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Young Monty Peckham, an Expert on the rise, was recently
headlined on the cover of the California Chess Journal. You see,
at the US Open he claimed his first Grandmaster scalp. That's
GRANDMASTER. But before Monty met up with GM Michael Rohde, he
had to deal with the Grandpatzer, Anthony Toohey:
Livermore Open, Dania Hall, Livermore California,
Round 1, Pirc Defense, Austrian Attack (B07)
1. e4, g6 2. d4, Bg7 3. Nc3,
d6 4. Bg5, Nf6 5. f4, 0-0 6. Nf3, Bg4 7.
Bc4, (D)
Later I discovered that black could have played
the ol' "Fork Trick" on me, 7...,Nxe4 8.Nxe4, d5 9.Bxd5,
Qxd5. It may not win material, but it might have unsettled me
for starters, and may have left me struggling to castle with his
Queen swirling around the open e-file. Who knows... that's why
this is called "Patzer's Progress."
7..., Nbd7 8.0-0, Nh5
So where's he going? I have no idea. Worried
about white pushing e5? Perhaps expecting me to pile up on h6
to smoke out his g7 bishop? Fritz liked 8...,Nb6 9.Bb3 Bwah! I
don't know why Fritz liked that either.
9.h3,
Go away.
9..., Bxf3 10.Rxf3, Nhf6 11.Qe1,
e5 12.dxe5, dxe5 13.Rd1, exf4
I'm not positive that was the best move. I
think mobilizing the white's e-pawn slows black's pieces down.
Well, that's how it plays out for awhile anyway.
14.e5, Re8 (D)
Craphouse mouse. Don't you just want to grab that knight? So
I spent 15 hours of clock time (or so it seemed) trying to figure
out how to reposition my queen without giving up the pawn. I can't
reposition the king rook in only one move and the queen can't
go to g3 to monitor the pawn. All because I was in too much of
a hurry to get rid of the f-pawn. Of course, there are also two
tempi involved. I hate it when black gets to move the same number
of times as I do. It makes the game difficult, to say the least.
Well, all that said, there is still a move which helps create
a pretty good position for white, even according to Fritz. Of
course, I'll go on to screw it up, but more on that later.
15.e6, Kf8
He moves the King to avoid exf7+, and white wins the exchange.
Now, tell me if I'm missing something here, but can't I now win
the knight on d7? 16.Bxf6, Bxf6 (or Qxf6 17.Rxd7,) 17. Rxd7, Qxd7
18.exd7, Rxe1+, 19.Kf2, and... oh, wait, that loses the exchange...
shoot, what was I thinking??
16.Rfd3,
Still trying to win the knight.
16..., Qc8 17.Bxf6, Nxf6 (D)
Up until now, Fritz was really liking my position. That means
it's time to pull a bonehead combo.
18.Rd8?,
Fritz, the unfeeling, unemotional computer program, went so far
as to say "White is ruining his position." Thanks, Fritz,
you heartless dweeb...
18..., Qxd8
Of course not 18..., Rxd8 19.e7+, Kg8 20.exd8(Q)+, Qxd8 21.Rxd8+,
Rxd8 and white's a queen for rook to the good. Of course, this
is what I was planning. I didn't consider I'd be giving up both
rooks for that little old lady.
19.Rxd8, Raxd8
The fork is still there, of course, should he use the wrong rook.
Well, my rooks are gone. I better get my queen moving,
she's all I've got left.
20.Qf2, fxe6 21.Qxf4, e5 22.Qf3,
e4 23.Qf4,
I want to maintain the pin.
23..., c6 24.g4, g5
Black wants to break the pin, but he gives up three pawns to
do it.
25.Qxg5, Nd5 (D)
Now not only am I going to get a stack of pawns for my collection,
but I'm going to get rid of that knight, giving my Queen some
mobility and taking over the light squares.
26.Qf5+, Kg8
He can't go back with the knight since he has no time to prevent
g5, so moving the King is his most obvious option, at least to
me! I want the King on g8 to make my pawn grab clean.
27.Nxd5, cxd5 28.Bxd5+, Kh8 29.Bxe4,
Threatening mate on the move. The open center gives his rooks
scope, but it also lets my Queen look at the entire board and
move at will. My king is worrying me a little, though. If I can
get traded down, even B vs. R, my pawn majority may be enough
to win.
29..., Rd1+ 30.Kg2, Rd2+ 31.Kg3,
Black is going to need at least one more tempo to reposition
his pieces. Unfortunately, he's going to have to find it somewhere
else, as mate is still threatened on h7.
31..., Kg8 32.Qxh7+, Kf8 33.Qf5+,
Kg8 34.Qg6,
Fritz likes Bd5+ better. Whatever. I'm mad at Fritz right now
anyway. Don't know why I listen to him at all...
34...,Kf8 35.Bd3, b6?
A mistake, I think. I've got black's rook isolated and I'm about
to shift my queen to the dark squares. I've finally formed a winning
plan, after 35 half-arsed moves.
36.Qd6+!,
Now, this move is pretty obvious, but I gave it an exclam because
1: It's the winning move, 2: My opponent didn't see it coming,
and 3: It's my freakin' website and I want an exclam of my own.
As far as I can tell, though, this move wins in all variations,
f'rinstance: 36...,Kg8 37.Bc4+, Kh8 38.Qxd2. My opponent went:
38..., Re7 39.Qf4+, Rf7 40.Qxd2,
Okay, I've got the rook and the game is mine. I just have to
avoid tricks. At this point, barring finding some cute mating
sequence, I want to trade my queen for his remaining pieces and
let my pawns do the talking.
40..., Be5+ 41.Kg2, 1-0
A fun game, a decent upset (he outranked my by nearly 400 points)
and Mr. Peckham, even as a young teenager, was a very gracious
and polite opponent and was thoughtful enough to approach me later
in the tournament to ask how I was doing. I shudder to think what
he might do to me today were we to meet again over-the-board.
Patzer's Progress – Anthony Toohey
Copyright © 2002, All rights reserved
Anthony@PatzersProgress.com
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