Having misplayed the opening as usual, I had been under pressure all game, but had managed to keep my K active and safe. The game started getting complicated as we were well into the middle game and we reached this position where W has just played Kc3. My original plan was to find a way to play Kg5 and go after the weak h-pawn, but Ne5 would make defence of the f-pawn hard and potentially give W a passed pawn, so I played Ng7.

1... Ng7

There are a couple of amusing lines here, so Gavin played the correct…

2. Nxh6

2. Nxg7 Bxg7 3. Nxf4? Kg5+! .

2. Nxf4 Nxf5 3. exf5 Kg5 Marginally better than Kxf5 where Nh3 fixes everything for W) and B is fine, with an active K and B v N.

2... Nxh5 3. Ng4+ Kg5

Going for activity

4. Kd4 Kh4

Some tricky choices here of how to organise the B pieces

5. Ke5 Kg3 6. Kf5 Be7

Here, Gavin went to play Nde5 before his radar kicked in and spotted the helpmate. Shame!

7. e5 Ng7+ 8. Ke4 Ne6

And a draw was agreed a few moves later.

1/2-1/2

Annotator(s): Andrew Hebron.

Source(s): Simul Games, Richmond & Twickenham CC web site, June 8, 2022.

Event information: Played 16, +12 =2 -2.

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