A Tough Game at the Asia Team

By WGM Wang Lei

The recent Asia team championship took place in a scenic region of Shenyang, China. Known as the "chess board mountain", this elevated retreat has the freshest air around, making it a very ideal place for anyone to play his best chess.

China had high hopes to win in both the men's and women's sections. Unfortunately, the men lost because of inadequate rest after the World Cities championship, and so China had only the women's team to focus its hope on. Since I was playing on board one, all the attention was focused on me, and believe me, I felt much pressured to win.

The critical game was against India. Since my opponent was rated 100+ points below me, from the very beginning, I decided to try for a win by complicating the position. My opponent rose to task by responding with equally aggressive moves, after which the game took on very dynamic possibilities. In the already complicated position, my opponent sacrificed a pawn to which I countered with a brilliant exchange sacrifice, only to be met with yet another pawn sacrifice. At this point, I had a significant advantage, but defending my position clearly took a toll on my time, and because of it, I could not enjoy my artistic pawn structure and winning position for long, and blundered.

Wang Lei (elo 2440) -
Nijayalakshmi Subbaraman (elo 2326)
Asian Team, 1999
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1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 c5

Nimzo-Indian defense. Another popular choice is 4…0-0 5.a3 Bc3 6. Qc3.

5. dxc5 O-O 6. a3 Bxc5 7. Nf3 b6 8. Bg5 Bb7 9. e4 Be7

In general, the move order is very important in the opening. Specifically, in this opening, it's better to play 9…h6 first, 10.Bh4 then 10…Be7.

10.Rd1 h6 11. Bf4 Qc8

I played this position before, which continued with 11...a6 12. Be2 Nc6 13. Qd2 Bc8 14. O-O. White has an advantage. 11... Na6 12. Be2 Nc5 13. Rd4 Nh5 14. Be3 d6 15. e5 Qb8 16. exd6 Bxd6 17. b4 Na6 18. Qd2 Be7 19. Bxh6+- was played in the game Seirawan-Heyken, 1989. 11...Qc8 is quite reasonable with the idea of playing Rd8 and d5 to open up the center.

12. e5

I thought for a long time here after which I decided to complicate the center. I was afraid of Bf3 but after 13.gf, in my opinion, the open g-file and Black's weak light square would be enough compensation for my weak pawn structure.

12... Nh5 13. Be3 Bc5 14. Bc1

I purposely kept the dark-squared bishop to keep an eye on f4 and prevent easy access of my opponent's knight at h5.

14... a5 15. Be2 f5 16. Na4

16. O-O Qe8 17. b3 is good. But in the game, I wanted to try for a possible initiative first before castling.

16... Qe8

If 16... Na6 then 17. Nd4 Qe8 18. Nxc5 bxc5 19. Nb5 and Black's h5 knight and the d6 square have become very weak.

17. Nxc5 bxc5 18. Be3 Na6 19.Qa4 f4 20. Bc1 Bc6 21. Qxa5 g5

White is a pawn up with Black having more space and kingside attacking chances.

22.Qc3 Ng7 23. Kf1 Nf5 24. Ne1

With the idea of playing Bf3 to exchange off Black's active bishop.

24... Nd4

24...Nh4 puts White under more pressure. Now after 24...Nd4, I can trade my pieces to free my position.

25. Rxd4 cxd4 26. Qxd4

Because White's king is safer than Black's king, and also because Black's pieces are poorly coordinated, White can really take advantage of this situation by advancing the h-pawn. But Black's next move was totally unexpected.

26... d5!?

Thus sacrificing another pawn to activate the pieces.

27.exd6 e5 28. Qc3 Nc5 29. b4 Na4 30. Qc2 e4 31. c5

White's pawn chain a3,b4,c5,d6 looks rather funny. I believed that White is winning now but the problem is I was in time trouble and a little confused with the many move choices.

31... Bd5 32. f3!

Fixes the pawn structure.

32... e3 33. Bc4

33. h4 Qf7 34. hxg5 hxg5 35.Rh6 with good attacking chances.

33... Bxc4+ 34. Qxc4+ Qf7 35. Qxf7+ Rxf7 36. Nc2?

36. g4! Re8 37. h4 Re5 38. hxg5 hxg5 39. c6 Rd5 40. d7 Rf8 41. Rh2 Kf7 42. Rc2 Ke7 43. Ke2 Rh8 44. Ng2 with winning chances.

36... Rf5 37. g3

37. Ke2 Rd5 38. Re1 Nc3+ 39. Kf1 and White is better.

37... Nxc5 38. gxf4 gxf4 39. Rg1+ Kf7 40. Nd4??

A most serious blunder at the last move of the time control. 40. Nxe3 fxe3 41.bxc5 Rxc5 42. Bxe3 Rd5 43. Bf4 or 40. bxc5 Rxc5 41. Rg2 Rac8 42. d7 Rd8 43.Bb2 Rxd7 44. Rg7+ Ke8 45. Rxd7 Kxd7 46. Nd4 Rh5 47. Kg2 all lead to slight better endings.

40... Rd5

White's position suddenly becomes hopeless as Black is going to grab White's pawns one by one.

41. bxc5 Rxd4 42. Ke2 Rc4 43. Kd3 Rxc5 44. Bb2 Rb5 45. Bd4 Rxa3+ 46. Kc4 Rg5 47. d7 Ra4+ 48. Kc3 Rd5 0-1

It's a pity that I lost such a promising game. I am generally a positional player and seldom encounter such dynamics. Despite the loss, I still immensely enjoyed playing this very exciting game.