Toby to play and win! - Bedford Chess Club

Thanks to Paul Habershon for noticing this. Hot(ish) off the press: Toby’s recent win over IM Neil Bradbury at the EACU Championships has been used in this month’s Chess magazine’s “Find the Winning Move”.

For those interested in the full game, see below. The Winning Moves puzzle is taken from white to play move 35.

   [Event "EACU Closed champs 2022"] [Site "Newmarket"] [Date "2022.01.08"] [Round "2"] [White "Cox, Toby"] [Black "Bradbury, Neil"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B13"] [WhiteElo "2100"] [BlackElo "2310"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "2021.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2022.01.13"]   {[%evp 0,69,19,29,65,74,74,51,37,15,32,5,0,20,26,2,1,-6,-29,-27,-27,-27,-27, -51,-31,-31,-27,-26,-3,-83,-83,-83,-10,-30,-27,-60,-66,-42,-47,-63,-28,-27,-27, -68,-15,-62,3,-15,39,30,61,59,62,62,63,63,71,-11,48,39,73,73,223,245,168,232, 367,0,0,0,637,637]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 Be6 7. a3 g6 8. c5 Bg7 9. Bb5 O-O 10. Bxc6 {It's maybe a bit premature to take this, although I don't think it does much harm.} bxc6 11. Nf3 Bg4 12. h3 Bxf3   Qxf3 Qb8 14. Qe2 {I think this was just a poor move, it removes the queen from attacking the knight, and doesn't do much else. I should've just castled.} Re8 15. O-O Nh5 16. Qd2 e5 17. g4 Nf6 18. dxe5 Qxe5 19. Rae1 Qc7 20. b4 Nd7 21. Ne2 Re4 22. f3 {I have a dark-square bishop that seems to do the job with plugging the holes on the kingside.} Re6 23. Bf4 Be5 24. Bxe5 Nxe5 25. Nd4 Re7 f4 Nc4 27. Rxe7 Qxe7 28. Qf2 Qd7 {They've played a slow move, it seems like go time.} 29. f5 Re8 30. f6 {I don't see any real benefits to opening the f file, so I might as well push.} Re4 31. Qh4 h5 32. Qg5 Qc7 33. Nf5 Re2 34. Ne7+ (34. Rf4 {This is maybe the only move that prevents the perpetual for black in a couple of moves, while still keeping me in control of the game.}) 34… Kf8 (34… Rxe7 35. fxe7 Qg3+ {I shouldn't have allowed this.}) 35. Nxg6+ fxg6 (35… Ke8 36. Nf4) 36. Qh6+ Ke8 37. f7+ Kd7 38. Qf4 1-0