Edward King v David Payne (St John's Ladder 14.02.19)
1. Nf3 Nf6
2. d4 g6 3. Nbd2 .... I had decided on an early e4 3. .... c5 surprise 4. e4 cd 5. e5 Ng4 6. h3 Nh6 50% of David's moves involve moving the same knight 7. Nb3 Nc6 as expected 8. Bb4 Qb6 9. BxN bxB expected 10. Qxd4 QxQ 11. NbxQ Ba6 12. Bf4 .... Perhaps b3 would have been better, as Bg7 would have enabled an immediate c4 12. .... Bg7 13. b3 c5 14. Ne2 d5 15. Nc3 e6 expected 16. O-O-O .... I knew this was risky, but I had failed to deal with David's bishop on a6, that was stopping me from castling short, and I could not see what else to do. 16. .... O-O 17. Rhe1 Rfc8 18. g4 .... To deny the f5 square to the h6 knight 18. .... Rc6 19. a3 Rac8 20. Kb1 Rf8 David is threatening f6 and f5 giving me a choice of losing the f4 bishop or the f3 knight 21. g5 Nf5 The knight has escaped, I am not liking this. 22. Rd2 Rfc8 23. Nh2 Nd4 24. Rc1 Rb8 25. Ka2 Bc8 26 Ng4 a5 27. Na4 Bf8 I thought that Ba6 was better as black threatens a knight fork on e2 I belatedly realised that the ploy Nxc5 RxN RxN I had been planning does not work because black has the intermezzo move of Nf3 28. Nf6+ .... I decided to announce this, it might be the nearest I get to his king 28. ... Kg7 I thought that Kh8 was better as this merely lost a tempo 29. Ne8+ Kg8 30. Nd6 Ba6 31. Rb1 Nf3 surprise I had been preparing against Ne2 32. R2d1 BxN 33. exB e5 I realized that if I save my bishop, the d6 passed pawn falls and concluded that David could simply pin me down on the queen flank and sweep the c, d & e pawns forward to victory. So I decided instead to take two pawns for the bishop for at least a more combative loss. 34. Bxe5 Nxe5 35. Rxd5 Nd7 obviously. 36. Re1 Kf8 37. Re7 Rd8 38. Nc3 Nb6 39. Rde5 .... Thinking if either 39. .... Rxd6, 40. Ne4 heading to Nf6 39. ... c4 40 Ne4 cb 41. cb Rdc8 The threat is Rc2+ If Kb1 Rc1+ Kb2 R8c2 mate. I needed a retreat square for my king. 42. a4 Rc1 The threat is now 42. ... R8c2+ 43. Ka4 Ra1 mate 43. Rxa5...... This isn't greedy pawn snatching, it is to give me b4 as a second escape square. 43. .... R8c2+ I had been more worried about the sacrificial Nc5+ 44. Ka3 Bc8 45. Nf6 .... And white's threat is now Re8+ Kg7 Rg8 mate thanks to the g5 pawn 45. .... Bd7 46. NxB+ NxN 47. RxN Rxf2 48 Ra8+ Kg7 49. Rdd8 Resigns |