[BrianWall-ChessList] Zen Master

Thu Mar 15 17:25:03 MDT 2007

[Event "Denver Chess Club Tuesday Night Tournament"]
[Site "DCC, 1st Presbyterian Church, 1st and Acoma, Denver, Colo"]
[Date "2007.03.13"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Daoud ( Dad plus dude ) Zupa"]
[Black "brianwall"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ICCResult "Drawn by mutual agreement"]
[WhiteElo "1985"]
[BlackElo "2235"]
[Opening "Réti opening"]
[ECO "A04"]
[NIC "QP.10"]
[Time "11:59:38"]
[TimeControl "Game/90, no increment, no delay"]

Denver Chess Club Tuesday night

Round 2

Game/90

no increment, no delays

White -
Daoud Zupa
1935

Black -
Brian Wall
2235

Daoud Zupa is a walking contradiction - pacifist vegetarian on the outside,
passionate warrior gone crazy on the inside. Every day is a tightrope walk
for Daoud. Daoud is like a muscular 140 pound jaguar intent on mauling
zookeepers disguised under a Thai dye cape and a flower in his mane.

A couple of months ago some Chessplayers were discussing Daoud Zupa
and the concensus was - Daoud cannot calculate - or rather, it makes him
uncomfortable. Like Bill Weihmiller, he seems to understand every positional
rule ever laid down but he doesn't like to get his hands messy. I thought of
that when I was helping Eric Scott, a 20 year old chessplaying cowboy airplane
mechanic living with me, take out his alternator. Daoud is a natural born
philosopher and can understand the themes of a Chess game - he gives lectures
at the DCC. The only problem is when things get really dirty and tactical he
tries to find an easy solution with pure logic and that lets him down. Our
games are a little like Capablanca and Alekhine games. Alekhine was ready to
work his butt off to unravel any Gordian knot, Capablanca searched for the
simplest solution. What was funny is that Anthea overheard the conversation and
used that information to beat him. She told herself - Don't simplify, keep it
tricky. Tim Brennan is still pleading for that game but Anthea's scoresheets
disappear somewhere between the morning dew and the afternoon garbage truck. She
considers it beneath her dignity to keep records.

Students to Confucius -
Please, Master, why do you not write down your great thoughts?

Confucuis pointing upwards -
Sky does not speak, Sky does not speak.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Botvinnik to Spassky -

Boris, could you guess what Petrosian would play?

Spassky - No.

Botvinnik, sighing - Neither could I

It seemed I could predict almost every one of Daoud's moves,
standard positional stuff.

I have known Daoud a long time, our children have played together as babies.
Nandy Zupa beat the hell out of me and my son Devon as I remember.

1. Nf3

Daous hides on the first three ranks of life
and tries to prevent anyone from touching him.

1 ... c5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O Nc6 5. e4 e6 6. d3 Nge7
7. Nbd2 O-O 8. c3 d5 9. Re1 b5 10. e5 f6

I didn't want some stock attack with h4, Nf1-h2-g4
so I took a positional risk and accepted a backwards e-pawn.

Korchnoi -
Grandmasters are keen to sense the course the opponent
wants to take and try to follow a new path.

11. exf6 Bxf6 12. Nb3 TN

Theoretical Novelty by Daoud Zupa

I like Zupa's move - 12 Nf1 has been played before.

I saw my next move was bad, forgot, played it
and remembered it was bad before Daoud moved.
Somewhere deep inside Daoud's coat his cell phone sang to me.

12 ... Qd6 13. Be3

The point is that
13 Be3  d4  14 cd
sucks for me due to the
Bg2-c6-a8 diagonal.

Daoud Zupa's pieces have sifted into my
position like his name sifts into your ears.

13 ... c4 14. Bc5 Qc7 15. Nbd4 Nxd4 16. Bxd4 Nc6 17. Bxf6 Rxf6 18. d4

Secret Chessmaster thoughts -
Worst case scenario -
Daoud has an easy positional advantage
well within his grasp of understanding.

Kasparov -
Kamsky plays very well within a very limited range of positions.

I was mad at myself not so much for the lousy position I got
but for the easy paint-by-the-numbers exploitation possible
with mega-predictable moves.

