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1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.d3 d6 6.e3
Going for a Botvinnik formation with 6.e4 is the most popular move, but the text is Stockfish10's choice, along with 6.b3!?
6...Nge7 7.Nge2 0-0 8.0-0 Be6 9.Nd5
It is normal for White, as here, to play this as soon as Black has played ...Nc6 and ...Be6, and thus is unable to capture on d5 with the e7 knight.
9...Qd7 10.Rb1 Nd8 11.b4
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| Black has three main ways to proceed |
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TH thought I should play 11...Nc8, so as to push the d5 knight back with 12...c6 without allowing an exchange of knights. This is a common plan for White in similar positions, with colours reversed, from the Closed Sicilian. I rejected it because I was not sure Black could afford to play so slowly, and anyway I wondered who was gaining more from not exchanging. TH said he felt Black would get a good position in the centre with ...c6 and ...d5.
The commonest move, at least in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, is 11...c6, but I felt Black's queen would be slightly misplaced after 12.Nxe7+ Qxe7.
That left:
11...Nxd5 12.cxd5 Bh3 13.Qb3
We spent a lot of time in the postmortem looking at 13.Bxh3!?, which might be a novelty. The idea is that White will strongly pressurise Black's queenside before Black can organise a kingside attack. We did not come to a definite conclusion, despite help from FM Andrew P Lewis, except that it seemed to give both sides more chances than the game continuation.
13...Bxg2 14.Kxg2 c6 15.Nc3!?
Stockfish10 and Komodo9 reckon this is an improvement on 15.Bd2, which was played in Yuri Averbakh - László Szabó, Budapest 1970 (½–½, 42 moves).
15...cxd5 16.Nxd5 Ne6 17.f4
This is partly aimed at stopping ...Ng5, with ...Qh3+ to follow, but is that such a threat? Apparently not - the engines give 17.Bb2, very slightly preferring White; and if 17...Ng5?!, then 18.f4 as 18...Qh3+ 19.Kg1 Ne6 20.f5! gives White, rather than Black, a dangerous kingside initiative.
17...exf4 18.gxf4 Nc7 19.Nxc7
19.f5?! is aggressive, but does not seem to work, eg 19...Qc6 20.e4 Nxd5 21.exd5, and now the engines' 21...Qd7 (21...Qc3, which we looked at in the postmortem, is about equal) causes White big problems as 22.f6? fails to 22...Qg4+ 23.Kh1 Rfe8!
19...Qxc7 20.Bd2 Qd7 21.h3 Rac8 22.Rbc1 ½–½
I seem to have somewhat misassessed the position, as engines reckon Black is slightly better after 22...d5.
My final score of +1=5-1 saw me gain 24.8 Fide elo, with an ECF grading performance of 185.9.
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