Analysis: Nicholas - Jimmy, Selangor Open

Even though Nicholas has already been around for a long time, this is only our first meeting. As usual, I considered what to play for. I had black so a draw is a good result, but I wanted to keep some chances too. The night before, I had a brief look at the Slav and decided which line to play.

[Event "Selangor Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2010.05.01"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Nicholas Chan"]
[Black "Jimmy Liew"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "D17"]
[BlackElo "2315"]
[Annotator "Liew,Jimmy"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[SourceDate "2010.05.03"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 Bb4



Those of you following the current world championship match will know that Anand played ...c5 in games two and four. Anand drew both games easily but he never had any winning possibilities. Blacks position is solid but too passive for anything other than holding a draw.

8. Nxc4 c5 9. dxc5 Qxd1+ 10. Kxd1


Both of us were out of our prep here. Nicholas thought 10...Bxc5 was the best continuation. During the game, I thought it better to recapture with a knight

O-O 11. e4 Rd8+ 12. Kc2 Bg6 13. Be3 Nbd7

13... Nfd7 regains the pawn and prevents white next move. But I wanted to keep this knight on f6 where there is a possible sacrifice as well as a later ...Nd5

14. c6 bxc6

Although the pawn blocks the c-file and shelters the white king
from checks I really did not mind because the c6 pawn controls a key square on
b5 as well as supporting d5 square when I can place my knight there.

15. Bd3 Bc5

In the post-mortem, Nicholas said he thought 15...Nd5 was the best move
during the game

16. Bf4 Bd4 17. Ne2 Nc5

I thought I had something here. Black is threatening 18...Nd5} (17... c5 {is probably the only other move.
After 18. Nxd4 cxd4 19. b4 white's king is reasonably safe.

18. Nxd4

I mistakenly thought this was bad and white had to play the line 18. Rhd1 Nd5
19. exd5 Nxd3 20. Rxd3 exd5

18... Nxd3

18... Rxd4 19. Be3 Rdd8 20. Bxc5 is really bad for black as he has two weak queen-side pawns and his pieces on the king-side are out of action

19. Kxd3 c5 20. Bd6 cxd4 21. Kxd4 Rac8 22.Rac1 Rxc4+ 23. Kxc4 Rxd6 24. Rhd1

Black's back rank weakness is his undoing. There is no way to avoid trading rooks.

Rc6+ 25. Kd4 Rxc1 26. Rxc1

There is no stopping the white queen-side pawns as both black minor pieces are unable to come to the queen-side

26... Ne8 27. Rc8 f5 28. e5 Bh5 29. b4 g5 30. b5 Kf8 31.
a5 g4 32. Rc3 gxf3 33. gxf3 Ke7 34. b6 axb6 35. axb6 1-0