January 2012


Sun 1st: The Story So Far (3)
Wed 4th: Cowardice Kills
Fri 6th: Fog
Sat 7th: Pawn Sac
Sat 7th: Poor Execution
Sun 8th: Squeeze
Sun 8th: Isolated Pawns OK
Wed 11th: Quickie
Wed 18th: Deathwish
Mon 23rd: Toughie
Tue 24th: Letting it slip

Sun 1st: The Story So Far (3)
First may I wish a Happy New Year to my readers, all four of you.

Division 1
Newcastle A 4 3 0 1 6
Cheddleton A 2 2 0 0 4
Alsager A 2 1 0 1 2
Stafford A 1 0 0 1 0
H C Kings 3 0 0 3 0
Division 2
H C Knights 5 3 1 1 7
Newcastle B 5 2 2 1 6
Alsager B 6 2 1 3 5
Cheddleton B 4 1 3 0 5
H C Rooks 5 2 1 2 5
Fenton A 4 2 0 2 4
Macclesfield 5 1 0 4 2
Since my last report at the beginning of December everyone has been remarkably well behaved - no postponements, no conceded matches and no defaulted boards. Fenton edged past Kidsgrove in the Major Cup, the only North Staffs Cup match played in this period.

Newcastle managed to top Division one at the winter break, with as many points as they managed in the whole of last season. Staying here will be another thing entirely over the remainder of the competition - there are some pretty intimidating squads opposed to them out there.

The leadership of division 2 also remains unchanged from a month ago, being still in the possession of Holmes Chapel Knights, though they haven't broken away from the rest of the division.
Fenton, Knights and Rooks play each other in a mini-league in January. The table suggests that Knights will want to use these games to put some distance between themselves and their pursuers, but whether it will work out that way is another thing entirely. With the other teams also scheduled for two matches in January it seems unlikely that I'll be identifying the champions in my next report.
Division 3
Fenton B 7 5 1 1 11
Newcastle C 8 4 1 3 9
Cheddleton D 6 3 2 1 8
Kidsgrove 7 3 0 4 6
Newcastle D 7 3 0 4 6
Stafford B 6 2 2 2 6
H C Pawns 7 2 2 3 6
Alsager C 8 2 1 5 5
Cheddleton C 6 2 1 3 5
Division 4
Cheddleton E 5 4 1 0 9
Fenton C 6 4 1 1 9
Cheddleton F 6 4 1 1 9
Fenton D 6 3 0 3 6
Meir B 7 2 2 3 6
Meir C 6 2 0 4 4
Newcastle E 6 1 1 4 3
Alsager D 6 1 0 5 2
Five points from three December games have enabled Fenton B to storm to the top of Division 3 whilst two defeats for the C teams of Alsager and Cheddleton have seen them sink to the bottom of the table, but with one point covering the bottom six teams I'm not going to suggest that this will prove to be a permanent state of affairs. All the teams will feel that a good run of results will carry them into contention, though the teams will differ in their views of the likelihood of this happening to them.

Meirs B and C both picked up four points in December, from two and three games respectively, leaving Newcastle and Alsager as contenders for the Association's wooden spoon. However the Meirs will need to continue their good form if they are to break into the Cheddleton v Fenton fight for the fourth division title.

Prediction time: Division 1 - Cheddleton A, the other divisions too close to call. Sorry, the fence is still far too comfortable a place to sit with respect to the other divisions.

The number of participating players has passed the 150 mark, with 70 having the minimum 5 games necessary to have a performance recorded in my tables. Sam Onions (Newcastle) leads the quantity tables with 15 outings one ahead of RR, Pete Shaw (Newcastle), Neville Jones (Alsager) and Geoff Yates (Fenton). Top performances in absolute terms inevitably belong to division one players. Relative to their grade the best performers are Robbie Coats (Newcastle), Jacob Cartlidge (Cheddleton), Neal Davies (Fenton) and Joe Morris (Holmes Chapel), all of whom are currently outperforming their grade by over 30 points. That will tough to maintain.

