Kneel before Neil (but not for a Knighthood)

Marple A V Marple B 04/11/13

White: Glenn Trueman    Black: Neil Dainty

Sicilian Defence Nimzovich Variation Dainty Knight Retreat Line

1e4 c5

2Nf3 Nf6

3e5 Nd5

4g3

Some may think my difficulties in this game stem from playing the opening too casually but nothing could be further from the truth. I've been interested in 4g3 ever since I saw Robert Byrne use it to beat Kamran Shirazi at the 1984 USA Championships. There are also some great games as White by the Lithuanian GM Eduardas Rozentalis. Truth be told I think White has won every game in this line I have played through and when I play this line as Black I always worry that the Whites hand will touch the g pawn here. The problem is the Bishop on g2 hits the Nd5 and makes it difficult for Black to attack the White centre. Here's an extreme example from this years European Womens Championship - Maria Ines Oliveira V Anja Rudovic - 1e4 c5 2Nf3 Nf6 3e5 Nd5 4g3 Nc6 5Bg2 g6 6 0-0 Bg7 7d4 cd: 8Nd4: Be5: 9Nf3 Nf6 10Ne5: Ne5: 11Bh6 Nfg4 12Bf4 d6 13h3 Nf6 14Bh6 Qb6 15Nc3 Qb2 16Qe1 Nfd7 17 f4 Qb6 18Kh2 Nc6 19Nd5 Qd8 20Rf2 e6 21Bg5 Qa5 22Qa5: Na5: 23Nc7 Kf8 24Na8 a6 25Rb1 Kg7 26Nb6 1-0.

4... e6

5Bg2 Nb6!

In my opinion a brilliant new conception. The Knight voluntarily withdraws from the centre only to return later. This is possible because the one defect of 4g3 is that it is a slow form of development.

 I wanted to get my bishop on b7 but I’m not going to be able to, so I retreat the knight before it gets chased. Neil

6c3 d5!

7ed: Bd6:

8d4 0-0

90-0 Nc6

10Nbd2?! 

Although this is not really a mistake a much simpler way of playing was 10dc: followed by Qe2 and Rd1 as suggested by Sarah.  Although the resulting positions are still objectively level there's much less chance of anything going wrong.

10...cd:

11cd: Be7

12Ne4 h6

Playing safe. This move is absolutely  fine but I'm not really threatening to put anything on g5 so an immediate 12...Nd5 is marginally more aggressive.

13Be3  Nd5

I don’t want to take the bishop and bring the f pawn to the centre but the knight looks good here

14Qe2 b6

15Ne5 Bb7

(I like to fianchetto my bishops and have done since I learnt a fianchetto does not have a chocolate flake in it!)

16Nc6:?

The beginning of Whites real problems. It seems very unnatural to voluntarily exchange of the Ne5 which is Whites best piece. I was concerned that if I left it there and played 16Rac1 (!) Black could exchange on e5,c1  and e3 with very drawish positions. That's true but it's the best White can do here.

16....Bc6:

17Rac1 Rc8

18a3(?)

I felt I had to stop an invasion at b4 but 18Rfe1 is the best move for keeping Blacks advantage at a reasonable level.

18...Qd7!

19Rfd1

By now my level of concern was rising. I played this expecting the natural 19...Ba4 20Rfe1  when I felt I was clearly worse but I would gain time against the Ba4 later.

19...Qb7!

This totally spooked me. Not just for its strength, with the Ne4 and the Bg2 suddenly looking very vulnerable, but for the fact that I hadn't seen the move at all.

 20f3?

Played with great reluctance as positionally it's just about the last thing I  wanted to do but I couldn't see an alternative way of preventing carnage on the a8-h1 diagonal. However 20Bd2! (Is this hard to see because I've relegated this Bishop to pawn status?) just about holds things together.  The main point being the obvious 20...f5 runs into the very nice 21Nd6!! when 21...Bd6: 22Qe6:+ Kh7:23Qd6 :. Unfortunately Black doesn't have to play 20...f5 and instead after something like 20....Rfd8 is clearly better - but White is still alive.

20..f5 (!)

I now know that 20...Ba4 and 20...Bb5 are probably even stronger but this is the best move  in a practical sense as White needs to find a computer defence in four moves time to stay in the game.

21Nc3 Ne3:

Nxc3 would have won the f pawn ( I don’t get this Nc3: stuff it needs a shift key)

22Qe3 Bg5!

23Qe6:+ Kh8

24d5??

I decided this was the only chance but it loses. I do suspect most players would play this move but either 24f4! Bf4:! (24...Bg2: 25fg:   - 24...Rfe8?? 25Bc6:!) 25gf: Bg2: 26d5!  or   the amazing  24Rc2! Rce8! (24...Bf3 25Bf3 Qf3 26Re2!) 25Qc4 Bg2: 26Qf1!! keep the game going  although Black is well on top.

I now hoped Neil would move his attacked Bishop with 24...Bd7 when I could grovel on but instead he played

24....Bc1:!

 At first I thought I’d missed something, but then I thought it must be a bluff – I didn’t realise it was just a mistake.

And offered a draw!.

I  thought for some time. I now saw clearly that after I took on c6 my Queen would be hanging after ...Rc6:, (I did briefly consider  Qc6: but thought Black didn't need to play this). I therefore would have to move her Majesty and the Bishop could escape but my Rook would have gone.

I really didn't want a "sympathy" draw, if that is what it was. More honourable seemed either to (a) Play on and inevitably lose  or (b) Reject the draw offer and resign instead. (b) seemed particularly attractive. Eventually I decided though that my actions could be misconstrued and if the A team lost the league by half a board point it wouldn't be  the smartest course of action. So I accepted Neils offer  

I’m going to be an exchange up.  Some time ago I decided to always take a draw when heavily out-graded rather than risk playing on.  It certainly wasn’t sympathy. I’ll try and play this out with Glenn at the club one night.

0.5/0.5

 But it doesn't finish there! Perhaps appropriately given my play I had reached the right conclusion but by using the wrong logic. Sarah immediately pointed out that after the "natural" 25dc: Rc6:(?) White has the brilliant resource 26Qe2!! The point is if the Bishop runs away to g5  26...Bg5 ? then incredibly White is winning after 27f4!. This hardly seems possible, but I've checked the lines and its true. Unfortunately there is a kind of refutation with  the very nice  26...Rc3:! when White has nothing better than 27bc: but then after 27...Ba3: Black is a pawn up with the better position. However from Whites point of view that's a lot better than losing a Rook.

What we didn't see on the evening though was the counter-intuitive recapture 25dc: Qc6:! wins outright. The tricks with f4 are eliminated and the Queen exchange 26Qc6: runs slap bang into the amusing zwischenzug  26...Be3 +.

I do feel sad that Neil didn't win this game, he played superbly throughout and Fritz can find nothing wrong with any of his moves.

Glenn.