Farnham A v Guildford A, Surrey Border League Division 1.
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 O-O 7.e3 Ne4
The Lasker variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. I have had very good results with this. Black exchanges a couple of minor pieces and prepares the …e5 pawn break.
8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Qc2
9.Rc1 is the main move. Black then has a standard plan which involves exchanging knights, supporting the centre with …c6, and …Nbd7, preparing to take on c4 and play the pawn break …e5. I didn't know the 9.Qc2 line so well and followed the standard plan in this game. But it doesn't work so well here. Instead (as I later discovered from Cuenca's Chessable Course on the Queen's Gambit Declined), Black should take on c4 then develop with …b6 and …Bb7, aiming to play …c5 in one go.
9…Nxc3 10.Qxc3 c6 11.Bd3 dxc4 12.Bxc4 Nd7 13.O-O
Here I want to play 13…e5 as in the Rc1 line, but now it would simply lose a pawn.
13...Re8 14.Rfd1
This prevents the freeing move 14…e5, because after all the exchanges White has Rd8+ followed by Bxf7 winning. Instead the pawn break 14…c5 is an option, but if White simply takes on c5 then we have a symmetrical pawn structure and it's hard for me to play for a win. White would probably not play 15.d5, since 15…exd5 16.Bxd5 Nf6 gives me a queenside pawn majority.
14...b6
So the idea was to develop the bishop, after which either …e5 or …c5 is playable.
15.e4
My original idea was 15…Nf6 to attack the e4 pawn, but after 16.e5 Nd5 17.Bxd5 cxd5, White's knight is better than my bishop and I have no good pawn breaks.
15...Bb7 16.e5
I was not expecting this move, which is anti-positional. It creates a hole on d5 and a backward pawn on d4. However, it's hard to exploit that as my knight has no good squares to move to.
16...c5. Now I don't mind the c and d pawns coming off because although the pawn structure is symmetrical, White's e5 pawn is a weakness and my bishop is good on the long diagonal.
17.Bb5
I had not considered this move. White wants to exchange on d7 and then capture on c5 in favourable circumstances (maybe leaving me with an isolated c-pawn). But there is a good tactical response.
17...Red8 18.Bxd7 Qxd7
The engine now shows Black to be clearly better (–1.3). Now 19.dxc5 allows 19…Qxd1+ 20.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 21.Ne1 Rc8 22.b4 bxc5 25.bxc5 Rxc5! followed by 26…Rcc1 and Black wins. So instead 25.b5. But I thought the two rooks would be stronger than the queen in this position.
19.Rd2 Bxf3 20.Qxf3 cxd4
Winning a pawn – for now. White can regain the pawn, but only at a cost.
21.Rad1 Rac8
This stops White capturing on d4: 22.Rxd4 Qxd4 23.Rxd4 Rc1+ and mate follows. So White creates an escape square for the king.
22.h3
Here I considered 22…Qb5, since after the exchanges on d4, I pick up the b2 pawn or the e5 pawn, and I'm also threatening to take on e5 immediately. But White can defend with 23.Qe4, when 23…Rd5 24.Rxd4 Rxe5 loses to 25.Rd8+.
22...Qd5
Presenting White with an unpalatable choice. He can't defend both e5 and a2, so moving the queen away from f3 achieves nothing. Exchanging on d5 leaves me a pawn up in the rook ending: 23.Qxd5 Rxd5 24.Rxd4 Rxe5. So after long thought, he decided to go for the ending of queen v two rooks.
23.Rxd4 Qxd4 24.Rxd4 Rxd4
In these endings, who is better depends on king safety (how exposed is the king to checks?) and the pawn structure (broken pawns are easier for the queen to pick off). Here the two rooks are stronger because the king is well-protected and the pawn structure is sound. The basic plan is to double the rooks on White's second rank and start eating pawns. The engine now evaluates the postion at –2.3.
