Spanton (1831) - Lukas Lihotsky (1529)
English Nimzowitsch
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e4 Bb4
This is the main alternative to the most-popular move 4...Bc5, for which see https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2020/08/czech-mate.html
5.d3 d6 6.Be2
Nimzowitsch preferred 6.g3 but Carlsen has played the text.
6...h6 7.0-0 0-0 8.h3 Be6 9.Nd5 Bc5 10.Be3 Nd7 11.d4 Nxd4 12.Nxd4 Bxd4 13.Bxd4 exd4 14.Qxd4
White has a central bind, but a bad bishop. Komodo11.01 reckons the game is equal, but Stockfish11 slightly prefers Black.
14...a5 15.Rac1!?
This mysterious rook move was played with the intention of transferring the rook to the kingside along the third rank, but nothing of the sort comes to pass. The engines prefer 15.Rad1, which I rejected because 15...Nc5 prevents Rd3, but I missed that White has 16.e5.
According to the engines, 15.f4 is best met by 15...Bxd5.
15...Re8 16.Rfe1 Bxd5
LL offered a draw.
17.exd5
I rejected the engines' choice, 17.cxd5, because of 17...Nf6 18.f3, when I felt White's kingside dark-square weaknesses would be a major liability, but the engines reckon White has an edge.
17...Qf6 18.Qxf6 Nxf6 19.Bd3 Nd7 20.f4 Nc5 21.Bc2 Kf8 22.Kf2 Rxe1 23.Rxe1 Re8 24.Rxe8+ Kxe8 25.Ke3 Ke7 26.Kd4 Kf6 27.b3 g5
LL offered a draw. I kept playing but without disturbing the equilibrium, and the game was drawn after 41 moves.
Arguably of slightly more interest is that the congress has a book and souvenir stall.
None of the books is in English, and the T-shirts are generic ChechTour ones rather than event or season specific, but it makes a change from the many tournaments these days that have no kind of stall.
No comments:
Post a Comment