Attack the Sicilian

This was played in the Main Line Chess Club Championship in 2004, one of the many unrated tournaments I have played in.  It was played a few month before Dan won the US Amateur East in 2005 so I have to think he was a strong player then, he has since become a 2350-2400 player.  The Main Line Club is one of the 8 or 10 clubs in the Philadelphia area outside of the Franklin-Mrecantile club.   Some of them are quite strong clubs in their own right.   The MLCC at one point had as members 5 masters, 3 of whom had the FM title, and one was a SM.   The main organizer is Dan Heisman who is VP.  It is player in the Waverly Retirement  Community so the president has to be someone living in the community.

 White: Don Conner

Black:  Dan Yeager

1.         e4        c5       

2.         Nf3      Nc6

3.         Bb5    

The Rossolimo variation.   One reason to play it for me is because there is not so much theory so a game becomes one of creative effort and not one of memorization.

3.                     e6

4.         O-O     N(g)e7

5.         c3        g6

Black want to somehow play the Dragon. Not a good idea in this position.

6.         d4        d4

7.         d4        d5

8.         e5        Bg7

Now the position is more like a French where the black bishop

is misplaced at g7. 

9.         Nc3     h6

10.       b3        Qa5 (a wasted move)

11.       Bd2     Qc7

12.       Rc1      a6

13.       Bd3     O-O

Now white is on his way to an ideal attacking position with a  kingside pawn storm.  As it turns out black has no counter play on the queenside and the center is blocked

14.       Bb1     b5

15.       Ne2     Qb6

16.       g4        Here I come.

                        Bd7

17.       Kg2     R(a)c8

18.       Be3      Na5

19.       Qd2     Kh7

20.       h4        Rc1

21.       Rc1     

I will trade rooks but only one pair

Rh8

 

22.       h5        Kg8

Too late.    Black gets opened up.

23.       g5        g5

24.       Bg5     Nf5

25.       Bf5      (g)f5

26.       h6        Bf8

27.       Rh1     (1 : 0)

Dan didn’t want to see the queen’s bishop go to f6 forching Rh7 and then the white queen goes to g5 winning material and continuing the attack.  In the postmortem he seemed to want to talk about the Dragon, but of course this not a Dragon like  position.   As a nice follow up I ran into Dan Heisman two weeks later at the MLCC.   As Dan Yeager’s chess teacher he had two nice things to say, including that he thought I created a new attack against the Sicilian.