White to play after 20...Rg8. FM Steve Stoyko's second lecture on the Lasker Defense was excellent and he crammed a lot of content into a little over one hour. I will have a picture, the PGN file, and java board by Saturday.
After his talk we had a wide-ranging discussion about the limits and possibilities of chess computers. Eventually, this led us to discuss our contact with Ken Thompson and the other Bell Labs crew who developed the first master-strength chess computer, Belle, and (more famously) invented UNIX, C, and other essential computer languages. We both had our stories of working with Ken a bit and of beating Belle. I told how I shared an early version of my Urusov Gambit analysis with Ken and Belle tried it out on occasion -- and the game in which I beat Belle has been published in one of Gary Lane's "Chess Cafe" columns. Steve told how he was one of the master players that Ken interviewed while developing an early version of the Belle program and he ended up playing lots of games against the computer as Ken worked on improving it. He said that the easiest way of beating Belle at the time was simply to play the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation as White and then get off all of the pieces, leaving a winning Rook ending which Belle always misevaluated (because the power of White's pawn majority was simply outside its horizon). He also told the story of how, when he was later studying computer programming, he came to the sudden realization that he had been in close contact with one of the legends of that game and never even knew it.
Toward the end of the night we played a dozen five-minute games together and I got crushed a lot like Belle. As Black I mostly tried to use the Lasker and got slowly squeezed in a few games, including one where Steve executed a textbook minority attack (and then helpfully explained the theory after). As White I had more luck and scored one victory in a rather sloppy Sicilian that began 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.a3!? ("Ah, this stuff..." he said, obviously having faced my "surprise move" before). Our first encounter, a French Two Knights, was quite a lesson in my non-master "horizon effect":
[Event "Casual blitz "]
[Site "Kenilworth Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.10.14"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Goeller, Michael "]
[Black "Stoyko, Steve "]
[ECO "C00"]
[WhiteElo "2023"]
[BlackElo "2350"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 c5 5. d4 cxd4 6. Qxd4 Qxd4 7. Nxd4 a6 8. Bf4 Bd7 9. Nd6 Bxd6 10. Bxd6 Nc6 11. O-O-O Nf6 12. Be2 $2 Ne4 13. Bg3 Nxg3 14. hxg3 Nxd4 15. Rxd4 Bc6 16. Bf3 $2 Bxf3 17. gxf3 Rd8 18. Rhd1 Ke7 19. Rxd8 Rxd8 20. Rxd8 Kxd8 21. Kd2 Kd7 22. Kd3 Kd6 23. Kd4 h5 24. c4 g5 0-1
Black to play.
I wasn't even thinking about the pawn structure when I made the two significant Bishop exchanges of the game, but they had basically sealed my fate by giving him a winning outside passed pawn. "I'm playing like Belle," I said in resigning.
I usually have much greater success against the French and may write up something about my Two Knights system some time. For now, here is a little collection of some of my games which I have handy, which you can also download as PGN or get as text below.
[Event "Hillside at Westfield"]
[Site "Westfield, NJ USA"]
[Date "1984.01.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Goeller, Michael"]
[Black "Pestcoe, Marv"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C11"]
[Annotator "Goeller,Michael"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "1984.??.??"]
[TimeControl "?"]
