R1 Efrain Castilla – Terry Toh (IM 2384)
Playing my first
competitive game in quite a few years, I was feeling rather nervous and hoped
for an easy game. My opponent duly obliged, and the game was over in a record
time of 2 minutes, while the reporters were still taking photographs!
1 e4 c5 2 d3 Nc6 3 f4 e6 4 Nf3 d5 5 Nc3 Nf6 6 Be3?? d4 7 g4 de 8 g5 Nd7 9 Ne2 h6 10 Ng3 Nd4 0-1
R2 Terry
Toh (IM 2384) – Diego Abarca (2097)
The rust clearly
shows here, as I was trying to remember over the board the main lines of the
Slav defence. Somehow, I ended up with an inferior position out of the opening,
and was very glad to take the draw in the rook ending that followed.
1 d4 d5
2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 dc 5 a4 Bf5 6 e3 e6 7 Bc4 Bb4 8 0-0 0-0 9 Qe2 Ne4 10 Ne4
Be4 11 Ne5 Nd7 12 Nd7 Qd7 13 a5 Rfd8 14 f3 Bg6 15 Bd2 Bd2 16 Qd2 e5 17 Rfd1 ed
18 Qd4 Qd4 19 Rd4 Rd4 20 ed Rd8 21 Rd1 Bc2 22 Rd2 Bf5 23 Kf2 Kf8 24 g4 Be6 25
Be6 fe 26 Ke3 Rd5 27 b4 Rb5 28 Rb2 Ke7 29 Kd3 e5 30 de Re5 31 f4 Rd5+ 32 Kc4 b5+
33 ab ab 34 Re2+ Kf7 35 Ra2 Rd1 36 Ra7+ Kf6 37 Rc7 1/2-1/2
R3 Terry
Toh (IM 2384) – Vladimir Sanes (2118)
This game was a badly
needed boost for my morale. When the tactics started flowing, I knew that I was
back in business! I guess the much needed break from chess for the past 4 years
has helped rejuvenate the creative juices!
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Bg5 d5 4 e3 c5 5 c3 (I played this set-up as I wanted to avoid opening theory and further felt that this system was relatively solid and allows for White to play for a win without taking too much risk) Nbd7 6 Nbd2 Qb6 7 Qc2 Bd6 8 Rad1 (a prophylactic measure against e5) 0-0 9 Bd3 h6?! (The weakening of g6 will be felt later in the attack that follows) 10 Bh4 Re8 11 0-0 a6 12 Rfe1 Qc7 13 e4! (White is better developed, so opening up the centre must be the right way to exploit my lead in development) cd 14 Bf6 gf (Of course not 14… Nf6 which walks into the fork 15 e5!) 15 ed dc 16 de Re6 17 Re6 fe 18 Bh7+ Kf8 19 Ne4 Be5 20 Nc3 (I think White has a winning attack here. The threat here is Qg6 – for example 20… Bc3 21 Qg6! Ne5 22 Qg8+ Ke7 23 Ne5 with unstoppable mate, or 20… Ke7 21 Qg6 Nf8 22 Qg7+ Kg8 23 Bg6+ Ng6 23 Qg6+ Qf7 24 Ne5! winning material) f5 21 Bf5! Bc3? (A blunder, but I think Black has no defence. 21… ef 22 Qf5+ and now: A 22… Bf6 23 Rd7 winning; B 22… Kg7 23 Re1 Bf6 24 Qg4+ Kh7 (24… Kh8 25 Qg6; 24… Kf7 25 Qe6+ Kg7 26 Nd5 Qd8 27 Qg4+ Kf7 28 Qh5+ Kg7 29 Re8 Qa5 30 Nf6 winning) 25 Nd5 Qd8 26 Re6 Qg8 27 Qf5+ Qg6 28 Nf6+ Nf6 29 Re7 + winning) 22 Be6 Nf6 23 Bc8 Rc8 24 bc Qc3 25 Rd8+ 1-0
R4 Luis
Cahuana (2197) – Terry Toh (IM 2384)
After my opponent
blundered a pawn, I had to switch from tactical mode to endgame mode. Such an
adjustment is not new to me nowadays, as I have to switch between different hats
in my daily routine, drafting legal agreements and legal opinions for part of
the day, running educational projects with a couple of town councils in Peru at
other times, and missionary work during some nights together with four other
friends who are also here!
