|
Our
Annotated Games - 1 French Defence, Advance Variation A Brough vs R Warhurst 1. e4 e6 Up to this point I had been playing moves that I have played before on many occasions. 5. Bb5 I have seen this move twice before. It can cause problems for black if his queen knight is removed, since he is then exerting less pressure on white's centre pawns. Perhaps I should have played 4...Qb6 first to prevent this. At this point I started thinking a lot, having used hardly any time on the clock so far. 5...Qb6 was the obvious reply, and if white exchanges bishop for knight then recapturing with the b-pawn, intending cxd4 and advancing the new c-(previously b-)pawn to c5. I also considered Bd7 and a6 and spent some time thinking about 5...Qa5+, but white replies with 6.Nc3 and if 6...cd 7.cd Bb4 then 8.Bd2 and white is comfortable. 5... Qb6 Things now trundled on in the expected groove. 6... bxc6 7. Nf3 At this point I thought some more. 7...cd 8.cd would free the c3 square for white's queen knight. I decided to consider candidate moves and almost immediately spotted Ba6. I could also have played Ne7 but was worried about temporarily blocking in my king bishop and the possibility of 8.dc Qxc5 which did not feel right, relinquishing my pressure on the b2-pawn which is preventing white developing his queen bishop. Anyway Ba6 was a nice spoiler, preventing white from castling. 7... Ba6 This move was a surprise. Again
I had a think. I could ignore it and if 9.Qxb6, recapture
with the a-pawn, open up a file for the rook and move a
pawn toward the centre. On the other hand, I was enjoying
the b-file and keeping white's queenside tied down.
Another consideration was the appalling state of my
kingside development, but I knew I could get 8... Rb8 Again I thought about which file to have open and about pressure vs pawn centralisation. Since the queens were now gone I thought that I should spend clock time establishing dominance since the game would simplify (comparatively) early and I would not need as much time later. There were certainly going to be no wild middlegame complications to deal with. 9... Rxb6 I decided I like my opponents trussed up. 10. b3 Another surpise. (A chess game is full of them - that's why it's so good.) I thought this was a weak move, simply because in many other variations of the French Defence it seems to be a weaker move. I think I would have played Nbd2 and Rb1. But then I don't play the French as white. So what do I know? Now that c3 is not so good for white's queen knight since it is would not be protected by the b-pawn, I will exchange pawns. If he recapures with the king knight, I will play c5 and chase it away. Then I will develop my king side. Honest. 10... cxd4 Half-expected. c3 is now not so valuable for white's queen knight and I now realise he will want to use his c-pawn to block my bishop so that he can castle. Well, I'd better chase him away. 11... c5 I am also realising that Be3 would make it awkward to develop my king knight. If ...Nh6 then Bxh6 and if ...Ne7 then Bxc5. So I had better get on with it while I can... 12... Ne7 Well, I anticipated this. I knew I could move my knight again and so leave the pawn defended by my bishop. But I did not realise how good Nf5 would be. Does white retreat his bishop admitting a mistake or does he accept doubled and isolated pawns. 13... Nf5 He's in denial. I cannot resist. Weakend pawns and I have the bishop pair! 14... Nxe3 That's quite a clamp he has on d4. But I'm happy. There are no options about where to put my bishop. So I'll just develop. 15... Be7 White blocks my bishop and I decide that I would rather he exchanges than me. Let's keep developing. 16... O-O White has obviously come to the same conclusion about the exchange. Now, considering the state of the pawn centre, if white exchanges pawns then I have hanging pawns and the correct strategy is to get rooks behind them and to advance them. On the other hand if I prevent the exchange by advancing my d-pawn, then he exchanges and I have an effectively isolated d-pawn which could also use some rook support. These considerations led to my next moves. In fact a lot of the following moves revolve on black trying to get a central passed pawn. 17... Rd8 Again, if black is to acquire
hanging pawns on the d- and c-files or any other two
adjacent files, then general chess wisdom advises both
players to get their rooks on these files. I noticed
happily at this point that not only did I have the bishop
