Gwynedd Champs, Rd. 1
This game was the first round of the local county championships. The year before I crashed out after a painful first round defeat. It was even more painful as the year before I had finished 2nd, so I had high hopes. This year I was feeling confident, but I was paired with J. Shakespare in the first round, who is also a member of Bangor Chess Club. We had played quite a few serious games before this one, and he had one every one. We trained together over the summer of 2008, and this was our first serious game since. I learned a lot about his play during that summer, and I went into this game feeling quite confident.
1)e4 e5 2)f4 Bc5 3)Nf3 d6 4)Bc4 Nf6 5)d3 Nc6 6)Nc3 Bg4 7)Na5 0-0!?
This is quite an interesting move, and one my opponent told me he was not expecting. He had prepared for 7)...Bb6, which is quite tepid in comparison. The idea of the text is to try and capitalise on a slight lead in development, which should compensate for the loss of the Bishop pair. The resulting pawn structure for Black is actually quite dynamic, with a few tactical possibilities hidden within it. I have had this position a few times, with a very healthy score. 8)Nc5 bc5 9)Bd2?!N 9)0-0 is better, after which Black continues in similar lines as to the game, but whites king is safe. ...Qd6! 10)0-0 Bf3!? of course, not a bad move, but 10)...Ne4! would have won a pawn on the spot. Now the disadvantages of whites 9th are manifest. 11)Qf3 b5!
This move is a great example of the dynamism in Blacks structure. Of course, white can't capture on b5 due to ...Nd4! winning the bishop. Additionally, white can't play 12)Bb3 really, as he then faces ...c4 13)dc4 bc4 and now must decentralise his Bishop with 14)Ba4 [14)Bc4? Qd4+ winning the Bishop]. Therefore, white has to relinquish his Bishop pair, possibly his only positional advantage. Black has the initiative, and is slightly better. 12)Bd5 Nd5 13)ed5 Nd4! 14)Qf2 Nc2 Black is a clear pawn up for no compensation. 15)Rc1 Nd4 16)fe5 Qd5! This is the better pawn to capture, retaining the black pawn at c5. White still has the e5 weakness, so it won't be going far. 17)Be3 Qe5 There it goes! 18)Kh1 I am not sure now why he played this move. At the time of the game I was actually expecting it as there were some lines where a king on g1 was problematic. I can't at this time notice what the problem was. That is probably a good indication we were both seeing things! ...Rae8 19)Bf4 Qd5 20)Be3 c6 This felt like an important move at the time. If white exchanges on d4 as things stood, the c7 pawn was hanging and white would get some nice activity. 21)b3 I really think 21)b4 is whites only chance to fight for some complications here, trying to loosen blacks knight on d4.
This move is critical, and blacks only way to retain the advantage is with 21)...Re3!! which I felt was easy to spot, and was planning it as I was convinced white would play b4. 22)Qe3 cb4! again, the only move. Now black has two pawns for the exchange, a dominating knight & Queen, and a queenside majority ready to roll. Black is winning in that position. 21)...Re6 with the obvious plan of harassing the Kingside. 22)Rc5?? Qc5 23)Bd4 Qd5 White resigned. There are no tricks. White was planning 24)Bc5 which appears to give back the exchange thus winning back a pawn. The resulting heavy piece ending is likely drawn. However, white had overlooked 24)...Rf6! winning.A good start to the championship. At the end of this game the pairing for round 2 was drawn, and I was paired with a FIDE 2100 player. I will post that game in a few days time.
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