1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 c5 ({a)} 3... Nf6 {usually reaches the same positions as in the game after} 4. e5 Nfd7 (4... Ne4 5. Qe2 $5 (5. Ne2 Bc5 6. d4 Be7 7. Ng3 $14 {is book}) 5... Nxc3 6. dxc3 b6 7. Bg5 Be7 8. Qe3 Ba6 9. Bxe7 Qxe7 10. Bd3 $13 {Goeller-Lunna 1984}) 5. d4 c5 6. Bb5 $5 Nc6 7. O-O Qc7 8. Bf4 cxd4 9. Nxd4 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 Bc5 11. Qd2 Qb6 12. Bd3 Bd4 13. Rfe1 ({Fritz points out} 13. Nb5 $1 Bc5 (13... Bxe5 $6 14. Bxe5 Nxe5 15. Qc3 d4 16. Nc7+ Kd8 17. Nxa8 $1 $18) 14. b4 Be7 15. Be3 Qd8 16. f4 $16) 13... Qa5 14. Qe2 $5 Bxc3 15. bxc3 Qxc3 {and by an improbable sequence we have ended up in the same position as the main game!} 16. Qg4 Kf8 17. Qg5 $5 (17. Rad1 $1 {with ideas like Re3 and Bd2 is best.}) 17... Qc7 18. Bd2 h6 $2 19. Bb4+ Kg8 20. Qe7 g6 21. Re3 Rh7 22. Qe8+ Kg7 23. Rf3 Nc5 24. Bxg6 $3 Kxg6 25. Qg8+ Rg7 26. Rf6+ Kh5 27. Qxg7 {and Black cannot prevent mate at h6 - Goeller-McGrath, West Orange "Candidate Expert Invitational" 1981}) ({b)} 3... d4 4. Ne2 c5 5. c3 ({better} 5. Ng3 $142 {with a nice "reversed Nimzovich" game }) 5... Nc6 ({better} 5... Nf6 $1 6. e5 $6 Nfd7 7. cxd4 cxd4 8. Nexd4 Nxe5 $1 $11) 6. cxd4 cxd4 7. Qa4 Bd7 (7... Bc5 8. b4 $1 $16) 8. Nexd4 Bc5 9. Nxc6 Bxc6 10. Bb5 Bxf2+ 11. Ke2 $5 (11. Kf1 $1 $16) (11. Kxf2 $6 Qb6+ $13) 11... Bb6 ( 11... Qb6 12. Bxc6+ bxc6 13. d4 $18) 12. Bxc6+ bxc6 13. Qxc6+ Kf8 14. d4 $5 $16 {Goeller-Kramer, Westfield Championship 1983}) ({c)} 3... Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 $5 Ba5 $6 6. b4 $1 cxb4 7. Nb5 $36) ({d)} 3... dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 (4... c5 $5 5. d4 $1 $14) 5. d4 Ngf6 $11) 4. d4 $5 Nf6 (4... Nc6 $6 5. exd5 exd5 6. Bb5 $5 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Nge7 8. Qe2 Bd7 9. Bxc6 bxc6 10. O-O g6 11. Qe5 Rg8 12. Bg5 Bg7 13. Bf6 Bxf6 14. Qxf6 Nf5 15. Rfe1+ Kf8 16. Qe5 Nxd4 (16... Qb8 $1) 17. Qxd4 Qb6 18. Qf6 Be6 $4 19. Rxe6 Qxb2 20. Rb1 Qxc2 21. Re7 Rg7 22. Rbe1 $1 Qf5 23. Rxf7+ $1 Rxf7 24. Qh8# {Goeller-Ganning, West Orange 1983}) 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bb5 $5 { This move was played by Gurgenidze in the late 70s and early 80s with mixed results and I don't think I'd recommend it today, though it is playable. The move appears odd until you realize that this is the only way for the light-squared Bishop to help in the fight for the dark squares by eliminating one of Black's Knights. And, as we see in the main games, the Bishop does not always have to be exchanged. Today I would choose one of the several alternatives:} ( {a)} 6. Bg5 $5 {is Adrian Skelton's "Jackal Attack"}) ({b)} 6. dxc5 {is the classical book move and quite playable, as Chris Baker discusses in his "Startling Repertoire" book.}) ({c)} 6. Ne2 $1 { is probably best, with the idea of} cxd4 7. Nexd4 $14 { or c3 and Nf4. Shirov and Motwani have used this with good results.}) 6... Nc6 (6... a6 7. Bxd7+ Bxd7 8. Be3 Nc6 9. dxc5 Qc7 10. O-O Nxe5 11. Re1 f6 12. b4 a5 13. Bf4 axb4 14. Nxe5 fxe5 15. Nxd5 Qxc5 (15... exd5 16. Rxe5+) 16. Rxe5 O-O-O 17. Ne7+ Bxe7 (17... Qxe7 $2 18. Ra5 $1 $40) 18. Rxc5+ Bxc5 19. Qh5 $18 { Gurgenidze-Grigorian, USSR 1968}) 7. O-O Be7 8. dxc5 (8. Re1 O-O 9. Ne2 $5 Qb6 10. Ba4 cxd4 11. Nexd4 Nc5 12. Bb3 $6 (12. c3 $1 Nxa4 13. Qxa4 Bd7 14. Qd1 h6 $11) 12... f6 13. Bf4 $6 fxe5 14. Bxe5 Ne4 $1 $15 { Gurgenidze-Henley, Tbilisi 1983}) 8... Bxc5 (8... O-O 9. Bf4 Nxc5 $11) 9. Qe2 a6 10. Bd3 Nd4 11. Nxd4 Bxd4 12. Bf4 Qc7 13. Rfe1 Bxc3 14. bxc3 Qxc3 15. Qg4 g6 (15... Kf8 $6 {is covered above in Goeller-McGrath, West Orange "Candidate Experts Invitational" 1981 which reached the same position.}) 16. Rad1 Nc5 17. Bd2 $1 Qb2 18. Bb4 (18. Qh4) 18... Nxd3 19. Rxd3 h5 $2 20. Qf4 $1 Rg8 $2 21. Rf3 Rg7 22. Rb3 { and Black must lose material due to the threats of Rxb2 and Qf6 xg7 and Qe7#.} 1-0
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