Basel Round Two

FACED another junior this morning, and could discover little about him except he is French, aged nine or 10, does not have a Fide rating, and drew with a 1939 in round one.

Spanton (1814) - Anuar Tureshbayev (-)

French Irregular

1.Nc3 d5 2.d4 e6 3.e4 c6!?

Irregular, to say the least, but it has been played by grandmasters, and there are 525 examples of 3...c6!? in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database.

4.Bd3 dxe4 5.Nxe4!?

Speculative, but playable.

5...Qxd4 6.Nf3 Qd8 7.Qe2

Freeing d1 for a rook, and holding back on the dark-square bishop until Black has shown more of his hand.

7...Nf6 8.Nxf6+ Qxf6 9.Bg5?!

Throwing a second pawn on the fire, but Stockfish13 and Komodo12.1.1 reckon White has the upper hand after 9.c3.

9...Qxb2 10.0-0 Qb6 11.Rab1

The engines prefer 11.Ne5.

11...Qc7 12.Rfd1 Be7 13.Qe4?!

The engines like 13.Qe3 and 13.Bxe7.

13...Bxg5 14.Nxg5 h6 15.Nf3 Nd7 16.Rd2 Nf6 17.Qh4 0-0 18.Rbd1 Bd7 19.g4!?

Black has connected his rooks and remains two pawns up, so I felt I had to do something or else I would be without compensation for the material minus.

19...Qf4 20.Be2 Rad8 21.Rd4 Qc7 22.g5 hxg5 23.Nxg5 e5

How should White proceed?

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24.Rd6?

The engines give 24.Bd3! Rfe8 25.Bc4 with an unclear position.

Another better try than the text is 24.Ne4!? as 24...exd4? 25.Nxf6+ gxf6 26.Bd3 Rfe8 27.Qh6 is a draw. However, after 24.Ne4!? Black has 24...Nxe4 25.Rxe4 Be6 with what the engines reckon is a clearly winning position.

24...Bf5 25.Rxd8

The desperate 25.Nxf7? fails to 25...Kxf7.

25...Rxd8 26.Rxd8+ Qxd8 27.Bc4

27.Qh8+!? Kxh8 28.Nxf7+ Kg8 29.Nxd8 wins back a pawn, but the engines continue 29...Bc8, when the white knight is surely doomed.

27...Bg6?

Much better is 27...Qd1+ 28.Kg2 Nd5.

28.Nf3?

Retreating the knight is always likely to be hopeless, but here it misses 28.Bxf7+! Bxf7 29.Qh8+ Kxh8 30.Nxf7+ and 31.Nxd8, when White has equalised.

28...Qd1+ 29.Kg2 Be4 30.Qh3 Qxc2?

Greedy. Black can simply swop off into an ending two pawns up, but even better is 30...g5 etc.

31.Qc8+ Kh7 32.Qh3+ Kg6 33.Qg3+ Kh6 34.Qh4+ Kg6

Disastrous for Black would be 34...Nh5?? 35.Qg5+ Kh7 36.Qxh5+ Kg8 37.Qxf7+ and 38.Qh5#.

35.Qg3+ Kh7 36.Qh3+ Kg6 37.Qg3+ Kh6 38.Qh4+ Kg6 39.Qg3+ Kh6 40.Qh4+ ½–½