Teamleague 37 - Round 4

I'd already more or less decided to take time off from playing the French Defense, and the clincher was seeing my opponent for this round involved in the black side of my favourite MacCutcheon variation.

The Steinitz Defense Deferred in the Ruy Lopez has served me well in the past, with the idea of playing the Siesta Gambit (5. c3 f5) should the opportunity arise. I stopped playing this a few years ago for reasons that are more-or-less borne out in this game; the weakened a2-g8 diagonal can make castling difficult, I have some bad memories of my King getting hammered on an open e-file (I managed to avoid that at least this time), and White can generate a strong attack with Queen, King's Bishop, and Knight around the f7 and e6 squares. That said, when it does work, it's White who can find himself getting steam-rolled.



Between moves 10-13, I spent rather too much time finding ways to not play ...h6 which would be catastrophically weakening for Black, the idea behind 12. ... Rb8 is to force the Bishop off it's dominating diagonal with ... Na5 and ... b3.

So by move 18, while I was happy to have exchanged off the attacking pieces and White's position looks slightly under-developed, my King was still standing in the centre holding a big neon sign that reads 'kick me'. 18. ... Qe6 is obviously an error, ... Qf7 should be played directly, and by move 20 I was already down to practically playing on my increments.

At move 22 I tried to start running the King to the relative haven of the Queen's side, but of course 22. Kd8 would have been a better way to try that idea - playing fast I saw the Knight check too late.

In the blitz phase that was the second half of the game, I did manage to keep abreast of the tactical nuances while making cheap threats in an ever deteriorating position. Then the White Queen finally moved in for the kill at move 35. With more time on the clock I'd have done the respectable thing and fallen on my sword earlier, instead I played the closest thing I could find to a swindle with 35. ... Nxf3+ before capitulating.

Board 1 next week eh? I'd better pack my oxygen mask...