Welcome to my Sicilian Defense (ECO B22) game with Nathalie van der Lende page!

On this page I have posted my chess game in which I played the Black side of the Sicilian Defense Alapin's Variation. The game includes analysis and diagrams.

This is the first tournament in which I had to stay in a hotel room in years. My original plan was to stay three nights in the room by myself but I decided to share the room with Robert Clark for two nights in order to save money. I lost this round (Round 1) and took a half-point bye in Round 2. Due to insomnia I withdrew from the tournament before the start of Round 3, so I paid $109 to play Nathalie and catch up with some old friends and acquaintances. I lost to Nathalie in Round 1 and Robert Clark defeated her in Round 4. We both had Black against her.

After resigning this game I went over it with Nathalie and she showed me some things that I didn't even look at. I learned quite a bit about her. She is from Holland and has played many chess tournaments there but this is only her second tournament in the US. I believe that her rating is over 1790 in Holland. Her brother is rated over 2200 in the US and appears to be about 2 years younger than she is. Her family  has a vacation home in the Orlando area and she wears nice jewelry, which leads me to believe that her family either has money, good credit, or both. She is 17 years old at the time of my writing this. I told her that if she was a year older she would be the kind of woman that I would like to marry and meant it, but later realized that she would also need to have a college degree in order to be my dream girl.

As a chess player her opening repertoire seems somewhat limited. If I had played the Modern Defense instead of the Sicilian I may have gotten a better opening against her and won instead of losing. She sees sacrifices and combinations that I don't even look for and that is her natural talent. I wish that I had remembered to get her to sign my score sheet because I think that she may become a well known player some day.

I tried to get a picture of her for this site but was unable to get her permission to take one. So, I copied one from another site and posted it below. It looks like it was taken about 5 years ago and doesn't do her justice now. Below that picture are links to some sites with more information about Nathalie. On my blog I will embed a link with a video that shows what Nathalie looks like now.

More information about Nathalie van der Lende:

http://www.365chess.com/players/Nathalie_Van_der_Lende

http://www.chesstour.com/so07r.htm

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6525

[Event "18th Annual Southern Open"]
[Site "Orlando, FL."]
[Date "2010.07.30"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Nathalie van der Lende"]
[Black "Mike Serovey"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. cxd4 e6 5. Nc3 d5 6. e5 Bd7 7. Nf3 f6 8. Bd3
fxe5 9. dxe5 Bb4 10. O-O Bxc3 11. bxc3 Nge7 12. Re1 O-O 13. Bxh7+ Kxh7 14. Ng5+
Kg8 15. Qh5 Rf5 16. Qh7+ Kf8 17. g4 Rxg5 18. Bxg5 Qe8 19. Re3 Qf7 20. Kg2 Qg8
21. Qh5 g6 22. Qh6+ Qg7 23. Rf3+ Kg8 24. Qxg7+ Kxg7 25. Bf6+ Kg8 26. Rh3 Rc8 27.
Rd1 Rf8 28. Rdd3 Kf7 29. Rh7+ Ke8 30. Rdh3 Bc8 31. Rg7 Rg8 32. Rhh7 Rxg7 33.
Rxg7 b5 34. h4 a5 35. h5 gxh5 36. gxh5 Nf5 37. Rh7 b4 38. cxb4 axb4 39. h6 Nce7
40. Rxe7+ Nxe7 41. Bxe7 {Black resigns} 1-0

18th Annual Southern Open
Orlando, Florida
Round 1, Board 30
30 July 2010
White: Nathalie van der Lende (1630/5) Black: Mike Serovey (1509)

1. e4 c5 2. c3

This is Alapin's variation. In Round 4 Robert Clark played 2... d5 against Nathalie and lagged behind her in development. in the scramble to make the first time control Nathalie allowed Robert to queen two pawns and after making the time control Robert had a Queen and Rook versus three connected passed pawns. When Robert started grabbing her pawns she resigned.

