Home Chess News Gorilla Fart #4 – Round 4 Review

Gorilla Fart #4 – Round 4 Review

September 16, 2024

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Gorilla Fart #4 – Round 4 Review

Report by – Mehul Gohil aka ‘Gorilla’

After the loss to Trinidad & Tobago, Kenya is now in position 139 at the Olympiad. They were seeded 137 so this means they are performing at the level the Team Kenya Elo ratings reflect. Position 139 means we are just doing the usual stuff (nothing great, usual weak performance) at the Olympiad as is typical for a Banana Republic Chess Country.

Of course, there are still 7 more big rounds to go. We are not even at the halfway stage. We have an ‘easy’ opponent in the form of Guam today. That should bounce us back to above expectation levels. But this yoyoing has been typical for teams like Kenya at the Olympiad. Rd6 will be a key one. We will get a toughish opponent. If we succeed there then it will indicate very good chances for a better Olympiad performance than usual for Team Kenya.

Ms Tshepiso Lopang, President of Africa Chess Confederation with Team Kenya from left Ian Mutuge, Elvis Likoko, Mathew Kanegeni & CM Ben Magana at the start of round 4. — Ms Tshepiso Lopang, President of Africa Chess Confederation with Team Kenya from left Ian Mutuge, Elvis Likoko, Matthew Kanegeni & CM Ben Magana at the start of round 4.

Kenyan players keep saying ‘we are underrated’, “Elo ratings are unreliable” etc. I don’t agree with this majority view of Kenyan players. We have the Elo ratings we have. And they more or less reflect our general strength level.

Trinidad & Tobago is the sort of team Kenyan players think they are. Or the level we are supposed to be at. We are not.

Still, the match was much closer than the 0.5-3.5 result shows. On all boards we were matching the Trinidadians. But a careful analysis of the moves shows the team (and really Kenyan chess in general) lacks as aspect: Skill in prophylactic thinking. Both tactical and positional prophylaxis. This is an area we need to improve on. Decent skill in this area would have not resulted in 0.5-3.5.

I found the match up vs Trinidad & Tobago the most instructive round of all so far for Team Kenya an Kenyan chess. We were fighting a team not too strong for us but just sufficiently strong enough to allow us to have a chance and thus also learn more.

This is best explained with some chess positions.

Board 1: Kanegeni Game (Ruy Lopez/Italian Themes)

Here Kanegeni essayed the mechanical 15…Nf4?!. It looks outwardly attractive. The attack appears to be coming. If he had asked himself how white will react he would have seen 16.Bc1!, a cool and calm defensive move which readies to snip off the active f4 kight. Bishop was doing jack on b2.

A study of Kasparov’s games would point to the right plan here. Kasparov was obsessed with the attacking technique of building up what Jacob Aagaard called ‘Assault Ration’.

According to Kasparov, when building up an attack the QUANTITY of pieces starts to become more important than the quality of pieces in the attacking sector. Following this logic the manoeuvre Ne7 to Ng6 would have built up the ‘Assault Ratio‘ for Black on the K-side. It would have asked tough questions of White.

Board 4: Mutuge game (Ruy Lopez / Italian Themes)

Mutuge had been doing well until this point. I thought he had a slight edge. Black played d5 here. And at this point Mutuge forgot or was unaware of a classic theme in these 1.e4 e5 situations. e4 and e5 are the central strong points.

Classic Ruy Lopez and Italian themes suggest shoring up these central strong points with Bc2, Ng3, Re1 etc. When Black plays d5, unless there is a concrete idea White has, there is no point in taking on d5. This is what Mutuge did. He could have kept status quo simply by say N1d2 or g3 followed by Bc2. Solidifying e4. Instead he took. And immediately Black grabbed central control, took over the initiative and it was all downhill from there.

Board 2: McLigeyo game

This was sad. Because McLigeyo again played a hell of a game. Really good chess. E.g the idea of switching the b3 Knight to the K-side was a master stroke. Towards the 40 move time control, maybe it was time pressure, McLigeyo failed to apply tactical prophylaxis and failed to spot some cheapo tactics and duly collapsed. This was shaping up to be his best game so far. Alas.

Board 3: Likoko

This was good fighting by Likoko once again. It appears he is gaining in strength gradually with each game. I think we will see some good stuff from him in the 2nd half of the Olympiad. He is settling into fighting mode. This was a well earned draw.

About Mehul Gohil

Mehul Gohil is the a three times Kenya National Chess Champion (2014, 2019 & 2022. He has won several major events in the country including the 66th Nairobi Chess Club Championship.