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Friday, May 02, 2008
Woodpushers’ Corner: A Comeuppance
"Come on!" I said. "Play me! I've learned more from playing you than from all your teachings rolled together!"
"All right," he said. "On two conditions."
"Name them," I said.
"First, I get to play White."
"Okay."
"Second..." He hesitated, as if he was thinking up something really evil. "The loser has to annotate and post the game."
"What? Why the loser?"
"Because," he said, grinning, "I'm already used to annotating your games, and if you win, you'll have to suffer through my backbiting commentary on our mutual mistakes. It will serve you right."
"Oh, okay. Let's do it!"
And we did:
Fran knows the Sicilian very well, so I figured I'd throw him a curve. In this variation, Black almost always castles Kingside. I had other ideas.
Fetiche the big thinker has wandered into a setup where White, not Black, has all the play on the Queenside. Because my King Bishop is undeveloped, White can now threaten a5, which would fatally weaken the dark squares around my King.
Ow! ...Rxa6 is answered by b5, opening the b-file against my King. I started to wonder if I'd wandered into something he'd been holding in reserve for a while.
"That sinking feeling" grows stronger and stronger. My Queen is embarrassed; there are no good squares for her. It dawned on me at this point that White's pieces are all in the game, while my King Bishop and King Rook are on the sidelines.
A beautiful move, and very contradictory to the usual course of a Sicilian: the c-file is supposed to belong to Black, damn it all!
Once the Queens are exchanged, White's two fast Queenside passed Pawns will win for him, especially given a player with Fran's endgame technique.
I think I've been spanked and sent to my room. But with Fran holding the paddle, it's a pleasure.
(Next time, beloved!)
