Two Losses - And A Missed Opportunity

TURNED out twice more for Battersea this week, playing bottom board in the London League first team against Wood Green, and top board in the Central London League Division Two third team against Kings Head.
In the first game I had the black pieces against an Evans' Gambit. I played a recommendation of GM Victor Bologan, but without having studied it to anything like a decent degree, and lost in 20 moves.
My second outing also ended in defat, but only after I missed a glorious chance to score an upset.

Position after 23...Nf5-d4 in Spanton (169) - Simon Randall (203)

I had been under the cosh on the queenside earlier thanks to my weak pawn on a2. But by now I had generated kingside counterplay, aided by Black's queen being a long way from what had become the key part of the board.
24.Bxd4 Bxd4
I now played the uninspired ...
25.g4?
... and after ...
25...hxg4
... compounded the error with ...
26.Qe1??
... completely missing ...
26...Kg7
I lost quickly, but it could have been so different if I had played 25.f5. If Black plays, similar to the game, 25...Kg7, White has 26.fxg6 fxg6 27.Rxf8 Kxf8 28.Rf1+ with a huge attack.
Komodo9 prefers the plausible-looking 25...Bf6, but the tactically-superior engine Stockfish8 gives 26.Nxf7+!, which both engines agree wins in all lines, eg 26...Rxf7 27.fxg6 Rg7 28.Qh5+ Kg8 29.Rf2, etc.
I am certainly not claiming I would have found all this over the board, but it is galling to have missed the strength of 25.f5.

Date..........Event............Colour...Grade...Opponent's Grade...Result
14/9/17.....CLL..............White.....169.........183............................L
26/10/17...CLL..............White.....169.........197............................L
1/11/17.....LL.................Black.....169.........158............................W
2/11/17.....CLL (Div2)..White.....169.........158............................W
15/11/17...LL.................Black.....169.........204............................L
16/11/17...CLL (Div2)...White....169.........203..............................L

Overall for Battersea I am +2=0-4 with a grading performance of 167.

A Position That Baffles Computers

EVERYONE knows analysis engines are very strong these days, but there are still positions they find hard to evaluate correctly.
Most such positions occur when there are lots of men still on the board, but in my most recent tournament, the Devon County Congress at the Livermead House Hotel earlier this month, the following example arose after White's 60th move.

Spanton (169) - Daniel Gibbs (153), Rowena Bruce Challengers 2017

The game continued routinely: 60...Nd7 61.Kd4 Kxh6 62.Kxc4 Kg6 63.Kd5 Kf6 64.a6 Nb6+ 65.Kd4 Nc8 66.Nb5 Ke7 67.a7 Nb6 68.Nc7 Kd7 69.a8Q Nxa8 70.Nxa8 Kc6 1-0.
But the next day DG told me he actually had a draw, and this does seem to be the case - but you have to give analysis engines plenty of time to find it.
The key line runs: 60...c3 61.a6 Nxe4! 62.a7 c2 63.Kxe4 (63.a8Q c1Q+ doesn't change the outcome) c1Q 64.a8Q Qh1+ with a trivial draw.
So it seems 60...Nd7 should have a question mark (under the John Nunn endgame convention).
Analysis engines eventually realise White is not winning in the diagram position (although many continue to believe White is much better), but it certainly baffles them at first.