18 ... Rb8

I calmed myself down with the following thoughts

1- I played the French for 5 years straight -
This is almost a normal French position. French players
are very tough defensively and can guard e6 forever.

2- Daoud cannot simply pile up on e6-
all my pieces can defend this square -
he must do more.

3- Karpov and Korchnoi were extremely resilient -
they would grimly hang on forever

4- Philipp Ponomarev can beat anyone in Colorado from any position,
even two pieces down like he did against Imre Barlay.

5 - I might get some c3 counterplay with ... b4

19. a3 a5 20. Ne5 Nxe5 21. Rxe5 Bd7 22. Qe2 Kg7 23. Bh3 Rb6 24. Re1 Qd6

So far Daoud has had his way with me all game -
It looks like just another Zupa DCC crush.

25. g4 h6 26. g5 hxg5 27. Qe3

This is the first Zupa move I didn't expect -
I counted on R:g5 which he does later -
I think he is pre-guarding c3

27 ... b4 28. axb4 axb4 29. Rxg5 bxc3 30. bxc3 Rb2 31. Re2 Rb1+ 32. Kg2

I expected 32 Re1 -
I jump at the chance for counterplay, not knowing where it leads.
Anything is better than being tied to a chair being beaten and interrogated.
I couldn't tell all game whether he wanted to win, lose or draw -
must be a poker player.

32 ... Qa3

This is like a captured spy crashing through a window while still tied to the
chair, hoping to escape to the river bank and dodge bullets underwater.

33. Rg3

Overprotecting g3 but now I go King hunting.

33 ... Qa1 34. Bg4 Rh1 35. Kh3 Qf1+

I couldn't tell what was really happening but I didn't care.
These are precisely the positions Daoud messes up.
I was afraid  36 Kh4  R:h2+  37 Kg5
might be one of those King on the attack positions like
Short-Timman.
Maybe interposing on move 37 is OK too.

36. Rg2 Rg1 37. f3 Rxg2 38. Rxg2 e5

An awesome move visually -
I felt like a Chessmaster again.

Time for the rest of the game -
Zupa -  5
Brian - 5

The idea is  38 ... e5  39  B:d7  R:f3+
I couldn't tell if
38 ... e5  39 Q:e5  Q:f3+  40 Rg3  B:g4+  41  Kh4 saved Daoud.
I thought he might avoid it because he goes down a piece temporarily.
I predicted his next move.

39. Kg3 e4

Chris Peterson was watching and urged me to move faster and fatsir next game
which I did with Bill Weihmiller the next night at Poor Richard's.
I saw Peterson's suggestion of 39 ... B:g4  40  fg  e4
but I was so aesthetically pleased with my next move I couldn't resist.
It seemed like magic for a backwards pawn attacked 4 times to
somehow move forward twice through a hail of bullets.
I thought of the God Berserker which makes men mad in war,
my e-pawn was a hero to me, a soldier gone insane who jumps in front of the
enemy and fires in all directions with no regard to his safety,
my e-pawn was Rambo and I was the Colonel who wouldn't let him down.
I was exhilarated with my own brilliance, triumphing over Zupa's banal play
with sheer imagination. I felt like I had already won the game -
why should I have to make more moves after playing 38 ... e5-e4!!! -
Where were the gold pieces? Heathens, hicks, cowboys, pearls before swine
flashed through my head. This position should be embossed, glorified, adored.

40. Qf2 Qxf2+

Both Daoud and Chris expected  40 ... Qd3

41. Rxf2 Bxg4 42. fxg4

42 K:g4 looks drawish -
I may have missed wins with
39 ... B:g4  and  40 ... Qd3

42 ... Rxf2 43. Kxf2 g5

Daoud offered a draw, I declined but then figured even if I
was winning 30 seconds might not be enough to complete all
my moves. I forgot my own clock so I had no increment or delay.

We ended up playing about 10 moves and then repeating for the draw.

1/2 - 1/2  after 10 more moves

Dvoretsky calls two pawns coming doen at the King trousers.
Let's see what happens. My King runs to the Queenside,
Daoud plays h4 and we are off to the races.

