South Wales International Round 9
English Opening
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 d6 6.Rb1 Nge7!?
Preventing b4 with 6...a5 is by far the most-popular move, but it is not compulsory. Having said that, my choice scores particularly poorly percentage-wise in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database.
7.e3!?
You might think White would play 7.b4 to punish Black for not preventing it. That is indeed the commonest choice, and it scores very well. But failing to play b4 does not make 6.Rb1 a waste of time - at least not in this game, as the b pawn later goes to b3, at which point White wants his queen's rook to be off the diagonal of Black's dark-square bishop.
7...0-0 8.Nge2 Be6 9.Nd5
The standard move, once it is no longer possible for Black to capture on d5 with a knight.
9...Qd7 10.0-0 Nd8
AP was critical of this in the postmortem, and I had my doubts later in the game, even though I knew it was a standard manoeuvre. AP suggested 10...f5.
11.b3 c6
Stockfish10 and Komodo9 suggest 11...Nxd5!? 12.cxd5 Bh3.
12.Nxe7+ Qxe7 13.d4
 |
| Black faces a critical decision |
*****
*****
*****
*****
13...exd4?
Black's d pawn becomes a weakness after this.
The engines suggest 13...e4!?, the point being that 14.Bxe4 is met by 14...Bh3, when 15.Bg2?? loses to 15...Bxg2 16.Kxg2 Qe4+ etc. Instead of 15.Bg2??, the engines give 15.Bh1, reckoning White will have full compensation for the exchange.
14.Nxd4 Qd7
Black has a difficult IQP position after 14...d5?! 15.cxd5 Bxd5 16.Bxd5 cxd5.
15.Ba3 Re8 16.Nxe6 Rxe6 17.e4 Qc7 18.Qd3
This allows a surprise near-equaliser. The engines reckon best is 18.Bh3! Rxe4 19.Bxd6 Qa5 20.Re1 Qxe1+ 21.Qxe1 Rxe1+ 22.Rxe1, when White's bishop-pair and lead in development give a large advantage.
18...c5!
Any other move leaves White considerably better. The point of the text is that Black will establish a minor piece at d4, masking the weakness at d6.
19.f4 Bd4+ 20.Kh1 Nc6
 |
| How can White attack Black's set-up? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
21.b4!
Komodo9's choice, although Stockfish10 prefers 21.Bc1, until shown 21.b4! on the board, after which its preference flips back and forth.
21...cxb4 22.Bxb4 Nxb4 23.Rxb4?!
I expected 23.Qxb4, which is also the engines' choice, giving White a slight edge.
23...Bc5 24.Rbb1 Rc8??
A gross blunder, caused by playing much too quickly. AP thought Black had to play 24...Rb8, although he admitted this was passive. My suggestion of 24...Bb6 may be better. We looked at 25.e5 dxe5 26.Bd5, when AP's 26...e4 seems to equalise, eg 27.Bxe4 Rae8 28.Bd5 Re2. There are other choices for both sides, but the position does appear to give equal chances.
The game finished:
25.Bh3 f5?? (this makes matters worse - Black had to give up the exchange) 26.Qd5 Qf7 27.Rxb7 1-0
My final score of +3=2-4 was enough to lose 19.2 elo.
No comments:
Post a Comment