Billy's Mighty Moscow

This week’s article will feature two games from the weekly Wednesday MCA Arena, which were played by Billy. Billy joined the academy as an already high rated player and is currently taking lessons with GM Hellsten. This week he ended in second place, just a point behind Zachary who is building a winning streak. We’ll take a look at one of his wins and his only draw that could have won him the tournament.

In both games, Billy employed the Moscow Opening, which is a positional version of the Sicilian. It is often used by players looking to take their opponent out of opening theory and outplay them in the ensuing struggle. One top player who famously uses this opening is none other than GM Magnus Carlsen. We’ll see Billy’s version of the Moscow in this article. We will also continue exploring the art of smooth conversions and see how Billy could have improved on his only slip-up.

The Perfect Game

In this first game, Billy essayed his pet Moscow line to great success against Sachit, gaining an edge from the early middlegame that transformed into a game winning tactic. The Moscow is kind of the perfect antidote to Sicilian, as it takes tactical players into positional waters. Sachit responded with a normal defense, but went wrong in the early middlegame that ensued after the opening stages. Billy was able to use his experience in the Moscow pawn structure to outplay Sachit and eventually spot a common tactical theme to end the game. Check out the game to see how things ended up:

Test Your Knowledge 

Try to solve these positions and then check out the answers in the annotated game.

How should White continue his development?
See the notes to move 7 in the annotated game. 

What is the trick?
See the notes to moves 18 and 19 for a discussion. 

Key Takeaways 

Some key takeaways from the game:

1. It is good to explore new openings, even if they are not the best engine lines.  The best opening to play is one that you know better than your opponent. 
2. Creating little tactical landmines for your opponent to walk into can be very useful, especially in faster time controls where they don’t have as much time to think.
3. It’s important to recognize when one of your pieces isn’t positioned as well as it could be and to be willing to spend time improving it.

The Topsy-Turvy Game

In the only blemish to his perfect tournament, Billy again opted for his favorite Moscow, which in this case presented him with a nice edge right out of the opening. Because the Moscow is not the most common opening, it's not super unusual to obtain early opening advantages from unsuspecting opponents. Sebastian was able to fight and claw back to an equal position before he blundered a pawn and the game went into an endgame. Billy was putting on a nice conversion until he got a bit antsy and disregarded his opponent’s counterplay.  In fact, Sebastian almost turned the tables with active play in the pawn-down rook ending. Check out the game to see how things ended up:

Test Your Knowledge 

Try to solve these positions and then check out the answers in the annotated game.

How can White secure space in the center and prevent Black’s expansion?
See the notes to move 7 in the annotated game. 

White to move and gain a winning advantage.

Key Takeaways 

Some key takeaways from the game:

1. Encountering an opening you are unfamiliar with is not the end of the world. Your opponent will be out of theory soon, and both of you can make mistakes.
2. The endgame, even with barely any pieces, is very difficult to navigate and completely winning positions can turn around rather quickly.
3. Sometimes it’s a better idea to meet your opponents’ attacks with your own attack instead of defending. Sebastian did an excellent job of playing an active defense in the rook ending. 
4. Finally, always be willing to consider potentially unorthodox moves that look weird: sometimes these can be very strong and unexpected.

About This Series

This series is written by International Master (IM) Sandeep Sethuraman and will feature analysis of tournament games played by our students.  Sandeep is a high school senior in Arizona and one of the top players in the USA for his age.  Students are encouraged to submit games for future articles by contacting our online team.