Nc6 3. d4 cxd4

Here, I was expecting 4. Nf3 going into a Smith-Morra Gambit and was relieved when she didn't. If she had played 4. Nf3 I probably would have answered with 4... d5.

4. cxd4 e6 5. Nc3 d5 6. e5 Bd7

The position now resembles an Advanced variation of the French Defense and that is how I tried to play this. Playing 6... a6 and 6... Bb4 are possible but I was worried that she might play the Milner-Barry Gambit and I am not used to playing the Black side of that opening.

7. Nf3 f6

Considering that she later sacrificed her Bishop on h7 I now think that playing 7... f5 was better here. After 8. Bd3 I could have played 8... Qb6.

8. Bd3 fxe5 9. dxe5 Bb4

I didn't want White's Knight going to b5 but playing 9... a6 accomplishes the same thing. Fianchettoing the Bishop may have been better.

10. O-O Bxc3 11. bxc3 Nge7 12. Re1

I should have taken more time looking at this position! Nathalie spent about 20 minutes looking at her next move and I didn't consider the Bishop sacrifice at all! Playing 12... h6 would have prevented the sacrifice. Nathalie insisted that I had to take the Bishop on h7 and Stockfish agrees and has White clearly winning here.

O-O? 13. Bxh7+! Kxh7 14. Ng5+ Kg8 15. Qh5 Rf5 16. Qh7+ Kf8

This is as far as I was able to see ahead when I looked at capturing the sacrificed Bishop at h7. Stockfish thinks that 17. Rb1 is better here. After capturing the Knight on g5 the position is even again.

17. g4 Rxg5 18. Bxg5 Qe8 19. Re3 Qf7 20. Kg2 Qg8 21. Qh5 g6 22. Qh6+

Stockfish gives the position as even after 22... Ke8. I decided to trade queens here in order to remove one of White's attacking pieces and to simplify the position. However, I also removed a defender.

Qg7 23. Rf3+ Kg8 24. Qxg7+ Kxg7 25. Bf6+ Kg8 26. Rh3

White is threatening to play 27. Rh8+ wining the Black Rook at a8, so I needed to move that Rook to a square where it was protected. Stockfish thinks that 26... Rf8 was better and I agree because I ended up playing it there on my next move anyway. Playing it here would have saved a tempo.

Rc8 27. Rd1 Rf8 28. Rdd3 Kf7 29. Rh7+ Ke8 30. Rdh3

White now has all of her pieces aimed at the Black Kingside! Black's pieces aren't well coordinated but do defend everything. Stockfish gives 30... d4 31. Bxe7 Nxe7 32. cxd4 Bc6+ as equal.

Bc8 31. Rg7 Rg8 32. Rhh7 Rxg7 33. Rxg7

Stockfish gives White a clear advantage here. Black's only chance is to get White's c pawn off the board and then to queen the d pawn. White has a kingside majority of pawns so stopping connected passed pawns later on will be a challenge!

b5 34. h4 a5 35. h5 gxh5 36. gxh5 Nf5 37. Rh7 b4 38. cxb4 axb4 39. h6!

Once again I failed to consider a sacrifice by my opponent! Stockfish thinks that 39... Nxh6 40. Rxh6 Ba6 is better for Black but White is still winning. Nathalie cleared the first time control (40 moves in two hours) with about a minute to spare. With an hour to play out the remainder of the game I resigned when I realized that I couldn't stop her from queening her pawn.

Nce7?? 40. Rxe7+!! Nxe7 41. Bxe7 1-0

I can't stop White from queening the h pawn but I could have played it out some more with 41... Kxe7 42. h7 Ba6 43. h8=Q Bc4 44. Qf6+ Kd7 45. Qf7+ Kd8 46. Qxe6 Bxa2 47. Qd6+ Ke8 48. e6 d4 49. Qd7+ Kf8 50. Qf7#.

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