25.Qb7 Rc1+ 26.Kh2 Rc2 27.Qxa7 Rxb2
Here I was expecting 28.Qa8+ Kh7 29.Qf3 attacking f7. Playing defensively with 29… Rd7 allows White to hold on to the a2 pawn with 30.a4, and also my attacking threat is gone. So I would probably have played 29...Rdd2 30.Qxf7 Rxf2 31.Qxe6 Rxg2+ 32.Kh1 and tried to find a way to escape the ensuing queen checks. Later analysis showed Black to be winning here: after 32…Rgc2! 33.Qf5+ Kg8, the c8 square is covered so there are no more checks and White has to give up queen for rook to avoid mate.
28.Kg3
This is not good because I now have time to double rooks and take on f2 before White can take on f7.
28...Rdd2 29.Qa8+ Kh7 30.Qe4+ g6 31.Qf4
I considered 31…Kg4 to bring the king a bit closer to the centre before taking on f2, but after 32.a4 there's nothing better than taking on f2 and transposing to the game.
31...Rxf2 32.Qxf2 Rxf2 33.Kxf2
Now I'm a pawn up in a king and pawn ending with multiple pawns, and these are almost always winning. The exchange of major pieces winning a pawn is the main threat in queen v two rooks endings, which is why queen and pawn v two rooks is held to be an equivalent material balance, and in the position at move 24 I knew that White would be one pawn short of that.
33...f6
Necessary at some stage. If both kings travel to the queenside, my f7 pawn is backward and I can't make any progress. But now I can create a passed pawn since if White takes on f6, my king is in time to recapture before White's king turns up to defend.
34.Ke3
I didn't want to take on e5 giving myself doubled passed pawns because White's king gets into the game quicker and he can then advance his kingside pawns with the idea of creating a passed pawn of his own if my king comes round towards the queenside. So I wanted to make him take on f6 instead when I would gain a tempo.
34...Kg7
In fact the engine shows that 34…fxe5 is only a draw: 34...fxe5 35.Ke4 Kg7 36.Kxe5 Kf7 37.g4 g5 38.Kd6 Kf6 39.a3 e5 40.Kd5 b5 41.Kc5 Ke6 42.Kxb5 Kd5 43.a4 Kd4 44.a5 e4 45.a6 e3 46.a7 e2 47.a8=Q e1=Q and the presence of queens means that neither side can make progress.
35.Kd4 Kf7 36.a4 Ke7
Chess is sometimes amusing. It was fun to march the king along the seventh rank from h7 to e7 behind a pawn barrier and ignore the possible pawn capture. With the king on e7, I can meet 37.exf6+ with 37…Kxf6 and my king is better placed. If White doesn't capture, I can play 37…f5 securing the kingside and threatening to create a passed pawn. And my king is in time to defend against White's threat of Kc4–Kb5–Kxb6. Finally, if 37.Kc4, I can play 37…fxe5 with a better version of the doubled passed pawns line, since White loses a lot of time in capturing them, and going after the b6 pawn allows me to queen the e-pawn first and stop the White a-pawn. Interestingly, the engine shows that taking on e5 is now winning for Black, e.g. 36...fxe5+ 37.Kxe5 Ke7 38.g4
A: 38.h4 h5 39.g3 Kf7 40.Kd6 Kf6 and the e-pawn is too fast,
B: 38.g3 g5 39.g4 Kd7 40.Kf6 Kd6 and again the e-pawn is too fast.
38...g5 and the White king must retreat, allowing both the Black king and e-pawn to advance together.
37.g4 f5 38.gxf5
Which way to recapture? I decided to stick with Plan A and take with the g-pawn creating a protected passed pawn, although I was sure that 38…exf5 would also win since I can create connected passed pawns on the g and f files, White can't promote the e-pawn, and going after my b-pawn is too slow.
38...gxf5 39.h4 Kd7
Now the plan was to march the king all the way along the seventh rank to a7, then up the a-file to capture the a4 pawn. White's king has to stay in the centre to stop the fpawn queening.
40.Kd3 Kc6 41.Kc4
Trying to block off the queenside after 41…Kb7 42.Kb5, but 42…f4 43.Kc4 Ka6 wins anyway. I decided to push the f-pawn immediately and take a different route.
41...f4 42.Kd4 f3 43.Ke3 Kd5 44.Kxf3 Kxe5
And now this is an easy win.
45.Ke3 Kf5 46.Kf3 h5 0-1