Author: Spike

  [Event "Bedford Club Championship"]  [Date "2017.10.26"]  [White "Botteley, Michael"]  [Black "Habershon, Paul"]  [Result "1/2-1/2"]  [PlyCount "70"]   1. d4 Nf6 2. e3 g6 3. Bd3 Bg7 4. Nd2 d6 5. f4 O-O 6. Ngf3 Nbd7 7. O-O Nd5 $6 {  This knight sets out on a journey of four moves to reach b8. It cannot be  worth it. 7...e5 is preferred.} 8. Ne4 Nb4 9. Be2 b6 10. c3 Na6 11. Qa4 {MB - Not awful but perhaps Queen is not best placed here. Maybe Ng3 straight away}Nab8  12. Bd2 Bb7 13. Ng3 c5 14. e4 a6 Rf2?! {MB - Fiddling around with later ideas of rae1 and f5. d5 now leads to advantage by taking space and controlling c6, from what I can see. f5 is also interesting} b5?! {MB - Probably a bit of an error in the grand scheme of things. Instead black can fight for space by trying to control d5 himself} 16. Qd1 Nc6 17. Be3?! {MB - Lets try d5 again, (and what's that rook doing on f2)!} Qc7 18. f5 { MB - should be ok, and the rook on f2 looks a little less silly now. The choice has to be between this move and, well you know what. a4 might be possible to but I can't decide whether its good or not} cxd4  19. cxd4 Nf6 20. h3 Rac8 21. Rc1 Qd7 22. Qd2 Nb8 {MB - I don't like this very much because it seems to give me a free move. So long as I play d5 at the correct moment, and don't let Paul take on c1 first} 23. Bd3?! {MB - Oh dear} Rxc1+ 24. Qxc1 Rc8 25.  Rc2 Rxc2 26. Qxc2 Qc6 27. Qxc6 {Better is 27 Qb3! with the strong threat of  Ng5. MB - A poor move, as Paul pointed out} Nxc6 28. d5 Nb8 {Amusingly 28...Nd8? loses the knight to Bb6.} 29. Ba7  Nbd7 30. b4 Ne8 31. Nd4?? {MB - Seen after I played the move. I hoped that Paul would not find Nc5!} Ne5 (31... Nc5 $1 32. Bxc5 dxc5 33. Nc6 Bxc6 34. dxc6  cxb4 $15) 32. Bc2 Bh6 33. fxg6 hxg6 34. Nb3 Nc4 35. Bd3 Ne5 {MB - the draw offer was accepted. I thought black might be able to play for an advantage with ideas of e6 and/or f5 at some stage. A fortunate escape} 1/2-1/2