Sunday, 7 July 2019

Grandmaster Crush

AM playing in the nine-round South Wales International, which is being held in a hot but spacious conference room in a Best Western on the outskirts of Bridgend.
The time control is a relatively slow one, at least for these days, of 40 moves in 90 minutes, a 30-minute windback, and a 30-second increment throughout.
The schedule is also rather unusual: 10.30am and 5pm today, 5pm Monday, 10.30am and 5pm Tuesday, 5pm Wednesday, 10.30am and 5pm Thursday, and 10.30am Friday.
Nigel Davies (GM2484) - Spanton (1900)
Round One
London System
1.Nf3 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Bf4 Bg4 4.Nbd2 e6 5.e3 Bd6 6.c3!? Nge7
6...Bxf4 7.exf4 Qd6 was Nigel Short's choice in a 1987 world championship blitz win over Eugenio Torre.
7.Be2 0-0 8.0-0 Ng6 9.Bg3 Bxg3 10.hxg3
I now played what turns out to be Komodo9's choice, but is very doubtful
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
10...e5?!
The problem with this move will quickly become apparent.
My other thought, 10...f5?!, is also problematic, according to ND, because of 11.c4. But he reckoned 10...Ne7, my other postmortem suggestion, was probably fine, if a little better for White.
11.dxe5 Bxg3?!
Not 11...Ncxe5? as 12.Nxe5 Bxe2 13.Nxf7 wins a pawn for White. Even worse is 11...Ngxe5?? 12.Nxe5 Bxe2 13.Nxc6 etc. But engines point out Black does not have to hurry to win back the pawn as White cannot defend e5 in the long run; therefore something like 11...Re8 or 11...Qe7 leaves White just a bit better.
12.gxf3 Ncxe5 13.f4 Nd7 14.c4!?
As ND pointed out, the coming exchange of pawns leaves White with what he called a little centre, by which I presume he means White will be the only one with a central pawn.* White also gets pressure against the Black queenside.
14...dxc4 15.Nxc4 Qe7
Black's position may not look too awful, but Stockfish10 reckons White is already winning.
16.Bf3 Nc5?!
The knight becomes a target for White's queenside expansion. Better was the miserable-looking 16...Rab8.
17.Qc2 Rfe8 18.Rfd1 Rad8 19.b4 Nc6
Black loses a piece after 19...Ne4?? 20.Rxd8 etc.
20.a3 c5 21.b5 Nb8 22.b6!?
Black's queenside proves to be extremely vulnerable after this somewhat counter-intuitive thrust, although the engines reckon plenty of other moves also maintain White's big advantage.
22...axb6 23.Nxb6 Na6 24.Nd5 Qd6 25.Rab1 c4
The best move, according to Komodo9, but desperate stuff.
26.Qxc4 Qxa3 27.Rxb7 Rc8 28.Nf6+! 1-0
*Addendum (11/7/19): ND explained this evening that he had intended to say his move dissolved my little centre (pawn on d5 versus pawn on e3).

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