Spanton (1942) - Michał Kaczmarek (1825)
Caro-Kann Two Knights/Tartakower
1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6 6.Bc4 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.d4
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| The game began as a Two Knights Variation but the position arises more commonly from the Tartakower, eg 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6 6.Bc4 Bd6 7.Nf3 0-0 8.0-0 |
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8...Bg4 9.h3 Bh5 10.c3 Nd7 11.Re1 Re8 12.g4!?
This thrust is nearly always controversial, and here it seems to be a novelty, but is the second choice of Stockfish16, marginally behind 12.Rxe8+.
12...Bg6 13.Nh4 Nb6 14.Bb3 Bc7!? 15.Rxe8+ Qxe8 16.Nxg6 hxg6
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| How would you assess the position now White has won the bishop-pair and mangled Black's kingside pawn-formation, but has a weak king's position? |
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Equal chances, according to Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1.
17.Bd2 Qd7 18.Qc2
The engines reckon the queen is needed on the kingside, even though their recommended 18.Qf3!? blocks the white f pawn.
18...Nd5 19.Bxd5
Here they prefer 19.Qe4!?, the idea being to follow with Qf3.
19...Qxd5 20.Qd3 Re8 21.c4?!
This seriously weakens the d pawn. The engines suggest 21.b3, with equality according to Stockfish16, although Komodo14.1 gives Black at least a slight edge.
21...Qd6 22.f4?
Better seems to be the engines' 22.Kf1!?, although that is a horrible move to have to play.
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| Black to play and gain a winning material and positional advantage |
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22...Rd8
This is good enough for the upper hand, but stronger is 22...Bb6, the point being 23.Be3? loses to 23...Rxe3! etc. Also very strong, according to the engines, is 22...f5!?
23.Be3 g5 24.Rf1 Bb6 25.b3?!
Better, according to the engines, is 25.Rd1 gxf4 26.Bf2.
25...Bxd4 26.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 27.Qxd4 Rxd4
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| How big is Black's advantage? |
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Black is 'only' a pawn up but Stockfish16 reckons Black's advantage is worth about a minor piece, although Komodo14.1 is less enthusiastic.
28.fxg5 fxg5 29.Rf2 f6 30.Re2 Kf7 31.Kf2 Rd3 32.Kg2 g6 33.Rf2 Re3 34.Rd2 Ke7 35.c5!? a5!?
The engines agree Black's response to 35.c5!? is correct.
36.Rb2 Ke6 37.b4!? axb4 38.Rxb4 Re2+ 39.Kg3 Rxa2 40.Rxb7 Rc2 41.Rg7 Rxc5 42.Rxg6
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| White has succeeded in exchanging a lot of pawns, but Black now has a passed pawn and no longer has doubled pawns, so how should Black proceed? |
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42...Kf7
Black is still much better after this - winning, according to Stockfish16 - but probably stronger is getting on with advancing the passed pawn.
43.Rh6 Kg7 44.Rh5 Re5 45.h4 Re3+ 46.Kf2 Re5
Not 46...Rh3? 47.hxg5 Rxh5 48.gxf6+.
47.hxg5?!
Black is definitely winning again after this, according to the engines, whereas they reckon 47.Kg3 leaves Black with 'only' the upper hand.
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| Black to play and win |
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47...Rxg5?
Black is winning after 47...fxg5, according to the engines and the Syzygy endgame tablebase, but the text should result in a draw. Why capturing with the pawn makes such a difference, I am not sure.
48.Rh4 c5 49.Ke3 Rd5 50.Rh1 Kg6 51.Rc1 Kg5 52.Rc4 Kg6 53.Kf3 Kf7 54.Ke4
But not 54.Re4? Rd3+, which wins for Black.
54...Ke6 55.Ke3 Kd6 56.Rf4 Re5+ 57.Kd3 Ke6 58.Kc4 Rg5 59.Re4+ Kd6 60.Kd3
Black wins after 60.Rf4? Ke5.
60...Re5 61.Rf4 Rd5+ 62.Kc4 Ke6 63.Rxf6+! Kxf6 ½–½
Hi Tim!
ReplyDeleteIt was nice meeting you over the board :)!
When I played 35. ... a5 I expected the position after 42.Rxg6 and wanted to simply play Re5, cutting of your king, and then march the pawn forward supported by my king. But then I had the "brilliant" idea of locking your rook at h5 when I completely missed that you unlock yourself very easily by playing h4 and hxg5 :-(.
I guess my former plan would be not that difficult to carry out. My trainer suggested that my play would be even easier if I played 37. ... a4 (instead of axb4) when White apparently would have no counterplay at all.
Later, the difference between 47. ... Rxg5 and 47. ... fxg5 was simply too difficult for me to make the right choice during the game.
Concerning the position after move 16, I prefer to call this strange square pawn structure "hard to break" rather than "mangled" :). And actually I very much like the formation of f7-g7-g8-f6.
After your Nh4, I considered if it was worthy keeping that pawn structure and my bishop pair with Be4 but it looked a bit like playing with fire because the bishop wouldn't have many free squares from there.
I wish you great chess results and maybe we will meet again in some tournament in the future :).
Cheers,
Michał
Hi Michał
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you.
It was a very interesting game.
I always think ...exf6 should just be bad for Black, or at least unpromising, but time and again Black gets good play, especially against the white king.
Maybe we can debate the merits of the move in our next game ...