 American Juniors: Krush and Hummel Continue to Impress
By GM Vaska
Numerous games
of Irina Krush have been published lately, in addition to her own release of
a two-volume set of videos from the Chess Superstore, entitled "Krushing
Attacks". In this article, GM Vaska brings us a recent effort by rising
star Patrick Hummel.
Lots of recent attention has been focused on the spectacular rise of 15-year old 1998
US Women's Champion Irina Krush. She is by far the most promising female talent the United
States has ever produced. She could well go on to become a GM (not to mention WGM).
In the area of young American boys showing world-class potential there hasn't been much
to write about--until very recently. 15-year old Patrick Hummel of Las Vegas, fresh from
winning the 1999 National High School Championship at age 14 (only future GMs Michael
Rohde and Larry Christiansen have matched this feat at such an age) went on to earn an
International Master norm at the Continental Chess Assoc. "Chesswise International
Open" held June June 12-17 in Stratton Woods, Vermont.
Hummel is a steady player with an alert tactical eye. In Stratton Woods his lineup of
opponents included five GMs, a strong IM and strong masters Angelina Belakovskaya and
Camil Yermolinsky. He acquitted himself well against this field, scoring 50% and notching
victories over GMs Gildardo Garcia and Gennadi Timoshenko. He also defeated the non-FIDE
rated Peter Landon to go +1 in the tournament which put him just above the requirement for
an IM norm.
Here is Hummel's win over GM Timoshenko (FIDE 2592).
White: Patrick Hummel
Black: GM Gennadi Timoschenko
Chesswise International 1999
King's Indian Defense
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 0-0 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0
Nc6 8 d5 Ne7 9 Ne1 Nd7 10 Be3
This is one of the earliest systems employed against the King's
Indian. With the exception of GMs Korchnoi, Piket and D Gurevich, it has lost popularity
because of the free hand it gives Black organizing a Kingside attack. Dutch GM Jeroen
Piket has reinvigorated the line recently, using it to score a crushing victory over
Vassily Ivanchuk in Wijk aan Zee 1999.
10...f5 11 f3 f4 12 Bf2 g5 13 a4 [13 Rc1 is more
common, intending to support pressure on the c-file]
13...a5 [13...Ng6 is sharper. Ziegler-Shulman,
Goteborg 1999 continued 14 a5 Kh8 15 Nb5 Nf7 16 Nxa7 Bd7 17 c5 g4! 18 c6 g3 19 hxg3 bxc6
20 Nxc6 (20 dxc6!?, 20 g4!?) Bxc6 21 dxc6 Nh5! and Black had sufficient play on
the kingside darksquares to hold the balance. 13...a5 is designed to slow down White's
queenside play.]
14 Nd3 b6 15 Be1 [Yusupov-Kasparov, Yerevan
Olympiad continued 15 b4 axb4 16 Nxb4 Bd7 17 Ra3 Bd7 and Black had few problems (1/2-1/2
31) Hummel plans to break capture on b4 with bishop which helps White open lines on the
queenside. The question is whether this maneuver is too slow.]
15...Nf6 16 Nf2 Nd7? [16...h5 looks like a must.
The text just seems to waste precious time.] 17 Nb5 Nc5 18 b4 axb4 19 Bxb4 Kh8 20
a5 [White is clearly better now. Black must suffer with a passive position with
little hope for counterplay as he must continuously respond to White's queenside
pressure.]
20...Ba6 21 axb6 cxb6 22 Nd3! [Trading off a
passive piece for an active one.] Qd7 23 Nxc5 dxc5? [After this Black's
game becomes totally hopeless. He should try to keep his pawn structure somewhat intact
with 23...bxc5 24 Bc3 though his position is pretty joyless in the face of a plan
involving Qb3, Ra5, Rfa1 etc.] 24 Bc3 Bb7 25 Qb3 Rae8 26 Rfb1
[Threatening to win the b-pawn with 27 Na7!] Nc8 27 Na7 Rf6 28 Nxc8 Bxc8 29 Qa4!
[Now if Black trades queens the b-pawn is a certain casualty.] Qe7 30 Qa7 Qd6 31
Ra2 [Calmly preparing to snack on the poor creature on b6 with 32 Rb2.] Re7
32 Qa8 Qc7
White to move and win!
33 d6! Rxd6 34 Ra7! Black resigns Black
is either mated or faces catastrophic material loss.
On
a different note...
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