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.
That was sweet and surgical. Very good example of how quickly one can punish mixed up opening play, especially in the Sicilian. I really liked the patient moves 14. Bb1, 15. Ne2 and 18. Be3.