Posted on February 12, 2016October 21, 2016Games This was not so much a game of two halves as a game of three thirds; first third pretty much book, second third chaotic, as John Harbour aptly observed; final third the game runs like clockwork… [Event "MK C v Bedford D"] [Site "?"] [Date "2016.02.11"] [Round "?"] [White "Hickman, N."] [Black "Solloway, C."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C18"] [Annotator "Hickman,Neil"] [PlyCount "55"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qc7 $5 {Slightly unusual move order. I tried the sharpest reply} 7. Qg4 f5 8. Qh5+ {"I may be forced to admit that the Winawer is sound, but I doubt it. The defense is anti-positional and weakens the K-side" wrote Bobby Fischer long ago. So it seemed sensible to try and weaken it a bit more.} g6 9. Qh4 $6 ({White should, apparently, play} 9. Qd1 Bd7 (9... cxd4 10. cxd4 Qc3+ 11. Bd2 Qxd4 12. Nf3 { when White has enough for his pawn - Sikorsky-Belchev, email 2013 (1-0 in 33)}) 10. Nf3 cxd4 11. cxd4 Ba4 12. Bd2 $16 {as in a game Judit Polgar-Short, Dos Hermanas 1997 (1-0 in 66)}) 9... cxd4 10. Qxd4 Nc6 11. Bb5 Bd7 $2 (11... Nge7 { is probably =/+}) 12. Bxc6 Bxc6 13. Nf3 Bb5 ({Black would have been better advised to attend to development with} 13... Ne7 {Stopping White from castling is all very well, but...}) 14. a4 Ba6 15. Ba3 Rc8 16. Kd2 {...this is, after all, the Winawer Variation, in one main line of which 10 Kd1 is "book"} h6 17. Bd6 Qa5 18. Bb4 Qb6 $4 ({This is a blunder after which it becomes very easy for White. Black should have played} 18... Qc7 {after which I intended} 19. Qxa7 {not so much for the pawn as for having b6 for my pieces. After the game it seemed as though the pawn was poisoned, but after} Ne7 20. Qe3 Nc6 21. Bd6 Qa5 22. Kc1 $1 ({we only looked at} 22. Nd4 Nxd4 23. Qxd4 $2 ({better in this line is} 23. Bb4 Nxc2 24. Bxa5 Nxe3 25. Kxe3 {but it's still =/+}) 23... Rc4) 22... Bc4 23. Nd4 Nxd4 24. cxd4 {White is doing fine}) 19. Qxb6 {Up to now the game has indeed been pretty chaotic, as John described it. But after this exchange the position becomes very clear-cut. Three minutes over this move, and then about three minutes for the rest of the game.} axb6 20. Nd4 Kd7 21. Rhb1 Ne7 22. Bxe7 $1 {Giving up the strong bishop for a large number of Black pawns} Kxe7 23. Rxb6 Rc4 24. Rxe6+ Kf7 25. Rf6+ Kg7 {Trying to save his g-pawn, Black loses his king. Mate is now forced.} 26. Ne6+ Kh7 27. Rf7+ Kg8 28. Rg7# 1-0 your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard; alternatively your wordpress theme might suppress the html iframe tag from articles or excerpts Posts pagination Previous page Page 1 … Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 … Page 110 Next page