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ANNOTATED GAME

Walking the Walk
battlefleet (2077) vs. hogfysshe (1765)
Annotated by: hogfysshe (1862)
Chess opening: Nimzo-Indian (E21), three knights variation
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Pages: 12
15. c4
15. c4. white's pawns not terribly impacted by the earlier exchange.

 
15... Bb7
15. ...Bb7

 
16. Bf3
bishops face off.

 
16... Rd7
16. ...Rd7

 
17. Rb1
I begin to see nothing but problems. And I am going to need my queen to be able to move away from the knight. So...

 
17... g5
17. ...g5. I am picturing his dsb moving back and THEN I'll play Ne4. But of course...

 
18. Bxb7
white clears the way for his queen and black has nothing but problems.

 
18... Rxb7 19. Bg3
Specifically, this arrangement puts black in a very awkward position, there being no simple way to keep white's N off c6. Black's N is suddenly in trouble. My head is spinning with ideas of how many moves I'd like to take back, ...not to mention how to solve the problem at hand. Any initiative I might have found moves further away. And so...

 
19... Qd7
I play this odd looking 19. ...Qd7. While not pretty, this solves a few problems. It puts some protection on c6, removing the threat of a Q-R fork, while also keeping protection on b7. Perhaps I have bought some time to regroup. Unfortunately...

 
20. Qf3
...white continues improving his position while limiting my options.
1 comment
 
20... Ne8
Q can not move back to e7 (and Kg7 invites Be5), so knight retreats. not bad in some ways, having some influence over the 2nd and 3rd ranks as it does.

 
21. Rfd1
21. Rfd1 keeps the pressure on.
2 comments
 
21... Qc8
continues to protect b7. the start of an attempt to untangle things before it's too late. but update: it IS too late!

 
22. Rbc1
not needed to protect pawn.
1 comment
 
22... Na6
rook had to stay put. freeing this N will hopefully allow things to open up a bit. quite a cost to all these moves spent untangling. no investment in building a strong position.

 
23. Nc6
oof! here, I think of the line from "The Perfect Storm," ..."it's not going to let us out." While I had alleviated some of the problems with white playing Nc6, battlefleet makes black suffer with those that remain (queen about to be trapped; rooks still pinned down; unoccupied e7 square still a checking square; jumpoff to e5 for white's N; etc).

 
23... Rd7
I expect to exchange R+R for R+N, the least damaging scenario I can find.

 
24. Rxd7 Qxd7 25. Ne5
but white has an easy way to keep his N. game is lost.
1 comment
 
25... Qd2
a quick hail mary with a conditional 26. Qxf7+ Kh8 set for battlefleet's convenience.

 
26. Qxf7+ Kh8 27. Ng6#
another game beautifully played by a WTW Master. thank you to battlefleet for playing.

 

Pages: 12