YOU MUST BE ABLE TO CALCULATE

by Peter Long

In the Intchess Mixed, the Singapore Leg of the ASEAN Masters Circuit, Daniel Chan finished joint third but could so easily have been second and even had chances to be first.

Like Graham Chua, Daniel is also 12 years old and is a typical young player, always attacking or looking to attack. He is very sharp tactically and always looking to sacrifice for the initiative so material is often unbalanced. 

He is very talented and has no weaknesses except one and as you will see that was fully exploited when I played him.


Daniel Chan-Peter Long
ASEAN Masters Circuit - Intchess Mixed - Singapore

In this position Black has to move his Queen and after that 24. g5 will come and lines will be opened up against his King so there is no going back.

White has ignored the fact that Black had easily equalised out of the opening and instead chose to point as many pieces at he could on Black's King to begin attacking. In doing so he even allowed Black to put a Rook on the second rank, trusting instead on his ability to create sufficient threats and get his attack in first.

But obviously I too had spent a great deal of time calculating variations before allowing this position to be reached and had
also prepared my own sacrifices and counter attack while ensuring Black had sufficient defensive resources.

23. … Qc6 24. g5 Nd5 25. gxh6 Rxb2

Here it is. Black ignores the capture with check on g7 by White's Rook. He is in fact threatening 26. ... Nc3 followed by 27. ... Rxa2 mate. If 26. Kxb2, then 26. ... Ba3! wins.

26. Rxg7+ Kh8 27. Rh7+ Kxh7 28. Qd3 f5 29. Kxb2

Now 29. ... Nb4 would fail to 30. Qb1 so Black has to take the Rook and accept the resulting complications. And this position and the variations that follow had to be worked out long before.

29. ... Nxe3 30. Qxe3 Qxh1 31. Qxe6

In my calculations I had reached this position and I think my young opponent missed my next move.

31. … Ba3+ 32. Kc2 Rc8+ 33. Kd3 Qc6

Now everything holds together!

34. Qxf5+ Kxh6 35. Ne4 Qc2+ 36. Ke3 Bc1+ 37. Kf3 Qd1+ 38. Kg2 Rg8+ 39. Ng3 Qg4 40. Qf6+ Kh7 41. Kf1 Bf4 42. Qe7+ Rg7 43. Qe4+ Kh8 44. Ne2

My next move eliminates White's last attacking resource. Again I had to calculate all this.

44. ... Qxh5 45. Ke1 Bd6 46. Qa8+ Rg8 47. Qxa5 Re8 48. f3 Qxf3 49. Qxb5 Bb4+ 0-1

One of my hardest games in terms of having to work hard calculating varaiation after variation. But being an opening I knew well I was helped by knowing where the pieces should go.



So what are our lessons learnt? I should perhaps start by explaining that Daniel's weakness is not liking to defend. This is very serious because I could almost guess his move because if there was an option to sacrifice or attack he would certainly do so even if it was the poorer choice.

From this game you would have seen that in chess you can't run away from the reality you have to calculate variations and if you can't do that well, all your fine understanding, brilliant strategy, etc. will come to naught.

Many years ago, even after becoming National Champion, I was so weak tactically in comparison to my peers internationally that I had to make a conscious effort to go back to basics and work hard to rectify this to stop embarassing myself. 

What more then when faced with complex analysis involving calculation of many variations together with the need to evaluate and decide which is correct?

Of course I needed to know how and where to put the pieces and to understand what was most important but at the end of the day it is I go here, you go there, I go here! And who does it better usually wins!

Remember, Fritz can't play for you and chess is not a computer game where you get another life!