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, I came across the July 8, 2005 Chess Piece Column of Bobby Ang which was published in the Business World where Bobby wrote 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 and who is now based in the U.S. 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.

The other featured game is a miniature win at chesscube.com. Hope that you enjoy the two featured games. The annotations are just for fun and without the aid of chess program thus may not be the strongest continuation.


[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
king side 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 at 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?

Black blunders in a difficult position.



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"]

Brief annotations by Caissa's Father
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

The game started with the g4 line of the Velimirovic attack but eventually
transposed to the Penang Attack

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!



This Bishop incursion is thematic in the Penang Attack and should have been prevented by Black. Black is just routinely playing the standard counterplay
unaware of the mating sequence that follows..

b4 18. Qh5! bxc3?



18... Rd8 is the only move to prevent mate

19. Qh6!


Final position.

Black resigns as mate cannot be prevented..

1-0

GM Golubev's conclusion: By responding correctly to 10.Rhg1,
Black solves his problems. Nevertheless, when played against
an unprepared oponent, this idea can have an impressive effect.

Replay the game below.