Jose Chau-Lee (1658) - Mike Splane (2257)

Kolty Chess Club May 31, 2007

On the surface this is a quiet game. I felt at ease all of the way through, and knew exactly what I wanted to do at every move. I was playing badly for stretches during my previous two games, making incorrect plans and tossing in a couple of tactical blunders, so hopefully I’ve recovered some of my form.

Mike Arne has been advising me for years that I should play the Queen’s Gambit as Black. This is my first attempt. Perhaps I should have listened sooner.

1 d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6

I’m playing this move order to provoke either 4. e3 or 4 Nf3, which limit White’s options. White can take advantage of this move order with 4. e4, establishing a pawn center. He has to be willing to play a gambit though, after 4. e4 de 5. Ne4 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Qd4. I suspect White is better here, but this is not the type of game Queen’s Gambit lovers want to play.

4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6

If 5. … dc 6. e4 b5 7. e5 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Ng5 hg 10. Bg5 we’re into a very sharp and deeply analyzed line popularized by Botvinnik. Kasparov won a couple of crushing games as White in this line, and it appears to be better for White. By changing the move order slightly, Black can avoid this system. Now if 6. Bh4 dc 7. e4 g5 the knight sac on g5 is no good, and Black can hold onto the pawn after 8. Bg3 b5. So, the move 5. … h6 forces 6. Bf6 Qf6 7. e4 de 8. Ne4 Bb4+ 9. Nc3 Nd7 with chances for both sides. Black can usually force e6-e5 to free his queen bishop.

6. Bh4? dc 7. a4 Bb4 8. Qc2 b5

I saw that I could win the d pawn with 8. … g5 9. Bg3 g4 10. Nd2 Qd4 but after 11. e3 he wins the c pawn, has a lead in development, and my pawn structure is full of holes.

9. e3

If 9. e4 I was ready to take the d pawn with the same maneuver. The c4 pawn is now protected and he doesn’t have the move e3 to push my queen back. White has nothing to do but complete his development. He can’t even fianchetto his king bishop because of … g5.

9. … Bb7

I knew I wanted to play a6, Bb7, Nbd7 and 0-0 over the next four moves, but didn’t know which move order was correct. Castling and 9 …a6 both seemed too slow. I need to develop my queenside. 9 … Nbd7 ran into 10. Ne5 Bb7 11. Nd7 Qd7 12. Bf6 gf. To avoid this unbalanced position I need the c pawn protected before I play … Nbd7, so I can answer his Ne5 with … Nb6.

10. Be2 a6

So I can threaten an eventual… c5. As it turns out, this move is always bad for me, weakening the b5 square too much. I would love for him to trade on b5, opening the diagonal; for my bishop. Barring that trade, I will have a hard time making my bishop active. If I could force his a-pawn forward, then I can play …c5, so that is my long range plan. Short range, I’m worried about him adopting the attacking formation in the center with Ne5 and f4.

11. 0-0 Nbd7 12. Ne4?

I was sure this was a mistake, forcing piece trades and releasing the pressure on the b5 pawn. He has to play on the kingside, and he needs to keep his pieces on the board if he wants to make a successful attack. After the following trades I was confident of winning.

12. … Be7 13. Nf6+ Bf6 14. Bf6 Qf6

I’m still trying to make sure that his knight doesn’t go to e5. My knight belongs on d7 to support the …e5 or … c5 pushes. It has no future on f6.

15. Rfd1 0-0 16. Qd2! Rfe8!

The first of three mysterious rook moves. At first sight, 16. … Nb6 also looks promising, but the threat to the a-pawn is not real; if 17. Ne5 Na4 18. Nc4 or 18 Bc4. Another idea is 16. … c5 but after 17. ab ab 18. Ra5 the b pawn becomes a weakness. I also considered 16. … Rfd8, threatening 17 … Nc5. But White simply moves the queen to avoid that problem.

