Remember the Penang Attack?

Chess Piece
Bobby Ang

FLASHBACK to the 1974 Nice Olympiad. Olympiads nowadays are played in Swiss System format where each team is paired against another with roughly the same score. At that time the teams were split into several preliminary groups and the top two of each group goes to Group “A”, the next two to Group “B”, etc etc.

This was the battlefield which the famous Philippine “Dream Team” entered, reputedly the strongest team ever assembled by our country. Not by ratings or titles, of course -- there was not a single Grandmaster in the team: Eugene Torre, Rudy Tan Cardoso and Renato Naranja were International Masters, but Rosendo Balinas (yes yes, I know -- Balinas went on to become a GM, but that was in 1976), Ramon Lontoc and Glenn Bordonada were untitled. They were called the “Dream Team” (anyone remember that I also wrote about the mythical “Nightmare Team” several years back? anyone remember who would have been in that team?).

By the way, I’d like to correct an injustice here -- everyone knows who the players were, and that the late Florencio Campomanes was the head of delegation, but nobody remembers that the Team Captain was Matias “Bombi” Aznar III (may his soul rest in peace). Bombi Aznar, patriarch of one of Cebu’s influential clans, was himself a national master and a great supporter of local talents. With all he has achieved and contributed to Philippine chess Mr. Aznar deserves to have his name mentioned together with the “Dream Team”.

The team agreement was to prioritize qualifying for Group “A”, and after that they will concentrate creating the most chances for the individual members to go after title norms.

Glenn Bordonada started out on the wrong foot by losing his first two games, one of which was against the unknown Indonesian player Sinulingga, and as might be expected was benched for the rest of the preliminaries. While the rest of the team was struggling (ultimately successfully) with Bulgaria, Israel and the host country France for the two qualifying slots Glenn went around the tournament hall buying all the books he could get and absorbing all that theory like a sponge.

After qualifying for Group “A”, with the huge pressure off their shoulders, Team Captain Aznar fielded Glenn Bordonada against Spain in the 1st round of the Finals. And what a glorious comeback it was! * * *
Bordonada,Glenn (2200) -- Sanz Alonso,Francisco Javier (2320) [B89] Nice Olympiad, 1974

Sanz had just won the national championship of Spain and was actually quite irritated that he was designated only a low board for their Olympiad team. Well, he was even more irritated to lose this one to an unknown player from a country he never heard of.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Qe2 a6 9.0 -- 0 -- 0 Qc7 10.Rhg1!

This was Glenn Bordonada’s theoretical novelty, soon to be called the “Penang Attack”. A few years ago I attended the birthday party of Glenn and he told me the story. Contrary to common belief he did not develop the attack in Nice. Back home in the Philippines he had been playing NM Willie Monta (who died tragically later in a fall during a party when the railings he was leaning against gave way) in a series of blitz games and discovered that 10.Rhg1 unleashed a pretty potent attack.

10...0 -- 0?!

Glenn proves that castling is too risky for Black here and in fact this game is still quoted in the opening books as the refutation of 10...0 -- 0. Nowadays Black players usually leave their King in the center of the board for a while and play 10...Na5 instead.

11.g4! Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.Bb3 Nd7 14.g5 Nc5

Around this time Glenn remembered his blitz games with Willie Monta and became very excited -- would Black allow Bf6?

15.Qh5 b4?! 16.Bf6!

Just before Black could block out the bishop with ...e5.

16...Rd8

[16...bxc3? is refuted by 17.Qh6!! forcing mate in a few moves]

17.Rg3!

Amongst other threats, Black cannot now play 17...g6 because of 18.Qxh7+!

17...bxc3 18.Rh3 h6 <D>

POSITION after 18.Rh3 h

∞19.Qxh6!!

Remember, this move had to be seen when White played his 16th move.

19...Nd3+

[19...gxh6 20.Rxh6 Bxf6 21.gxf6 with unavoidable mate Black is powerless against Rg1+ and Rh8 mate]

20.cxd3!

White still had to be careful:

20.Kb1? gxh6 21.Rxh6 Bxf6 22.gxf6 Ne5 saves the mate and wins;

20.Rdxd3? gxh6 21.Rxh6 Bxf6 22.gxf6 d5 23.Rg3+ (23.Rdh3 Qf4+ 24.Kb1 Qxh6) 23...Qxg3 Black wins]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Qe2 a6 9.0 -- 0 -- 0 Qc7 10.Rhg1 0 -- 0 11.g4 b5 12.Bb3 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 Nd7 14.g5 Nc5 15.Qh5 Bb7!

Bordonada-Sanz continued 15...b4, which the Romanian team captain no doubt noted and discussed with his team members. The text is a good move, trying to move a minor piece to help defend the kingside.

16.Bf6!?

