Next level openings
I play the Colle Zukertort for three years now, and I'm very successful with it. In the previous posts, I told you that I'm ready for the next level, which is deepening my knowledge about the attacks that can be derived from the Colle Zukertort. I mentioned the video I use for that. Basically, it fills in the Vukovic gap. The part of the game between opening and starting to commit your pieces towards the kingside attack. After which there is no going back.
The same is true for black. For two years now, I play Hammer's first repertoire with black, by GM Jon Ludvig Hammer. It solved my problem that I always got into trouble with black. Basically it is a simple repertoire against everything meant for players below 1400. But anyhow, it solved my problems with black. I am starting to run into the limits of this repertoire, and I feel the need to replace certain variations with more ambitious lines. The good thing is that I can keep everything else the same.
by the way, I won a beautiful game yesterday with this repertoire against a 2100+ player.
 |
| Black to move |
1rr3k1/p4p1p/4pbp1/1q6/3P4/Q2R1N2/PPP2PPP/2KR4 b - - 6 20
Can you guess what I played here?
Actually I already had messed up by falling into an openings trap that costed me two pawns. But I decided to turn these lemons into lemonade by making use of the open lines that were the consequence of my error.
Anyhow, I'm going to replace certain lines with the Nimzo Indan by GM Hammer.
There were two "clues" for me: the White queen is almost out of "safe" moves and there is an "obvious" Epaulette Mate pattern (turned sideways). Combine the two and you get 20... Be7.
ReplyDelete"Look Ma, no word salad!"
I'm not sure about the epaulette mate. It looks like a swallow's tail to me. 1.Qxe7 Rxc2+ 2.Kxc2 Qxb2#
DeleteHe gave up is queen instead, and resigned 11 moves later when I conquered another piece.
Delete[White "Etien"]
Delete[Black "Tempo"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "1750"]
[ECO "C10"]
[Opening "French"]
[Variation "Rubinstein, 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bd3"]
[WhiteElo "2106"]
[Termination "normal"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[WhiteType "human"]
[BlackType "human"]
1. e4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. d4 Ngf6 6. Bd3 Nxe4 7. Bxe4 Nf6 8. Bg5 Be7 9. Bxf6 Bxf6 10. Qd3 g6 11. Bxb7 Bxb7 12. Qb5+ c6 13. Qxb7 O-O 14. O-O-O Qa5 15. Qb3 c5 16. Rd3 c4 17. Qxc4 Rfc8 18. Qb3 Rab8 19. Qa3 Qb5 20. Rhd1 Be7 21. Qb3 Qa6 22. Kb1 Rxb3 23. axb3 Qc6 24. Rc3 Qb7 25. Rxc8+ Qxc8 26. c4 Qb8 27. Kc2 Qf4 28. c5 a5 29. Rd2 Qg4 30. Ne1 Bg5 31. f3 Qf4 32. Rd1 Qe3 0-1
I based the Epaulette Mate description on Chess Tempo's definition and example:
DeleteLINK: https://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs#Epaulette%20Mate
"What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
My personal (eccentric?) view of the Epaulette Mate, Swallowtail (Guéridon) Mate and Dovetail (Cozio’s) Mate is that they are essentially the same pattern with minor (trivial) differences. If the queen is the mating piece, the crucial factor is that the squares of the killbox which are a knight’s distance from the queen’s final position are blocked by the mated king’s pieces or pawns (or controlled by other pieces on the side with the queen. Those are the only two squares that the queen cannot directly control.
DeletePerhaps some players are more comfortable with a more distinctive description. The name (by itself) might make categorization easier for tutorial purposes but does not aid in “SEEing” the essence of the pattern as the possibility evolves during play.