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ANNOTATED GAME
Astersen v/s Templeton
astersen (1860) vs. templedf (1486)
Annotated by: templedf (1200)
Chess opening: Old Benoni defence (A43)
astersen (1860) vs. templedf (1486)
Annotated by: templedf (1200)
Chess opening: Old Benoni defence (A43)
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14. Qd2 |
White defends his knight and lines up a beautiful queen-king skewer. | ||||||||
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14... Nd4 |
My two choices were Nd4 and Ne7. Ne2 felt safer, but it further blocked in my bishop, and my goal was to pin the white queen. Nd4 creates a lot of interesting possibilities, though, most of which end up with white being down a piece. The safest thing for white to do is to retreat the knight to either c3 or e3, pinning my knight to my queen. We are now 14 moves into the game, and only two of my pawns have moved, while only one white pawn has moved. The knights and queens are the only pieces that have actually seen play. Out of 28 total moves, 11 of them have been queen moves and 9 of them have been knight moves. | ||||||||
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15. Qa5 |
Instead of playing it safe, white chrages in, a move I didn't see coming. This is a very interesting setup, because it looks really bad for black, when in reality, white is teatering on the edge of being mated. | ||||||||
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15... b6 |
The only response I have is b6. Anything else allows Nc7 . The only valid response is Rxb6. Nxb6 gets Nc2 , Qxb6 ends up with white down a piece, and anything else loses the queen or the knight. The only valid response to Rxb7 is axb6. Anything else still allows Nc7 . | ||||||||
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16. Rxb6 axb6 17. Qxa8 Qc5 |
With this move, I did three things. Most importantly, I defended the bishop. Without defense, the queen would rip through my entire back rank. However, just a little defense is enough because white has so few pieces in play. The second part of this move is continuing to pressure the knight. That means that the queen is limited to only a few squares. Last, but far from least, I threaten mate with Qc1 . The best response is probably f3, opening up a bolt hole. | ||||||||
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18. f3 Nc2+ |
I check white for two reasons: to prevent any hope of castling (not that there really was any) and to get the king out in the open. My goal is check the white king enough that I can get my dark bishop into play, enabling me to castle my white bishop to safety. | ||||||||
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19. Kd2 Nb4 |
Because of the placement of the white king, this move is a win no matter what happens. If white responds with Nxb4, I get Qxb4 , starting a sequence that eventually frees my bishops. If white responds with e4, choosing to defend the knight, either Nxd5 or Qc2 either results in trading off the queens (Qxd5, Qxd5) or freeing my bishops. Doing neither loses the knight. | ||||||||
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20. Nxb4 Qxb4+ |
My king is now no longer in any real danger. The only worry is losing the bishop, which will be taken care of in the next few moves. | ||||||||
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21. Kc2 Qc4+ |
Kc2 didn't leave me much room to steer the king where I wanted. Coincidentally, though, the only valid check puts me in position to defend my light bishop while freeing my dark bishop. After Bb4, white has to decide whether to defend the king or save the knight. Meanwhile the white queen is forced to watch from the corner. | ||||||||
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22. Kd1 |
Very nice move. White once more takes away my control by positioning his king just out of reach. | ||||||||
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22... Bb4 |
The knight is still in danger, but the king is relatively safe for the moment. The most reasonable response is Nf5, protecting the d4 square and threatening to bother my king. | ||||||||
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23. Nf5 g6 |
With the white queen on the a8-h1 diagonal and the white knight guarding d4, my queen can no longer check the black king with a single move, which means that I can't take my queen off the c file. Fortuantely, the white knight is easy to bump. | ||||||||
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24. e4 |
Rather than move the knight [24. N?? Qd4 25. Kc2 Qc3 26. Kb1 Ba3], white chooses to attack my queen. I think e3 would have been a much stronger move, but e4 serves the purpose. | ||||||||
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24... Qc3 |
Remaining on the c file, I advance my queen into mating position. The only direct move that can prevent Qd2 is Qd5. | ||||||||
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25. Nd6+ |
White sees the writing on the wall. He sacrifices his knight to make me lose tempo, giving his king a chance to escape. (If he hadn't made the sacrifice, we get: 25. Qd5 Qa1 26. Ke2 Qb2 27. Kd1 Bb7 28. Qd3 Ba6, leaving the queen with no way to continue to defend e7 against mate.) | ||||||||
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25... Bxd6 |
I didn't have much choice but to accept the sacrifice. Ke7 takes the heat off my light bishop, but it leaves the white knight there to prevent my light bishop from participating in the king chase. White managed to rob me of my chance for an early mate but paid for it by entering the end game materially disadvantaged. Fortunately for me, though, at this point white's only active piece is his queen. My only real danger spot is my e pawn. After Qd5, if my queen and bishop lose sight of my e pawn, white can steal my rook. White's current worry is that moving his bishop off the first rank loses his remaining rook to Qa1 . | ||||||||
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26. Qd5 |
White leaves me with the decision of whether to trade queens and slug it out in the end game (Qd4 ) , or to regroup and continue trying to catch the white king (Bb4). | ||||||||
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26... Bb4 |
Ultimately I decided to continue hounding the white king. I figured that I would have the option of the queen trade for at least a couple more moves, and with only the queen in play, there isn't too much damange that white can do. By resuming the bishop's post on b4, the white queen is forced to guard the d2 square. The white bishop is locked down by the Qa1 threat. The white rook is trapped. The white king's only move is Ke2, which gets mate is a couple of moves. The only moves white has at this point are pawns and Qd3. We're now 26 moves into the game, and still the queens and knights have dominated play. Of the remaining pieces other than the queens, only two have moved: the white king and the black bishop. That leaves 5 out of 9 pieces untouched, with 6 out of 11 pawns untouched. | ||||||||
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27. a3 |
White tries to drag me off course again with another sacrifice. This time, though, I have a choice. | ||||||||
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27... Bb7 |
Instead of taking the bait, I attack the white queen. Because taking the queen off the c file results in mate, the queen has no recource but to retreat, Qd3. | ||||||||
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