pair, but we 18... Rb7 At this point I had thoughts on advancing the d-pawn. 19. Rac1 Sets up a cannon on my c-pawn. This is OK as long it is protected by my bishop. 19... Rbd7 Yet another surprise. There were many times later in the game when I thought white would want to play b4 to undermine my centre. a4 not only fails to support this, but also leaves a backward pawn on b3. I think I also noticed about this point that if I advance the d-pawn and white exchanges, that he has a protected passed c-pawn and a 3-to-1 queenside pawn majority. 20... Bb7 The threat is 21...dc 22.bc Bxf3 intending either Rxd2 or Rxd1. This is what I call using "x-ray vision". Namely considering cannons and half-cannons. That is, discovered attacks. The other point of the move is to redeploy the bishop. At this point I was not expecting 21.Rc2. 21. Nf1 White opts instead to give himself Rxd7 in reply to ...dc. At this point I had conlcuded that ...d4 had to wait. But for what. I considered ...f6, to bring another pawn into the fray to try to bludgeon my way through. My main concern was 21...f6 22.cd ed 23.ef gf (since 23...Bxf6 loses the c5-pawn). I also had the option of 22...Bxd5 and the position is opening up for the bishops. Anyway I had no other move that I could see so I played 22...f6. 21... f6 I was very happy with this and I whipped of the e-pawn quickly. First I had to check for a retreat square for my d7-rook. Rc7 seemed OK. It relieves my e7-bishop of the task of defending the c-pawn and puts the rook two diagonal squares away from where white's knight will be. Always a happy arrangement, since the rook controls half the knight's squares and the knight cannot attack the rook for at least four moves. Having decided this, I could continue. My task from now on would be to dislodge white's e5-knight. 22... fxe5 My opponent seemed to have been expecting Rd6. Just an impression I got. 24. Nd2 White aims to support his e5-knight with his other one. Since I only have one minor piece which can attack it, the e5-knight looks very secure. I decided that I needed to birng a rook to bear since it would be difficult for white to defend the knight twice against my rook and e7-bishop. Once I've moved the knight, the plan is to play d4 and then later e5. 24... Rf8 An obvious move. I don't kmow why I didn't think of this. 25...Rxf1 26.Kxf1 Bd6 27.N-moves Rf8+ occured to me and would allow ...d4. even if white recaptures with the knight on f1, Bd6 shifts his other one. But since my opponent seemed keen on exchanging pieces I thought of 25...Rf6 and if my opponent exchanges rooks I get another central pawn on f6. If he doesn't I can play Bd6 and Rcf7 and maybe get a rook on the seventh. 25... Rf6 Some opponents just don't want to roll over. Still, at least the knight has shifted. I think I exchanged at this point just to keep an illusion of initiative or because there didn't seem to be anything better to do. 26... Rxf1+ A pleasant surprise. I can develop with check. though it lets white centralise his king. I didn't want that knight coming back, so I prepared to advance the e-pawn. This is to prepare the advance of the d-pawn and so acquire a protected passed pawn. 27... Bd6 My opponent concedes the protected passed pawn but acquires a possible future target on e6 and gains some space. 28... d4 I layed this last "zwischenzug" move just to unbalance my opponent. Happily c7 is also a good square for the bishop. 30. Nf3 White piles on the defence of his e-pawn. I begin to get an inkling as to how I might win it by capturing the f3 defender and chasing away the g4 defender. But first I needed to avoid giving away a bishop. The simple moves are always the best. 30... Bc7 Now I briefly examined ...Be4, ...d3+ and ...Ba5, but the f3-knight seemed to spoil all the fun by guarding d2. No quicksilver pawn this time then. I thought of Bxf3 now. But then I thought I'd chase the rook away first just to reduce any possible counterplay variations. 31... Be4 Again I dismissed...Ba4 ...d3+ ...d2. Perhaps I shouldn't have. But a rook for a bishop and a protected passed pawn didn't seem like a good deal, since I thought (wrongly) that I could win a pawn. I took a deep breath and played... 32... h5 Oh no! This was right out of the blue. Now what do I do? There were about two minutes left on my clock at this point and I needed to make four moves in that time. I calculated that ...hg worked out OK. But I don't yet know whether it was the best. At this point my opponent had 30 minutes left to make a further three moves. 33... hxg4 I wanted to keep the rook agressively poised and the next move seemed the best on cursory examination. 35...Rf4 The next move is forced. But white has a backward h-pawn. A minor matter. 36... Rf8 And so I made the time control with a slightly uncomfortable thirty seconds to go. 37. Rd1 Rf3 At this point, as my opponent pointed out to me after the game (as they do), I could have played d3+ followed by 42.Ke1 d2+ 43.Ke2 Rxf1 either winning a rook or queening the pawn. But I missed it. 41...Rb8 At this point the night was getting old so I thought I'd mix things up a bit. I did not anticipate ending up a pawn up. 44...Rxb3+ Not anticipated. White is planning on a draw. Have I succeeded in brow-beating him that much? Or is he an excellent rook-and-pawn player? 48...Bxc5 Did I have a won position here? My instincts say that I did. This position will receive some study this Summer. 59...g6 I played on a few moves more and then agreed to a draw. This was a pity since it meant that Macclesfield beat us 3.5-2.5 in the six-a-side match. I take consolation in the fact that I came out of the opening better, got a draw against a higher graded opponent and seemed to be keeping him on his back foot. Maybe next time... Until then I need to mug up on rook and pawn endings and place greater emphasis on getting my rook behind my pawns instead of in front of them. |