Teamleague 37 - Game 1

My first 'problem' came at move 12. The idea of the previous two moves had been to continue 12. ... Ne4 here but I became worried about the consequences of 13. Bd3 Nxd2 14. Bxh7 Kh8 - an illustration of the weakness in my analytical ability mentioned in the previous post.

The played move was alright (the position even slightly favours Black), but 12. ... Ne4 13. Bd3 Bxg5 14. hxg5 Qxg5 15. O-O-O h6 would have been better, and Crafty gives lines involving 13. Nf3 and 13. Nxe4 as optimal (-0.4 to -0.5 range).

Around this time, I had decided that playing ... h6 would only be useful to a) halt the march of White's h-pawn on h5, or b) to prevent the loss of my h-pawn to a barrage on b1-h7 (maybe with Ng5). At move 13 Mapleleaf suggested ... h6 to kick the Bishop and control g5, and we spent some time analysing 13. ... h6 14. O-O-O hxg5 15. hxg5 - White's h4 has little meaning if the Bishop intended to retreat!

squib (1978) vs SimianChatter (1831)
Position after 13. ... h6 14. O-O-O hxg5 15. hxg5 (analysis)

Black's defensive idea is to play ... g6, ... Kg7, ... Rg8 and take flight with the King, while White builds the attack with Bd3, Rh3, R1h1 constantly threatening an orgy of sacrifices in a mating attack. We concluded that White's pawn on g5 helps Black's defense more than White's attack (blocking access to g5 from his pieces) even though it is captured with tempo, and I think White's attack is certainly easier to play than finding the accurate defensive moves for Black, especially 'at the board'.

Crafty nuts the whole idea by simply playing (from the diagram) 15. ... Bxg5 16. Kb1 Bh6 (eval about -1.3) and giving 13. ... h6 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 etc. Damn machines.

Around move 15 it was probably a good idea to get my Queen off the central files and out of fire of the Rooks before commencing to roll my centre pawns. The position is looking like Black has played a successful French Defense; The d- and e-pawns are preparing to wreak havoc and the 'sleeping' Queen's Bishop is about to spring to life. I like playing the French when that happens.

At 17 simply ... Nxf6 would have saved a lot of headaches, but unfortunately I'd already hit on the idea of provoking b4 with ... Nc5 then open the a-file with ... a6 and not be concerned with pawn structure or their number if my major pieces could storm the bastions.

21. ... Rf4 is the losing move, 22. Ng5 threatening the fork at e6 leaving no time to exploit the weakened castled position while I was dreaming White would play Nd6. After 21. ... Rg6 Black's position is still favourable (around -0.3 to -0.4).

This game reinforces that it's time for me to learn the next basic Chess skill - the analysis of variations.