Annotated chess game: 3 pawns against a piece

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ANNOTATED GAME

3 pawns against a piece
vatrop (1969) vs. jstevens1 (1859)
Annotated by: jotheblackqueen (1200)
Chess opening: KGA (C38), Hanstein gambit

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1. e4	Hi everyone! GM Cyrano kindly invited me to a MT of his called Italian Coffee. I am one of 4 players rated south of 2000 in this 11 player MT and two of those were Class A 1900+ players. This is one of them. I find myself in a KGA and I end up losing a piece for two pawns very early on in the game. I managed to get a third pawn for a piece but alas, that proved to be insufficent in the endgame and Yours Truly had to take a 7 point rating hit, preventing me from getting my rating north of 1860. How did this happen? Well, here is the GA version of the game which you can follow. http://gameknot.com/analyze-board.pl?bd=16652944&fb=1&rnd=0.6964235451517038



1... e5 2. f4 exf4	2. .... exf4 - this is the King's Gambit Accepted. I usually accept the offering because a pawn is a pawn.
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: 'The way to refute a gambit is to accept it.' Don't know who said that. Maybe no one. l-d-j (1747) on 08-Apr-12: I usually play 2...d5, the Falkbeer countergambit, but I transpose it to the Abbazia defence after 3.exd5 exf4.


3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 Bg7 5. O-O Nc6	5. .... Nc6 - development.
	1 comment l-d-j (1747) on 09-Apr-12: @jkarp: The reason why knights are usually developed before bishops is that you usually know where they belong, while with bishops it's not so clear yet. In this case, however, the bishop clearly belonged on g7 (to form a fianchetto) so it was no problem that it was developed before the bishop.


6. c3 h6 7. d4 Nge7 8. g3 Na5 9. Bd3 fxg3 10. hxg3	10. hxg3 - pawn trade.
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: A marked contrast here between White's centralised game, and Black's eccentric development... Have we left 'the book' yet? I can't say I like the look of 8...Na5, even if it does dislodge the c4-Bishop. Better might have been 8...d4 or maybe 8...g4. dmaestro (1512) on 07-Apr-12: Agreed. The N move is suspect.


10... d6	10. ..... d6?? - after just 10 moves my position is lost. I am about to drop my knight for two pawns thanks to a check which I overlooked from the Wicked Witch of the West. The best I can do is block the check but the knight then falls to a pin on d5, ouch and double ouch!!
	1 comment the_hitch_hiker (1200) on 08-Apr-12: Certainly a mistake, but an exaggeration to say that the game is now lost. Gameknot puts you at only -0.35.


11. Qa4+ Nac6 12. d5 Qd7 13. dxc6 Nxc6 14. Bb5 O-O	14. .... 0-0 - after the dust has settled, instead of toppling Henry I decided to tuck him away on the kingside out of the a4-e8 pin line. Even though the end result proved to be a jstevens1 loss I think I made the right decision here in playing on. At least it led to an interesting material imbalance of the three pawns for the piece, and opens up a debate on which is better - a piece or three pawns, but that happened later.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: 13...bxc6 was my 'kneejerk' reaction to the capture on c6. It might have been worth thinking about...


15. Qc2 Qg4	15. ..... Qg4 - counter-attack. Now Glenda homes in on the exposed WK and puts pressure on the isolanis on g3 and e4.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2355) on 10-Apr-12: WK = White King. BQ = Black Queen... etc.


16. Qf2 Qxe4	16. ..... Qxe4 - now that the e4 pawn is hanging I do get my third pawn for the piece but is it enough?
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: In general, I much prefer the pawns, but it depends on the situation. It's nice if some of the pawns are reasonably far advanced, which does not prevail here. On the other hand, Black has a majority on both wings, and the pawns are reasonably strong. Against that is the mobility of the pieces. Were Black's pawns significantly interdicting White's freedom of manoeuvre - or if they have the (realisable) potential to do so - I think I'd favour the pawns even in this position. However, it seems unlikely that White's mobility will be seriously restricted any time soon... dmaestro (1512) on 07-Apr-12: Jo you did a good job of getting material equality. Here white has good piece mobility. You need to concentrate on mobile pawns that you can advance.


17. Re1 Qf5 18. Bf1 Be6	19. ..... Be6 - clearing the decks.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2355) on 10-Apr-12: id=jkarp: Mobilizing her last pieces. The bishop gets brought into the action, whereat the a8-Rook can also find somewhere useful to go.


