Annotated chess game: Hunting an Exposed King

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ANNOTATED GAME

Hunting an Exposed King
kabeer (1746) vs. blake84120 (2039)
Annotated by: blake84120 (1200)
Chess opening: Modern defence (A40)

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1. d4 g6

54th GK Tournament. I meet 1. d4 with the Modern Defense. The World DB seems to think 1. ... g6 and 1. ... d6 are the two strongest moves for black, but 1. ... g6 has the lowest incidence of drawn games which puts it at the top of my list.

2. e4 Bg7

White establishes the classic center and black fianchettoes.

3. Nc3 a6

White develops normally and now, according to the world DB, 3. ... a6 is by far the strongest move for black and it is the one played by the highest rated players (those two points may very well be self-fulfilling). In any case, I don't immdiately see the reason for it. Sure, in many openings white likes to post a knight or bishop on b5 and black often likes to play a6 to prevent that, or to drive away the white piece. I don't see that white can make any terribly strong threats on b5 yet, and black could hold a6 to drive off the white piece if white plays there. Maybe 3. ... Nf6 to prepare to catle, or 3. ... d6 to open up the other bishop. Still, I go with the masters on this one.

4. Be3 b5

White's 4th move seems a little to passive for my taste. Bishops like to jump into the fray, preferably from a safe distance, but they don't like to hide behind their own pawns. At least to my way of thinking. Still, it's popular in the DB. And now the DB has 2,447 games with this position, and 2,403 of them say to play 4. ... d6. But, 43 grandmasters say otherwise and suggest 4. ... b5. This denies c4 to white, a square that otherwise could be a strong outpost for a bishop. It also signifies a clear intent to play on the queenside. Other than that, I don't see any benefit, and maybe would have thought 4. ... d6 was better. Who am I to argue with grandmasters?

5. a4 b4

Interesting. On black's 4th move, the DB had the position heavily in favor of black (22 wins for black vs. 14 for white, with 7 draws). White's 5. a4 attacks the black queenside and was only played twice in the DB with an average rating of 2535, with white winning once and drawing once. Suddenly 4. ... b5 looks very questionable to me, though two games is hardly statistically significant.

6. Na2 a5

And now we're out of book. Black has carved out some significant space on the queenside, though there seems room for white to get in behind those advanced pawns. White has taken strong control of the center.

7. c3 Nf6 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. f3 d5

Normal development. White strengthens his center and black now challenges it with 9. ... d5. This might have been miscalculated. 9. ... d6 and 10. ... c5 may have been stronger. On the plus side, white's king is still in the center and he's opened his f-pawn - this can often expose the king to unexpected danger.

10. e5 Nfd7 11. cxb4 axb4

Now black has lost a pawn. Probably not what those 43 grandmasters had in mind when they played 4. ... b5.

12. Nxb4 e6 13. b3 c5

Well, my queenside pawn advances have worked out well so far... Let's shake up the center and the queenside at the same time. There is a sneaky threat here.

14. dxc5 Qh4+

And there is the unexpected danger I spoke of on move 9.

15. Ke2 Qxb4

White has lost a piece, and his king is now a target in the center. It's time for black to find a way to use his material advantage to exploit white's exposed king.

16. f4 Nxc5 17. Bxc5 Qxc5

One defender removed.

18. Nf3 Nc6 19. Bb5 O-O

Unpinning the knight and connecting rooks.

20. Rc1 Qb6 21. h4 f6

White's king is dangerously exposed. He might do better by false-castling, bringing his rook to e1 and shuffling his king off to f1 or g1 if he can shut out black's queen.

22. exf6 Bxf6

22. exf6?! wasn't exactly a blunder, but it is a very dubious strategy. Now black has a half-open file with a rook aimed right at white's exposed king, and black's DSB gains a lot of freedom too.

23. g4 Bb2

Freedom to attack white's rook. More importantly, this move unleashes black's rooks for action on the f-file.

24. Rc2 Rxf4

Black's bishop is en prise, but it is of no consequence. After 25. Rxb2 Raf8 white is in trouble. His best try is to shut down the black queen with 26. Qg1 Qxg1 27. Rxg1 Rxf3 and black regains his material lead and now threatens to win the white pawn at b3 and also threatens to win the white rook at b2. Black will win even more material and with the queens off the board, the endgame will be an easy one for black.

25. h5 Raf8

25 h5? was a blunder that will cost white quite a bit of material. Black is ahead by a piece but has his bishop en prise on b2. Taking that bishop was possibly white's best move, though as noted it leads to an endgame white cannot win nor likely even draw. The f-file is a huge cannon aimed at the white king and white ignores it entirely. The diagonal on which black's queen stands is a second huge cannon aimed at the white king and white ignores that entirely, too. Instead, white launches a counterattack, at what is likely the worst possible time.

26. Rf1

For those interested, I created a puzzle out of this position: http://gameknot.com/chess-puzzle.pl?pz=12772. Don't read on, it will spoil the fun. Is there something I can do to make this a clickable link?

1 comment

26... Re4+

White tries to save his endangered knight, but it cannot be saved. Note that the knight cannot move: 26. N-any??? Qf2+ 27. Kd3 Nb4#. But saving the knight was not an option either. White's best try is still 26. Qg1 Qxg1 27. Nxg1 Nd4+ 28. Kd2 Nxc2 29. Kxc2 and black is up a whole rook and his attack is not finished. Still, anything else white might try is worse. As played, 26. Rf1??? loses immediately. Black has a forced 2-move checkmate.

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