Thursday, June 29, 2006

The Simplified Pirc


diagram

White to play.

One of the more interesting games from our match with West Orange was won by Kenilworth Chess Club president Joe Demetrick against Paul Corcoran. Though Joe mishandled the ending in spots (including in the diagram above, where he missed the quickest win), he kept his cool in mutual time pressure to bring home the full point.

The opening Joe used was inspired by ChessFM's "Openings for Amateurs" lecturer Pete Tamburro, who presented the game Bronstein-Benko, Monte Carlo 1969, which was the first high level encounter where White played the following simplifying system against the Pirc: 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4 Bg7 5. e5 dxe5 6. dxe5!? Qxd1+ 7. Kxd1 Ng4 8. Ke1. Despite the early exchange of Queens, White maintains a clear spatial superiority and can create real winning chances in the ending, as Joe demonstrated in his game.

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