Sunday 18 January 2009

David Taylor's game on Wednesday 14th Jan 2009

Hi all!

I thought I would try out the new Blogspot set up by Phil, and post one of my own games for your comments.

So, here goes .............! It is a Reti Accepted, and the comments stem from me or from Fritz8.

David Taylor (104) v Evan Wood (110, Chorlton) on 14-01-2009

1. Nf3 d5
2. c4 dc
3. e4 e6
4. Bxc4 Nf6
5. Nc3 Be7
6. O-O O-O
7. d4 c6
8. a3 He was obviously thinking about b5, and I initially planned to play Ba2
8. b5 (Fritz: Nbd7 better to develop the Q-side.)
It now occurred to me that his K-side was vulnerable to attack along c2 - h7, so:
9. Bd3 a5 He has no minor piece out on the Q-side - in fact he never gets a chance!
10. Qc2 Ne8 He anticipated e5 clearing the diagonal, so plans a pre-emptive f5.
11. e5 f5
12. exf6 Nxf6
13. Ne4 g6 This caused him grief later, so h6 is probably preferable.
14. Bh6 Re8

















Here I worried about ....Ng4 so I played:

15. h3 But Fritz prefers the more aggressive Neg5
15. Nxe4
16. Bxe4 Bf8 Here Fritz suggests Bf6 is better for black
17. Be3 Here Fritz considers Bg5 is best; I wanted to overprotect d4.
17. Be7

















Here I was considering Bxg6 but couldn't be certain it was going to succeed so I played:




18. Ne5 However, Fritz asserts Bxg6 at once will win. Do you all agree?

18. Ra6 Rf8 would be more sensible - I wasn't seriously going after the c6 pawn.
19. Bxg6 At last I plucked up courage to go for it!
19. Bf6 He cannot accept the sacrifice with hxg6?
20. Bxh7+ Kh8 And now he goes the wrong way! His Q is lost.
21. Nf7+ Kg7
22. Qg6+ Kf8
23. Nxd8 and he resigned with less then 1 minute remaining on his clock!


SO the point of the posting is to ask, what is the optimal timing of Bxg6?





Thursday 15 January 2009

The March of the g Pawn

East Cheshire A team recorded their first win of the season on Wednesday night! Chorlton outgraded us on paper but wins by David Taylor and I saw us to a 3.5 - 2.5 victory. Whether we can still avoid relegation is another matter.

After 3 games with Black it was nice to be White for a change. My opponent played the opening carelessly and I managed to punish him, ultimately pushing my g pawn all the way to the 8th rank in the middle game!

P Ramsey vs A Sainsbury (135)

1. e4 d6
2. d4 Nf6
3. Nc3 g6
4. f4 Bg7
5. Nf3 c6
6. Bd3 O-O
7. O-O b5

According to the chess.com games database White wins 65% of the games which have this position so I guess the odds were in my favour.

8. Kh1

A useful waiting move, getting my King safe and waiting to see where he will put his pieces.

8. ... Bb7?

I think this is wrong as the weakening of the e6 squares proves to be painful for Black.

9. e5 Ne8
10. e6!? fxe
11. Ng5 Bc8

A sad retreat to the back rank for the Bishop.

12. Qe2


12. ... Nf6!

A wise decision to return the pawn. On 12. ... Nc7 I would have the possibility of Nxh7 followed by Qh5+.

13. Nxe6 Bxe6
14. Qxe6+ Kh8
15. Re1 Re8?

This looks too passive. We discussed after the game that 15. ... b4 looked better.

16. f5 gxf
17. Qxf5 Nbd7
18. g4!

Not giving Black any breathing space. Of course this opens up my King but Black has no time to exploit the open diagonal.

18. ... Nf8
19. g5 e6
20. Qh3 Ng8
21. Rf1


With the threat of Rxf8.

21. ... h6?

Maybe Qd7 was better.

22. gxh Bxd4
23. Qg4 Bxc3
24. bxc3 Qd7
25. Rg1 Nf6

Can you spot how White wins a piece here?

26. Qg7+ Qxg7
27. hxg7+

The pawns makes its vital contribution before dying.

27. ... Kg8
28. gxf8=Q+ Kxf8

White is a piece up and the attack continues.

29. Bh6+ Ke7
30. Rg7+ Kd8
31. Bg5 1-0

After 31. ... Rf8 32. Bxf6 Rxf6 33. Rg8+ wins a rook.

One of those rare games where you have all the fun and your poor opponent doesn't get out of his own half!

Friday 9 January 2009

Win by bamboozling your opponent

Here is my win for East Cheshire B vs. Macclesfield Reds.

When the game was adjourned material was equal but I dragged poor Ray over to our place as in the sealed position I could make a passed pawn and he couldn't.

After about another 20 moves we reached the following position:



My rook is tied to the defense of my pawn on a5 but I decided to give it up as I thought my kingside pawns would be more dangerous than his queenside ones.

1. Re3!
2. Rxa5 Rg3
3. Rb5 Rxg2+
4. Ke1 g4 ?!

This is probably wrong but it certainly surprised Ray and sent him into a bit of a spin!

5. Rf5+ Kg6
6. Rxf4 gxh3
7. Kf1 Rxb2

8. Rxb4 now loses to Rb1+ followed by h2.

8. Kg1 h2+
9. Kh1 Rxb3
10. a5?

10. Rxh4 looks better to me.

10. Kg5


11. Rf2??

I think White is lost after this. He should stay on the 4th rank to either swipe my b pawn or get behind it. He can then advance his a pawn forcing me to give up the b pawn.

11. Ra3
12. Rb2 b3
13. Kxh2 Ra2
14. 0-1


I was just getting into the rhythm of the game's 4th time scramble when he resigned.

An interesting endgame. I think after 4. ... g4 it should have been a draw. It would be interesting to see if it is a Black win after 4. ... Rg3 with the idea of getting 3 connected passed pawns. Anyone with Fritz want to see what it thinks?

Feel free to point out any errors in my analysis!

Phil.