I’m currently playing in the Spring 2019 Tuesday Night Marathon at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco. We looked at my games from rounds 1 and 2 in previous posts. In this post, we’re going to focus on my game from round 3. I was white against FM Josiah Stearman (currently rated 2387).
Josiah is a strong young master who has won the Tuesday Night Marathon before on multiple occasions, so I was prepared for a tough struggle.
I knew that he plays the Slav Defense against 1. d4, and was eager to try out the Krause Attack, which I had examined in a previous article.
If black decides not to sacrifice on e4, play could proceed as follows
In the game, black opted for 8… c5 instead of castling, which is also very playable.
It’s clear that white should now check on d6 with one of his knights. But which one?
Reveal Solution
Both knight moves are reasonable, and during the game I had a difficult time making up my mind between them. Since white will capture on b7 in either case, the question effectively becomes whether he would rather have a second knight on b5 or c4 at the end of that variation. It seems that having a second knight on c4 would have been slightly more favorable here. One reason is that black would like to meet the check on d6 with Ke7. However:
In the game, I played Ncd6+.
In this position, what is the most effective way for white to convert his advantage?
Reveal Solution
Since black’s light squared bishop is far away on the kingside, the only way black can challenge white’s invading knights is with his rooks. In particular, it seems likely that black will bring a rook to the b file next move if he is allowed. White should not allow this! With 15. Bf4! white could have controlled b8.
During the game, I felt it was more urgent to bring out my light squared bishop so that I could start developing my kingside. However, Bf4 takes away one of black’s only active ideas, and gives white time to develop his other bishop later (likely after moving the b5 knight with tempo due to the discovered attack on a6).
In the game, I decided on 15. Bc4.
A tense game where my preparation in the Krause Attack, and the 8. Nxc4 line in particular paid off.
