Top Seed Loses

The first round of a swiss open almost always produces some shocks. Top players are held to draws, or sometimes even lose to players much lower rated. The biggest upset is when the top seed loses in the first round, and this is exactly what happened at this year's Hastings Congress.

There seemed to be an acceleration of pairings which was presumably used to enhance norm chances. In round 1, top rated Indian GM Deep Sengupta, rated 2586, was paired as black against English FM Adam Taylor, rated 2242. The opening seemed innocuous enough, a king of Reti/English opening where Black chose a Slav set up. The following position was reached:

Black had just played the novelty 10..Qd8-e7. White played the thematic central thrust 11.e4! I wonder if either player realised that this was already very good for White, maybe winning?

Black traded by 11..dxe4 [Not sure this is best, but everything else loses at least a pawn] 12.dxe4 Bg4

So far all seems to be logical, but White now launches an exchanging sequence which wins a piece. And this is the player rated 350 points lower! 13.Nxd7 Qxd7 14.Qxd7+ Kxd7 15.Bxd6 Kxd6

This little sequence was all forced and has brought Black's king into a poor position. White would like to play e5 forking king and knight, and by combining threats to trap black's bishop, he manages it. 16.h3 Bh5 [16..Be2 17.Re1 and after the bishop moves White plays e5+] 17.f4!

This leaves Black the choice of losing a knight to e5+, or losing the bishop to g4 and f5, either way, white nets a winning material advantage which he went on to win, though he missed a chance to win more easily.

It seems Sengupta had given upon this game. He played 23..Rad8?

White here played 24.Raf1, methodical and good enough to win. But he missed a good tactical shot which would have been found if he'd thought about searching for all checks and captures. 24.Nd5+! blocks the d-file interrupting the connection between Black's rooks. The same tactic could have been played on the next move as well, but wasn't. Never mind, white still went on to win and gained a great scalp.

An Upset

As neutral spectators we all seem to enjoy watching an underdog come good against a higher rated opponent. Over the past few weeks I've been trying to keep abreast of some of my favourite tournaments of the year, the Australian Open (lack of games has been a bit disappointing), Wijk aan Zee, Australian Juniors which will start next week and Hastings. In fact, it's fair to say that most of my current chess work stems from this part of the year, and after January I move back to getting inspiration from the classics!

Anyway, I've been working my way through games from Hastings when I came up with Othman-Haussernot from round 2. To be honest, I know neither of these players but black was the higher rated by about 200 points. White's strategy was perfect playing a double edged system against a higher rated opponent who would probably prevail in a technical battle, or a long, slow game. The game was an open Sicilian which also adds another random factor as nobody can know everything about these crazy systems, and there are always some interesting sacrifices for white which can unbalance the situation so much that the chess engine verdict has little meaning in a game between players below master standard.

The shit hit the fan in the following position.

Black has kept his king in the centre a fraction too long which allows white to strike. Amazingly, this isn't the first time this position has been reached, but hopefully, black players will not seek it out again. Othman (1978) played 12.Nd5!! and black is already in big trouble 12..exd5 13.exd6!

The unfortunate position of black's king is now coming into play. This is the best kind of sacrifice, a temporary one that will win material! 13..Qxd6 14.Nf5 Qb6 15.Nxe7 [There was something to be said for 15.Rxe7+] 

Materially, the position is level but black's king is a real target, and black has no development to talk about, and black's d-pawn is falling. A black discovered check by 15..Nxb3 is easily handled by 16.Kh1 when white threatens their own discovered check, Nxc8 winning the house. The game continued for another 10 or so moves, but the outcome wasn't in any doubt.

It's nice to have games where it all falls in to place, especially when you're playing a higher rated opponent. Here's the game in full, enjoy :)