Rolling Pawns

These two games that I played last week shared some similarities, that’s why I decided to put them together in one post.

Game 1. It was a 2nd round in Mondays club and my opponent was a girl, I lost to her 4 months ago blundering in the time trouble in the drawn endgame. She again had White and we played the same Giuoco Piano line. I thought what to do after the first 10 moves and a “Spanish” plan with Na5 and c5 came to my mind. I wasn’t sure how my bishop on a7 would look in this position, still decided to play it.

It actually started my attack on the queenside, a thing I am not very accustomed to. I liked my position after 20. Bxd4 and after some thinking replied cxd4. After playing 22… Bc5 I noticed that she has 23. f4, but saw that after 23… e4 she can’t take the pawn because of discovered check winning the piece. Nevertheless she played 23. f4, so I just followed up with e4 and on the next move got protected passed pawn on e3.

Then some maneuvering followed, it ended up with a queens exchange. When I played 33… Nd5 I saw that she can’t take on d6 because of 34… Rc1, still she took the pawn, it was a big mistake. After she defended her bishop I played 35… Nc3 and followed her 36. Ree1 with an exchange sacrifice and a pawn fork. As a result on move 39 I had a piece for two pawns and dominating position, computer evaluates it as -5.25.

So I started to think that I won and even thought about the title of the post under which I would post this game. That was a huge mistake, it reflected already on my next move. Instead of playing 39… Bc7 which after 40. Nc4 would give me a pawn on b3, I played a weak 39… Rd8. I still had an advantage, but then 44… Ne3 was another inaccuracy. I thought I can’t play 44… Nxf4 because of 45. Nxa5, but it was refuted by 45… Re3+ and Black loses the knight.

My 45… Nxf5 was another mistake, 45… Bxf4 was better, she couldn’t take on f4 because of the knight fork. On move 48 I took on g5, I would never do that if I would know what will happen. Instead simple 48… Nxc4 49. gxh6 gxh6 50. bxc4 Bxf4 was still winning. In a few moves we transferred into a knight vs pawns endgame. Computer evaluates this position as equal, but it is not easy to play for Black.

She had a very little time by then, I had more, but was feeling nervous, seeing that I lost all my advantage and got into a very difficult endgame. My 58… Ne3+ was a game losing mistake, but she didn’t use it. Then instead of lifesaving 59… Ng4 I played f5. As I remember for some reason I thought that I still can hold the “h” pawn, it was a brain cramp. After her 60. gxf6 I saw that I lost. I was very upset.

At home I found a video on YouTube about what should you do if you have a material advantage. The first item said that you should not give your opponent any counterplay. Also I read that knight is not a piece you want to have against the pawns, as I noticed above the endgame with the bishop was won easily.

Game 2. It was a penultimate round in the Thursdays club. My opponent was an old man, never played him before. I had Black and we played Giuoco Piano. His 10. d4 was not the best move, 10. Bxe6 would be better. I thought that I can get the pawn on e4 and calculated taking on a3, then played it. When he played 14. d5 it took me off guard. I hesitated to play 15… d5 thinking that I would give him e5 square and then his knight will get to f7, but it was wrong. It would give me actually the possibility to win e6 pawn.

On move 20 I had to play 20… Ne4, it would let me to win e6 pawn. After a few moves my queen settled on d6, then I organized some counterplay in the center. His 21. Kg3 was a big mistake, but I didn’t see 31… N7xf5 32. gxf5 Nxf5, winning. It is not that I completely didn’t see Nxf5, I just had a different idea. I played it on the next move, but it was wrong to take with the rook after gxf5. I think I saw my knight “pinned” to e7 square as well as actually pre-moved Rxf5 not stopping after gxf5.

It was an equal game afterwards until I got another right idea with a wrong execution. It looked like I can win a rook on c5 as after Qxg3 I had a check on c2. So I played 41… Rxc5, then suddenly after Rxc2+ his queen moved to g2 square and I found myself in a lost endgame. The thing is I had to take on f3, not c5. After 41… Rxf3 42. Qxg6 Nxg6 43. Rxf3 Rxf3 44. Rxh5 the position was equal.

We eventually came to a R+N+P vs R endgame which was completely lost. Luckily for me he couldn’t find a quick win. On moves 77 and 79 the position repeated, I thought it could be repeated again in the future, but I screwed up my scoresheet and later couldn’t see anything. There was actually a third repetition on move 83, but I didn’t see it. There was a few times a mate in 13, but he couldn’t coordinate his pieces. I have to say that I had a few minutes and was playing on 15 seconds increment at that time.

On move 108 he suddenly played Ng3 and I saw right away an exchange sacrifice with a draw. He was in a kind of a shock, it looked like he was sure he will win. He said something about the wrong clock and TD explained him that the clock is OK, it is an increment. He started to ask what is that, TD had to clear the premises, so just told him to read about Fisher increment.

I found later that the guy had a long break from chess, so didn’t know about it. I was happy and thanked Fisher for his invention. I also found that it was a longest classical game I ever played OTB, 109 moves.

This is a “paraphrase” of the Beatles song title and relates to the variation played in the game. When I came to the club our TD told me that due to the fact that our Crown section is decimated by the ongoing city championship it will be merged with the middle section in the new tournament. As a result I was paired with the young man rated 1403, never played him before. I got White, he played Sicilian and we ended up with my favorite Rossolimo variation.

I didn’t hurry to play h3 as I would usually do as I had a feeling that he will play Bg4 and then will exchange on f3 after h3, which suited me. This is exactly what happened. Computer says that 23… exf5 was a mistake, I saw a knight sacrifice on f5, he would lose if he would accept it. He found the best defending move Ne8 pretty quickly, so I had to find how to continue my attack.

I realized that my knight will have good perspectives on g4 and it was there in two moves. His 25… Qd5 was a major mistake, as I could play the planned e5 with a tempo. After winning a pawn my attack continued, a crucial moment came on move 32. I saw a knight sacrifice on g6, checked the lines and played it. Computer says it was a mate in 11 after 32. f7. I saw f7, but it looked like his knight just goes to g7. I missed that the same knight sacrifice on g6 after 32. f7 Ng7 will lead to a mate.

On move 36 I planned first Rg3+, but noticed that his king escapes through f7 square. I didn’t see the move 37. Re1! after which he has no escape from the mate. Anyway I played 36. Rf4 and in a few moves won his rook. So we transformed into Q+R vs Q+N endgame that definitely looked won for me, but I had to demonstrate some technique. It took time to find a g3, h4 pawn structure covering my king from his checks, also I thought I have to take care of the queenside first.

Eventually the action switched back to the kingside, where the openness of his king was a critical factor. All that time he resisted like hell and we played already for 3.5 hours, so I was glad to put it to rest with 71. Rf7#.