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 c6 3 d4 d5 4 e3 Bf5 5 Nc3 e6 6 Bd3 Bd3 7 Qd3 Bb4 8 0-0 0-0 9 Nd2 Nbd7 10 e4? de 11 Nde4 Ne4 12 Ne4 Ne5 13 Qg3 Qd4 14 Nf6+ Kh8 15 Be3 Nf3+ 16 Qf3 Qf6 17 Qf6 gf 18 Rad1 Rfd8 19 Rd8 Rd8 20 Ba7 Rd2 21 Rb1 Rc2 22 g3?! (Black’s only weakness is the h7 pawn; this move takes away the third rank from the rook to attack the pawn!) Rc4 23 Rd1 Kg7 24 Rd7 b5 25 a3 Bc5 26 Bc5 Rc5 27 Rc7 f5 28 Kf1 Rc2 29 h4 e5 30 b3 Rc3 31 b4 Rc2 32 Ra7 e4 33 a4 Rc4 34 ab cb 35 Rd7 Rb4 36 Rd5 Kg6 37 Rd6+ f6 38 Rd8 Rb2 39 Rg8+ Kf7 40 Rb8 b4 41 h5 Kg7 42 Rb5 b3 43 Rf5 Rc2 0-1
R5 Terry
Toh (IM 2384) – Luis Grados
This game brought me
back down to earth. An incredible piece of oversight cost me to lose my queen! I
knew I should play b4 instead of Qa8 on move 12, but at the last minute, I had
illusions of withdrawing the queen back to f3, when having the pawn on b2 would
allow me to play Qc3 defending everything. I simply missed the simple move Bd5
trapping my queen!
1 d4 Nf6
2 Nf3 g6 3 c4 Bg7 4 Nc3 d5 5 Bf4 c5 6 dc Qa5 7 cd Nd5 8 Qd5 Bc3+ 9 Bd2 Be6 10
Qb7 Bd2+ 11 Nd2 0-0 12 Qa8?? (12 b4) Rd8 13 Rd1 Bd5 14 Qd5 Rd5 15 e4 Rd4 0-1
R6 Henry Retamozo (2242) – Terry Toh (IM 2384)
I was quickly in cold
sweat out of the opening, losing a pawn and having a hopelessly passive
position. And then the miracle happened – with my rook and knight, I conjured
up a miraculous attack against the White king! I can’t find my score sheet for
this game, so the best I can do is to reproduce the critical position where the
tide turned!
White: Kh2, Rf8, Bc5, Pf2, e3, d4, d6, g4, h3
Black: Kc6, Nd5, Rb7, Pe6, e4, f5, g7, h6
1… Rb2 2 Kg3 f4+! 3 ef Rb3+ 4 Kh2 Rf3 5 Rf7 Rf2+ 6 Kg1 Rf3 7 Rg7 e3 8 d7 Kc7 9 Be7 Ne7 10 Re7 e2 0-1
R7 Terry
Toh (IM 2384) – Celis Carlos (FM 2343)
The final part of
this game was played badly, as the 2 hour time control had left us with just a
couple of minutes left each to work out the complications, and I needed a huge
blunder from my opponent to win this game. Nevertheless, I guess there is chess
justice somewhere as a draw would not have done justice to the nice trick 38
Bg6+! I also enjoyed trying out the
idea of Kf1 on my 10th move, the logic being that the player with a
space advantage should not exchange pieces, and the centre being stabilized, the
loss of time is not that significant.