[16.Rg3!? is another possibility. If 16...Nxe4 17.g6! (17.Rh3? Bxg5+ 18.Kb1 h6 is unclear) 17...hxg6 18.Rxg6 fxg6 19.Bxe6+ Rf7 20.Qxg6 Bg5+ 21.Kb1 Kf8 22.Nxe4 Bxe4 23.Qxe4 white has a bishop and pawn for the rook and the black king as a perpetual target]

16...Rfc8 17.Rg4! b4! 18.Rh4 Bxe4 19.Rxe4 bxc3 20.Rh4 Nxb3+ 21.Kb1!

[21.axb3 cxb2+ 22.Kxb2 Qxc2+ 23.Ka1 Bxf6+ 24.gxf6 Rab8 White is helpless; 21.cxb3 cxb2+ 22.Kxb2 Qc2+ 23.Ka3 gxf6 24.gxf6 Bxf6 Black wins]

21...Nd2+ 22.Rxd2 h6 23.Rd1 Rab8?

Black misses the winning continuation 23...cxb2! 24.c4! Qc5! and after ...Qc5+ Black’s queen gets back in time to defend his King.

24.b3 Qc5!

Round about this time Glenn got a queasy feeling that he was lost. Pavlov was taking too much time on his moves, though, and so Glenn played on hoping that his opponent would blunder.

25.Rh3 Bxf6 26.gxf6 Qxh5 27.Rxh5 gxf6 28.Rxd6 Rd8 29.Rd3 Rbc8?

[29...Rxd3 30.cxd3 Rb4 followed by ...Rf4 is the better way. As the BW reader knows in rook and pawn endgames the important thing is activity]

30.Rxh6 f5?

This just blunders away a pawn. Black was in time trouble though.

31.Rg3+! Kf8 32.Rh8+ Ke7 33.Rxd8 Rxd8

[33...Kxd8?? saves the c3 pawn for the time being, but 34.Rg8+ Kd7 35.Rxc8 Kxc8 36.h4 Kd7 37.b4 White has an easy win]

34.Rxc3 Rd2 35.Rf3 Kf6 36.Kc1! Rd8 37.c4

The rest is easy.

37...e5 38.c5 Ke6 39.c6 e4 40.c7 Rc8 41.Rc3 f4 42.Kd2 f5 43.h4 a5 44.a3 Ke5 45.h5 a4 46.b4 Kd4 47.Rc6! f3 48.b5 f4 49.b6 e3+ 50.Ke1! 1 -- 0

A few months after the Olympiad Glenn got the chance to play his line again. This was in Penang, Malaysia. * * *
Bordonada,Glenn -- Haruyama [B89]
Penang, 1974

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Qe2 a6 9.0 -- 0 -- 0 Qc7 10.Rhg1 0 -- 0 11.g4 b5 12.Bb3 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 Nd7 14.g5 Nc5 15.Qh5 Bb7

Just like Pavlov played. Bordonada had time to study the variation at home though and now uncorks an improvement.

16.Rg4! Rfc8 17.Rh4 Bxe4?! 18.Rxe4

[18.Nxe4?? Nxb3+ 19.axb3 Qxc2#]

18...Nxb3+ 19.axb3 b4

Winning a piece because of the threat of mate on c2. Or so he thought.

20.Bxg7! bxc3

[20...Kxg7 21.Qh6+ Kg8 22.Rh4 Bxg5+ 23.Qxg5+ Kf8 24.Rc4]

21.Bxc3 Qc5 22.Rf4! f6 23.Rg1 Kf8 24.Qxh7 1 -- 0

But why am I bringing up this story again? Well, in the World Junior Championship in Kocaeili, Turkey held last month the Penang Attack scored another brilliancy!

Chess Piece
Bobby Ang

THE PHILIPPINES is seriously in need of chess heroes. Our small country which finished 7th in the world in the 1988 Thessaloniki Olympiad and 11th in Nice 1974 is not doing so well anymore. The highest finish we have had in this new millennium is 19th place which we achieved twice (Istanbul 2000 and Calvia de Mallorca 2004). Obviously 39th place in Bled 2002 (the infamous 1.5-2.5 loss to Bangladesh in the last round), 44th in Turin 2006 (Wesley So’s debut at board 6, scoring 3/5), 46th in Dresden 2008 (Torre and Antonio did not play), 50th place in Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 and 21st in Istanbul 2012 is not going to impress anybody.

Well, you might say that 19th in Istanbul is actually more impressive than 11th in Nice. In 1974, there were the chess powers Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. By 2000, the USSR had broken up into 15 independent countries, amongst which Russia, Armenia, Ukaine, Azerbaijan and Georgia are real world powers. One rung below are Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, not as strong as the previous five but still good enough for top 20. By the way, Uzbekistan shocked everybody by placing second in the 1992 Manila Olympiad, so they are not pushovers.

