2026 Winter League: Rounds 9, 10
On account of the war with Iran, rounds 9 and 10 of the Jerusalem C-League -- in which my club is participating as part of the Israel Chess Federation's Winter League games -- were postponed to yesterday. We could only muster three of four players to make the journey to Bet Shemesh, where the Gvanim chess club hosted us, and we arrived thirty minutes late due to a car accident on the highway and our driver missing an exit. Fortunately, our opponents were also late and also a player short.
My opponent at Board 1, Yonatan Geffen, played the Marshall Defense against my Queen's Gambit in Round 9, and I played the French Defense against his 1.e4 in Round 10. The first game was a proverbial victory snatched from the jaws of defeat where I came back from a losing position with two desperation rook sacs and opponent resigned on move 50. In the second game, possibly still reeling from the shock of his loss in our first encounter, opponent blundered mate in one on move 14. The match improved my league record to 3-0-2 for the year.
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| Position 1: White to move |
Assigned the white pieces, I opened 1.d4. Black replied 1...d5, and after 2.c4 Nf6 I knew Black was worse. Interestingly, the engine says Black's best move after 3.cxd5 was not 3...Nxd5, nor 3...Qxd5, but 3...c6. I don't remember ever having faced 3...c6. I attacked Black's queen with 4.Nc3, and the queen retreated with 4...Qd8. Sometimes Black pins with 4...Qa5, prompting 5.Bd2, and forks White's b2- and d4-pawns with 5...Qb6, but I know that after 6.Qc2 it is a mistake for Black to chop with 6...Qxd4 because 7.Nb5 threatening 8.Nxc7+ gives White a +4.4 advantage.
I continued 5.e4, whereupon Black should have immediately struck with 5...e5 prompting 6.Nf3, and if 6...Bg4 then 7.Qa4+ is a strong continuation; however, Black replied 5...e6. I pinned with 6.Bg5, threatening 7.e5, so Black unpinned with 6...Be7. The game continued 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.Be2 Bd7 9.0-0 and 9...h6, and while the engine doesn't disapprove of my 10.Bxf6 it preferred relocating the bish with 10.Be3 to exchanging it for Black's knight. Black rechopped with 10...Bxf6, and I correctly attacked with 11.e5. After 11...Bg5 my advantage was a comfortable +1.6 -- but it dropped to +0.6 upon chopping with 12.Nxg5.
1. Why did I choose the move 12.Nxg5?
Black had the bish pair, and the black-square bish was his good bish. Although my f3-knight was an important defensive piece, I considered Black's bish more valuable.
2. Why is my move not ideal?
Gemini argues that Black's bish was misplaced on g5 and that I was better off with that piece there and my knight on f3 than with Black's queen on g5 and no f3-knight. Moreover, I gifted Black a development tempo vis-a-vis the deployment of his queen.
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top move was 12.a3, taking away the b4-square from Black's knight and giving my queen a safe square on c2. 12.a3 also prepped a future b-pawn push.
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| Position 2: White to move |
After Black's 12...Qxg5, I threatened a fork with 13.Nb5. Black retreated his queen with 13...Qd8, and I took the c-file with 14.Rc1. Black kicked my knight with 14...a6, and it withdrew with 15.Nc3. Black castled with 15...0-0, and I pushed 16.a3. The engine considers Black's 16...Rc1 an inaccuracy, and I can only speculate it is because of the the threat of my knight maneuvering to c5.
After my 17.f4 Black began a knight maneuver of his own with 17...Ne7 and 18.d5 Nf5. The engine here wanted 19.Re2, perhaps with the idea of continuing to d2 or c2, but I rook-lifted with 19.Re3 so my bish wouldn't be on the same rank. 19...Nh4 was a mistake, whereas 20.Rd3 was the top move. Black identified the threat to his queen on d8 and relocated her with 20...Qe7. The engine evaluates my advantage in this position as +1.5, but it fell to +0.1 upon playing 21.Ne4.
1. Why did I choose the move 21.Ne4?
I was executing the plan to land my knight on c5 with a fork of bish and pawn.
2. Why is my move not ideal?
As demonstrated by the sequence that ensued, namely 21.exd5 Rxd5 22.Bc6, and in the words of Google Gemini, White is "forced to spend time defending or moving pieces while Black's coordination improves significantly." I had initially thought 21.exd5 was to my benefit given my superior control of the d-file but should have anticipated how the reality on the board would change after 22.Bc6.
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top move was 21.Bg4, possibly to discourage 21...exd4. Is that a move I understand well enough to play in a similar situation? Probably not.
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| Position 3: White to move |
Whether or not my opponent saw the tactic in the manner it was about to unfold I did not ask after the game. Either way, he correctly chopped with 21...exd5, prompting 22.Rxd5 and 22...Bc6. I had one move that would keep the game even but failed to find it and 23.Rd4 sunk the eval bar to -2.1.
1. Why did I choose the move 23.Rd4?
My rook was under attack, and on d4 it defended my e4-knight.
2. Why is my move not ideal?
Black had 23...Nf5 attacking my rook, after which two of my pieces would be under attack. If I moved the rook to c4 Black would knight-fork it and my queen, and if I moved it to b4 then 24...a5 and it would run out of squares.
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
Black's bish was the source of all my problems. Given the situation, its value was equal to or greater than that of my rook. 24.Rxc6 would solve my problems, especially as Black would rechop with the b-pawn and be left with three weak pawns.
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| Bonus position: Black to move |
After Black's 23.Nf5, I tried to complicate things with 24.Nf6+. In a way, it worked. Black replied 24...gxf6, then I chopped Black's bish with 25.Rxc6, and the game continued 25...Nxd4 26.Rxf6 c5 27.Bd3. Here Black had only one move that retained his advantage. He failed to find it, played 27...Qxf6, the eval bar swung from -4.1 to +6.0, and I went on to win the game.
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| Position 1: Black to move |
Assigned the black pieces, I replied to White's 1.e4 with the French 1...e6. White developed with 2.Nf3, and I struck at his center with 2...d5. White advanced with 3.e5 and I pushed 3...c5. We exchanged on the e-file with 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4, and I developed for free with 5...Nc6. After 6.Qf4 the engine wanted 6...Qc7, but I developed my other knight with 6...Nge7. White correctly developed his light-square bish with 7.Bd3, and here I knew the best move was 7...Ng6 but was reluctant to invite the doubling of my g-pawns. Nevertheless, I played the best move and sure enough 8.Bxg6 hxg6 followed. White needed to ignore my open h-file and castle but instead continued 9.Ng5 threatening checkmate. 9...Qc7 was the second-best move by a negligible margin, but after 10.Nf3 my 10...Nb4 threatening a fork was a mistake. The engine wanted 10...Rh5 to triple-attack e5. After 11.Na3 I forked with 11...Nxc2, and an exchanged ensued with 12.Nxc2 Qxc2. White should have castled but instead attacked my queen with 13.Nd4. I ignored a-la danger levels with 13...Bb4+, and White's 14.Kf1 invited 14...Qd1#.
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