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ANNOTATED GAME
Home for Christmas XII
antagonistknight (2153) vs. chesssafari (2099)
Annotated by: antagonistknight (1763)
Chess opening: Sicilian (B96), Najdorf, 7.f4
antagonistknight (2153) vs. chesssafari (2099)
Annotated by: antagonistknight (1763)
Chess opening: Sicilian (B96), Najdorf, 7.f4
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Antagonistknight vs chesssafari
Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation
This is my first time meeting the Najdorf, even though I have been playing for a long time. I decided not to play my usual 2. Nc3 (the Closed Sicilian) which I play to avoid the theory of all the other lines and try something different for a change. chesssafari may not have been the best person to try this against considering he is a Correspondence Chess Master with a peak ICCF rating of 2376, but I love a challenge. | ||||||
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1. e4 |
At this point I had already looked at chesssafari's profile (I always look at my opponent's page) and after seeing he is a correspondence chess master I decided not to play my favorite 1. f4. Instead I chose to rely on my strength of tactical calculation to go for the win in this game. | |||||
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1... c5 |
Ah the Sicilian Defense, I must admit I don't really care to see this as white and that is why I tend to play 1. f4, b3 or Nf3 (although here on gameknot I play e4 a lot, in the many OTB games I play the other three openings mentioned). | |||||
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2. Nf3 |
I normally go with Nc3 here to avoid main line theory, but I wanted to see how a master plays the Sicilian so I chose Nf3 instead. | |||||
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2... d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 |
At this point black still had several options and I was unsure of exactly which of the Sicilian variations he was going for. | |||||
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5... a6 |
The Najdorf the most popular of the Sicilians, favored by players like Fisher and Kasparov. | |||||
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6. Bg5 |
I decided to continue with the main line for a couple of moves. | |||||
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6... e6 7. f4 |
There is just something about the pawn move f2-f4 that I love, at least here it is part of the main line | |||||
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7... Nc6 |
This is the point we step off the main line, although it is still one of the sub-variations I believe. Qb6 and Be7 are the normal responses. | |||||
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8. e5 |
I had a couple of options here Nxc6 being the other main option(according to gameknot at least), but I went with the pawn break e4-e5 instead expecting the continuation 8. ... dxe5 9. Nxc6 Qxd1+ 10. Rxd1 bxc6 11. fxe5 which I considered best play by both sides. The continuation would have majorly disrupted black's pawn structure creating two isolated pawns as well as remove the queens from the board, taking the queens out makes it easier to calculate continuations. | |||||
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8... h6 |
My opponent has other ideas. | |||||
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9. Bh4 |
I wasn't quite ready to trade away my bishop yet, I was also hoping to entice the Ruy Lopez-like move g5 helping to disrupt black's pawn structure. | |||||
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9... g5 |
The move I was looking for, this will create many holes in his position due to white being able to take with fxg5 (at this point I was already planning to castle queenside anyway). Because of these weaknesses it would be unlikely for black to castle kingside now, and with the hole on the c-file it looks like his king will be staying in the center making it easier to focus my eventual attack. | |||||
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10. fxg5 |
I gladly take the g-pawn forcing the knight at f6 to move. This does isolate my e-pawn though, but I had calculated out the continuation 10. ... Nd5 11. Nxd5 exd5 12. exd6 trading it for black's e-pawn creating more open lines for my eventual attack on his then exposed king. | |||||
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10... Nd5 |
Other options cause the loss of the knight or other material. | |||||
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11. Nxd5 |
Going with my previous calculation to break up black's pawn structure. | |||||
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11... exd5 12. exd6 |
The holes are starting to form. | |||||
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12... Bxd6 |
Black had a few options here, hxg5 was what I perceived best at the time keeping us close to equality. | |||||
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13. Nxc6 |
This move had 2 benefits, the first being that it releases my queen from guard duty allowing me to develop her and then castling my king to safety on the queenside. The second benefit is that it destroys the pawn structure of a6 and b7, a haven for the black king should he make it to a7. I also contemplated Qe2+ here but decided to go against the needless check and go with the more positional move. | |||||
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13... bxc6 |
Three isolated pawns and a very open position for black, not looking good for defensive purposes. This compared to white's position where after castling my position looks solid. | |||||
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14. Qd2 |
This took my a while to decide, I also looked at Qd4 placing my queen in the center of the board but this comes up against 14. ... Qe7+ 15. Kd2 losing my castling privilege and losing a tempo really (15. Be2 is met with Be5 forcing my queen back). So I went with the quieter move of Qd2. | |||||
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