Icelandic GM gives a whippersnapper a whuppin’
I had just taken up the Dragon a couple of months before this game was played, and was eager to show off my many moves of memorized theory in the main lines of the Yugoslav attack. Here, Hjartarson quelled my youthful ambitions with the solid
A good practical choice for the first round of an open swiss; White avoids heavy theoretical variations against a young unknown (me) and makes the game more positional in nature. As it turned out, I was only vaguely familiar with the line, exemplified later by my planless middlegame play.
Popularized in the 1980’s by Karpov as an alternative to 8.Be3, this moves sucks dry much of Black’s active play and intends to develop a grip on the position.
More popular is 9… Be6 or 9… a6 , although the text is certainly viable.
10. a4 Be6 11. f4 Qc8
A standard move, preventing f5, and planning …Rd8 with ideas of …d5. However, I remember not really feeling comfortable in this position due to inexperience.
I later learned the Rf2-d2 was employed by Karpov several times in this line.
13… Nd7 14. Kh1 Re8 15. Rd2 Nb6 16. Nd5 Bxd5 17. exd5 Nb8 18. c3 h6?!
Today I would have avoided this unnecessary voluntary weakening move. Years of experience accumulated in the intervening years has shown me that little pawn moves like this often have serious consequences in the future. Better was 18… N8d7+/=
White gives up control of e5, but softens my kingside.
21… g5
22. Bf2 Qc8 23. Nb5 Nc4 24. Rc2 Nce5 25. c4 Nc5 26. Ra3!
I don’t remember if I realized back then that this rook was going to be the cause of my downfall, but it’s rather obvious now!
26… Na6 27. Be4 Nb4 28. Rc1 Nd7 29. Rh3 Na2 30. Ra1 Nb4 31. Bd4 Nf6 32. Bd3 Qd7 33. Qd2 Rac8 34. Rf1 Ng4?
Black’s game falls apart completely after this, although the position was difficult anyways. Now Johann hurts me.
Ouch!
38… fxe6 39. Rxf6! Rxc4 40. Rhxh6 Rf4 41. Rxf4 Nxd5 42. Rff6 1-0 [Robert Sasata]