Yugoslavia has now six independent states (not counting Kosovo), of which Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovenia are the strongest chess-playing countries.

Czechoslovakia is now the Czech and Slovak Republics.

So, instead of three superpowers there are now at least 17 states fighting for top honors, and that is why 19th place in 2000 might be more impressive than 11th in 1974.

But that is not the point of this column, what we are emphasizing is that at present we lack chess heroes, so let us not forget our past heroes, one of whom is Glenn Bordonada.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 Be7 8.Qe2 a6 9.0 -- 0 -- 0 Qc7 10.Bb3

Notwithstanding Glenn Bordonada’s success with his own concoction (10.Rhg1 right away), it appears that Bobby Fischer was right. Retreating the bishop to b3 is a good precaution before pushing the g-pawn. After 10.Rhg1 Na5 11.Bb3 b5 Black’s attack is faster than White’s.

10...0 -- 0

[10...Na5 11.g4! b5 12.g5 Nxb3+ 13.axb3 Nd7 14.Nf5! is the famous Velimirovic-Sofrevski game. Just to refresh your memory, here is how it went: 14...exf5 15.Nd5 Qd8 16.exf5 0 -- 0 (16...Bb7 17.f6 gxf6 18.Rhe1 Bxd5 19.Rxd5 Rg8 20.gxf6 Nxf6 21.Rf5 Rb8 22.Ba7 Rb7 23.Bd4 Ng4 24.Qf3 Rd7 25.Qh3 Ne5 26.f4 Bh4 27.Re2 Re7 28.fxe5 dxe5 29.Bc5 Bg5+ 30.Kb1 f6 31.Qh5+ Rg6 32.h4 Qc8 33.Bxe7 Qxf5 34.Bb4 Qf4 35.Qxh7 Rh6 36.Qe7# 1 -- 0 (36) Velimirovic, D (2525)-Popovic, P (2405) Novi Sad 1976) 17.f6 gxf6 18.Bd4 Ne5 19.gxf6 Bxf6 20.Rhg1+ Bg7 21.Bxe5 dxe5 22.Qxe5 f6 23.Ne7+ Kf7 (23...Kh8 24.Rxd8 fxe5 25.Rxf8+ Bxf8 26.Rg8#) 24.Qh5+ 1 -- 0 (24) Velimirovic, D-Sofrevski, J Titograd 1965.

GM Dragoljub Velimirovic is among Yugoslavia’s most famous attacking maniacs, and this brilliancy against Sofrevski one of his trademark sacrifices. Do you know that Bobby Fischer claims that he was the originator of the 14.Nf5! move? According to Bobby he showed this idea to Svetozar Gligoric and Gligoric in turn showed it to Velimirovic.

When GM Mikhail Golubev wrote his best-selling book on the Sicilian Sozin I wrote him about this claim and he did not believe me. Later on I also mentioned this to IM John Watson. He at least considered the claim before writing me back that he does not believe it either. It is well known that Fischer does not like unclear tactics and 14.Nf5 is very atypical of his style.

Anyway, I did not say that 14.Nf5 was Fischer’s discovery -- I said that he claimed it was, and there is no reason for me to lie.

11.g4 Nd7

Relocating the f6 -- knight to d7 -- c5 is Larsen’s idea -- he used it to inflict Fischer’s lone loss in the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970. Black can also play 11...Nxd4, but not 11...b5? 12.g5! Nxd4 (12...Nd7 13.Nd5! exd5 14.Nxc6 Qxc6 15.Bxd5 winning material) 13.Bxd4 Nd7 14.Qh5! Nc5 15.Rhg1 and we are back to Bordonada vs Sanz Nice Olympiad 1974, which I already gave to you last Friday.

12.Rhg1

And now we are back to the Penang Attack.

In the Fischer-Larsen game I mentioned above the continuation was 12.h4? universally condemned as too slow, for Black now counterattacked strongly with 12...Nc5! 13.g5 b5 14.f3 Bd7 15.Qg2 b4 16.Nce2 Nxb3+ 17.axb3 a5 18.g6 fxg6 19.h5 Nxd4 20.Nxd4 g5 21.Bxg5 Bxg5+ 22.Qxg5 h6 23.Qg4 Rf7 24.Rhg1 a4 25.bxa4 e5 26.Ne6 Qc4 27.b3 Qxe6 28.Qxe6 Bxe6 Black was a piece up and went on to win. Fischer, R-Larsen, B Palma de Mallorca 1970 0 -- 1 52.

