Another intra-club battle

Marple E v Marple D, Board 3 12.11.2013

White: Chris Baker, Black: Neil Dainty

1.c4 Nf6

2.g3 g6

3.Bg2 Bg7

4.Nc3 d6

5.d3

Neil evidently wants to transpose into a King's Indian but as I want to play the English, I am not going to allow this. The move d3 ensures that I will get to play a familiar English structure.

Bit surprised by this, I was expecting d4.  Neil

5. .. 0–0

6.e4 e5

7.Nge2

Prepares to support f4 at some stage and prevents black pinning the knight with Bg4 as the bishop can be driven back with f3.

7. .. Nbd7

This blocks black's WSB and produces awkward development problems for black. It is more usual to play Be6 first. On the other hand, black's c pawn is not blocked so it will be harder for me to get a knight onto d5.

8.0–0 Re8

9.h3

I want to put my BSB on e3 but don't want it molested by black's knight.

9. .. Rb8

Evidently planning a queen's side pawn expansion. I considered playing Rb1 right now to combat this and to get the rook off the a1-h8 diagonal but decided to play for an early f4 and/or d4 instead.

The plan is to shift the pawn on c4 to get at d3.

10.Be3 a6

11.Qd2 b5

12.b3 b4

I thought he might play bxc when I would be quite pleased to see the b file opened. However I rather expected this move and had seen that after Nd5 the Knight has no means of retreat and will probably have to capture on f6. I decided that this should be positionally OK because I expected him to recapture with his knight which would be worse on f6.

This makes bxc less attractive but it could strengthen my BSB if I can shift my e5 pawn later.

13.Nd5 a5

14.Nxf6+

My knight was in no immediate danger of being trapped so long as this recapture was possible.

14. .. Bxf6

I was delighted with my position at this point as Chris doesn’t seem to have any moves, but Fritz has my advantage as  only 0.30 – comments please!

15.Rad1

Useful to get the rook off the a1-h8 diagonal before I play f4.

15. .. c5

16.f4 Nf8

17.fxe5 Bxe5

18.Rf3 Ne6

19.Rdf1

It seemed completely natural to double rooks on the f file, but Fritz prefers d4. The sequence given is 18.d4 cxd4 19.Nxd4 Bb7 20.Nb5 when black would be in difficulties. Interestingly Fritz has rated us more or less level throughout the game whereas I thought I was positionally quite a bit better at this stage.

19. .. Rf8

20.d4 Bg7

21.d5 Nc7

22.Bh6 Bxh6

23.Qxh6 Ne8?

This should lose but I fail to notice the tactical opportunity. Black should play Qe7 which holds everything together.

I thought my Knight needed to go kingside.

24.Qe3?

Fritz spots the winning queen sacrifice Qxf8 after which black is completely lost. The following sequence is more less forced. 24.Qxf8+ Kxf8 25.Rxf7+ Kg8 26.Rf8+ Kg7 27.R1f7+ Kh6 28.Rh8 Bxh3 29.Bxh3 Ng7 30.Rxd8 Rxd8 31.Nf4 Rg8.

 I certainly didn’t consider that!

I think it was a mistake to put the queen behind the pawn anyway. A better plan was to get my knight to d3 and support the e pawn with a rook (or two) and then play e5.

24. ..  Rb7

25.Nc1 Re7

26.Nd3 f5

Neil is playing this pretty well! Of course he cannot play fxe4 because the pawn is pinned. However, my e pawn is pinned as well which is the reason why I should have left my queen on h6.

I was pleased with this move.  I now seem to have some play.

27.R3f2

Stops Rxe4.

27. .. Nf6

28.Rf4

Much better was e5. Although this gives black a passed pawn, I would get one as well and the position would be very even after 28.e5 dxe5 29.Qxc5.

28. .. Qe8

I now see that Re8 is much better because the possibility of a future Rxe4 is much stronger than Qxe4.

29.Re1?

Again e5 was better with a similar outcome to before. The standard of play after this goes rapidly downhill as both players are getting short of time. Neil helpfully forgot to press his clock a few times during the game and this could have made quite a difference. I would have told him if I had noticed, but was far too engrossed in the game except on one occasion.

I was eighteen minutes behind after 20 moves. Not helped by not using my clock during the first few moves.  However after 26….f5 Chris had to do the thinking and the times equalized.  I then forgot the clock again.  Rapidly downhill is no understatement!

29. .. g5?

fxe4 was better. It either wins a pawn or else, if I retake with a minor piece I get into a very awkward pin.

30.Rxf5??

This should lose! Correct is Rff1 which would be fine, but I thought I would be left in a hopeless position after 30.Rff1 fxe4 31.Qxg5+ Rg7 with both queen and knight en pris. I missed the fact that the knight cannot be taken as the e pawn is pinned to the black queen. I thought the move played would sacrifice the exchange but it should have been worse than that.

30. .. Bxf5

31.Qxg5+ Qg6

Bg6 would leave black a piece to the good.

Doh!

32.Qxf5 Qxf5

33.exf5 Rxe1+

34.Nxe1 Re8

35.Kf2 Re5

36.Nf3

We are now down to under 3 minutes each. The rest is a scramble!

36. .. Rxf5

37.g4 Rf4

38.Ke3 Nxg4+

39.hxg4 Rxg4

40.Bh3

Here I offered Neil a draw which he accepted.

Immediately – my brain was too addled to think about it.   My second good derby result in a week.

½–½