Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia arrived here this year to train fellow Armenian, Varuzhan Akobian for the US Chess Championship. While he was in the US, he decided to play in the Chicago Open, a well-populated (19 grandmasters) Swiss tournament that he had won once before. He repeated this feat this year, a half-point ahead of the field. Here is a game, which he won as White v. Daniel Ludwig, a student at Texas Christian University, who tied for 2d through 8th.   

The opening transposes into a Slav defense, with White electing to fianchetto his king’s bishop into a position that resembles a King’s Indian Defense. Patrick Wolff says it does not quite give the Black pieces equality. On the 15th move, Sargissian gave his opponent the two bishops in order to save a tempo. Ludwig promptly developed his queen at h4 and had to retreat it two moves later. The loss of tempi proved fatal, as Ludwig yielded a pawn and Sargissian transposed to an end game with far better development. He opened up his rooks with pawn levers and soon triumphed.

a) This position is sometimes played at the highest levels (e.g. Kamsky regularly defends it with Black), but White tends to retain a nagging edge.

b) Black does not quite have time to play 13…Qc7 and to redeploy the rook from a7: 14.Bd2 Raa8 15.Rdc1 and now the threat of 16.cxd5 disrupts Black’s plan.

c)  The “normal” move would be 15.Nxe4, to keep the two bishops, but Sargissian decides it is more important to maximize his control of the key dark squares, c5 and e5.

d) This just seems to lose time for no purpose.

e) Not 17…Bxd4?? 18.g3 and Black loses the bishop.

f) Now the threat of d4-d5 is so strong that Black feels the need to abandon the b-pawn! Clearly Black needs to find a better plan during moves 13-18.

g) White’s technique over the next eight moves is worth studying.

h) Or 25…dxc4 26.bxa6 and the a-pawn will surely cost Black material.

i) Perhaps 28…Nb8 was slightly more tenacious, but the position is basically lost. Note in particular how useless Black’s bishop on g7 is.

j) The a7 pawn will cost Black his knight, after which resistance is pointless.

Sargissian – Ludwig

Chicago Open 2012

Schlechter Slav Defense