I played on board one for Battersea 2 away to Lewisham 2, who play their London League home matches at a wine bar in Leadenhall Market, Central London.
Spanton (2040) - Mike Roberts (2056)
Division One West
Benoni
1.Nc3 e6 2.d4 c5 3.d5 d6 4.e4 a6 5.a4 g6!?
With ...e6 having been played, more popular in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database are 5...Nf6, 5...Ne7 and 5...Be7, albeit the position after 5.a4 is not common.
6.Be2 Bg7 7.Nf3 Nf6!?
Five of the six games in Mega22 to reach the position after 7.Nf3 saw 7...Ne7, but Stockfish14.1 and Komodo12.1.1 prefer the text.
8.0-0 exd5!?
This slightly surprised me, but it has been played by a 2361 and the engines are OK with it.
9.exd5 0-0
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| By various transpositions the game has reached a position occurring 21 times in Mega22 |
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10.a5!?
This move, which has been played by a 2485, is not liked by the engines, which reckon White has an advantage after 10.h3.
10...Bg4
The engines like 10...Nbd7, eg 11.Bf4 b5!? 12.Bxd6 Re8 13.Re1 Bb7, claiming Black has decent compensation for a pawn, although Stockfish14.1 comes to prefer White.
11.Re1 Bxf3!?
This comes to be Stockfish14.1's second choice, at least for a while, behind 11...Nbd7.
12.Bxf3 Nbd7 13.Bf4 Qc7 14.Re7
The engines reckon White has a slight edge after 14.g4!?
14...Rfe8 15.Qe2 Bf8
An interesting line given by the engines runs 15...g5!? 16.Rxe8+ (an only-move as 16.Bg3?? loses to 16...g4) Rxe8 17.Be3 h6, when they reckon the position is equal.
16.Rxe8 Rxe8 17.Qd2 Ne5 18.Be2 Bg7 19.Ra4!?
Hinting at switching to the kingside. The text comes to be Stockfish14.1's top choice, at least for a while, although Komodo12.1.1 prefers a quite move such as 19.h3, 19.Bg3 or 19.Kh1!?
19...Nfd7 20.Bh6
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| How should Black proceed? |
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20...b5?
Black has to be careful as the knight on e5 has no square to move to, so the engines give 20...Bxh6!? 21.Qxh6 f5, when the e5 knight can drop back to f7 to drive away the white queen, and 22.Rh4 is simply met by 22...Nf6, after which White is obliged to retreat with 23.Ra4.
21.axb6 Nxb6
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| White to play and win |
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22.Rxa6??
This turns a win into a loss thanks to the weakness of White's back rank. Correct is 22.Bxg7, when 22...Kxg7 23.Rxa6 wins a sound pawn, while 22...Nxa4?! 23.Bxe5 wins two pieces for a rook.
22...Nec4 23.Qc1
Or 23.Bxc4 Nxc4 24.Qc1 Bxh6 etc.
23...Bxc3 (0-1, 35 moves)
Battersea 2 won the match 4.5-3.5.
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