[Event "US op 115th"] [Site "Orlando"] [Date "2014.08.01"] [Round "7"] [White "Shabalov, Alexander"] [Black "Gater, Daniel"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E84"] [WhiteElo "2500"] [BlackElo "2144"] [Annotator "Llewellyn, Alan"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "2014.07.26"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "USA"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2014.08.29"] {American chess has always (except in 1972 with Bobby Fischer) been a poor cousin to Russian Chess. Although the Americans have had many greats like Bobby, Marshall, Morphy, Reshevsky and in recent years Larry Christiansen, Walter Browne, Robert Byrne, Gata Kamsky, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, most of them appart from Bobby and maybe Gata were afraid to learn the science behind Chess, and based their games on tactical awareness and studing such things as mating paterns etc. The analogy is basing your entire soccer team on brilliant strikers but having no mid field or defence for them to get the ball from in order to score. Such a strategy was found wanting against the Soviets in particular. One of the first things Bobby did was learn Soviet strategic concepts, reading many Russian books. Here Aleaxander Shabalov, shows against a young 22 year old (Daniel Gater) what American Chess is capable of given the opportunities in a brilliant display of tactical awareness.} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 {This is the Samisch System of the Kings Indian Defence, the setup with the pawn on f4 instead of f3 is known as the Four Pawn Attack of the Kings Indian Defence and is more aggressive but the Samisch is a great compromise between attack and defence. 5.Nf3 is the Classical Kings Indian Defence.} O-O 6. Be3 Nc6 7. Nge2 a6 8. Qd2 Rb8 9. h4 e5 10. d5 Na5 11. b3 c5 12. dxc6 bxc6 13. Rd1 d5 ({13...Be6 was played in a low grade master game, Black won that it went:-} 13... Be6 14. Qxd6 Nd7 15. h5 Re8 16. hxg6 hxg6 17. g3 Qf6 18. Bg2 Red8 19. Qa3 Nb7 $44) 14. cxd5 cxd5 15. Nxd5 Nxd5 16. exd5 Re8 17. h5 Bf8 18. hxg6 fxg6 (18... Bb4 19. gxh7+ Kh8 20. Nc3 Bf5 21. Bxa6 Qc7 22. Bg5 Bxc3 23. Bf6#) 19. Kf2 {Daniel was threatening Bb4 but this move only helps Alexanders game.} Bb4 20. Nc3 e4 $1 21. Qd4 (21. fxe4 $2 Rxe4 $14) 21... Bf5 22. Bxa6 Bd6 23. Rxh7 $3 {Now Alexanders attack is completely overwhelming. } Be5 $1 {The young lad tries gainfully to try and put his position back together again but Alexander whiffs a brilliant win in the air.} (23... Kxh7 $6 24. Rh1+ Kg8 25. Qh8+ Kf7 26. Rh7#) 24. Rdh1 $3 Qd6 $1 {Still Daniel hasn't apparently lost hope... ...yet.} (24... Bxd4 25. Bxd4 e3+ 26. Kg1 Re7 27. Rh8+ Kf7 28. R1h7#) 25. Rh8+ $3 Kf7 (25... Bxh8 $6 26. Qxh8+ Kf7 27. Rh7#) 26. R1h7+ $3 Kf6 27. f4 $3 {the best line goes 27...Rb4 28.fxe5+ Qxe5 29. Nxe4+ Bxe4 30. Rxe8 Rxd4 31.Rf8# so Daniel had had enough.} (27. g4) 1-0