Annotated chess game: How to win with less material: why you should never give up.

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ANNOTATED GAME

How to win with less material: why you should never give up.
pliko (1710) vs. phantomfive (1715)
Annotated by: phantomfive (1709)
Chess opening: Queen's pawn game (D02)

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1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Bf5 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 e6 5. O-O Bd6	Here black wasn't paying attention and white pulled off a tactic that messed up his position.



6. c4 dxc4 7. Bxf5 exf5 8. Qa4+ Nc6 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Qxc4	Now white has both center pawns, and black only has one on the side.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2332) on 11-Dec-08: Mind you: White's bishop isn't the happiest of pieces... White's preponderance in the centre is probably somewhat balanced by the relative immobility (at the moment) of his bishop.


10... Ne4 11. Nb5 Qf6 12. Nxd6 cxd6 13. b3 Rfc8 14. Bb2 Qe6 15. d5	Whoops. Black should have paid closer attention.



15... Na5 16. dxe6 Nxc4 17. exf7+ Kxf7 18. bxc4 Rxc4	At this point black thought, "Well, I'm a pawn down, but at least I do have one advantage: I have a rook on the open column." Then white proceeds to liquidate half the material in trades.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2332) on 12-Dec-08: Black obviously likes to take the optimistic view: he's a bishop down. But he does have a pawn for it, and an active position. It shouldn't be enough to save the game, but sufficient at least to ensure White won't have it all his own way.


19. Rac1 Rac8 20. Rxc4 Rxc4 21. Rc1 Rxc1+ 22. Bxc1	At this point black very nearly resigned. It's so depressing to play a knight against a knight and a bishop. Then he noticed a fancy fork against white's bishop and king to win a pawn.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2332) on 12-Dec-08: Black probably ought to have kept one pair of rooks on at least, if he could, e.g. 21...Rb4 came into consideration. Black wants pawns to come off; White, pieces.


22... Nc3	Of course, if white doesn't move the bishop, black can fork it on the next move (N-e1).



23. Ba3 Nxa2 24. Bxd6	Well, ok. So white managed to get his pawn back. BUT! NOW there are two beautiful isolated pawns on the edge of the board. In the worst case, white can probably sacrifice a knight or a bishop and get both of them, but who knows, maybe black can work it into some other kind of advantage.



24... b5 25. Nd4 b4	And the pawn is off.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2332) on 12-Dec-08: It would be interesting to see the outcome of this line: 26.Nxf5!? Ke6! 27.Bxb4 Nxb4 28.Nxg7+ ...


26. Nb3 Ke6 27. Bc5 a6 28. Kf1 Kd5 29. Bd4 Kc4 30. Nd2+ Kd3 31. Ke1 Kc2	Wow, this is going really well (for black). By chasing white's pieces around, black was able to get his king to the other side of the board before white did. White may still be able to trade a piece for both pawns, if he tries hard. Incidentally, black could have defended the pawn on g7, but it seemed more valuable to get the king to c2 (and keep white's king out) than to save the pawn on g7.
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2332) on 12-Dec-08: Speaking of which, now would be a good time for White to grab that g-pawn. andy94 (1200) on 12-Dec-08: Black king is started from f7 square, black had to reach the pawns before black!


32. Nc4 Nc3 33. Bc5 b3 34. Na3+ Kd3	Check is not always the best thing. Black's king is actually better positioned now, so if white DOES manage to sneak his king in and get both pawns, black can quickly get his king to the other side of the board and start capturing pawns. Playing back and forth between the left and right is an important part of the endgame.



35. Bd4	This time black is willing to take a move to save the pawn.



35... g6 36. Bxc3 Kxc3 37. Ke2 b2	Now it is getting more desperate for white. He may not be able to trade the knight for both pawns, he may have to trade it for a single pawn.



38. f3 a5 39. Nb1+ Kc2 40. Na3+ Kb3 41. Nb1	At this point, black (who was me) counted, it would take him 4 (unanswered) moves to get a queen, and if he tried for a queen by P-e4, e5, e6......it would take 5 (unanswered) moves. Otherwise black would have been forced to move my king back to d5 to protect against the white pawn getting a queen. It's an advantage to have your pawns closer to the other side of the board!!(unless the other king is close enough to capture them)
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2332) on 12-Dec-08: Even the gain of tempo by 39.e4 probably wasn't enough to save White: 39.e4 fxe4 40.fxe4 Kb3 41.Nb1 a4 and Black promotes first.


41... a4 42. Nd2+ Kc2 43. e4 a3	Black ignores the offer of the pawn. There will be plenty of time to get all the pawns when black has a queen.



44. Nc4	One final attempt at a tactic, if P-b1, then Nxa3 forking the king and (new) queen.



44... a2	And resignation.
	2 comments andy94 (1200) on 12-Dec-08: Well....White could play much better! phantomfive (1709) on 12-Dec-08: Indeed, we all can. But sometimes it is not the one who is up material who wins, it is the one who takes whatever small advantage he has, and pushes it until it becomes too big to ignore.