1. c4 c5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Rb8 6. a3 a6 7. Rb1 b5 8. cxb5
axb5 9. b4 c4 10. Nd5?
In hindsight, I should have just played 10. a4 immediately.
10... e6 11. Nc3 d5
Black has just gained two tempi for FREE. D'oh!
12. a4 bxa4 13. Qxa4 Bd7 14. b5 Ra8
15. bxc6 ?! I was very unhappy with my play to this point and decided to give up the queen for two minors and the exchange. I figured, without full calculation, that I would have much more activity than Black and be able to get a pawn or two back ... or maybe even a whole piece.
However, better is 15. Qc2 (as Daniel pointed out after the game). White may even have a slight plus.
15... Rxa4 16. cxd7+ Qxd7 17. Rb8+ Ke7 18. Nxa4 Qxa4 19. Rb7+ Kd6 20. Ng5
Better may be 20. Rxf7 Nh6 21. Rb7 and Black has the upper hand but isn't outright winning.
20... Nh6 Now that he is getting his king side pieces into play, Black has a decisive advantage.
21. Nxf7+ Nxf7 22. Rxf7 c3 23. O-O
My engine prefers 23. d3 although Black still has the upper hand. However, during the game, I didn't like the idea of leaving the passed pawn alone.
23... cxd2 24. Bxd2 Be5 25. Rc1 Rb8 26. Rfc7
Better is 26. Bg5 ! Re8 27. Rxh7 Bb2 28. Re1 and Black stands only slightly better.
26... Rb1 27. Rxb1 Kxc7 28. Rc1+ Kd7 29. Bh6 Qa2 30. Bf3 Bf6 31. h4 Qb2 32. Rd1 Ke7 33. Bc1 Qc3 34. Be3 d4 35. Rc1 Qa3 36. Bh6 and Black still has the upper hand.
36... g5 ? 37. Rc7+ Kd8 38. Rxh7
Better is 38. Rf7 ! Be7 39. hxg5 The position is level and White should be able to draw in this line. However, I was already in serious time trouble.
38... gxh4 39. gxh4 Bxh4 40. Rh8+ Kd7 41. Rh7+ Ke8
42. Bc6+ I missed what looked like my last chance for a draw with 42. Rh8+ Kf7
The Black king has to come forward to avoid the draw by repetition. Running the other way faces the possibility of a check from the h6 bishop along the h2-b8 diagonal and a discovered attack on Black's h4 bishop - which would be winning for White. The Queen cannot win against the 2 bishops and a rook.
If ever Black plays 42... Ke7 ?? then it is instant death with 43. Bf8+ and White dines on the free queen. Black also had to avoid playing the king to d6 while the possibility of Bf8+ was available as this would lose the bishop
at least.
If Black tries 42... Kd7 then we have 43. Rh7+ and with 43... Be7 there follows 44. Bg5 and a win for White. In this line, 44. Bf8 also wins with 44... Qc1+ 45. Kg2 Qg5+ 46. Kf1 Qg8 47. Rxe7+ Kd8 48. Ra7 and Black cannot capture the bishop with 48... Qxf8 ?? since 49. Ra8+ follows, winning for White again.
Following the drawing line with 42... Kf7 we have 43. Rh7+ Kg8
43... Kf6 ?? 44. Bg7+ Kg6 45. Be4+ Kg5 46. Bxd4 loses for Black. At the very least White gets the draw quite easily.
43... Kg6 ?? 44. Be4+ Kf6 45. Bg7+ Kg5 46. Bxd4 also loses for Black.
So, now we have 44. Rg7+ Kh8 45. Be4 ... with the threat of the perpetual (or winning the Black queen). 45... Bf6 46. Rf7 Be7 and White has a forced draw. 47. Rh7+ Kg8 48. Rg7+ Kh8 [48... Kf8 ?? 49. Rg3+ just wins outright for White.] 49. Rh7+ and so on.
So I missed the draw. Those aren't easy against a 1978 rated player.
42... Kd8 43. Rd7+
43. Bf4 exposes the Black bishop to attack and is probably a better move.
43... Kc8 44. Rh7 Qb4
Much better for Black is 44... Qa1+ 45. Kg2 Qe1 46. Rf7 Qxe2 which looks winning.
45. Kg2 Qb1 46. Bb7+ Kd8 47. Rh8+ Ke7 48. Bf8+ Kf7 49. Bf3 Be7 50. Bh5+ Kf6
51. Bxe7+
51. Rh6+ Kg5 52. Bg7 keeps all 3 pieces on the board and so is probably a better line.
51... Kxe7 52. Re8+ Kd7 53. Rh8 Qe4+ 54. Bf3 Qg6+ 55. Kf1 e5 56. Bh5 Qg7 57. Ra8 Qh6 58. Bf3 Qf4 59. Ra7+ Kd6 60. Ra6+ Kc5 61. Ra5+
White flags. I had zero seconds showing on the clock for the last few moves so I made the move ... and resigned.
Even though I gave up the queen, the exchange gave me some play. A more careful examination of the position after 41 moves would have given me the half point. The success of James Atem in my rating group, however, bumped him up to a tie for first overall and netted me a few unexpected dollars in prize money despite the loss. 0-1
7 comments:
For some reason I cannot edit this entry at all. I go to edit it and all I get is a blank page. If there is some weblog expert out there with an idea why this might be so, I'm "all ears".
Hi--I want to apologize for not getting back to you sooner when you commented at my chess blog awhile back and asked about Chess Publisher--I see you started to use the chessvideos.tv viewer. I have had this same problem with Chess Publisher, not being able to edit a post with an embedded game. It's possible that if you publish with the editor in "edit html" mode that it will be editable there later, but I'm not absolutely certain. I'm going to try it next time I post a game.
You're doing a fine job with the blog and I'll link here soon when I update the sidebar.
Best Regards,
Robert Pearson
Thanks for the suggestion, Robert. I will try it myself and see how it goes.
I had a long discussion with Nikolai Pilafov over at Susan Polgar's Discussion Board (not to be confused with her blog) which you may find of interest. My plan is to convince the folks at Google to allow me (and others) to upload an executable java file (or something like that) so that the chess game viewer can be hosted here on blogspot. My learning curve, however, has been painfully slow and I want to be sure that I "have all my ducks in a row" before moving forward.
Nigel Hanrahan
Co-Editor, Exclam! online
Nigel,
Were you able to do your edits ?
No, I wasn't able to do any edits in the original post for these comments. When I go to edit the entry it just appears blank, as if there is nothing there. Fortunately, the edits/corrections were just a matter of pressing the "enter" key too many times so it's not so urgent that I would need to delete the original post and start again. And with all the diagrams, coloured text for moves, and the game viewer as well, it would be a bit of work.
So I will wait until my next entry and experiment a bit. I have been in the habit of switching from "edit HTML" back to "compose" and perhaps that has something to do with the problem - as Robert Pearson has suggested.
9...c4?1 I believe might be answered with 10.a4!?
if 10...bxa4? 11.b5 followed by collecting both a and c pawns with something like Qa4. 9...c4 is usually an overextension.
anonymous, I agree that I should have played a4 much sooner than I did. However, the continuation with 11. Qxa4 ... looks to be as good as 11.b5 after 11 ... Bxc3 12. dxc3 Qa5.
Nigel
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