Annotated chess game: Team match

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ANNOTATED GAME

Team match
gandalfnefod (2071) vs. sirarthur (1993)
Annotated by: gandalfnefod (2100)
Chess opening: Vienna game, Max Lange defence (C25)

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1. e4	The game begins as a Bishop's Opening: Vienna Hybrid (C28). A rare opening which allows you to avoid the hackneyed Ruy Lopez. This opening is ok as long as you are not in love with your king's bishop. You allow the exchange of it for the queen's knight to gain time and a white square lock on the center



1... e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Na5 5. Nge2 Nxc4 6. dxc4 d6 7. O-O Be7 8. Qd3 O-O 9. Kh1	I begin to prepare for wing activity with the next few moves.
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 29-Mar-13: One of the effects of allowing the exchange of Bishop for Black's Queen's Knight is that Black is nor really able to make much use of his control over the d4-square. In the meantime, Black will also find his ...d5 break hard to arrange. damalfi (1200) on 12-Apr-13: As white, I respond to black's Na5 with Bb3. If NxB, axN and the resulting semiopen column is a little headache for black. He can lose a tempo with a6 at some point, and white has a shadow of an attack with b4 (once prepared). In the text line, white keeps a strong control over d5, but needs to be defending e4 or the Nc3 is blocked. But I'm not saying one is better, just different.


9... c6	The move 9.... c6 is given a ?! in the game Carl Schlechter vs Wilhelm Steinitz, 1898. I personally do not see why. Black has to develop play in some way although it is clear he will probably never do the d6-d5 break.
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 29-Mar-13: Interesting - in the light of my previous comment. It looks as though Black wants to get in this break after all. But White's grip upon the d5-square is such that for the time being the break is unplayable. However, Black has kept a White Knight out of d5. It is his central control that will enable White to inaugurate K-side operations in the near future. damalfi (1200) on 12-Apr-13: I think black has to set his pieces to prepare f5, the counter-break that will balance white's f4. Nh4 or h6-Nh7 should be on the agenda now.


10. h3 Be6 11. f4 Nd7 12. Be3 f5 13. Ng3 g6 14. Rad1 Qa5 15. b3 Rad8 16. exf5	Now that all of my pieces are ready for action, I open the position.
	1 comment archduke_piccolo (2355) on 29-Mar-13: Possibly it was worth mentioning that 12.f5, apparently trapping the Bishop on e6, would have come unstuck by 12...Nc5!


16... gxf5 17. fxe5 dxe5 18. Bd2	With the move 18. Bd2 I began to see the possibility of a combination. I sensed that black would not move his queen but would prepare his own combination to guard the f5 pawn.
	1 comment damalfi (1200) on 12-Apr-13: Well, at a glance, black has two central joined pawns, and the only way to defend f5 is 18... e4. Then, you have to see 19. Nxe4 and what happens next. A fun but difficult work. Then one may think why black didn't respond with 17.... Nxe5 (not Qxe5, 18. Bd4). After 18. Qd2, Bh3 or d5 are to be explored. After the text, can 18... Nc5 be answered with 19. Nd5? It's a juicy position, for sure... (19. Nd5, NxQ, 20. NxB+, Kf7, 21. BxQ?, Nf2+, 22. Kg1 (if RxN, RxR+), RxR, 23. RxR, NxR, 24. N7xf5, where white is a pawn down but the black knight in d1 will find very difficult to come out of there).


18... e4	And here it is. I looked at all the possible continuations for a day or so and finally was surprised to find an eight (8) move combination that involved the sacrifice of the knight and even a rook with check. It is because of these types of positions, I love chess. The energy of the white position completely overcomes the material considerations. The combination begins with 19. Ngxe4. After the game the Gameknot analyzer said that this was an inaccuracy. Here is the Gameknot analyzer analysis at this point: 19. Ngxe4 Inaccuracy: -1.13 » 19. Ngxe4 fxe4 20. Qg3+ Kh8 21. Nxe4 Bb4 22. Bxb4 Qxb4 23. Ng5 Bf5 24. Rxd7 Rxd7 25. Qe5+ Kg8 26. Rxf5 Rxf5 27. Qxf5 Rd1+ 28. Kh2 Best: -0.29 » 19. Ncxe4 fxe4 20. Qxd7 Rxd7 21. Bxa5 Rxd1 22. Rxd1 e3 23. Rd3 Bg5 24. h4 Bf4 25. Ne2 Bh6 26. Bc3 Rf1+ 27. Kh2 Funny, huh? The gameknot analyzer thought that my continuation 19. Ngxe4 was a mistake and completely missed the subsequent 22.Nd5!
	2 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 29-Mar-13: About to comment on the previous move I happened to niotice Black's move and the first lines of the annotation. Until then I thought 18.Be2 was a clever answer that prevented 18...e4! damalfi (1200) on 12-Apr-13: I love to see GK's analysis: after the line it suggest as "inaccuracy" for black, is the following position: (28. Kh2) Now, 28... Qd6+ and mate on the next. Ah, the "residual advantages"!...


