Spanton (1881/168) - Rajeiv Ratnesan (1647/171)
Caro-Kann Classical
1.Nc3 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e4 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bd2 Qc7 12.0-0-0 Ngf6 13.Ne4 0-0-0
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| White to make his 14th move |
*****
*****
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14.Nxf6!?
More than 2,000 games in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database have White playing g3, but the text has been tried by Spassky and Leko.
14...Nxf6 15.Qe2 Bd6 16.Ne5!?
The most popular move in Mega19 is g3?!, but that loses a clear tempo compared with 14.g3 Nxe4 15.Nxe4 Nf6 16.Qe2. Strong players have preferred Kb1.
16...Rhf8!?
This looks strange, but the idea is to to be able to play ...Nd7 to exchange knights. The analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10 prefer 16....c5.
17.g4!?
This may be a new move. I wanted to free the king's rook from protecting the h5 pawn, but the engines prefer 17.f4 or 17.c4!?
17...Nd7
In the postmortem RR said he should have played 17...c5, when the engines continue 18.Bf4 c4!? 19.Bd2!? Bxe5 20.dxe5 Nd5 21.c3, which they reckon is equal. Part of the reason he did not play 17...c5 was fear of 18.g5!? cxd4 19.gxh6?? Bxe5 20.hxg7 Rg8 21.h6, but the engines point out a complete answer in 21...d3.
18.Rhe1 Kb8 19.Kb1 c5?
By now ...c5 is a mistake. The engines give 19...Nxe5 20.dxe5, although after 20...Bc5 (or 20...Be7), White gets the slightly better game by setting up Hans Kmoch's (in)famous quartgrip with 21.f4.
20.Nxd7+ Rxd7 21.dxc5
Even better was 21.Bc3!, when the engines give best play as 21...c4 22.d5 with a large advantage for White.
21...Bxc5 22.Bc3 Rg8?
The engines reckon Black had to play 22...Rxd1+ 23.Rxd1 f6 24.Qxe6 Bxf2, although White's pieces are better coordinated and it looks like a difficult defence for Black.
23.Rxd7 Qxd7 24.Rd1
An immediate capture on g7 is also good.
24...Qc6 25.Bxg7
Black cannot save the h6 pawn, but made the situation worse with:
25...Bd6? 26.Rxd6 1-0
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