Annotated chess game: Horatius at the Bridge: a R+P vs B+N game.

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ANNOTATED GAME

Horatius at the Bridge: a R+P vs B+N game.
karelploeger (1997) vs. ionadowman (2034)
Annotated by: archduke_piccolo

(2334)
Chess opening: English opening (A20)

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18. Nd4

Inducing a string of exchanges more protracted than White might have anticipated...

18... Nxd4 19. Bxd4 Rxd4

(!) What? Has Black gone berserk?

20. Rxd4 Bf6

(!) ...No. It's hard to know whether this is a skewer or a pin. At any rate, Black gets his Exchange back at once.

21. Rad1

White treats it as a pin...

21... Bxd4 22. Rxd4 Kf7

To challenge the d-file again, d8 needs to be covered. But already Black was more interested merely in covering the potential invasion points on the d-file before embarking on a Q-side counter-action.

23. Nd1 c5 24. Rd2 Ke7 25. Kf1 Nd6

Black decided he had a better future for the rook than simply to exchange it on d8.

26. Ke1

Centralising the K for the endgame. Many would regard this position as an endgame: Queens gone, and there are just 3 pieces a side as well as several pawns. In my view, the position retains a "middle game" feel, and 11 men remaining per side out of 16 is scarcely endgame country...

26... a5

(!) Planning to break into the Q-side. But it transpired that White had nefarious schemes of his own. The battle flares up between Black's Q-side action and White's central counter.

27. Nc3 a4

(!) With the idea 28.bxa4? Nxc4 with advantage to Black. Nor does 28.Nxa4 Nxc4 look healthy for White.

28. e3

(!?) Locking up the K-side, but in the hope that the g2-bishop will eventually find freedom via f1.

28... axb3 29. axb3 Ra3

All per spec and according to plan. But now comes White's spectacular counter-attack...

30. Rxd6

(!!) Wham! Black can not take the rook on account of the knight fork at b5. Black has to follow through with his own attack.

30... Rxb3

Now White's knight and rook are both under attack, and 31.Nb5 is met, not by 31...Rxb5?? 32.Rxe6+, but by 31....Bxc4! 32.Rxh6 Bxb5 and advantage to Black.

31. Rxe6+

(!) The best chance. Now the game enters an endgame in which Black has R and P; White, B and N. Which, if either, will prevail?

2 comments

31... Kxe6 32. Nd1

A sensible choice, but 32.Nd5 certainly came into consideration. A possible continuation might have been 32.Nd5 Kd6 33.h3 h5 34.hxg4 hxg4 35.Bf1 b5 and Black has the initiative. From here on, White might have found it hard to keep both minor pieces, e.g. 36.Be2 (what else?) bxc4 37.Bxc4 Rb1+ 38.Ke2 (can't afford to lose touch with his g-pawn!) ...Rb2+ 39.Kf1 Rc2 and [a] 40.Nb6 Kc6 or [b] 40.Bb3 Rc1+ 41.Ke2 c4 etc.

32... Rb1

Now is the time to assess this asymmetrical ending. Black has rook and pawn for bishop and knight: nominal equality. But for the moment, White's mobile corps of K, B and N is penned up behind his own infantry trench line. Black wants to maintain that constraint whilst his own King gradually makes his way by a long, circuitous route into the scene of the action. How the lone rook - Horatius at the Bridge - keeps White bottled up for so long was for me the most exciting and intriguing part of the game. Check it out...

33. Bf1 Ra1

Maintaining "checking distance".

34. h4

White has time for this. For some time I considered locking up the K-side by 34...h4, but then decided it would keep until a more opportune moment. I really needed the King up at the sharp end.

34... Kd6

(!) The beginning of the long march...

35. Be2

Maybe there was something to be said for 35.h5, here. Unless the rook managed to fight its way through to h1, the pawn would be no more vulnerable on h5 than h4.

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