New Year's wishes?
For Newcastle to win everything. Fat Chance.
For Newcastle to win something. Possible.
For the titles and cups to be shared around the clubs. Might happen.
Postponements, concessions and defaults to be kept to the unavoidable minimum. So whoever is in charge of the weather, no snow on match nights please.
All results to be emailed me promptly by both captains. Are you listening?
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Wed 4th: Cowardice Kills
First league match of the new year, and RR faces Sam Onions with white.
RR v Sam Onions after 7 ... Nbd7

r2qk2r/pp1n1ppp/2pbpn2/3pN3/2P3b1/1P2P3/PBQP1PPP/RN2KB1R w
RR is in a fairly crude mood and has allowed this position to develop with the intention of playing
8 Nxg4 Nxg4, 9 Bxg7 Rg8, 10 Qxh7 gaining two pawns. Now he examines more carefully the continuation seeing
10 ... Ndf6, 11 Bxf6 Nxf6. Now what? After the queen retreats will black not replay Ng4 with Qf6 to follow shortly afterwards. Is this healthy? RR chickens out. Other options include Nxd7 and d4, but RR with uncalculated visions of doing damage on the f-file finds the ugly f4.

8 f4 8 Bxe5, 9 fxe5 Ne4, 10 g3
(d3 Qh4+, 11 g3 Nxg3, 12 Qf2 would allow RR to play on a pawn down)

Although RR doesn't claim to have found the best continuations in subsequent play, Sam never shows signs of letting him back into the game: 10 ... Qg5, 11 Bg2 Nxe5, 12 O-O Be2, 13 Rf4 Nd3, 14 Bxe4 dxe4
15 Nc3 (15 Rxe4 Qf5, 16 Rf4 Nxf4, 17 Qxf5 leaves white with some hope)

15 ... Nxf4, 16 exf4 Qc5+, 17 Kg2 Bf3+, 18 Kf1 Qf5, 19 d4 exd3
20 Qd2 O-O-O, 21 Re1 Qh3+, 22 Kg1 h5, 23 Re3 Qg4, 24 Ne4 Bxe4
25 Rxe4 h4, 26 Re3 hxg3, 27 Rxg3 Qe2, 28 Rg2 Qxd2, 29 Rxd2 Rh4

RR does his Monty Python Knight impersonation and still plays on, but it is all hope and no expectation. Looks like I should have grabbed the two pawns whilst I had the chance and tried to weather the subsequent storm. 0-1
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Fri 6th: Fog
Time for a congress, and I decided that York U175 rather than the more local Telford Open would fit the bill. RR found himself seeded 18 out of 40 players in the section, but with some of the lower seeds taking half-point byes on the Friday, he ended in the lower half of those present in round one. Result: round one against number two seed Luke Boumphrey. Luke had tried too hard to win a drawn ending when we met at Preston in November, and lost. No doubt revenge would be on his mind. At least this time I had white.

We join the game with RR having just castled. Does black have an immediate attack on the white king? Luke certainly thinks so.
RR v Luke Boumphrey after 16 0-0

r1b2rk1/pp2n1bp/2ppq1p1/1P2p2n/2P2p2/PQNPP1P1/1B1N1PBP/R4RK1 b
16 ... Qg4, 17 h3 Qg5 Luke tries to maintain the attack rather than simply retreating the queen whence she came.

18 Nce4 Qh6, 19 Nxd6 g4 is also an obvious win of material, though as it asks for g5, pulling black's kingside attack forwards, RR elected for the pawn gain. It is already clear that neither of us are seeing through the fog of possibilities with any confidence. It is also true that RR should play bxc6 at some stage so that black cannot initiate an exchange between the pawns as a distraction later.

19 ... Be6, 20 Rae1 fxg3 21 f3 RR has used this sort of non-recapture to leave an enemy pawn blunting the enemy attack before. Sometimes it is a good idea. Here the attack isn't strong enough to need blunting. White's advantage is now gone.

