chess online
« TAP TO LOG IN

ANNOTATED GAME

An Exception to the Rule
jstevens1 (1781) vs. therealjimfriar (2007)
Annotated by: jotheblackqueen (1200)
Chess opening: Reti opening (A04)
Interactive Show all comments All annotated games View chessboard as:
Pages: 12
1. Nf3
Hi everyone! You may all recall me saying a few months ago that to exchange down into a pure K & P ending a pawn down was scuicide. Well, my buddy Jim Friar (a very strong expert who has an optimum rating of 2092 and has a victory against an International Master stamped on his Gameknot chessic CV) made me eat some of my words! Towards the end you will see that Jim deliberately exchanged down into such an ending and won! How, well you will just have to read on! I start off with the Reti Opening, 1. Nf3.

 
1... c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3
3. Nc3 - out come the cavalry!

 
3... g6 4. e3 Bg7 5. d4
5. d4 - pawn break.

 
5... d6 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Nge7
7. ......... Nge7 - after I castled Jim prepares to castle himself with this move. Everything has been so far so quiet do you agree? Well, it is all about to change!

 
8. dxc5
8. dxc5 - first a pawn trade.

 
8... dxc5 9. Qxd8+ Nxd8
9. ......... Nxd8 - now a queen trade.

 
10. Ne4 b6 11. Rb1 O-O
11. ........ 0-0 - Jim now castles.

 
12. b3 Bb7 13. Ned2
13. Nde2 - takes evasive action.
1 comment
 
13... e5 14. Bb2
14. Bb2 - Fou Lenoir finally emerges from his pit.

 
14... Nec6 15. a3 Ne6 16. Rfd1
16. Rfd1 - preparing a trade of heavies on the d file.

 
16... Rad8 17. Nf1 e4 18. Rxd8 Rxd8 19. Ne1
19. Ne1 - more evasive action. Jim now starts a kingside pawn roll with f5.
1 comment
 
19... f5 20. Bxg7 Kxg7
20. ......... Kxg7 - bishop trade.

 
21. Rd1 Ne5 22. Rxd8 Nxd8
22. ......... Nxd8 - a rook trade.

 
23. Nd2 g5 24. Nb1 Ndf7 25. Nc3
25. Nc3 - feeling that I have a reasonable position I decided to offer a draw here. Jim wanted to play on because he felt it was still too early in the game. As it turned out my position did go south from here, although it was exactly 20 moves later that I was to wave the white flag. Looking at the position now I see that black does have a slight edge due to the placement of his knight on e5. Still, if you don't ask, you don't get.
1 comment
 
25... g4 26. Kf1 h5
26. ...... h5 - the pawn roll continues.

 
27. Nb5
27. Nb5 - I now try to improve the position of my minor pieces.

 
27... a5 28. g3
28. g3 - trying to hold up the pawn roll but would h3 have been an improvement?
4 comments
 
28... Bc6 29. Ng2
29. Ng2 - would Nc7 have been better here? I wanted to put my knight on f5 and he does get there but it doesn't help in the end.
3 comments
 
29... Bxb5 30. cxb5
30. cxb5 - B for N trade.
1 comment
 
30... Nd6 31. Nf4 c4
31. ........ c4! - unexpected as it will momentarily draw my pawns together, but there is an idea behind this. Look at those two black horsies.
2 comments
 

Pages: 12