WINNING WITH THE PENANG ATTACK

I have been using the Sicilian Sozin Velimirovic Attack when faced with the Sicilian Defense from the time I became a member of the University of.Mindanao varsity chess team in the late 1980's. However, in the July 8-9, 2005 Chess Piece Column of Bobby Ang which was published in the BusinessWorld, Bobby had the occasion of writing about the Penang Attack and featured three brilliant games of our very own NM Glenn Bordonada to whom this opening line was attributed. This made me reassessed the way I was handling White's Attack in the Sozin Velimirovic line. Nonetheless, I had no opportunity to test the line in tournament play as I shut-out myself from local tourneys during that time to concentrate on my work.

In 2007, I was able to borrow from my neighbor Austin Jacob Literatus, who incidentally was recently crowned 2010 ASEAN 14 and under champ, a book " THE SICILIAN SOZIN ", by GM Mikhail Golubev. The book was sent to him by his uncle IM Marlo Micayabas who was the 1983 Asian Junior champ. This further galvanized my resolve to play the Penang Attack in tournament play if given the opportunity. The following year I was able to used the line and won against Atty. Bernie Cataluna in the Eastern Mindanao IBP chess competition where I placed runner-up. However, I was not able to record our game as it was a 15 mins/game tourney. Several months after, I was again given the opportunity to used the line in the 2008 Cong. Ungab Cup team tourney. Players were allotted 1 hour each play to finish thus I had the time to record the game. By the way, my opponent in this game was among the top players of Davao City in the late 80's and early 90's but has already retired from competition. This was his first tournament after more than 10 years of absence thus he was a little bit rusty.. .

[Site "Guevarra Bldg., De Guzman St., Toril, Davao City, Philippines"]
[Date "2008.10.2"]
[Round "5th"]
[Event " 2008 Cong. Ungab Cup Team Tourney"]
[White "Atty. Jong Guevarra Jr."]
[Black "Glen Paclar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "1835"]
[BlackELO "?"]

SICILIAN SOZIN VELIMIROVIC ATTACK

Annotations by Caissa's Father


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6
6. Bc4 e6 7. Be3 Be7 8.Qe2 a6 9. O-O-O Qc7



This is the tabia position of the Sozin Velimirovic Attack. There are two ways upon which White proceeds with his attack:

a.) 10. g4 followed by g5 and h4 where white tries to smash Black's kingside position. This was the line I was using before I shifted to the Penang Attack.
b.) 10. Rg1 followed by g4 and Qh5 where White creates mating threats with the help of his queen, rook and bishop. This is the so called Penang Attack.

10. Rhg1 Na5!

According to GM Golubev, not good for Black is 10... 0-0 as 11. g4
is attractive for White as he is a tempo up in the main line not having
played Bb3. Another interesting try is 10... Nxe4 which Lito Laput
played against me in the 2009 Bob Bula Cup. I emerged with a slight advantage in the opening but almost lost the game due to a premature piece sacrifice.

11. Bd3 b5 12. g4 Bb7 !?

( In the game Shvidenko-Kurass, Kiev 1970 black essayed the move 12.. b4! 13 Nb1 Bb7 14. Nd2 d5 15. f3 dxe4 16. fxe4 Nd7 with equality )

13. g5 Nd7 14. Kb1 Ne5?!



Black should have commenced counter-play in this stage by 14... b5 15. Na4 d5!

15. f4 Nxd3 16. cxd3! Nc6 17. Rc1 Qd7 18. f5 b4

Too late..

19. Nd1 Nxd4 20. Bxd4 e5 21. Bb6 Bd8 22. Bf2 Qb5 23. Ne3 Rc8 24. Nc4



White has emerged in the opening with a clear advantage. Black's pieces lacks coordination with no immediate counter-play in sight.

24... Bc7 25. f6 g6 26. Rc2 h5 27. gxh6 Rxh6 28. Be3 Rh5 29. Qg4 Qd7?



30. Qxh5!

Black resigns..
1-0
Replay the game below..



Last month, I played a 3 minute game at chesscube.com and used NM Glenn Bordonada's attacking strategy in coming up with this beautiful miniature. By the way, my username at chesscube is bw-metrolirot.


[Event "ChessCube Game"]
[White bw-metrolirot@chesscube.com]
[ Chesscube rating: "2030 " ]
[Black slider_k999@chesscube.com]
[Chesscube rating: "2026 " ]
[Date "2010.05.24"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bc4 Nc6 7. Be3 e6 8. Qe2 Be7
9. g4 O-O 10. g5 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Nd7 12. h4 b5 13. Bb3 Bb7 14. O-O-O Rc8 15. Kb1 Qc7
16. Rhg1 Nc5 17. Bf6 b4 18. Qh5 bxc3 19. Qh6 Nxb3 20. Qxg7# 1-0