Blitz Pawn Sacrifices

In this game, I face off against Women's International Master Gulmira Dauletova. In the middle-game, I notice a chance for an interesting pawn sacrifice to open up my bishop (and play) and can't resist. The game ends in a quick tactical flash. I have left the time used with the notation just for fun.

White: NM Karagianis Black: WIM Dauletova

  1.  d4       (0:01)    Nf6      (0:02)
  2.  c4       (0:01)    e6       (0:00)
  3.  Nf3      (0:02)    Bb4+     (0:00)
  4.  Bd2      (0:01)    a5       (0:01)
  5.  g3       (0:02)    d6       (0:03)
  6.  Bg2      (0:01)    Nbd7     (0:00)
  7.  O-O      (0:02)    e5       (0:01)
  8.  Nc3      (0:04)    exd4     (0:01)
  9.  Nxd4     (0:02)    O-O      (0:00)
 10.  e4       (0:07)    Re8      (0:02)
 11.  Qc2      (0:04)    c6       (0:01)
 12.  Rad1     (0:06)    Nc5      (0:02)
 13.  Rfe1     (0:03)    h6       (0:10)
 14.  a3       (0:02)    Bxc3     (0:02)

It was probably a mistake to play 12. ...Nc5 and then allow me to trade off her dark square bishop. The d-pawn, on a half-open file, is particularly weak.

 15.  Bxc3     (0:00)    a4       (0:06)

For the past few moves I had been imagining how wonderful it would be to have a knight on f5. Here I played a complicated move which causes black serious problems...

 16.  e5!       (0:18)   
The idea is that if 16. ...dxe5 then 17. Nxc6!

16. ... Ng4      (0:13)
 17.  e6?!       (0:16)    
Not best. I probably should have just won a pawn with 17. exd6 Qxd6 18. Nxc6, for example. But I was enthralled with the idea of opening the bishop on the long diagonal and reaching f5 with my knight.

17. ...Nxe6     (0:05)
17. ...Bxe6 was necessary to keep the knight out of f5. 

 18.  Nf5      (0:13)    Qb6      (0:50)
 19.  Nxd6     (0:15)    Rd8      (0:05)
 20.  Qf5      (0:25)    
A nice finishing touch. No knight discovery is useful, and most are met simply by Nxc8 and Qxg4.

20. ...Nf6      (0:39)
 21.  Bxf6     (0:03)    gxf6     (0:00)
 22.  Qxf6     (0:02)    Rf8      (0:02)
 23.  Nf5      (0:02)    Qc5      (0:08)
 24.  Ne7+     (0:02)    Kh7      (0:02)

 25.  Be4+     (0:01)

1-0 (Black Resigns)

Peoria January Tornado

I recently played in the Peoria January Tornado and faced off against two of my stronger students - Advaith and Jason. Both played very well and, in fact, I could have been in trouble against Advaith in the second round if he had found the best continuation.

In the final round, I had an interesting Benoni which entered fairly unique territory rather early.

The following position occurred after 11. ...0-0:

(From game: Krishnamurthy-Karagianis)

Here white tried the ambitious 12. g4?!
After which I played 12. ...h6 intending if 13. g5 hxg5 14. fxg5 Ne5! with an advantage. The game continued:

13. h4 h5
locking up the kingside
14. g5 Ng4
15. Rg1
white is thinking of sacrificing the exchange on g4 to open an attack on the king (maybe via the h-file) but he doesn't have enough pieces in the neighborhood to make it work. This move is too optimistic. He should have tried perhaps 15. Bd2.
15. ...Re8
16. Bd2 c4!
A pawn sacrifice with the idea of opening lines to attack, for example Qb6 (hitting b2 and g1) or even Rc8 (lining up on the c-file in case white decides to castle queenside).
17. Bc2 b5
The main idea of my pawn pushes is to make 0-0-0 look scary for white, but now he blunders...
18. Nxb5?? Qb6!
The rook on g1 is hanging. White loses the knight, and soon after lost the game.

----

My next tournament will be the USAT, where again I am playing with three students as my teammates. Our average team rating is 1916.