Lessons From Liverpool: Unwelcome Visitor

MY round-six game reached the following middlegame position, which is completely equal, according to Stockfish17 and Dragon1.

White has just played 25.Qd3-e3 in Spanton (1947 ECF/1982 Fide) - Ed Goodwin (1804 ECF/1827 Fide)

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Visually the position might seem promising for White as White occupies the open file and has more space.

But it is easy to see there are no entry squares for the queen on the e file, so there is no danger there for Black.

The matter of space is not so obvious.
True, there is nothing achievable on the queenside, but is not 26.h6 a threat?

Actually, even if it were White to move in the diagram, 26.h6 can be satisfactorily met by 26...g6, and if 27.Qf4 Black has 27...Ne8, after which 28.Qb8 a6 slightly favours Black, according to Stockfish17 (Dragon1 disagrees), presumably because the white queen is decentralised.

Nevertheless Black has to be careful as pressing too eagerly for exchanges is problematic, eg 25...Qe6?! can be sidestepped by 26.Qf4!, taking advantage of Black also having no entry squares on the e file.

The game saw the catastrophic 25...Nf5??, after which the white queen entered Black's position via 26.Nxf5 Qxf5 27.Qe7.

Black's only hope then was perpetual check, but the white knight was well-placed to prevent that.

LESSON: an enemy queen deep in your position usually spells DOOM.