Arasan in CCT 15, day two

[jdart]

Arasan played a couple of non-tourney games between rounds 4 and 5.
One of them was against Rookie (a draw) and then it played Hannibal
which won an impressive miniature:

[pgn]
[Event "?"]
[Site "83.163.204.254"]
[Date "2013.02.23"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Hannibal"]
[Black "Arasan 15.2"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1983"]
[BlackElo "1700"]
[ECO "C02"]
[TimeControl "3000+3"]

1. e4 e6 2. c3 d5 3. e5 c5 4. d4 Qb6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. a3 f6 7. Bd3 fxe5 8.
dxe5 c4 9. Bc2 Nh6 10. O-O Nf7 11. Nbd2 Be7 12. b3 cxb3 13. Nxb3 Nfxe5 14.
Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Be3 Qc7 16. f4 Ng6 17. f5 exf5 18. Qxd5 Qxc3 19. Bc5 Qxc2 20.
Rae1 Bd7 21. Nd4 Qb2 22. Bb4 Rc8 23. Bxe7 Nxe7 24. Rxe7+ Kxe7 25. Re1+ Kd8
26. Ne6+ Ke7 1-0
[/pgn]

Arasan did not expect either 19. Bc5! or 23. Bxe7!! winning.

In the next tournament round Arasan was White against Gaviota. Gaviota
is a strong and stable program I have used sometimes for offline
testing. The opening was an English that could have transposed into
a Catalan, but White played d3 instead of d4. Things were even until
Black played 19. .. Ng4 and White countered with 20. e5!

[d] r2r2k1/3qbppp/bpn5/p1p1P3/3p1Nn1/1P1P1NP1/PB3PBP/R1Q1R1K1 b - - 0 20

Black then played .. g5 (probably an error) and White continued with
e6:

[d] r2r2k1/3qbp1p/bpn1P3/p1p3p1/3p1Nn1/1P1P1NP1/PB3PBP/R1Q1R1K1 b - - 0 21

Now Black's kingside is fractured and White is opening up lines for a
piece attack. Black tried a counterattack beginning with 26. .. h5 and
saced a piece for two kingside pawns, but this was not effective and
White was soon winning.

The next round Arasan had Black against Crafty. Crafty played the
Evans Gambit and Arasan chose a good defense. The game followed
Muzychuk-Timman, Marianske Lazne 2009, until Crafty deviated with
13. Nxb6, but soon after a draw by repetition was agreed. (Arasan will
generally favor a draw against a higher-rated opponent, but that was
not a factor here since the ratings on this server were similar: the
position was just even and no move better than a draw could be found).

The next round Arasan had White against Hannibal and lost to it again.
Hannibal played a variant of the Accelerated Dragon with the rare
move 7. .. b6, after which Arasan was out of book. Standard is 8. Be2 but
Arasan went for 8. Nxc6. Still things were even up until move 26 when
Arasan played Rd6, which Houdini flags as an error. Black responded
26. .. Bd8!:

[d] r4b1r/1k6/p1pRbpp1/1pP3n1/P3PBP1/1PN3Rp/2K4P/5B2 w - - 0 27

and now retreating the Rook just loses a Pawn, so White played 27. e5
and gave up the Exchange. Not sure why Arasan played into this simple
tactic. Black later temporarily gave up a piece for pawns but was able
to promote the h pawn and win back a piece, giving it again a Rook
vs minor in the ending, which Hannibal won. Hannibal is just too
strong for Arasan.

Arasan finished with a score 3.5/7, which is not too bad. It did a lot
better though in the following Blitz tournament, going undefeated and
finishing 3rd behind Komodo and Sjeng. By far the best game for Arasan
was the one against Komodo. The opening was a Caro-Kann Advance.
More critical in this opening is 6. Be3, but White went for 6. c3 and
Arasan as Black had an even position when it went out of book.

By 16. .. Qg5 Black had fully equalized:

[d] r4rk1/pp3ppp/2n1p3/3pPnq1/1P1P4/P1NQPBP1/7P/R4RK1 w - - 0 17

And in fact from this point Arasan's score started to go up. I liked
26. .. Ng6: I had been expecting this move for some time:

[d] 1r1r2k1/5pp1/4p1n1/p1NpPnqp/3P1R2/P3P1P1/4Q1BP/5RK1 w - - 0 27

At this point Arasan's score was +0.72. And because of the pinned
Pawn, Black was subsequently able to play .. Ng4. Then at this point:

[d] 1r4k1/5pp1/1r2p3/p1NpPnqp/3P3n/P3P1PB/4QR1P/5R1K b - - 0 30

Arasan saced the Knight with Nxg3+, but Houdini prefers Qxe3. Komodo
followed up here with 32. Bg2:

[d] 1r4k1/5pp1/1r2p3/p1NpP2p/3P3n/P3P1qB/4QR2/5R1K w - - 0 32

Houdini suggests 32. Bxe6! fxe6 Qxh5, returning the material but with an
even position. Instead after 32. Be2 Rb2, Black must exchange and White
gets two Rooks and Knight vs. Queen and two pawns. Still, theoretically this
is also about even and in fact Arasan was not able to make further
progress despite having a + score. Some spectators thought it might win
but I did not expect more than a draw.

A generally well-played game by both sides and Arasan did well to draw
against a strong opponent like Komodo. It also drew against Sjeng in the
last round, although that was a less eventful game.

[beachknight]

Thank you Jon for this great report.
Best,