IM John Marvin Miciano

Asian Youth Chess Championship Under-18 Standard Time Control Chiangmai, Thailand April 2-9, 2018 Final Top Standings

1. FM John Marvin Miciano PHI 2260, 7.5/9 2. Daniel Quizon PHI 2228, 6.5/9 3-5. FM Xu Zhihang CHN 2344, IM Tran Minh Thang VIE 2400, FM Wong Yinn Long MAS 2222, 6.0/9

6-9. Omidi Arya IRI 2400, FM Mitrabha Guha IND 2366, Timur Nurzhanov KAZ 2296, CM Le Minh Hoang VIE 2226, 5.5/9

Total Participants: 30 players

Time Control: 90 minutes play-tofinish with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 1

Last Tuesday, I told you that our newly minted IM John Marvin Miciano defeated the second, third and fourth seed in successive rounds in the Asian Youth Under-18 Championship. I then showed you his defeat of Arya Omidi (at 2400 the second highest rated player in the tournament) of Iran. Let us now look at the other two, annotated by IM Miciano himself through kindness of his coach GM Jayson Gonzales.

Mitrabha, Guha (2366) — Miciano, John Marvin (2260) [E69] Asian Youth U18 Standard Chiangmai (4), 04.04.2018 [Miciano, JM] 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.g3 0–0 5.Bg2 d6 6.Nc3 c6 7.0–0 Qa5 8.h3 Nbd7 Actually 8...e5 is possible, but I first waited for his e4.

9. e4e 510. Re 1 Re811.d 5!?

I had noted during my preparation that this move is the only one that gives White some initiative. After a random

developing move like 11.Be3 Black has a lot of possibilities on how to pressure White’s center, for example: 11...exd4 12.Nxd4 and now Black has 12...a6, 12... Nb6, or 12...Qc7. 11...cxd5 12.Nxd5?!

This gives Black easy play. The usual move 12.cxd5 is better.

12...Nxd5 13.cxd5 f5 14.Bd2 Qb6 15.Bc3?!

I believe White’s best try for an advantage is 15. exf5 gxf5 16. Ng5 Nf6 17.Be3 Qa5 although it is still very unclear (over the board) whether white really gets some play here. 15...Nc5 16.Nd2

I was expecting more of 16.Ng5 Rf8 17.exf5 Bxf5 white might sacrifice on e6, to open the diagonal for his light squared bishop. 16...Rf8!

A threat is even stronger than developing moves. I was about to move 16... Bd7 but my main variation here with 17.exf5 Bxf5 I noticed that I still need to play Rf8 to put pressure on the f2 pawn. 17.exf5

There is nothing better. 17. Nc4 is met by 17...Qa6 18.Bf1? (probably better is defending the e4– square with 18. Nd2f4)18...b 5!19. Nd 2(19. Na 3 Nxe4 20.Nxb5 Qb6) 19...Qb6 20.a3 Bd7 black still gets the initiative. 17...Bxf5 18.Nc4 Qc7 19.Ne3 Bd7 20.Rc1

Obviously planning b2–b4.

20...a5 21.b3 b5 22.Qd2

Actually I was expecting 22.b4 axb4 23.Bxb4 Rxa2 24.Bxc5 Rfxf2!! as noted by the computer is a shocker. 22...Qa7

Pressuring the f2–pawn.

23.Bb2 Rf7 24.Re2 Raf8 25.Rf1 Bc8?!

Preparing for Bh6. I saw that 25...Bh6 26.f4 exf4 27.Rxf4 Bxf4 28.gxf4 white might get some play on the dark squares, but the silicon immediately saw 28...h6 and after Kh7, black can defend well. 26.Rc1 Bh6 27.Kh1 <D> POSITION AFTER 27.KH1 This comes into a tactical grinder. 27...Bxh3!! A shocker.

28. Bxh3 Ne4 29. Qd3 Rxf2 30.Be6+ Kh8 31.Rce1 Nxg3+ 32.Kg1 Nxe2+ 0–1 And now the tough Chinese FM Xu Zhihang. Miciano, John Marvin (2260) — Xu, Zhihang (2344) [C54] Asian Youth U18 Standard Chiangmai (5), 04.04.2018 [Miciano, JM] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 After the game my opponent told me that he was expecting 3.Bb5.

3...Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0–0 6.h3 d6 7.Bb3

The moves 7.Bg5; 7.Nbd2 are all possible, but I just want to hide my favorite bishop, like in the Ruy Lopez.

