Six Players on Monday 060115 - And a See-Saw Battle

     We had six players tonight. Casual chess was played at all time controls.

      LCCC welcome new player Nick D to the club.

     Our TD is deciding whether we have a Summer League or a Summer Tournament starting soon. Stay tuned for details.

      Here is a game with a lot of twists and turns. White plays loose in the opening and falls behind early. Then often.

      1.      e4                    e6

      2.      Be2                  d5

      3.      exd5                exd5

      4.      Bf3                  c6

      5.      b3                    Nf6

      6.      Bb2                 Be7?

White could have received question marks for all of his opening moves after e4, but the first official one goes to Black for squandering most of his opening advantage.  6. ……Be6 is much more aggressive to take advantage of White’s piece development issues. After all, the best square for one of the White knights is taken up by a bishop (f3) and the other best square for a White knight (c3) blocks a bishop. (-.3) White will have knight placement issues for most of this game.

     7.      Ne2                 Bf5

     8.      d3                    O-O

     9.      O-O                 Nbd7

   10.  Ng3                 Bg6

   11.  Re1                  Bd6

   12.  Nf1                  Qc7

Instead 12. Nbd2 was better for the development of the knight as to not block the bishop. (-1)

   13.  Nc3                 d4?
 

White to move after 13. ....d4?

This is the wrong plan for Black. Moving either one of the rooks to e8 to challenge for the center was better. White also gets a free move as Black must waste one to protect this advanced d-pawn. (-.3)

   14.  Ne2?!              c5

   15.  Neg3               Ne5

   16.  Bh5?                Nxh5

Bad judgement by White as now 17. Nxh5, f5! 18. Bc1, Ng4 19. Nhg3, Rae8 20. Rxe8, Rxe8 21. Nd2, Qe7 22. Qf1, Qf6 23. Nf1, Bh5 (-2)

   17.  Nxh5               f6?

   18.  Nhg3               Bf7

   19.  Nf5!                Bd5

White stops ….f5 for now, and gets his other minor pieces back into the game. (-.3)

   20.  c4                    dxc3

   21.  Bxc3                Rae8?

This natural looking move for Black is actually wrong. 21. ….Ng6 makes White have to think about defense as the Black bishops and queen are pointed at the White king simultaneously. (-.5) Now White is winning slightly. ( +.6)

   22.  Nxd6?             Qxd6

White misses 22. d4! - which trades off his isolated pawn weakness (+1). Instead, now the game is even.

   23.  Ne3                 Bc6

   24.  Bxe5?              Rxe5

White trades off a good active piece and opens the center for Black to attack the d-pawn. (-1) Ah, the ebb and flow of a chess game!

   25.  Nc4                 Rxe1

   26.  Qxe1               Qxd3

   27.  Qe6+               Kh8

   28.  Nd6                 Qd5?

After Black's error of 28. ......Qd5?

Black keeps his ever growing lead (-1.5) with 28. ….h6.

Instead, the game is even again and White can secure a draw with a perpetual check using the knight and a discovered check by the queen (followed by Nf7+, then Nh6 double +, and then Nf7+, etc. But Black blunders the draw away thinking his queen is protecting the rook!

   29.  Nf7+               Rxf7??

   30.  Qc8+!              Rf8

   31.  Qxf8+             Qg8

   32.  Qxc5               Qd5?

   33.  Qxd5               Bxd5

   34.  Rd1                 Bg8

   35.  Rd7                 Resigns