Keres Attack Thematic Update

In early August, I mentioned in "Intimidation" that I had joined a thematic tournament featuring the Keres Attack. My first round ended this morning with the resignation of one of my opponents. The tournament has sixty-four players, and we are placed into sixteen quads. The members of each group play each of the others in the group two games, one as White and one as Black. I swept my group with a little luck, and I and the player that gave me the most difficulty advance to the next round.



Teamsheets made a few moves in one game, none in the other, and lost both games by timeout. Nevertheless, he managed to take a point from my nearest rival, PhattyNugget. Newt27 played with spirit, but offered me no real resistance.

Both my games with PhattyNugget could well have been losses. I had White in the first, which quickly went down some uncharted paths.

Ziryab (2074) - PhattyNugget (1728) [B81]
Sicilian Defense: Scheveningen Variation, Chess.com (1), 08.08.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.g4 Nc6 7.g5 Nd7 8.Be3 g6 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.Qd4 e5 11.Qa4 Bb7 12.Bc4 Nb6 13.Bxb6 axb6 14.Qb3 Qc7 15.0–0–0 Bg7 16.h4 h5

White to move


I was oblivious to the presence of a nice tactic from this position.

Then, my position grew steadily worse as I found few opportunities, but Black was able to expand. Finally, an error by my opponent put us into an period of maneuvering our heavy pieces where I had a bishop against his three connected passed pawns. Objectively, it may have been drawn, but I was able to swindle a win.

More later.