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ANNOTATED GAME

St. Andrews vs Dundee - round 2
bigpeta (2083) vs. hogfysshe (1725)
Annotated by: hogfysshe (1862)
Chess opening: English (A22), Bremen, Smyslov system
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Pages: 123
1. c4
A Walking the Walk club - Big Peta Students club hybrid game. Pete wanted to try an opening beginning 1. c4 e5, 2. Nc3 Nf6. Unfortunately, a mistake by black at move 14 made the experiment less useful than it could have been. Then a bad idea at 16 landed black in a position with severely restricted mobility and no solution being found.

 
1... e5 2. Nc3 Nf6
The specified opening comes together.

 
3. g3 Bb4 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Bg2
White plays a straightforward English Bremen opening. I've played this a lot as white but have not played against it.

 
5... O-O 6. O-O Re8
6. ...Re8

 
7. Nd5 Bc5 8. d3 Nxd5 9. cxd5 Nd4 10. Nd2
10. Nd2, opening the diagonal for white's light square bishop.

 
10... d6
10. ...d6, for the moment, closes down that diagonal.

 
11. e3 Nf5
11. ...Nf5.

 
12. Ne4
12. Ne4

 
12... Bb6
12. ...Bb6. Note that white's kingside pawns do not move at all from move 11 to the end of the game.

 
13. Bd2
13. Bd2

 
13... c6
13. ...c6

 
14. dxc6
14. dxc6

 
14... d5
Here, I lost focus, thinking I'd push the knight back and keep the diagonal closed but completely overlooking that white didn't have to move the knight. the first of a game losing pair of moves.

 
15. cxb7
White takes advantage of my oversight and plays the correct move. And it is on the b-file where the concluding action occurs, 20 moves later.

 
15... Bxb7
15. ...Bxb7. not looking terrible for black, though he is down a pawn.

 
16. Nc3
...but, black follows 16. Nc3 with...

 
16... Re6
...this problematic 16. ...Re6. I had a vague idea that lateral mobility for the rook could be used to some positive end. but that rook NEVER leaves that square and this contributes to an oddly immobile game for black. In keeping with this theme of the game being "locked up," I'll point out that the black pawns on e5 and d5 do not move from move 14 to move 30, a not awful aspect of a fairly awful game. I say not awful (those pawns put some limits on white), but Pete will have no trouble working in the limited real estate along c and b.

 
17. Na4
From here, white plays a nice systematic game and slowly breaks down black's position. Here, black can't take the protection off c5.

 
17... Rb8
17. ...Rb8. This move is intended to support removing white's lsb from the board, an idea that never pans out. see next.

 
18. Rc1
Black probably should have grabbed the c-file the previous move. Comments?
2 comments
 

Pages: 123