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| White has just played 38.Nc6-d4 and offered a draw in Robert Stern (164) - Spanton (171) |
The diagram position is a lot trickier for Black than I imagined. At first my main analysis engines Komodo9 and Stockfish10 are quite happy with exchanging on d4, but give them enough time and they come to prefer centralising the king with 38...Ke7, even though this allows White to return his knight to c6 with 39.Nc6+ followed by centralising his king with 40.Kf3.
39.cxd4?!
The other recapture was almost certainly better. The point is that if, after 39.Rxd4, Black tries to play as he did in the game, he soon gets into trouble, eg 39...Rxd4? 40.cxd4 Rd7 41.Rd1 Rd5 42.Kf3 Ke7 43.Ke4 Ke6 44.b3, when White seems to be winning as he has massive problems defending his queenside after 44...c3 (44...cxb3 45.axb3 does not help) 45.b4.
That is why, after 39.Rxd4, the engines give the main line as 39...Ke7 40.Kf3 Rxd4 41.cxd4 Ke6 42.Ke4, albeit much preferring White.
39...Rd5 40.Kf3 Rbd7 41.Ke4 Ke7 42.Rh2 f6 43.Rc2
The obvious but passive 43.Rhd2 was probably also good enough for a draw, but threatening queenside counterplay with the text is good. In either case, the engines rate the position as virtually dead equal.
43...Ke6 44.b3?
RS seems to have missed the threat to e5. It was better to neutralise this by connecting rooks (44.Rcc1) or exchanging (44.exf6).
44...fxe5 45.fxe5 Rxe5+! 46.dxe5 Rxd1 47.bxc4
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| Is Black better? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
47...Re1+
An alternative I should have given serious consideration to was 47...Rh1!? Black is slightly better after 48.cxb5 Rh4+ 49.Kf3 axb5 50.Rc6+ Kxe5 51.Rc5+ Kd6 52.Rxb5 Rxh6 or 48.c5 Rh4+ 49.Kf3 Rc4, but in both cases White seems to have enough counterplay for a draw (analysis by the engines)
48.Kf4
48.Kd4 leads to similar variations.
48...Rxe5
48...Rf1+ 49.Ke4 allows transposition to the ...Rh1 line given at move 47.
Interesting was 48...g5+!? but it seems White can take the pawn, ie 49.Kxg5 Rxe5+ 50.Kf4 Rc5 51.Re2+ etc.
49.cxb5 Rf5+ 50.Ke4 axb5 51.Rc7 Rf7 52.Rc6+ Kd7 53.Rb6 Re7+ 54.Kf4
White offered a draw.
54...Rf7+ 55.Kg4 Rf2 56.Rb7+ Ke6 57.Rxh7 Rxa2 58.Rb7 Rh2 59.Rxb5 Rxh6 60.Rb6+ Ke5 61.Kg5 ½–½
Updated statistics
Battersea 2018-19
Event...Colour...Grade...Opponent's Grade...Result
CLL........B..........167...….........196...............…D
LL...…….B...…...167...………..159...………….D
CLL...…..B...…...167...………..161...………….W
CLL...…..B...…...167...………..190...………….D
LL...…….W...…..167...………..161...….………W
CLL...…..W...…..167...………..148...………….D
CLL...…..W...…..167...………..165...………….W
CLL...…..W...…..167...………..160...………….D
CLL...…..W...…..167...………..159...………….D
LL...…….B...…...167...………..168...………….D
LL...…….W...…..171...………..159...………….W
CLL...…..B...…...171...………..198...……….….L
CLL...…..B...…...171...………..169...…………..L
CLL...…..B...…...171...………..196...…………..L
LL...…….B...…...171...………..182...…………..D
CLL...…..W...…..171...………..189...…………..L
LL...…….B...…...171...………..178...…………..L
CLL...…..B...…...171...………..164...…………..D
Overall this season for Battersea I have scored +4=9-5 for a grading performance of 170.
In season 2017-18 I scored +10=8-9 for a grading performance of 175.
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