Analyze this! #9

Oh so close...

Welcome back to Chess in Small Doses! Today I’m analyzing the last game from the MLK Tournament I played in January. To recap, this was a 3 day event but I only played in 2 days (taking a 1/2 point Bye for the first game). So far I’m 2/3 and I went into this afternoon game hoping for a win as Black. I sat down across from a player I’ve faced once before, Anthony Booth, who’s USCF 1902. I believe he’s in his 80’s and still playing tournaments each weekend! He’s a tough player and much higher rated than I am. Even so, I was hoping to get a win as Black. We shook hands and played this game.

Result: 1-0; White Accuracy: 93%; Black Accuracy: 80%

Let’s get into it.

1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2?!

Kind of an odd line, but exactly the same one he played against me before. It’s called the Breyer Variation (something Hanging Pawns posted an analysis of).

Black has two choices here. Either dxe4 or e4. Moves like d4 don’t really help. I assume that Ne2 is played so if dxe Nxe4 Bf5 Ng3 and the bishop has to move again. That’s what was in my mind. However the best continuation here for Black is the simple e5! taking the center that White has given up. In Lichess DB dxe scores 55% for white where e5 is much more equal. Sadly I made the aggressive choice.

3…dxe?! 4.exd d5 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 Nd7

That pawn on c6 is in the way of my knight. Maybe Nf6 would have been better but right here White has the advantage of two developed pieces to one. What I didn’t anticipate is how weak the g8-a2 diagonal now is. Without a light square bishop and with the open diagonal things are about to get spicy.

8.Bc4 Nf6 (probably Qf6 was better) 9.Qb3!

This friends, is called a double attack. I’m going to lose one of two pawn here, either the f7 or the b7. I went into a long think and tried to calculate. I can’t play Qe7 because Qxb7 Rb8 Qxa7 is not good. I saw that Nc5 would both attack the queen and defended b7. After that I calculated Nc5 Bxf7+ Ke7 Qc4 was forced. If I played b5 then the Queen would have to take on c5. So I calculated Nc5 Bxf7+ Ke7 Qc4 b5 Qxc5 Kxf7 Qxc6 and Black is down 3 pawns. So instead I realized I'd have to play Qd6 first before b5. It was the only good move I saw since b5 Bxf7+ Ke7 Qe6# was game over!

9…Nc5!? 10.Bxf7+ Ke7 11.Qc4 Qd6?!

The computer says I’m still losing here. However, OTB I was putting a lot of pressure on White here. Mr. Booth spent a lot of time trying to find the precise continuation and looked a little stressed. I felt like maybe I had something. If White is careful they will come out ahead, but they need to be precise. Qd6 was not the most forcing move which is why it’s marked dubious, Qd4 was. However, I am not a computer.

12.b4! (didn’t foresee that one!) Ne6 13.Bxe6 Qxe6 14.Qe2

Here White is a pawn ahead and has the open diagonal for their dark square bishop. However, Black can develop with tempo and get Queen-side pressure pretty quickly. I had the initiative for the rest of the game (even though I would not recommend this line).

14…Kf7 15.a3 a5! (the a pawn is pinned against the undefended rook on a1) 16.bxa Rxa5 17.O-O Be7

White is up a pawn but Black has a simple plan. Rha8 and push the queen side pawns. Create queenside pressure and try to win back the pawn I lost.

18.Rb1 b5 19.Rb3 Rha8 20.Qe3 c5?! 21.Bb2? c4! 22.Rc3

Believe it or not, the engine says it’s dead equal here. I have fought my way back and have taken the initiative away from a 1900 lever player. I was very proud of this moment, but wasn’t sure how to finish it off. Right here is when I started thinking about getting a knight to d3, the bishop to c5, and bring as much pressure to the Queen side as I could. However, I missed a very critical detail - King safety.

Top engine move here is Kg8. After that White’s best line is to give up the a pawn and try and make a few trades to get his pieces activated again. Oh so close…

Instead I tried to activate my pieces without playing Kg8. There’s a reason why King Safety is so important.

22…Nd7? ( to play Bc5 next, but opens a line to the king) 23.Qe2!?

Have you ever seen an alligator slowly sink underwater to hide from potential prey, and then lie there waiting to strike? That’s what Qe2 is, it’s a trap. He intentionally undefended the a pawn. He baited me to take the now undefended a pawn. It’s so tempting right here. Kg8 is still the best move objectively. However I’m sorry to say friends that I took the bait.

23…Bxa3?? 24.Bxa3 Rxa3 25.Qf3+!!

This friends, is called a double attack. I cannot help but lose a rook here. Game over.

I was so bummed but I had to give him respect for his cagy Qe2 move. It still hurts to see this final position, given all the strong calculation that went into the position I had just two moves prior. But after 4 games against OTB players mostly stronger that myself I learned that I can hang. I finished the tournament 2.5/5 and placed 20th out of 35. My rating went up from 1582 → 1604. All in all not bad, but so close to being better.

I also learned that I don’t yet have the habit of doing a blunder check regularly. As I sit here and write this some 3 months later it’s still an issue. I’m going to write my next post on what and how I’m studying now to work on it. Seriously if I could just stop blundering I think I’d gain like 200-300 points… crazy.

Still, respect for Anthony Booth’s ability to play accurately under pressure. I enjoyed the game against him and hope we get to play again. I also hope that at his age, I’ll be the cagy old guy playing in tournaments every weekend. Until then, I continue to be an adult improver, ever hopeful for a better day.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your time! I hope you learned something. Leave a comment if you can or share this post if you think anyone else would like it. See you next time!