Hypothetical -
43 K:f2  g5  44 Kg3  Kf7  45 Kf2  Ke6  46 Kg3  Kd6
47 Kg2  Kc6  48 Kf2  Kb5  49 h4  gh  50 g5 h3
51 g6  e3+  52 K:e3  h2  53 g7  h1(Q)  54 g8(Q) Qc1+
55 Kf2  Qd2+  56 Kg1  Qe3+  57 Kh2  Q:c3  58 Q:d5+  Kb4
59 Qc5+  Kb3  60 d5  Qd2+  61 Kh3 c3  62 d6  c2
63 Qb5+    Ka2  64  Qb5+  Ka2  65 Qa4+

I see no clear win - do you?

Ok I am not sure how many wins or blunders I missed
near the end of the game but it seems a crime I didn't win
once my e-pawn got rolling. My one consolation is that
I hardly deserved a win from my middle game position.

Daoud Zupa was a happy Hobbit. -
" I've never drawn you before! "

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Event "Denver Chess Club Tuesday Night Tournament"]
[Site "DCC, 1st Presbyterian Church, 1st and Acoma, Denver, Colo"]
[Date "2007.03.13"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Daoud ( Dad plus dude ) Zupa"]
[Black "brianwall"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ICCResult "Drawn by mutual agreement"]
[WhiteElo "1985"]
[BlackElo "2235"]
[Opening "Réti opening"]
[ECO "A04"]
[NIC "QP.10"]
[Time "11:59:38"]
[TimeControl "Game/90, no increment, no delay"]

1. Nf3 c5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O Nc6 5. e4 e6 6. d3 Nge7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8.
c3 d5 9. Re1 b5 10. e5 f6 11. exf6 Bxf6 12. Nb3 Qd6 13. Be3 c4 14. Bc5 Qc7
15. Nbd4 Nxd4 16. Bxd4 Nc6 17. Bxf6 Rxf6 18. d4 Rb8 19. a3 a5 20. Ne5 Nxe5
21. Rxe5 Bd7 22. Qe2 Kg7 23. Bh3 Rb6 24. Re1 Qd6 25. g4 h6 26. g5 hxg5 27.
Qe3 b4 28. axb4 axb4 29. Rxg5 bxc3 30. bxc3 Rb2 31. Re2 Rb1+ 32. Kg2 Qa3 33.
Rg3 Qa1 34. Bg4 Rh1 35. Kh3 Qf1+ 36. Rg2 Rg1 37. f3 Rxg2 38. Rxg2 e5 39. Kg3
e4 40. Qf2 Qxf2+ 41. Rxf2 Bxg4 42. fxg4 Rxf2 43. Kxf2 g5

1/2 - 1/2  after 10 more moves
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This game follows mine for 11 moves.
IM Bill Paschall calls Mamedov " Mamedyarov Lite "
They are both from Azerbajian like Kasparov and Radjabov -
Mamedyarov is 2700,
Mamedov is about 2500 FIDE

[Event "UKR-ch U18 sf"]
[Site "Dnipropetrovsk"]
[Date "2005.12.??"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Mamedov,Ruslan"]
[Black "Shevtsov,Nikolay"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Eco "A08"]

1.e4 e6 2.d3 c5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.0-0 Nge7 7.Re1 0-0 8.c3 d5
9.Nbd2 b5 10.e5 f6 11.exf6 Bxf6 12.Nf1 b4 13.Bg5 Nf5 14.Qd2 Rb8 15.Bf4 Rb6
16.Ne5 Nxe5 17.Bxe5 Bd7 18.h4 Bxe5 19.Rxe5 Qb8 20.Rae1 bxc3 21.bxc3 Rb2
22.Qg5 Rxa2 23.h5 Ng7 24.R5e2 Rxe2 25.Rxe2 Nxh5 26.Qe7 Qc8 27.Bh3 Ng7
28.Ne3 Rf7 29.Qg5 Kh8 30.Ng4 Bb5 31.Ne5 Rb7 32.Qf6 Qe8 33.c4 dxc4
34.dxc4 Ba4 35.Bxe6 Qe7 36.Nf7+ Kg8 37.Nh6+ Kh8 38.Qa1 Be8 39.Re3 Qg5
40.Bd7 Qxe3 41.fxe3 Rxd7 42.Qf6  1-0

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