Another historical footnote. Velimirovic has also made his “trademark” move here, although it is not quite sound in this situation. His opponent cracked under the constant barrage though after 12.Nf5?! exf5 13.Nd5 Qd8 14.gxf5 Na5 15.Nxe7+ Qxe7 16.Bd5 Kh8 17.Rhg1 Nf6 18.Qf3! Nxd5 19.Rxd5 (I believe the original idea was 19.Rxg7? Kxg7 20.Rg1+ Kh8 21.Qg4 but perhaps he then realized that 21...Qf6! 22.exd5 Nc4! turns the tables and it is Black who wins) 19...Nc4 20.f6! Qxf6 21.Qxf6 gxf6 22.Bd4 Ne5 23.f4 Nd7 24.Rxd6 Rg8 25.Rd1 Re8 26.f5 Rxe4 27.Rg1 h5 28.Rg5! Rg4? (correct is 28...Kh7) 29.Rxf6!! Just beautiful! 29...Rg1+ (nothing works: (1) 29...Rxg5 30.Rh6+ Kg8 31.Rh8 mate; (2) 29...Kh7 30.Rxh5+ Kg8 31.Rh8+! Kxh8 32.Rh6+ Kg8 33.Rh8 mate; (3) 29...Rxd4 30.Rh6 mate. (4) 29...Nxf6 30.Bxf6+ Kh7 31.Rxh5+ Kg8 32.Rh8 it is still mate!) 30.Kd2 Rg2+ 31.Ke3 1 -- 0 (31) Velimirovic, D-Bukal, V Jugoslavija.

12...Nc5 13.g5 b5 14.Qh5

Another possibility is 14.Nxc6, there are too many lines here but let me just show you this brilliancy: 14...Nxb3+ 15.axb3 Qxc6 16.Bd4 Re8 17.Qh5 b4 (17...e5 18.Nd5 exd4 19.Nf6+! Bxf6 20.gxf6 Qxe4 21.Qh6 Black cannot prevent mate) 18.Bxg7! bxc3 (18...Kxg7 19.Qh6+ Kh8 20.g6 fxg6 21.Rxg6 Bf8 (21...Rg8 22.Rdg1 Bb7 23.Rg7!) 22.Rg8+! Kxg8 23.Rg1+ Kf7 24.Qxh7+ Kf6 25.Rg6+ Ke5 26.Qh8+ Bg7 27.Qxg7+ Kf4 28.Qf6#) 19.g6 fxg6 20.Rxg6 hxg6 21.Qxg6 Bg5+ 22.Qxg5 Re7 23.Rg1 1 -- 0 (23) Ermenkov, E-Triana, J Cienfuegos 1975.

15.Qh6 Re8 16.Nxc6 Bf8 17.Qh4 Qxc6 18.Bd4 Nxb3+ 19.axb3 e5? <D>

Position after 19...e5

The obvious move, and a mistake. Pushing 19...b4 would put up a better fight but even then 20.Rg3! continues the attack.

20.Nd5! Re6?

A better defense was 20...h5 21.Nf6+ Kg7 this forces White to find the brilliant win which GM Golubev in Chess Today points out: 22.Bc3! a5 23.f4! b4 24.f5 bxc3 25.Nxh5+ gxh5 26.Qxh5 Bxf5 27.exf5 Rac8 28.Kb1 cxb2 29.f6+ Kg8 30.Rd2 Black’s king is defenseless.

21.Bc3 Bg7 22.f4! b4 23.f5 bxc3 24.fxe6

Now that Black’s rook is dead he has to watch out for the family fork Ne7+.

24...cxb2+ 25.Kb1 Ra7 26.e7 Be6

Of course 26...Bd7 27.Nf6+ Bxf6 28.gxf6 followed by Qh6 is curtains.

27.Nf6+ Bxf6 28.Rxd6 1 -- 0

In the analysis of the above game I made extensive use of Chess Informant’s Diamondbase. The Informant used to be the bible and a must-read for every serious player. Nowadays a lot of players get their daily fix of games and analyses from the Internet but my opinion is that you can never ignore the Informant -- they are the ones who really pay attention to the annotations of the game.

IM Josip Asik explained their three levels of game analysis. First level would be player-annotator who is submitting the game. In fact, a lot of times there are players who are not regular contributors of Informant but who play a nice game and want it recorded for posterity. They submit the game and of course would take a lot better care of annotating it.

The second level is that every annotation comes under the microscope of the editor responsible for the particular ECO line. He should check it, add or remove lines, standardize it etc. Sometimes, the game is returned to the player with request to explain more etc.

Finally, the third level is the editor-in-chief who has to check everything. Every slip should be seen. If it happens that some game had a mistake or doesn’t meet the standard this is the reason for employees’ meetings.

isang text lang po at susugod kami dyan sa inyo, pakihanda na po videoke at sagot ko na ang "My Way" hehe..

happy birthday, master Glenn!