Maintaining The Balance

A man walks into a gypsy's tent at a fete. She gazes into her crystal ball and starts laughing uncontrollably, so he whips out a baseball bat and whacks her. The police are called. "Why did you do that?" they ask. "I've always wanted to strike a happy medium." he replies.



I burned too much time from lack of opening knowledge in this one. The general plan with 5. ... Nh5 was to get the two Bishops or repeat with something like 6. Bd2 Nf6 7. Bf4 etc., but did I really dare open the h-file for him and run to the Queenside?

By move 13 I'd used over half an hour against 2 minutes to my opponent, but my freeing plan was by then clear; 13. ... h6 was the last move that caused me concern, it all seemed so hackneyed at the time but I was more worried about 14. e4 than 14. g4 which "the plan" considers irrelevant as allowing 14. ... Nd5 giving Black equal share of the play.

There are a lot of French Defense games like this where Black forgoes castling, but his King can wander to whichever side of the board seems safer. 16. ... Nb4 is not a real threat, more so a demonstration that White's space advantage amounts to nothing - White's 15. Nxd7 is only superficially attractive exchanging the powerful Knight for the 'bad' Bishop. I don't really want to play ... f6 making swiss cheese of my Kingside.

29. ... Qf6 is an error only in the sense that, in time trouble, I didn't notice that with the b-pawn pinned after 30. e5 Qxf4 White can 'win' the exchange (for pawns) with Bc6, but even there White has an uphill battle to prove an advantage with doubled pawns and so many pawn islands.

In the end, it was White who was running through time trying to find an advantage against my solid position, and who offered a draw with the clocks at about 3 vs 2 minutes. Naturally I accepted; it's one of those positions in which whomsoever tries to push too hard runs a serious risk of losing.

Rybka never sees the game as being more than 0.5 in anyone's favour. Maintaining the balance without risk of winning; better than rolling the dice and losing. Frank Marshall finally learned that "half a point is better than none" too. 2.5/4!!