21 ... Nf5, 22 Nxf5 gxf5, 23 f4 exf4, 24 Bxg7 Qxg7, 25 Nf3 fxe3
26 Rxe3 Rae8, 27 Rfe1 Qf6, 28 d4 Nf4, 29 Ne5
RR v Luke Boumphrey after 29 Ne5

4rrk1/pp5p/2p1bq2/1P2Np2/2PP1n2/PQ2R1pP/6B1/4R1K1 b
Luke has built up a lead again, but impatience lets me back - he needs to get the king off the g-file. Instead we get
29 ... Nxg2, 30 Rxg3+ Kh8, 31 Rxg2 Rg8, 32 Ree2 cxb5, 33 Qxb5 f4
34 Qxb7 why not d5? Bxc4, 35 Rxg8+ Rxg8+, 36 Rg2= Rxg2+
37 Qxg2 Bg8, 38 Qf3 Qf5, 39 Qc3 Bd5, 40 Qc7 Qg5+, 41 Ng4 h5
42 Qe5+ Qxe5 43 Nxe5 Kg7
RR v Luke Boumphrey after 43 ... Kg7

7k/p7/8/3bN2p/3P1p2/P6P/8/6K1 w
An ugly looking endgame. With scattered pawns the bishop is meant to be better, but the black a-pawn shouldn't be a threat as his bishop is the wrong colour.

44 Nd3 f3, 45 Kf2 Kf6, 46 Nf4 Bb7 Now what? The knight seems to get a little out of position if it takes the h-pawn, though it presumably does give better winning chances. Instead RR plays safe

47 d5 Ke5, 48 Kxf3 Bxd5+ and it remains only to be seen how we choose to play out the draw.

A game where both sides had winning chances, but their inability to take them means that neither deserved to win - the draw was a fair result.
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Sat 7th: Pawn Sac
The Preston revisited theme continued, my second round opponent being Damien McCarthy against whom I'd had a lucky escape in the north-west. After a somewhat shapeless opening the pawns became partially locked in a position of comfort for RR.
Damien McCarthy v RR after 14 ... Bf6

r2q1rk1/pp1b2pp/3p1b2/2pPp3/2Pn4/1P2BPP1/P3N1BP/R2Q1RK1 w
15 Nc3 Having a simple threat on the dark long diagonal, RR decides to sac a pawn to keep the white knight out of e4:

15 ... Nf5, 16 Bd2 e4, 17 fxe4 Bd4+, 18 Kh1 Nh6 It will take white a few moves to unravel his pieces, but in truth I doubt that this is really enough for the pawn from black's point of view. In the game the rooks stay looking at each other on the f-file for some time. I'm sure one or the other of us would have been better advised to exchange these.

19 Bxh6 gxh6, 20 Rc1 Qg5, 21 Ne2 Bg4, 22 Qd3 Be5
23 Ng1 h5, 24 Nf3 Bxf3, 25 Bxf3 h4, 26 gxh4 Qf4 Black will need to remove the h4 pawn in order to get at the white king, so the chosen move has to be too slow, particularly when already a pawn down.

27 Qe2 Kh8, 28 Bg4 Qh6, 29 Bf5 Qxh4, 30 Rf3
Damien McCarthy v RR after 30 Rf3

r4r1k/pp5p/3p4/2pPbB2/2P1P2q/1P3R2/p3Q2P/2R4K b
30 ... Qh5 Thoughtless blunder - the pin doesn't work

31 Rh3 Qf7 (31 ... Qxe2, 32 Rxh7+ Kg8, 33 Rg1+ ouch)

32 Rxh7+ Qxh7, 33 Bxh7 Kxh7, 34 Rg1 Bg7 (Rf6 less bad)

Nominally RR has just given up queen and pawn for bishop and rook, but the effect is greater than the material loss suggests as he never gets to co-ordinate his remaining pieces.

35 Qh5+ Kg8, 36 Qg6 Rf7, 37 Qxd6 b6, 38 e5 Raf8
39 e6 Rf1, 40 e7 Rxg1+, 41 Kxg1 Bd4+ 42 Kg2 Rf2+
43 Kg3 Re2, 44 Qg6+ Bg7, 45 e8=Q+
No prizes for guessing the result. 1-0
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Sat 7th: Poor Execution
Saturday Evening, and RR found himself with white against Paul Anderson.
RR v Paul Anderson after 13 ... c4

r1bqr1k1/1p1n1pbp/4pnp1/1P1p4/P1pP4/2N1PN2/1BQ1BPPP/R4RK1 w
Paul has just given himself a supported passed pawn, and also has a backward pawn on a4 to play against. These are normally good things. It is RR's job to prove that this position is an exception, with the help of black's bum bishop on b8. (Couldn't resist the alliteration). For example there are vague visions of removing all the pieces with the kings on the f-file and playing a5.