The problem in this position is my black squares on the queenside are weak. He can play Qb4 or Qa5 to try to take advantage of that. My rook move lets me answer those threats by offering to exchange queens on d8 or e7. With the queens off the black squares cease to be a problem. I don’t want to play 16. … Qd8 immediately, because the queen is playing a role in preventing Ne5. But if he allows me to trade queens, then Ne5 is not a real threat, because king safety is not a concern and I can eventually play … f6 to evict it.

17. Qa5 Qd8 18. Qb4 Qc7

He threatened 19. Bc4. This nice move guards my bishop, stops Ne5, connects my rooks, and prepares … e5.

19. Qc3?

Now my threat to the a-pawn with … Nb6 becomes real, because I will threaten to capture it with tempo. So he is forced to move the a-pawn, thereby freeing my c pawn to move.

19. … Nb6 20. a5

20. Qa5 Rac8 doesn’t help him.

20. … Nd5

I thought about … Nd7 to prevent Ne5. but I didn’t think I needed to worry about this any longer. My queenside is secure and I can contest the center with … c5, activating all of my pieces.

21. Qc2 Rac8

The second mysterious rook move. If 21. … c5 22. dc Qc5 23. b3 and my pawn on c4 is a weakness. If my queen was protected I could meet this with 23. … cb, with my extra pawn being safe and strong. My rook on a8 is doing nothing, he is tied up, so I have the time to shift it to a better location before opening the position.

22. Nd2 c5 23. dc

If 23. e4 Nf4 winning the d-pawn, and if 23. Bf3 cd 24. Bd5 d3 again winning the d-pawn.

23. … Qc5 24. Ne4

I spent some time looking at the consequences of 24. b3 Ne3 25. fe Qe3+ 26. Kf1 cb 27. Qb3 Rc3. I think it is winning, but I wasn’t sure if I would have played it.

24. … Qc7

I considered Qe7, but from here the queen is more active, threatening to go to e5. I made the mistake of decentralizing my queen in my previous game, so I was sensitive to it here.

25. Bf3 Red8

The third mysterious rook move. This move, guarding the d6 square, frees my queen to roam without worrying about knight forks. Now I’m threatening Nb4 followed by Bd5, Nd3, and Ne5.

26. Qc1 Qe5

This may not be best, since the retreat by his knight puts an unpleasant pin on my knight.

27. Ng3 c3

The pin on the d-file is annoying, so I take the opportunity to double rooks on the c-file. If 28. b3? c2 29. Rd2 Qa1, or 29. Re1 Qc3 30. Ne4 Qb3 and now we see why the rook belongs on d8 instead of e8.

28. bc Rc3 29. Qd2

If 29. Qb2? Re3.

29. … Rdc8 30. Rac1 b4 31. Ne2 Rc1 32. Rc1 Nc3

He can’t take my bishop, 33 Bb7 Ne2+ wins a rook.

33. Nc3 Bf3 34. gf

If he moves the knight, say 34. Na2, I win with 34. … Rc1 35. Qc1 Qg5 36. g3 Qa5

34. … bc

It’s important to capture with the pawn. In Q+R vs Q+R positions, middle game rules apply. King safety is a dominant factor. I can combine threats to his king with threats to queen the pawn to pick up even more material. A passed pawn in a position like this is worth an extra piece. With the rooks off the position is still winning, but not as easily.

35. Qd7 Qc5

I thought about a couple of other moves here. Originally I intended to play 35. … Rc7 36. Qd8+ Kh7 37. Qd3+ Kg6 38. f4? Qa5. Then I spotted 38. Qa6. So I looked at 35. … Qg5+ 36. Kh1 (not 36. Kf1 Qb5+) Rd8 37. Qc7 Qf6 38. f4 and I’m losing the c pawn. So I played the simple and safe move. His weaknesses are not going to go away.

36. Kg2 g6

My plan is simple enough, play Kg7, Qc4 Rc5 and c2, threatening to follow up with Rd5 and Rd1. When he stops that idea, the threats to his king and a-pawn will be decisive. The rook is effective on g5, h5, f5 and a5.

My opponent resigned here. He had about 8 seconds left on his clock. We watched as it ticked down to zero.

0-1