1 Nf3 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 e4 d6 4 c4 c5 5 d5 Nf6 6 Nc3 0-0 7 h3 e6 8 Bd3 ed 9 ed Re8+ 10 Kf1!? Na6 11 Kg1 b6 12 Kh2 Nc7 13 a4 Na6 14 Re1 Re1 15 Qe1 Nb4 16 Bb1 Ba6 17 Nb5 Qd7 18 Ra3 Re8 19 Re3 Bb5 20 ab a6 21 ba Na6 22 Kg1 Nc7 23 Re8+ Nce8 24 b3 b5 25 Qa5 b4 26 Kf1 h6 27 Qa8 Qe7 28 Bf4 Kh7 29 Nd2 Nh5 30 Be3 f5?! 31 g4! fg 32 hg Ng3+ 33 Kg2 Ne2 34 Qc8 Nf6 35 g5 Nd7 36 Nf3 Nc3 37 Bc2 h5 38 Bg6+ Kg6 39 Qg8 Qe4 40 Qe6+ Qe6 41 de Nf6 42 Nh4+ Kh7 43 gf Bf6 44 Nf5 d5 45 Bc5 dc 46 Bb4 Nd5 47 bc Nf4+ 48 Kf3 Ne6 49 Be7?! Kg6 50 Bf6 Kf6 51 Ng3 h4 52 Ne2 Ke5 53 Ke3 h3 54 f4+ Kf5 55 Kf3 h2?! 56 Ng3+ Kf6 57 Ne4+ Ke7 58 Nf2 Nf4?? 59 Kf4 Kd6 60 Ke3 1-0
R8 Javier Garcia (FM 2319) – Terry Toh (IM 2384)
This is an
interesting game as most of Black’s play revolved around the first three
ranks. It is like the Italian catenaccio in football, packing your own zone with
all your troops! Again, a nice combination starting with 20 … Ba4! was needed
to win the game!
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 d5 4 e3 e6 5 Nf3 Nbd7 6 Qc2 Bb4 (My idea was to create a light square complex on the queenside to work on in the ending, in the event that White drives the bishop away with a3) 7 Be2 0-0 8 0-0 Re8 9 a3 Bf8 10 Rfd1 Qc7 11 e4 de 12 Ne4 c5 13 Nf6+ Nf6 14 Bg5 cd 15 Nd4 Bd7 16 Qd3 Rad8 17 Qf3 (White has endeavoured to strangulate his own queen, and I felt here that a combination was imminent) Be7 18 Be3 a6 19 h3 Bd6 20 b4 Ba4 21 Rd2 (The rook needs to stay on the d-file to defend against Be5!) e5 22 c5 ed 23 cd Qc3 24 Rd4 Qa1+ 25 Kh2 Bc6 26 Qg3 Re4 27 Rd3 Qe5 28 f4 Qe6 29 Bd1 Rd6 30 f5 Qe5 0-1
R9 Terry Toh (IM 2384) – Emilio Cordova (FM 2201)
I was in a must-win
situation, being half a point behind my opponent. My opponent is a talented 12
year old boy who just won the Pan-American championship for his age group, and
who had just drawn effortlessly with IM Georgi Castaneda a couple of rounds
earlier with the Gruenfeld defence. For the first time in the competition, I
decided to go to the internet to check up on my opponent. The minute I saw that
he played the Sicilian Dragon, I decided to avoid theory and play the English
opening, which provides opportunities for a complicated strategic middlegame.
Fortunately for me, the game followed a similar course as I took several years
ago when I beat the Indonesian player Denny Yuswanto (who is an international
master now, I think), also with the idea of f4, followed by a strong kingside
attack.
