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Friday 6 September 2019

Tuesday night's game against Worsley

The Marple team was under extra pressure when Glen told us we needed to score one and a half points to avoid relegation in the South East Lancs Summer League, especially as we were having to default on bottom board. On board 1, Glen reached a drawn position fairly quickly against a strong player but we were heavily outgraded on all the other boards so the situation looked a bit gloomy.

I had black on Board 2 against Mike Connor (147) but managed to get the necessary win (we lost on all the other boards).

When I manage to win a game, it rarely involves a middle game checkmate so this game was pretty unusual for me. I think the mating pattern was rather nice (Mike actually resigned when it was mate in one). Here is the game...


1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 c6 [The Catalan. A bit similar to The English that I like to play with white. I have hardly ever faced this with black though.]

4.Bg2 Bf5 [I decided to get the QB outside the pawn chain afer some thought. It proved a good decision as things developed and is the most popular move in Chessbase.]

5.Nf3 e6 6.0–0 Be7 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.Nd2 0–0 9.Re1 [After this I kept checking to see that white cannot advance his pawns so as to trap one of my minor pieces.]

9...Re8 10.cxd5 exd5 [Keep the pawn on c6 to oppose white's bishop.]

11.f3 Qb6 [The pawn on d4 is undefended and this move draws away one of the white knights covering what is looking like a very important e4 square.]

12.Nb3 Bb4 [This bishop can't cover e4 so I thought it would be good to exchange it for a knight that can.]

13.a3 Bxc3 14.bxc3 Nf8 [Re-routing to e6 as I don't want him to post a knight on c5 where it covers e4 etc.]

15.Nc5 Ne6 16.Be3 [I was surprised by this move. e4 is better.]

16...Qc7 [Fritz prefers 15. .. Nxc5 17. dxc5 Qb3, but I correctly anticipated the next few moves and liked the look of RQR tripled on the e-file.]

17.Nxe6 Rxe6 18.Bf2 Rae8 19.Ra2 Qe7 20.e3 Nd7 [I spent a long time on this move. I really liked my position but couldn't see how to improve - I sort of wanted white to move again to show his hand. I eventually decided that this knight would stand well on c4 if I can get it there.]

21.c4 Nb6 22.cxd5 Nxd5 [At first sight, e4 looks devastating but I had seen well in advance that Nc3 would fork Q & R.]

23.Qb3 [Played after a very long think and not the best. In fact e4 with loss of the exchange was the best move, though I would be doing pretty well then of course.]

23...Nxe3 24.Rb2 [Bxe3 is better but I should still have a winning endgame.]

24...Nxg2 25.Rxe6 Bxe6 [This is the killer move which I think my opponent must have missed. It gives me the tempo I need to protect the knight. The white king is trapped in a rather attractive mating net.]

26.Qa4 Bh3 27.Qxa7 Ne1 28.Qxb7 Nxf3+ 29.Kh1 Qe1+ [Mate on the next turn!]

0–1




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