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With 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6, I was going to stick with the Ponziani opening. 3... Nf6 Not a common move I have faced personally, as most tend to go out with Bc5 immediately. 4. d3 I was itching to play this possible d4 line 4. d4 Nxe4 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nxe5 Nxe5 7. dxe5 Bc5 8. O-O Position is equal, but I didnt want to worry about the incoming onslaught on the e-pawn. At the time I made this move, I thought I had made a blunder because I miscalculated a wrong pay and instantly saw the queen exchange after all the incoming captures which would make me lose my right to castle. Stockfish says this is the best move. and I play into my miscalculated plan. 6. dxe4 queen exchange doesnt happen yet if I had just taken with the pawn, unless black is willing to play Nxe4 after. 6... Nxe4 7. dxe4 Qxd1+ 8. Kxd1 g6 I was suprised black was deciding the finachetto their dark squared bishop here (Bg7), into a closed diagonal blocked by the e5 pawn. Not that its a bad move, its just a curious one for me. This swayed my later decision to castle by hand on the queenside. 8... Bc5. 9. Bg5 if black had any plans to take the d-file with one of their rooks, I was just preemptively bieng a nuisance for that plan with this move. And this activates my bishop anyways as well as the plan to castle by hand. 10. a4 perhaps to challenge blacks pawn push on the queenside that was certainly going to come. I immediately pounce on the open file. Reccomended move here in Be3. Did I really need to protect the a2 pawn here? 12. Be3 Bxa2 13. b3 probably not, as white would win the bishop thereafter. So Be6 was not as scarry as first feared. 13... Bxb3+ 14. Kxb3 but the exposed nature of the king leaves me rather concerned here, even if white is slightly better. Black has an à la carte option of which bishop to take. Either which lead to doubled up pawns, and they play the best option here with 14... bxc6 because this line would have been interesting 14... fxg5 15. Nxg5 (15. Bxb7 Rab8 16. Nxg5 Bc4 17. Bd5+ Bxd5 18. Rxd5) 15... bxc6 16. Nxe6 Rxf2 17. Rd7 with a rook infiltrating the 7th rank. 15. Be3 Black has doubled up pawns on the c-file but the open b-file directly in front of the king had me slightly worried. 15... a4 15... Rfb8 16. Rd2 with black having an edge with this line. 16. Bc5?! 16. Ne1 with Ne3 and Rd2 incoming to protect the b2 pawn, which could have been under immense pressure here if black had played differently. 16... Rfe8 I expected black to challenge the open d-file here. 16... Rfd8. 17. h4?! only now I see, this move didn't really add anything to the position as it could easily be blunted with 17...h5 17... Bf8 17... h5. I had a bad habit of putting my knights on the rim in this tournament. But the idea here was to push to g3 then f4, to get some pawn movement on the kingside. this was to prevent any of black's c4 ideas if any. a mistake that gives black the f-file and an oppotunity to infiltrate my 2nd rank. With this move, black now had a massive advantage going into the endgame. 23. Kc1 perhaps not taking would have worked as black now has quite a few pawn islands to exploit. 23... exf3 24. Nxf3 e4 25. Rhe1 exf3 26. Rxe6 fxg2 even though black is better off 24. Nf3. 24... Rb2+ 25. Ka1 Rf8 26. Nf3 I was now trying to close off any further infiltration from black. Here the engine suggests Rb1 to offer an exchange of rooks instead. 27... Re2. 28. b4 Now I had Rb3 plans to offer a rook exchange but missed the simpler Rd2 28. Rd2 Bxf3 29. Rxb2 axb2+ 30. Kxb2 Bxe4 Black is clearly winning here. 28... cxb4 29. Rb3 Rxb3 30. axb3 Bxf3 This move was a no brainer and brilliant from black. I was clearly on the ropes here. 31. gxf3 Rxf3 32. Ka2 Rf2+ 33. Ka1 a2 33... Rh2 I thought black was going to play this instead. and black completely misjudges the situation here (their words), and thought they had a mating plan with this move. This move surprised even myself, because Jamie had played well and kept me of the ropes since my 22.f3 mistake. 35. Kxb2 I promptly take the hanging rook with this new lifeline. 36. Rxa1. 36... Kg7 37. hxg6 hxg6 38. c5 stopping black's pawns from protecting each other and now the plan was just to clear the board off black's pawns with my rook and push for promotion. 39... g5 40. Rd6+ Kh5 41. Rxc6 g4 42. Re6 Kh4 43. Rxe5 g3 44. Re8 g2 45. Rg8 Kh3 46. Rxg2 Since black;s king would be far away from my pawns, I did not mind losing this rook. pushing either pawns was fine for me (c or e) 48... Ke4 49. c7 Kxe5 50. c8=Q Kd4 51. Qc4+ and at this point the endgame was pretty straightforward. 51... Ke5 52. Qxb4 Kd5 53. Qc3 Ke4 54. b4 Kd5 55. b5 Ke4 56. Qd2 Ke5 57. b6 Ke4 58. b7 Ke5 59. b8=R Ke6 60. Rb3 Kf5 61. Qe2 A fortunate win for me or rather an unfortunate loss for Jamie Bredin who played pretty well till the critical blunder of 34...Rb2. So cruel is the nature of chess, but one has to take advantage of opponents blunders. Well played Jamie. 1-0 Annotator(s): Vladimir Mabhena. Source(s): Vladimir Mabhena, via Craig DuBose. Event information: Tournament report. |