7... Bb6 8. Nbd2 Ne7 9. Nc4 Ng6 10.0–0 Be6 11.Kh2 Bxc4 12.Bxc4 c6 13.Bb3 d5 14.Qe2 h6 15.g3 Qd6 16.Ne1 Intending to go to e3 via g2.

16...Nd7 17.Ng2 Rae8 18.Qf3

Preventing f5. 18...Nc5 19.Bc2 f5

After any other moves, for example 19...Kh8, white gets a strategically won position after 20.Ne3. 20.exf5 Ne7

I expected 20... e4 21. dxe4 Nxe4 22.Be3. After a long think, I decided to weaken the strong structure. 21.b4 Na6 22.g4 d4 23.Kg1?!

All of this is according to my plan. I saw a lot of tactics here, for example after 23.c4 Nxb4 24.Bb3 e4+ isn’t possible because after 25. Qf4 Qxf4+ 26. Bxf4 white will win a pawn. 23...dxc3 24.a3 Bd4

[24...Nc7 black should get an initiative] 25.Bb3+ Kh8 26.Be3

My original intention was to play 26.Ra2 and then double my rooks on the e-file, but I then saw something better. 26... Nc7 27. Rae1 Bxe3 28. Nxe3 Ng6?

Black should have played 28...Nb5. After the “obvious” 29.Nc4? he has the strong retort 29...Nd4.

After the text move white gets an advantage. We were already approaching time trouble. I believe that my opponent was looking at 28...Qxd3 29.Rd1 Qa6 30.Nc4 but then decided White gets too much initiative for the pawn. 29.Nc4 Qf6 30.Qg3 Nh4 31.Kh1! g6? 32.Nxe5 gxf5

[32...Rxe5 is the lesser evil]

33.Qxh4! Now I win.

33...Qxh4 34.Ng6+ Kh7 35.Nxh4 fxg4 36. hxg4 Nb5 37. Nf5 Nxa3 38.Kg2 h5 39.Rxe8 Rxe8 40.Rh1 Kg6 41.Nd6 Re2 42.gxh5+ Kh7 43.h6 1–0

By the way, John Miciano is not the only Pinoy big winner in Thailand. The 14-yearold son of a motorcycle mechanic, Daniel Quizon, a student of the Dasmariñas High School, complemented him nicely with a silver medal finish. This is likewise an outstanding

achievement given the fact that he was among the youngest participants in the event. And his aggressive style was very much in evidence, look at the way he took out the top favorite from Vietnam, IM Tran Minh Thang, in the second round.

Quizon, Daniel (2228) — Tran, Minh Thang (2406) [B24] Asian Youth U18 Standard Chiangmai (2.1), 02.04.2018 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 a6 3.a4 Nc6 4.g3 e6 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.Nge2 Be7 7.0–0 0–0 8.d3 Rb8 9.d4 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 d6 12.e5 dxe5 13.Qxe5 Bd6 14.Qe2 Qc7 15.Be3 Bd7 16.Rad1 Rbc8 17.a5 Bc6 18.Bb6 Qe7 19.Bxc6 Rxc6 20.Ne4 Nxe4 21.Qxe4 f5 22.Qa4 Rfc8 23.c3 Rc4 24.Qb3 e5 25.Rd5 Qe6 26.Rfd1 Be7?

Black should be relieving the pressure down the a2– g8 diagonal with something like 26...R4c6. 27.Bd8! h5

[ 27... Bxd8 28. Rxd8+ Kf7 29. Qxb7+ R8c7 30.R8d7+ wins]

28.Bxe7 Qxe7 29.Rd7 Qg5 30.Rxb7 Kh8 31.Rdd7 h4 32.Qd1 Rg8 33.Rb6 Rg4 34.Rdd6 Qh5 35.Rb4 e4 36.Rd5 Qf7 37.Rb6 e3 38.Qf3 exf2+ 39.Kxf2 Rf8 40.Rbd6 hxg3+ 41.hxg3 f4 42.Qxg4 fxg3+ 43.Ke2 Qf1+ 44.Kd2 Rf2+ 45.Ke3 Qc1+ 46. Ke4 Qe1+ 47. Kd4 Qd2+ 48.Kc5 Qe3+ 49.Qd4 Qe7 50.Rh5+ Kg8 51.Qd5+ Rf7 52.Kc4 Qc7+ 53.Kb3 1–0

We no longer have as many strong youngsters as before, but these two are shining examples of the Filipino abilidad.