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e5 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 g3 Bb4 5 Bg2 0-0 6 0-0 Re8 7 d3 h6 8 Nd5 Bf8 9 Bd2 d6 10 Nf6+ Qf6 11 Bc3 Be6 12 Nd2 Qd8 13 f4!? (Played to attack the centre and restrict Black’s light square bishop. When analyzing this game together with GM Henry Urday, we concurred that White does have an advantage here because (a) I have more space, (b) my bishops are more active than Black’s bishops, and (c) there are chances to attack the Black king as the natural defender (knight on f6/f8) is misplaced on c6!) Qd7 (Henry suggested 13… ef as a better try here, upon which I was contemplating the interesting exchange sacrifice 14 Rf4 Be7 15 e4 Bg5 16 d4!?) 14 e4 Bg4 15 Bf3 Bh3 16 Bg2 Bg4 17 Qe1 ef 18 gf f5 19 Qg3 (White is clearly winning here; there is no way to defend against the attack down the g-file) fe 20 de Be2 21 Rf2 Bh5 22 Bh3 Qf7 23 Kh1 Bg6 24 Re1 (Black is almost in zugzwang; White can simply consolidate his position by moving all the pieces to optimum squares to prepare the final attack at leisure) Bh7 25 Rg2 g6 26 Bf5 (wins the exchange by force!) Ne7 27 Bd7 Rd8 28 Qh3 Rd7 29 Qd7 Nc6 30 Qf7+?! (30. Qg4 wins easily; I wanted to play safely for a riskless ending, but my move has the disadvantage of liberating Black’s big pawn on h7!) Kf7 31 Nf3 Re8 32 Rge2 Bg8 33 Kg2 Ke7 34 b3 Kd7 35 Kf2 Bf7 36 Rd1 (a prophylactic measure against d5. If Black does nothing, my plan was to bring my king to d3, and then return my rooks to the g-file to pile up on the g6 pawn) Kc8 37 Ke3 g5 38 fg hg 39 Ng5 Bh5 40 Rde1 Be2 41 Re2 Bh6 42 h4 Ne5 43 Be5 Re5 44 Kf4 Kd7 45 Kg4 Ke8 46 Kh5 Bf8 47 Rf2 Re7 48 Rf6! (Domination!) Rd7 49 Kg6 Rg7+ 50 Kf5 Rg8 51 Ne6 Be7 52 Nc7+ Kd7 (52… Kd8 53 Rf7 Bh4 54 Ne6+ Kc8 55 Ng7 followed by Ke6 winning, or a simpler alternative is 55 Rf8+ and after the trade of rooks, I put my king on e6 and knight on d7, and the threat of c5 creating a passed pawn will cause Black to play b6, after which I then play b4-b5 forcing Kc7, and then I play a knight to d5, where the threat of Nb4-c6 will force Black’s king into the corner, thereby allowing me to play Kd7 with an easy win) 53 Nd5 Rg2 54 Ne7 Ke7 55 Re6+ Kd7 56 Rg6 (The rook ending is easily won with Black’s king so far away!) Ra2 57 Rg7+ Kc6 58 h5 Rb2 59 Rg3 Kd7 60 Kg6 Ke7 61 h6 Rf2 62 h7 Rf8 63 Rh3 Rh8 64 Kg7 Rc8 65 h8=Q 1-0
Ranking after round 9 of I TORNEO INTERNACIONAL "113
ANIVERSARIO SOU" 2003
No. PNo.
Name
Score WP SB
PS
rat. TPR W-We
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. 2
TERRY Toh
7.5 48.0
39.00 36.0
2384 2639 +1.46
2. 15
CORDOVA Emilio
7.0 50.5
36.50 38.5
2201 2449 +2.34
17
ITURRY Milton
7.0 50.5
37.75 36.5
2192 2444 +2.02
4. 1
CASTANEDA Georgui 6.5
53.5 37.75
34.0 2412 2347 -0.58
47
GRADOS Luis
6.5 53.5 37.75
35.0 0000 2435 +1.50
6
CRUZ Filemon
6.5 52.5 35.50
36.0 2338 2307 -0.20
9
GUTIERREZ Renzo
6.5 51.0
35.25 33.5
2269 2351 +0.55
5
ESPLANA Christian
6.5 49.5
30.75 32.5
2343 2355 +0.10
7
GARCIA Javier
6.5
49.5 33.75
35.5 2319 2345 +0.16
4
CELIS SANCHEZ Carlos
6.5 47.5
33.00 29.5
2343 2401 +0.23