Saturday 18 August 2018

B+N v R+P

FINISHED the Olomouc Seniors with a draw against a Polish 1998.
My opponent offered a draw before the game started, but I wanted to play.
Position after 17.h2-h3 in Jan Kusina (1998) - Spanton (1946)
Retreating the knight offered zero winning prospects (against anything like reasonable play), so I speculated with 17...Nxf2!?
After 18.Rxf2 I saw little advantage in delaying capturing, eg by 18...Rac8, so the game proceeded 18...Bxf2+ 19.Kxf2 Rad8 20.Rd1 Rxd1 21.Nxd1 Rc8 22.Nc3 f5 23.Ke3 Kf7 24.Kd3
Here I played the solid 24...g6, which is fine if all Black wants is a draw. But more in keeping with my 17th move was 24...g5!? threatening to activate my pawn majority.
The game continued 25.Bc1 Ke6 26.Bf4 Rd8+ 27.Kc4 Rc8+ 28.Kb3 Rd8 29.Na4 Kd5 30.Nc5 Kc6 31.h4 Re8 32.g3 Re1
I now gave up on creating winning chances, and offered a draw.
33.Nd3 Re7 34.Ne5+ Kd5 35.Nc4 Kc6
JK now offered a draw, which I accepted.
This meant I finished fourth, edged out of the prize money on tiebreaks, having scored +4=4-1 for a Fide rating gain of 22 elo.

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