Lessons From Northumbria VII

IN round seven I lost after blundering a piece as White thanks to a very basic counting error in a position which Stockfish14 reckons is winning for me.

I am fairly sure that is a stretch, but it is interesting to look at how the game reached the position, and whether it really is winning for White.

Spanton (1808 Fide/1998 ECF) - Adam Faulkner (1628 Fide/1819 ECF)

Northumbria Challengers (U2000)

English Symmetrical

1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 g6 5.e4!?

Heading for a Botvinnik set-up. Grandmasterly opinion is split on this. Tony Kosten in The Dynamic English (Gambit 1999) advises against a Botvinnik set-up (white pawns on c4 and e4, a hole at d4, a fianchettoed king's bishop and the king's knight developed to e2) unless Black has played ...e5. Andrew Soltis, on the other hand, says in Winning With The English (Chess Digest, 1997 revised edition)  the Botvinnik set-up works best when Black has played ...Nf6, masking the dark-square bishop. There are 434 examples of the text in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database, with White scoring a decent 56%. More popular, and more successful percentage-wise, is 5.e3 (723 games, 60%), while the most-popular move, 5.Nf3 (1,146 games) scores the same as the text.

5...Bg7 6.Nge2 0-0 7.0-0

Note that trying to get rid of the hole with 7.d4? loses a pawn to 7...cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nxe4!

7...d6 8.d3 a6

The game is still in a very popular line, with White's next move occurring 1,035 times in Mega21.

9.h3 Rb8 10.f4

Kramnik, Karjakin and Kamsky are among GMs who have played this move, which sets a little trap, but it is arguable who is being trapped!

10...Bd7

10...b5!? looks like a careless blunder as it loses a piece, but the move has been played, albeit in a blitz game, by a 2558. The point is that after 11.e5 dxe5 12.Bxc6 Black has 12...Bxh3 13.Bg2 Bxg2, when Komodo12.1.1 reckons the two pawns Black has for a knight, together with the exposed position of the white king, offer full compensation; Stockfish14 gives White a slight edge.

11.a4 Qc8 12.Kh2 Ne8

The knight is headed to c7, where it supports ...b5, and may move on to e6, where it exercises extra control over d4. The move ...Ne8 also unmasks the dark-square bishop.

13.Be3!?

This apparent novelty - the move is not in Mega21 - is liked by the engines. The idea is to continue with d4.

How should Black meet White's 'novelty'?

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13...Nc7?!

Stockfish14 suggests 13...b5!?, the point being to meet 14.axb5 axb5 15.Nxb5 with 15...Nc7!? (the immediate 15...Bxb2 is also playable) 16.Nec3 Nxb5 17.Nxb5 Bxb2.

Komodo12.1.1 suggests 13...e6 as 14.d4? loses a pawn to 14...cxd4 14.Nxd4 Nxd4 15.Bxd4 Qxc4.

The trouble with the text is it blocks the action of the queen down the c file and so makes it possible for White to play d4, the prevention of which is usually one of the main aims of the manoeuvre ...Nf6-e8-c7-e6.

14.d4 cxd4 15.Nxd4 Ne6

Here I played the imbecilic 15.Nd5?? Nexd4 16.Nxe7+ only to realise that after 16...Nxe7 I was just getting one piece back.

Best, according to the engines, is 16.Nxe6 Bxe6 17.Nd5!?, when they reckon 17...Bxb2 18.Nb6 gives more than enough compensation for a pawn. Indeed Stockfish14 gives White a winning advantage after 16.Nxe6, but reduces this to just having the upper hand by the time 18.Nb6 is reached. White has more space, and thus more manoeuvring room for the pieces, but to my eye Komodo12.1.1's evaluation of a slight edge for White is nearer the mark.