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I was hoping to try out the Scandi, although my experience with it is limited. 2. exd5 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nxd5 4. d4 Nc6 I need to play 4... c5 here instead, I immediately regretted this move when he played his next one... Obviously not 5... Ndb4 6. a3 Na6 7. b4 and 8.b5. What a mess, now I have to completely back-pedal. This was already not an experiment I was enjoying! I hated my position here, but it's not like his development is a million times better, it's just easier for him. Tempi burned, not good. 7. Nc3 e6 8. Bg5 Be7 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O exd5 I felt close to equality here. I had considered h6 chasing his Bishop off, but I never like disturbing the King's shield! I had expected 13. Nc3. This move made me squirm in my chair again. I definitely didn't want to play 13... Bxd6 14. Nxd6 cxd6 15. Qxd6. 13... cxd6 14. Nxd6 Qc7 15. Nf5 I had been hoping for a hasty 15. Rc1 by him, followed by the rude 15... Qxd6! Of course that would have been too simple... 16... Nc6 was better and still holds everything together. The intermezzo that I played was too much to ignore though! I was feeling the pressure here again, knowing that Re1 was coming. 19. Re1 Be6 20. Qe2 Rad8 21. Qe5 It took me a while to see that he was aiming to follow up with Rc7 here. 21... Rfe8 22. Rc7 Rd7 23. Bxf6 gxf6 I'm pretty sure by Gabriel's reaction that he hadn't considered this move, but had just expected Qxf6. I had calculated it all out to potentially just losing the b7 pawn after 23... Qxf6 24. Qxf6 gxf6 25. Rxd7 Bxd7 26. Rxe8+ Bxe8 27. Bxb7. but I figured 24. Qg3+ Kf8 left me in better stead and not a pawn down deep in the endgame. I was already thinking a draw would be a good result from this game after making such a muck of my opening. I took a while rejecting 24... Qxd7 25. Qxf6 which is just better for white. I had seen this and now I knew I should be OK after Bxa2 comes... 27. h4 Bxa2 28. Re8+ Kg7 29. Rb8 Rc1+ I have to abandon the b7 pawn, but I'll get f2 or b2 in exchange! I knew this should be a draw now, especially if, ideally, I can find a way to swap off the rooks! 31. Rxb7 Rxf2 32. b3 Bb1 33. Bd5 Bd3 34. Ra7 Bb5 35. Kg3 Rf6 Now the queenside is locked up and my rook also keeps tabs on f7. Nice. I offered a draw here which, after some consideration, Gabriel agreed to. Good game. I felt under pressure for most of it but was happy to equalise! Time remaining 27.29min for Gabriel and 29.03min for me. 1/2-1/2 Annotator(s): Edward Loane. Source(s): Gabriel da Silva and Edward Loane, via Craig DuBose. Event information: Tournament report. |
