kd2 Qf2 31. Re2 Qf4 32. Kc2 Qf1 33. Rd2 Qf4 34. Qb3 Rb8(see diagram)

A nice finish of the game: 35. Qb8(the pawn is unstoppable) Qb8 36. d6 Qb7 37. d7 Qe4 38. Kc1 Qe1 39. Rd1 Qe3 40. Kb1 1:0

So, this was my first tournament game in The Netherlands. The club is nice. The members too. (Forgot to tell you that before the tournament a teenager beat me 3:0 in a blitz match).

The game started at 19:45 and the time control was 1:45 gillotine. We finished around 23:15 and I headed home. Midnight Delft is cool :)) /if only it was not so windy, wind all day and night, pfuu/. The town is so calm that even if you want to be robbed by some criminals ... you can't have that fun :)) I walked for half an hour and couldn't see a man. /Maybe I'm the only criminal here :)) and people know I'm in town and are scared ... like in old Westerns :)) hahaha, this is a script for my friend - Qncho - the movie maker / Nothing bothers these people. Every house looks like the previous one. It's strange that you can see through the window of every home(I'm not doing it deliberately) - and all is the same - a car, a house, 2 well-educated kids watching silently TV, dad reading, mom wandering ... or a house, 2 old people ... a house, a table, some fruits on it ... a house ...

This is the real MATRIX not the one with Keanu Reeves :))

Goedenacht.