Steve Pait (1627) - Mike Splane (2257)

Kolty Chess Club June 21, 2007

1 d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6

My second game with this opening and I don’t think I’ll continue to play it. After my first game I’d found at least four lines that I think lead to advantage for white. I was expecting to play White in the first round of the tournament, so I expected to have another week to prepare a different defense to 1.d4. I thought for about five minutes before playing 1. … d5.

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

This move sacrifices a pawn. I liked Black’s chances, being a pawn up with a solid position, until I did some research on chesslab.com.

6. … dc 7. e3

The line the masters are playing here is 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. Qc2, White controls the center and Black has pawn weaknesses on both wings. White is winning the majority of the games I looked at.

7. … b5 8. Be7 Bb7 9. a4 a6 10. 0-0 Nbd7

I’m trying to transpose to the only other game I’ve played in this line. In that game White had played Qc2 and Black had played Bb4. That game went 12. Ne4 Be7 when I forced favorable piece trades. In this game 10. … Be7 would have prevented 11. Ne4, the move I wanted him to play.

11. Ne5

Much stronger than 11. Ne4. His king bishop gets on the long diagonal and I’ll have a lot of problems holding my queenside together.

I looked at exchanging with 11. … Ne5 12. de Qd1 13. Rfd1 Nd7 14. f4 Bc5 but I thought he would eventually play Ne4 when my black squares are very weak. To prevent that idea I could try 14. … Nc5, but this fails to a tactic pointed out by Stephen Zierk, 15. ab c5 16. Nb5 ab 17. Ra8+ Ba8 18. Rd8#. Stephen suggested 14. … Be7, but my black squares are too weak for me to offer to trade bishops.

White can choose between two good plans, either to build up with f4 and Bf3, or to play the immediate Bf3. I could meet either one of these ideas with …Nd5 if the knight was unpinned. I didn’t like the ugly 11. … g5 but perhaps that was best. 11. … Qc7 12. Bg3 Bd6 may have been worth a longer look. I decided to put my trust on simple development, and to stay patient.

11. … be7 12. Bf3 Nd5

I played this without much thought, but 12. … Qc7 may be better. I didn’t realize how important it is to retain my black square bishop.

13. Be7 Qe7 14. Nd7 Qd7

Played with only a few seconds thought, I didn’t see the idea. Perhaps I should trade on c3 before making this recapture.

15. Ne4

Now I see the idea, the knight on c5 is going to be a monster. OUCH!

0-0 16. Nc5 Qe7?

If the queen is on c7, I can play Nd5-b6-d7 to get rid of his knight. On c7 it also guards the a5 square.

We now begin a period of maneuvering where neither one of us have clear threats. I have some vague ideas. I want to force him to exchange pawns on b5, the pawn on c6 is a weakness, to put my rook on the d file when capturing the knight with the queen might be possible if he is careless, to entice him to trade his wonderful knight for my terrible bishop, and to play putting pressure on his center. He wants to lure me into making any pawn move on the queenside, or put my pieces on awkward squares so he can win a pawn or two.

17. Qd2 Rd8

In the game I eventually realized that my plan should have been to play f5, e5 and e4. The rook has no future on the d file. Instead I’m playing for a cheapo, to move my knight with tempo and then play Qc5. For this to work I want to move my bishop out of range of the knight. But then my rook on a8 is unguarded, leading to pins down the a-file, so I will move it to a7. This whole plan is stupid; he can refute it whenever he wants by simply moving his queen off the d file.

18. Re1 Bc8

One consideration behind this move is the c5 knight is short of retreat squares. I also need to free the queen for other duties.

19. Qc2 Ra7 20. Qe4 Nb4

I didn’t trust this move, it seemed wrong to take my knight away from the center and kingside. I wanted to play 21.…f5 forcing the queen back to b1 to prevent the knight fork on c2. By now I knew my plan should be to push the f and e pawns, then use my space advantage on the king side to mount an attack on his king. If he persists in his queenside play he will lack defenders.

21. Red1 Rd5 22. h3 f5 23.Qb1

I wasn’t worried about 23. Qf4 e5 24 Qg3 e4. Steve Zierk pointed out 24. Bd5+. It looks like I have to retreat the rook, when his queen is well posted on f4.

23. … Rd8 24. Qc1 Rf8 25. Qd2 a5?

Definitely a mistake. My queen side structure is now vulnerable. I didn’t want to play the knight back to d5, I was worried about 26. e4, but that was the lesser evil. I didn’t see that he could double rooks and win the a-pawn.

26. Ra3 e5 27. Rda1 e4 28. Bd1

I didn’t understand this move at the time, but I see now that he was already planning to isolate and attack my e4 pawn.

28. … Qc7 29. ab cb 30. f3

I was a bit relieved to see this. I was quite worried about the queen sacrifice on b4. Why is he playing on the side of the board where he has no pieces? On the other hand, my center is dangerously weak. I decided that I needed to surrender the center pawn to stabilize the queenside. After that my pieces can all be swiftly redeployed to attack on the kingside.

30. … Nc6 31. Rc3

I think he wanted to prevent 31. …. b4, but I would’ve played 31. … a4 instead, to free all of my pieces to swing over to the kingside. Since he is giving me a tempo, I can hold onto the e pawn.

31. … Qe7 32. fe fe 33. Bc2 Bf5 34. b3?

Trapping his rook.

34. … Ne5! 35. Ne4

35. de Qc5 36. bc b4 36. Rb3 was his only try, but it is easy to see that he is in trouble. He has to stop my connected passed pawns without losing his c and e pawns. After moves like … Bh3 his king is not looking too safe either. I wasn’t sure what I would play here.

35. … b4 36. Rc4

He was also losing after 36. de Qe5 (thanks to the pin on the diagonal) 37. Nf6+ Qf6 38. Bf5 bc

36. … Nc4

He started to capture on c4, then suddenly he looked shocked. I don’t think he realized he was losing a piece on e4 until this moment.

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