The eccentric move ...b5 has discouraged White from playing Nc3. Was there any other purpose to playing it? It looks dubious, as Black has to watch out for tactics on that diagonal.

That 3...b5 was very provocative. It's interesting how the best players on Gameknot often seem to deliberately flout opening theory: they make apparently senseless pawn moves; but when their weaker opponents try to counter, they use their concrete powers of calculation to bamboozle their innocent victims! (In my last game against Freddy, he announced Mate in 9 moves - chilling!) In the next diagram, we see that Joanne is nearly fully developed while Freddy has a curious array of advanced pawns but Joanne can't exploit the apparent weaknesses in Black's position.

Is 5 Ne5 unplayable? ...dxe, bxa8 etc. Otherwise, Nbd2 seems to cramp white prematurely.

I can't say I'd go a bundle on 5.Ne5!? dxe5 6.Bxa8 e5... Sure, White is playing conservatively, but without compromising her game. This sort of thing can really worry a strong opponent.

I was thinking either 5. 0-0 or 5. Qd3 for white forcing black to defend that pawn which looks a bit weak, then maybe play look to play Be3 or Bf4 followed by Nbd2.

If i where Joanne i would have played 5.Ne5 If she played that i should have played 5......Ne4 instead of 5.....c6 It is so early in the game, that i have no worry,s I played this opening to give Joanne a bit of a head-start but whiteout database help.. this to level the play-field a bit..

I think 3... b5 has to be dealt with sooner or later. 4.Bg2 makes sense while 5.Nbd2 could work if followed up with something other than 6.b3 (6.O-O might be better) which allowed black to get 6... e5 in. Maybe a good way to play this is to challenge b5 with 5.a4 straight away...

What was against taking the pawn on e5?

If 8 Nxe5, Qd4! 9 Nxc6, QxR Black seems to hold the material

The upshot of all this is that White's knight on d2 is looking steadily more uncomfortable. Perhaps White plans to play c4 soon to provoke Black's b-pawn into either advancing or exchanging.

d4 isn't really an outpost because it isn't supported and can be attacked by pawn or bishop. This position can only be temporary. It's dangerous to overestimate the strength of the positions of your central pieces.

An outpost is a piece positioned in the opponent's side of the board. A knight on d4 would be an outpost for Black but isn't for White. Yes, and d4 can be attacked by pawns and the knight quickly dislodged.

Not sure about this... Did you calculate a continuation after 12...b4, or were you literally just striking out?

12. a4 is fine and i guess she expected me to move 12....c5 instead of b4

"Just striking out" looks fine to me...it seems a natural move against Black's type of pawn formation.

Indeed, I would have expected 12...c5 instead. 12...b4 gives White some squares in the middle of the board.

This might, perhaps, be too committal. The knight has no real anchor on e5. I rather like 14.Ne2, preparing to challenge Black along the d-file ( 14...Rd7 15.Qe1 followed by 16.Rad1).

Maybe now was the time for 15.Qe2 then to bring a rook onto the d-file?

I would have moved 15 Qe2 also Ion But i would have looked at 15.Ne2 also. Maby to redeploy it later. Postinolay speaking it seems stronger then Qe2 But I expected here to move more agressive > 15. Bh3

Perhaps c3 could have waited until after Rc1 to add still further pressure to the c6 pawn?

White's position is superficially impressive here, with those two central knights, but they don't actually achieve very much, while Black has great freedom of manoeuvre for his pieces. Look at the next diagram and compare!

Agree with comments. The split paws are insignifcant because Black is preparing to drive back White with tempos.

15 c3 is not al that bad.. but it undermines the total structure of the position..

20. Rac1 does keep up pressure on the c5 pawn, but White could have continued in the same vein with 21. Bd4. After 21... Rc7 (the only way to add another defender), 22. Be5 Bd6 23. Bxd6 Qxd6 23. Rfd1 looks strong.

Yes, some concrete calculations help here. From this position it's not so easy to see the pressure that Freddy is about to build up on b3 but, with hindsight, the next few moves seem to be where this game is won and lost.

White's knights have disappeared as if by magic from their temporarily strong central position and White's advantage appears to have gone.

This sequence of moves is very diffucult to annotate or to comment on. White is about to lose a pawn. How did that happen? I haven't been able to find any positive method of improving White's play, except to suggest that maybe 21.Nf4 might not have been a wise decision. Frankly, had I gone into the position at move 19 I doubt I would have done much better than Joanne has over the last 5 moves.

28... Bxb5?? Why not take the free bishop on g7?

I wondered that, too, but I'd hesitate to accuse Freddy of a blunder!

After 28.. Rxg7 white has 29. Qc4+, followed by 30. Rxa4 and it is not so easy for black to make progress.

very good algol. Afer 28....Rxg7 i get 29. Qc4+ Kf8 30 Rxa4 And from there the game get very drawich... Wen it is to good to be true even against a lower reated player look further then 1 move ahead..

All this made 26.Bxg7! a good move that kept White at least in touch! Black's advantage is not yet such as to put the game out of reach. At this point, 29.Bf6 looks favorite, maintaining White's hold on the long diagonal.

With Black having two remote passed pawns, White is going to have to find a tactical solution to this position, else Black can just swap off a few pieces and drive them home... Not easy.

White's only chance is a direct attack against the king. But Black is already busy closing down White's options that lead to attacking opportunities. He won't touch his Q-side pawns until White has practically no counterplay left.

Seen that correct again Ion.. I let Joanne take the initiative for most of the game Attackers tend to forget there positional play. And are eager to keep going.. I take advantage of that

The rule of thumb in this kind of material situation is that the defender ought to prefer to keep pieces on and exchange pawns; the attacker to keep pawns on and exchange pieces. One possibility at move 32 was 32.Rc1, attacking the c-pawn.

I would have moved 32. Re1 or 32. Rc1 The trade was just what i needed. I found that there was a potential attack for white whit some mate threads.. but if she would be to eager and go for that attack it would loose momentum fast. ( played a few of the best attack lines for white on the real board. 8 moves ahead i could not find a winning attack.) giving me the room i needed to setup my pieces for a winning endgame

Justifying 28...Bxb5? Perhaps it was a good move, badly timed.

But after Bxd3 exd3 Black has connected passed pawns -- a winning advantage.

Indeed: Hobson's Choice.

39. fxe4 is necessary to avoid the tactic, but Black's pawns are still too dangerous: for example 39... fxe4 40. Bd2 Bd4+ 41. Kg2 c4! and White will soon have to give a bishop to stop the e-pawn.

This was the worst mistake of the game, although by now the game really was out of reach of White. Instead, 29.fxe4 gave White reason to continue.

Interesting game! It's brave to expose such a defeat to the general populace. Perhaps I should share one of my blunderfests against Freddy!

Interesting to see easy19's comments on this game. Many of them confirm some of my own impressions, including the idea that White did retain some chances in the late middle game/ early ending until the rooks came off. But I found it a difficult game in the middle stages: very difficult to see that this move was better than that, or what plan might have served either side better. On the whole, Joanne played well - certainly avoided blunders - until the misguided exchange of rooks, and, with the game already almost out of reach, the suicidal 39.Bd2?

I am waiting for your next annotation then Mr Jacobs   This was a nice game to play. I only got minor control of the white position, and i needed to play along for a long time before i was able to control the game. The turning point for me was the rook exchange.. >Beat me Tip< If you look at our other games played. (joanne then you can see that i am very good with pawns and bishops if you can take out my bishops and start pawn snatching I Will not be playing as smooth as in our former games.