Our second-favorite professional chess league (the US Chess League is our favorite and our third-favorite, before you ask, is the English 4NCL), the German Schach Bundesliga, is entering its last month with the final four matches this April. The 2015-16 season finds something truly unexpected: The dominant Baden-Baden OSG team, the defending champion and winner of the last nine seasons, is in second place.
With a seemingly endless flow of money and players like Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian, Baden-Baden has always seemed invincible. Perhaps not this year. The team will have to make up a match and several game points in the last month to be the league champion for a 10th year in a row.
Today’s game comes from the first board encounter between Jan-Krzysztof Duda, 17, of Poland, and the Israeli grandmaster Maxim Rodshtein. In the game, Duda came up with a quiet novelty that seems quite effective. To gain open lines against Black’s king, he sacrificed two pawns. Rodshtein took the pawns but was unable to find an effective defense and fell to a simple tactic.
2015–16 Bundesliga, Hamburger SK v. SK Schwäbisch Hall
Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2645) — Maxim Rodshtein (2673)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.Nc3 0–0 6.Qc2 d6 7.a3 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 Nbd7 9.h3!? Everything up to here is pretty common place, but this is new. It’s a bit of mystery, but we will see in a few moves what the idea is. 9...b6 10.e4 e5 11.d5 Nc5 12.Nd2 Bd7 13.Be2 Ne8 14.Bg4 Now we see the point of 9.h3. White is trying to maintain control over f5, which will prevent Black from getting his main source of counterplay — f5, leaving White with a free hand on the queenside. 14...Nf6 Back the knight comes, sadly, a tempo less. 15.Bxd7 Qxd7 16.g4!? Now we see the second point of 9.h3. 16...a5 17.f4 Rfe8 If 17...exf4 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.0–0 Qe7 20.Rxf4 seems unacceptable to anyone other than a computer. 18.fxe5 dxe5 19.0–0 h5!? At first the computer loved this move, but it changes its “mind’’ later 20.Rf5! Jettisoning material to open lines against Black’s king. 20…hxg4?! Black never really gets back on his feet after this. Better is the more cautious 20...a4 safeguarding his knight. Then after 21.g5 Nh7 22.Nf3 it seems about equal. 21.Raf1 gxh3 22.b4 Driving Black’s only good piece back. 22...axb4 23.axb4 Nb7 24.Kh1 Ng4 25.Qd3 Nd6 25...f6 fails to 26.Qg3 Nh6 27.Rxf6 26.Rh5 This rook does get around. Now, the h-file is the avenue of attacking Black’s king. 26...g6 hoping to defend with Kg7 and Rh8 but it does not quite work. 27.Rh4 Kg7 28.Qh3 was threaten. 27...g5 was a computer idea but after 28.Rh5 f6 29.Qxh3 Nf7 30.c5 White has a small but significant advantage with play on both sides of the board for just the cost of a pawn. 28.Qg3! Not 28.Qxh3 as 28...Rh8 defends. 28...Ra3 or 28...f5 29.exf5 gxf5 30.Rf4! Kg8 31.Rhxg4+ fxg4 32.Rxg4+ Kf8 33.Rg8+ Ke7 34.Qg5+ Kf7 35.Qg7# 29.Qxh3 Now 29…Rh8 is not possible 29...Nf6 The computer “thinks’’ 29...Nf2+ is Black’s best chance to survive but it has to be losing after just 30.Qxf2. 30.Rh7+! Winning Black’s queen 30...Nxh7 or 30...Kf8 but 31.Qh6+ Ke7 32.Qg5 Kd8 33.Rxf6 Kc8 34.Bxe5 is just too strong. 31.Qxd7 Rxc3 32.Qxc7 Rh8 33.Kg2 Rd3 34.Rf2 Nf6 35.Qxd6 Ng4 36.Nf1 Now 36…Nxf2 37.Kxf2 leaves Black down too much material with nothing to show for it. So, Black gave up; 1–0
