Sam Shankland Everything Old Is New Again
Sam Shankland: My near memorable game
5/22/2020 – In this new series, we inquire professional person chess players to share the most memorable game from their careers. Everyone who has ever participated in a competitive effect knows that the emotional value attached to each contest is vastly more relevant than the pure sportive achievement. In the first instalment, Sam Shankland shares his first-ever victory over a grandmaster, ten years before winning the U.s.a. Championship. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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MMMG #1: Lucky to play black
Sam Shankland was born October 1st, 1991 in Berkeley, California. Compared to the prodigies of our fourth dimension, Shankland was a belatedly bloomer in chess, as he earned the grandmaster title "only" at age xix. The Californian did not allow his delayed ascent stop him. Well known for being extremely hard-working, he slowly but surely climbed upward the rating ladder until having a breakthrough year in 2018, when he won the The states Title, the Capablanca Memorial and the American Continental in succession.
In an interview with Vignesh Panchanatham, Shankland synthesized his philosophy:
Play for the love of the game, and don't be too worried about things that are exterior of your control. [...] A late start is a handicap, but I hope I have showed that it is not equally large a handicap every bit some seem to believe.
Below we present the highlights of the annotations sent by the writer. The full assay can exist found in a replayable lath at the end of the commodity.
For everything i does, at that place is always a first time. My first ever victory over a grandmaster was a very memorable one. I was never a child prodigy, I but discovered chess well into my childhood, playing my first tournament at age eleven, and had never fifty-fifty encountered a grandmaster until I was 15, much less played with 1 or learned from one. They seemed much more than similar mythical creatures to me than I'thousand sure kids present run into them. I felt so accomplished subsequently beating one (and a strong ane at that) for a get-go scalp.
Shabalov, Alexander vs. Shankland, Sam
Earth Open, 2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 three.c3
I accept to call up that Alex only chose this timid move because he was facing a younger and much lower rated opponent. In subsequent years he e'er went into the Open Sicilian against me.
3...Nf6 4.Bd3 Nc6 five.0-0 Bg4 6.h3?!
White's thought of grade is not bad. Only as soon equally I saw this motility, my idea was that castling queenside and launching the 1000-pawn became a possibility.
6...Bh5 7.Bc2 e6 8.d3 Be7 9.Nbd2 Qc7!
Black is preparing to castle long, and g5-g4 tin potentially shred the kingside pawn cover keeping the white monarch safe. White is probably not worse only yet, but Alex'due south next motion clearly showed he felt a little uncomfortable.
10.Qe1This is very anti-positional, just White clearly was looking to avoid g5.
10...0-0-0 11.a3 Kb8
This motion looks cool to me in 2020. Why was I worried about my rex on c8? Probably I was giving likewise much respect to my esteemed opponent.
12.b4 h6 13.b5 Na5 14.c4 g5
I was pretty optimistic most my attacking chances here, but the position is closed enough that White is probably okay. At some point, the knight on a5 may become a concern after Bb2-c3.
15.Bb2 Rhg8 16.Nh2 g4! 17.Qe3 gxh3 xviii.Qxh3 Be2!
A very refined move for me at this phase of my chess-playing days. I could calculate reasonably well and had a skillful experience for the initiative in the right kind of position, but subtleties such as provoking the rook to a slightly worse square earlier playing Bg4 was non something I normally think 16-yr-old Sam was very good at.
nineteen.Rfe1 Bg4 20.Nxg4 Nxg4 21.Bd1 Ne5 22.Nf1 Bf6 23.Ra2?
An understandable but poor decision. I don't remember the rook will be as well helpful forth the second rank. Instead White should have put information technology on b1 so that I would accept problem getting Nb3 in and freeing the d1-bishop.
23...Qe7 24.Bc1 h5!
Fearless and stiff. Blackness need not fear the loss of the h-pawn equally the open h-file would spell White's doom, and he is rapidly gaining more than space and tightening his grip on the kingside.
25.Nh2 At this point, it was pretty clear to me that he wanted to play f4. So, I stopped him.
25...h4!
Black takes even more than space. f4 is prevented due to Rg3 ideas.
26.Nf1 Ng6! If I can get Bg5 in next, the commutation of the nighttime squared bishops should more than or less end the game as moves like Nf4 volition become impossible to forestall. Understandably, White went for f4 anyway to prevent this, just I was ready for it.
27.f4 Bc3! 28.Ree2 Qf6! 29.Qf3
At this point, Alex actually did me a big favor past offering a draw. I recollect he did so hoping that I would immediately see the forcing continuation Ng6-e5, forking the queen and d3 pawn, and and so queen back to h3, and knight back to g6. I probably would take found that idea on my own anyhow, but his draw offer made me immediately annotation the possible repetition, and helped me observe the style to improve on this thought.
29...h3!
This is a counterintuitive motion because it allows g3, securing the g-pawn and White'due south kingside in general. Just, one time you start to recollect nigh why Ne5 does not work immediately, you realize that White absolutely needs the resource Qf3-h3. By provoking the pawn to g3, this becomes impossible.
30.Nh2 hxg2 31.Be3 Bd4 32.Rf2 Bxe3 33.Qxe3 Qh4 34.Bg4
I guess he was hoping for Rxg2 next without assuasive Nxf4. Black is winning every which way and certainly could play something unproblematic like Nb3-d4, but the finish was much more aesthetically pleasing.
34...e5 35.fxe5 Nxe5
If the bishop moves, Black can end the game with Qxh2+. Alex resigned, and I had finally defeated my first grandmaster! Oddly plenty, looking back (although forward from the time of the game), I was quite lucky to play the black pieces, as Blackness won every unmarried i of our decisive games for the next 9 years until I finally beat him with white in 2017. I blame my horrible lifetime score against Alex on the terrible luck of getting White in most of those games!
Full annotations
Links
- More manufactures and news almost Sam Shankland
- Throwback Thursday serial
Source: https://en.chessbase.com/post/my-most-memorable-game-shankland