Mike Splane (2258) – George Mandrusov (1824)

Kolti Chess Club June 28, 2007

George raised his rating nearly 200 points since our first encounter in January.

Sometimes my brain just doesn’t work right, maybe it’s old age, maybe fatigue. This night was one of those nights. I played the Belgrade Gambit, mixed up my move order in the opening, but still recovered to get equality. I threw away any advantage I might have had in the early middlegame, and then was simply in a lost position for a long time. George wrapped up nicely in the endgame, trapping my knight for an easy win.

This game, and my loss last year to Frisco Del Rosario, taught me a valuable lesson. I do not have a good opening line as White after 1. e4 e5. I’m now working to fix that.

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d4 ed 5. Nd5 Be7 6. Nd4

Here’s the lemon. I’m supposed to play 6. Bf4 to force 6. … d6 when Black’s bishop is bad.

6. … 0-0 7. Nb5 Nd5 8. ed Re8 9. Be2 a6 10. Nc3 Ne5 11. 0-0 Bb4 12. Qd4 Ba5

Somehow I missed that the bishop could retreat here. By now I knew I was in bad form and was not seeing the board.

13. Ne4 Ng6 14. Bd3 d6 15. Ng5 Bb6

Here’s the critical point of the game. Black had virtually no other move. If he waits I’ll play h2-h4-h5. 15. … Qf6 walks into a fork, 16. Qa4.

16. Qc3 ?

I knew I had to play 16. Qc4, and that was my original intention. Suddenly I got spooked by 16. Qc4 Bd7 threatening 17. Bb5. I panicked, not seeing the obvious 17. … a4. Removing the queen from the fourth rank cedes control of several vital squares. After this I am slightly worse. I lost my composure and played a series of bad moves.

16. … Bg4 17. Bd2 Qd7 18. Qc4 Bf5 19. Bc3 Bd3 20. Qd3 Qg4

And now I am in big trouble. I should play 21. Qg3 Qg3 22. hg Re2 23. Rac1 Rae8 24. Nh3 followed by Rfe1 and Kf1 to expel the rook invasion. I didn’t see how I could get more than a draw in this line, so I avoided it. “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” I’ve been making a lot of bad moves lately in an attempt to avoid draws.

21. Nh3 Re2 22. Rae1 Rae8 23 Re2?

This is a fundamental violation of principles. When your opponent has two pieces that need to use the same square to be effective, you never trade one of them off. After this I think I’m lost.

23. … Re2 24. a4 f5 25. a5 Ba7

I’m trying to create some pawn weaknesses on c7 and b7, in case I can get into an endgame and swing my knight over to that part of the board.

26. Qg3 h6 27. Rc1

Yes it’s a blunder, but I don’t see any way to untangle my position. Another example of the poor form I was in, I didn’t even see that he could take the pawn.

27. … Rc2 28. Re1 Re2 29. Kf1

Now that I was lost I decided to play for tactics. Perhaps he would make an error and let me escape. I have nothing to lose. Instead, I make several tactical errors.

29. … Re1+ 30. Ke1 Qe4+ 31. Kf1 Ne5 32. Nf4 g5 33. Nh5 Qb1+ 34. Be1 Nd3 35. Ke2 Ne1?

35. … Qe1+ 36 Kd3 Qd1+ wins the knight

36. Qc3 Qc2+ 37. Ke1 Qc3 38. bc Kf7 39. Ke2 ??

I wasn’t thinking, just made a move on general principles, centralize your king in the endgame.

39. … f4

Good-bye knight. It was trapped and eventually I had to sacrifice it. I dragged the game out because he was very short of time, but the outcome was never in doubt. 0-1 in 60.