19. Ngxe4 fxe4 20. Qg3+ Kh8 21. Rxf8+	At this point black could bail out with a queen for three minor pieces with the following continuation. 21.... Bxf8 22. Nd5 Qxd2 23. Rxd2 cxd5 24.cxd5 Bf7 25. Qc7 Be7 26. d6 Bg5 27. Re2 Bg6 28. Qxb7 Nf6 29 Qe7 Re8 30. Qxa7 and there is very little doubt that white will overcome black with all of those pawns.
	1 comment damalfi (1200) on 12-Apr-13: And what if (in your line) black tries to save the queen with 22. Qc5? It is apparently trapped after 23. Bb4, Bd6. 24. BxQ, BxQ. 25. Nf6 (the escape for white or he loses one more piece), Bh4, 26. Be7, and if black doesn't fall for BxN (BxB+!), and goes quietely Rc8, white has to go 27. Nd5, cxN, 28. Rd6, cxb3, 29. cxb3, Re8 (Bf5 fails to g4, and Nf8 looks dangerous to 30. Be7)... and WHITE is A PIECE down! So White seems to have work to do before assuring the sac is ok. A beautiful work... (or maybe he already got better lines for white which I didn't see!


21... Rxf8 22. Nd5 Qd8 23. Nxe7 Nf6 24. Bh6	24. Bh6 was the really hard move to see earlier at the 19th move. White drops a rook with check but wins by force!
	3 comments eduard352 (1664) on 29-Mar-13: Why Nf6? I dont see why Qxe7 should be a problem. Bc3+ can be met with Nf6. Secondly in this position, why does black not play the obvious Qxe7? Taking on d1 is not mandatory, and Qxe7 seems good to me.. archduke_piccolo (2355) on 29-Mar-13: It turns out that in the game continuation 23...Qxe7, though probably better than the move played (Black wanted to shut off the long dark diagonal leading to his King) still won't do: 23...Qxe7 24.Bc3ch Nf6 25.Rf1 Qg7 26.Qd6 with a skewer on the Bishop covering the f6-square. If, say, 26...Bc8 27.Bxf6 Rxf6 28.Rxf6 h5 29.Rf8ck Kh7 30.Rxc8. Thus prosaically, White emerges a rook and pawn ahead and an easy win. damalfi (1200) on 12-Apr-13: Black thinks that with Nf6, the white's dsb is pinned to the rook, instead of being the Ne7 pinned to the queen. Very interesting. The problem is that black couldn't foresee that white would have been glad to fall into the pin, even with check. A very nice insight from white! But what if black goes 24..., QxNe7 instead? 25. BxR, QxR, and it's over, unless white explores 25. Qe5, Rf7, 26. Bg4, Kg7... and black seems to hold!).


24... Qxd1+ 25. Kh2 Bg4 26. Bxf8 Qd8 27. Nf5 Qxf8 28. hxg4 Qf7 29. Kg1 Qf8 30. Qf4 Qd8 31. Kf2 Qe8 32. g5 Nh5 33. Qd6 Kg8 34. Ke3 Ng7 35. Nh6+ Kh8 36. Qf6	And now black is in sort of zugzwang. He cannot move his queen from the back rank the knight and king and the h-pawn can't move at all. So the winning process is fairly simple, create a passed pawn on the queen side and trade all of the material.
	1 comment eduard352 (1664) on 29-Mar-13: The zugzwang is nice.


36... Qc8 37. c5 b6 38. cxb6 axb6 39. a4 c5 40. Qxb6 c4 41. b4 Qe8 42. Qf6 Qc8 43. a5 c3 44. Qd8+ Qxd8 45. Nf7+ Kg8 46. Nxd8 Ne8 47. a6	Black resigns. This was a lot of fun. gandalfnefod
	3 comments archduke_piccolo (2355) on 29-Mar-13: A fine win and a far-sighted combination. Quite why Black allowed his Q-side pawns to be decimated before White got in his unstoppable forced exchange of Queens, is hard to understand. I think I would have played simply ...Qe8, ...Qc8, ...Qe8 etc. It would not have altered the result, as the Knight and pawn endgame was winning anyway after 39.Qd8ch Qxd8 40.Nf7ch Kg8 41.Nxd8 c5 42.Kxe4 etc. That 'small combination' to remove the Queens is a nice addendum to an entertaining game. redfoxrising (2155) on 05-Apr-13: This was a very exciting game! Thanks for sharing! damalfi (1200) on 12-Apr-13: Food for thoughts! Very, very funny and interesting.