Guest Annotator and Penitent: Ron Kownacki After losing to Dr. Tony Ambrad in the second round of the ongoing Club Championship, Ron Kownacki sat down at his computer and typed the game along with some priceless annotations. He distributed it to a computer "newsgroup"--sort of a computer-based bulletin board for chess players, with hundreds of potential readers around the world. With Ron's permission, I have adapted his commentary for use in En Passant. I have added a few notes of my own, which are [enclosed in brackets and marked with my initials. --BWL] Public Humiliation I have sinned tonight in the second round of the 94 Pittsburgh Chess Club Championship, 7-SS on Tuesday nights. I cannot sleep after this game, so I have come to do my penance before the newsgroup readership and all of my other network of chess friends. You may have heard of players resigning in winning positions before... but let me tell you, it's a real shocker when it happens to you! Tony Ambrad (2120) - Ron Kownacki (1915) Tuesday, February 1, 1994 English Defense Time Controls: 30/90, SD/1 We are both about 120 points off our peak ratings. He is 2-1 against me. I am really determined tonight, in a good fighting mood. He takes things a bit too lightly, and pretty soon I'm rolling. In time trouble I wind up giving up the big one anyway - but not due to the position on the board, but strictly from attitude. My apologies for any mistakes; I have no board, just my score sheet; I'm just trying to remember what I thought about during the game. This is stream-of-consciousness penance-taking. 1 d4 4:30, e6 4:36; 2 c4, b6; 3 Nc3, Bb7; 4 Nf3, Nf6; 5 Bg5 4:36, Be7 4:49; I believe that he likes the Nimzo as white, so I try to avoid ...Bb4; I'd rather transpose into main-line QID down the road if possible. [A recent Grandmaster game in this opening was Kamsky-Yudasin, from the FIDE Interzonal held in Biel in 1993, in the January 1994 issue of Chess Life. That game continued 6 e3 h6 7 Bh4 Ne4 8 Nxe4 Bxh4 (8 ... Bxe4 was OK) 9 Bd3 Be7 10 Qb3 (preventing ... Bb4+ and preparing O-O-O). --BWL] 6 e3, Ne4; 7 Bxe7, Qxe7; 8 Bd3, Nxc3; ... and he winds up with Nimzo c-pawns anyway, but without the dark B. I am happy to obtain something concrete; I once failed to double white's c-pawns like this in a similar position, and eventually got crushed by a Q-side pawn roller. Now when I can do it without losing the B, I go for it. 9 bxc3, f5; 10 o-o 4:45, o-o 4:59; 11 a4, Nc6; 12 Qc2, Qf6; This supports the f-pawn, and begins to prepare ...e5 (after further prep, moving the N, possibly playing ...d6.) 13 Rfe1, Na5; I was a bit worried about this N deployment. I like the c-pawn pressure and all the nice squares the N holds, and it gets the B pressure back on e4. But I thought the N might really be needed on the K-side, e.g., on e7 to hold f5, or d8 to go to f7 (for e6-e5). This was one of those oscillating, wavering types of things. But in tournament chess, you are under an obligation to move eventually... If 14 Ne5, I believe something like ...Rad8, then ...d6 gives me a good edge, so the N move seems safe. 14 Rab1?, Bxf3; He is taking things too loosely. Although I am probably better already, this must be a mistake. I take his N here, seeing the position up through white's 18th, and judging that he is tied down without an easy way to get his Q to K-side defense. I figure that this line is fine; but 14...Qg6 may also be good, I should look at it later. It was tempting at the time, but I remember not liking something about it. 15 gxf3 5:08, Qh4 5:33; 16 Kh1, Rf6; 17 Rg1, Rh6; 18 Rg2, Rf8; 18...Rf8 was played quickly; I wonder about this move as I type it in... 19 Rbg1, Kh8; 20 Qe2 5:33, f4 5:44; Played to keep his Q from entering the defense via f3-f4, Qf3. 21 ef, Rh5; I could just take on f4, but I think I have more. My idea is Rh5, Rf6, then Rh6 mating on h2 or chasing the K. [This move allows dangerous shots. Black should have played 21 ... Qxf4 immediately, as we will see. --BWL] 22 Qe4, g6; [White could now have played 23 f5! turning the tables. It threatens 24 Qe5+. If Black prevents this by 23 ... Qxe4, then 24 fe ef 25 ef gf 26 Rg7 gives White excellent winning chances if not a forced win. For instance, 26 ... Rh3? 27 Bxf5! Rxf5?? 28 Rg8 mate, or 27 ... Rxc3?? 28 Rxh7 mate. --BWL] 23 c5, Qxf4; Here I got nervous, Qe4 looked stronger than I thought; so I'm planning to exchange off and eventually work on the a-pawn. I'm at about 5:56, and nearing time-trouble (my great failure-zone). [Black is back in control again. --BWL] 24 cb, ab; 25 Qe2 5:57, Rh3 5:58; A trap, he is clever. Not 25...Qxf3?; 26 Qxf3, Rxf3; 27 Be2 skewering the R's - I almost fell for this at the board. Then I see the trick and find ...Rh3, and see the win of the pawn after Rg3...a pawn is great in time trouble! 26 Rg3, Rxg3; 27 Rxg3, Qc1+; 28 Kg2, Qxc3; 29 Qe5+, Kg8; Now I'm demoralized, because I realize that I just grabbed the pawn without really checking his threats, and my K-side feels drafty. Is there something there? 30 Bxg6? 5:59, resigns?? 5:59 At this point I went into panic mode, and all I looked at was 30...R/Qxf3+, which does nothing, 30...Nc6/c4, too slow, and 30...hxg6; 31 Rxg6+, Kh7 which leads to mate ... and never considered the obvious 31... Kf7 in the last line - which simply leaves me a piece up with a fresh hour to survey the board. This last idea occurred to me while driving home - I couldn't wait to pull out a board and check it out. All I had to do was just take the B, the automatic move! Then a cool hour! I think that the surprise B sac just demoralized me, especially with my bad history of time trouble blunders. I tried to explain this to my wife when I got home, but I'm definitely getting the feeling that she thinks I'm crazy. "I don't understand, why would you resign? Isn't that just a basic rule of chess, don't resign until you get to the time control? Why would you do that?" She's right, of course. This is my penance. - Ron Kownacki [In the final position, White has a perpetual. So Ron wasn't resigning in a won position, he was resigning in a drawn position. Here's how the perpetual goes: 30 Bxg6! hg 31 Rxg6+ Kf7 32 Rf6+ (any other move allows Black to escape immediately with Ke8) 32 ... Ke8 33 Rxf8+ Kxf8 34 Qf6+ Ke8 35 Qg6+ Kd8 36 Qg8+ Ke7 37 Qg7+ Kd6 38 Qe5+, and now Black must acquiesce to the draw with 38 ... Ke7, because 38 ... Kc6?? allows 39 d5+ winning his queen. Black was winning after move 23, but the final position was a draw, so where did Black go wrong? Hindsight tells us that he shouldn't have gone after White's c-pawn. This was an impatient maneuver that left his knight and queen too far from the crucial kingside. --BWL]