Arasan in ACCA Rapid tourney (day 2)

[jdart]

A few more notes about Arasan games in ACCT (day 2)

Arasan didn't do so well today.

Rybka-Arasan started out as a Caro-Kann Advance (B12). But on move 6,
Rybka played the very unusual Nc3 and Arasan was out of book. White
built up an opening advantage. Then on move 12 we had this position:

[d] rn3rk1/pp2bppp/1qp5/3pP3/3P4/4B2P/PPP1N1P1/R2Q1RK1 b - - 0 17

and Arasan took the "poisioned" pawn on b2. It didn't get to keep it
because of an eventual Rb1 and Rxb7, and further with the Rook
on the 7th, and Black's Queen out of play, White got a crushing attack.
Well played by Rybka.

Next round Arasan had messchess and Arasan was out of book after
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 dxc4 4. e3 b5. Still, it wasn't doing all
that badly in the opening.

On move 20, we had this position:

[d] 2rq1rk1/p4ppp/8/2bP3b/1n2R3/1B3N2/1B3PPP/R2Q2K1 w - - 0 20

and Arasan played g4?! with a score of +0.41 - I have no idea what it
was thinking. The followup was .. Bg6 21. Rxb4 Bxb4 22. Qd4 Qf6,
after which White is just worse. messchess consolidated its advantage
and won.

The game against ZCT was an interesting draw. ZCT got some opening
advantage. At this point:

[d] 3r1rk1/pbq2pbp/1pn1p1p1/6B1/3PP3/P4N2/3QBPPP/2R2RK1 b - - 0 17

Arasan should maybe have played .. f6, but it went for
Qb8, and after 18. d5 exd5 19. exd5 Na5 20. Bxd8 Rxd8 21. Qc2
Bxd5, White has a Rook for a Bishop and Pawn. But in the resulting
endgame, ZCT failed to activate its king, while Arasan did improve
its position, and by this position at move 54:

[d] 8/4n3/1p6/5pp1/2B4p/3R1PkP/6P1/1K4b1 w - - 0 54

Shredder scores Arasan (Black) as even or a little better. Arasan wound
up with Bishop + 2 pawns versus Rook which is drawn (although neither
program could see it at that point) and indeed a draw was the result.

Against OxygenX, Arasan had a very even position but then Oxygen went
wrong in the endgame. I think the turning point is here:

[d] 8/n1p5/6k1/pp2N1p1/3P2K1/P1P1r1P1/8/1R6 b - - 0 41

when Oxygen went Kg7 instead of Kf6. Arasan won.

Last round I had Frenzee. Frenzee played a Bird's opening with the
unusual start 1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. d4. At this
point Black probably should have castled, but didn't and a bit later
Arasan had an ugly pawn structure. Around move 15, Arasan crashed and
I didn't notice for a while, so it lost some time. But Arasan was
worse by that time anyway. When it came back it actually had a + score
for a few moves, but I don't know why. At this point:

[d] 2q2rk1/1p1np1bp/r1p1bp2/p4p2/P1pPP3/2P1BNP1/4Q1BP/1R3R1K w - - 0 19

Frenzee played Bh3! which I think is best. By 24. Nd4, we have this
position:

[d] 2q2rk1/1p2p1bp/4Pp2/p2p4/P1pN4/2r1B1PB/4Q2P/5R1K b - - 0 24

White's pieces are poised to enter on the king side, while Black's
are passive. Here Arasan played some inaccurate moves, and White
got a fatal mating attack after 24 .. Qe8? 25. Bf5 Rxe3?? 26. Qh5 but
Black's defensive task is very difficult in any case.