19. Be3 Ne5 20. Nxe5 Qxf2+ 21. Bxf2 Bxe5	21. ..... Bxe5 - after a plethora of exchanges I manage to hold onto my ecclesiastical twins and keep my pawn structure together but there is plenty of work for me to do.
	3 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: H'mmm... One way to restrict mobility is to exchange pieces! Black's game looks as though it might be tenable here... dmaestro (1512) on 07-Apr-12: I tend to think black has enough for the piece but it depends on the mobility of blacks kingside pawns. damalfi (1200) on 04-May-12: White is behind in developement, so currently has the advantage: three pawns against one on the kingside. The whole point (IMO) is: would black be able to attack quickly enough so to make trmemble white's position before he fully activates his pieces? And the answer seems to be "no". Black's dsb cannot cover d2, so the knight can go out. And f5-f4, exchange, and the two pawns's majority should win, but white has time to exchange the knight for the two pawns. Unless he finds a trick.


22. Nd2 a6 23. Nf3 Bf6 24. Nd4 Bd7	24. ..... Bd7 - defense does not wash here, but what else is there?
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: I am wondering if 23...f6 might have improved prospects? I'm fairly sure that blocking the f-pawn wasn't especially desirable... dmaestro (1512) on 07-Apr-12: Jo the pawns are compensation to the extent they are mobile and advancement is a threat, otherwise the piece is stronger. You need to get those pawns rolling.


25. Bd3 Rfe8 26. Bf5 Bxd4 27. Bxd7 Bxf2+ 28. Kxf2 Re5	28. ..... Re5 - after another plethora of exchanges I am still endeavouring to keep my pawns intact. In retrospect I should have got in h4 asap (I would have avoided this pawn becoming backward later on) and tried to force an exchange of one of my kingside pawns for the g3 pawn. If I had succeeded in doing that then my drawing chances would have increased tenfold.



29. Rxe5 dxe5	29. ..... dxe5 - one pair of rooks is exchanged off.



30. Bf5 Rd8 31. Ke2 Kg7	31. ..... Kg7?? - I think this is where I sould have played h4. White stops this with g4 next move and ensures that both my h and f pawns become backward.
	2 comments dmaestro (1512) on 08-Apr-12: Too late, white has a grip on the white squares and can restrain the pawn majority. archduke_piccolo (2355) on 10-Apr-12: If 31...h5, 32.Rh1 seems to seal the deal for white. jkarp: What Jo means is that they can not advance level with the pawns on the adjacent files. She is correct, too, once White's g-pawn reaches g4. Then her 4-1 pawn majority on the K-side is completely immobilised. The bad part for Black is that the act of immobilising Black's K-side does not overcommit the enemy bishop. For one thing, it influences the light squares behind the pawn line; for another, it can if and when required switch its attention elsewhere. It is clear to me Black ought not to have let this happen. But could she have prevented it? We'd have to go back and see.


32. g4 b6 33. Ke3 f6	33. ..... f6 - moving all my pawns onto squares of the opposite colour to the WB but this will not do.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: This wouldn't be so bad if white was fully committed to constraining the K-side. But the configuration of B and P leaves White sufficient spare capacity to progress elsewhere.


34. a4 a5 35. b4 axb4 36. cxb4	36. cxb4 - this pawn trade will ensure that white has a decisive outside passer.



36... Ra8 37. a5 bxa5 38. bxa5	38. bxa5 - voila!
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2355) on 10-Apr-12: 'Voila!' - 'There it is!' or 'Look there!' Said when you are pulling a rabbit out of a hat or showing something surprising or demonstrating something. Here it is not surprising at all; she's demonstrating the coming into existence of a passed pawn (passer) for White. If only White's K/B/P on the K-side were fully committed there, Black could still hold. But they are not. The bishop and King can choose their moments to intervene on the other wing.


38... Ra7 39. a6 Kf8	39. ....... Kf8 - Henry tries to go over to the queenside. Sadly, even with his healthy seafood diet he is still an old man and can only move one square at a time, so he will be very hard push to be in two places at once.



40. Bd3	40. Bd3 - the pawn on a6 is now protected. I must now watch out for Rb1 - b7 and the WK coming in via e4-f5 etc. Henry cannot deal with both matters and two moves later I waved the white flag. A chastening experience.
	2 comments blitzkov (1200) on 07-Apr-12: i like Be4 instead of Bd3 after Be4 go Bb7 the rook is trapped archduke_piccolo (2355) on 10-Apr-12: I think you have misunderstood the situation, Joe. White was winning here, and knew it. water 123 is correct that 40.Be4 led to 41.Bb7 and the imprisoning of the Black rook (nothing could have been done to prevent it, after which White's Rook and pawn would clean up Black's 5 without trouble. The Black King could not possibly defend all the weaklings in the bunch: c7, f6 and h6.


40... Ke7 41. Ke4 Kf7
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2355) on 07-Apr-12: Very well played, White. Black never seemed to have enough time to organise a defence or counterattack.