14 Rfd1 b6, 15 Nd2 Bb7, 16 f4 h5, 17 Bf3 Ng4
18 Nf1 f5, 19 h3 Ngf6, 20 Nd2 Qc7, 21 Ba3 Ra7
22 Rdb1 Rea8, 23 Bb4 Bf8, 24 Qb2 Ne8, 25 Bxf8 Kxf8
RR v Paul Anderson after 25 ... Kxf8

r3rk2/rbqn4/1p2p1p1/1P1p1p1p/P1pP1P2/2N1PB1P/1Q1N2P1/RR4K1 w
RR elects on a simplistic plan of opening up the kingside reasoning that he can get his pieces across quicker. The alternative of getting his d-knight to say g5 via f3 relieves any potential threats around the pinned d5 pawn.

26 Kf2 Qd8, 27 Qb4+ Qe7, 28 g4 Qxb4, 29 Rxb4 hxg4
30 hxg4 Ndf6, 31 gxf5 opening a second file is not such a good idea, so perhaps g5 better here.

31 ... gxf5, 32 Rh1 Nd6, 33 Rbb1 Nde4+, 34 Bxe4 fxe4
35 Rbg1 Bc8, 36 Rh8+ Kf7, 37 Rh6 Bd7, 38 Rg5 Not good, but black fails to notice that Rxa4 is now playable to effect. Instead he produced the blunder that he seemed to be preparing:

38 ... Rg8, 39 Rxf6+ Kxf6, 40 Rxg8 1-0

So RR finished day two with a complete set of results. What next?
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Sun 8th: Squeeze
Sunday morning and the congress could go either way as far as RR is concerned. Todays results would determine whether he felt on the road to recovery, or still in the doldrums. Geoff Smith was next up, RR being black.
Geoff Smith v RR after 5 ... e6

rn1qkb1r/ppp2ppp/4p3/3n4/3P2b1/5N2/PPP1BPPP/RNBQK2R w
We join the game early, with Geoff's d-pawn giving him a natural space advantage. In such positions as black I'm not averse to a few exchanges as it reduces the chance of my pieces tripping over each other in their more limited area. Consequently the continuation felt friendly:

6 Bg5 Be7, 7 Bxe7 Qxe7, 8 c3 O-O, 9 Ne5 Bxe2, 10 Qxe2 Nd7
11 Nd3 Rac8, 12 O-O c5 Could, and perhaps should have played this a move or two earlier. Still, I feel as though I have reached a comfortable position of at least equality.

13 dxc5 Nxc5, 14 Nd2 Rfd8 Should remove the knights first. Not only does it bring his queen onto the d-file where it has to worry about a discovered attack, but also saves my other rook from being pulled forward to no good purpose.

15 Nxc5 Rxc5, 16 Ne4 Rc7
Geoff Smith v RR after 16 ... Rc7

3r2k1/ppr1qppp/4p3/3n4/4N3/2P5/PP2QPPP/R4RK1 w
17 g3 Prevents both Nf4 to molest the queen and Qh4. I had been expecting f4 which prevents the former, with the latter being then easily dealt with. So its a case of "don't mind if you do". Time for some forwards movement:

17 ... f5, 18 Nd2 e5 Note that 17 f4 would have prevented this, so I would not have had the chance to expand in this way. Now it is white's turn to suffer on the space front.

19 Rfe1 e4, 20 Rad1 Qf6, 21 c4 White runs out of patience 21 ... Nb4, 22 b3 Nd3, 23 Rf1 Rcd7, 24 Nb1 How else to deal with the threat of Nb2?

24 ... a6 25 Rd2 Qh6
Geoff Smith v RR after 25 ... Qh6

3r2k1/1p1r2pp/p6q/5p2/2P1p3/1P1n2P1/P2RQP1P/1N3RK1 w
Not the most subtle continuation, and probably not the best, but RR can't help eying the effect of getting his knight to f3.

26 Rfd1 Ne5, 27 Rxd7 Rxd7 Not Nf3+, Qxf3 which costs black at least his knight

28 Kg2 Nf3, (failing to spot the powerful 28 ... f4 29 Qxe4 [29 gxf4 Qg6+, 30 Kh1 Nf3, 31 Nd2 (to prevent Qh5) Rxd2 32 Qxd2 Nxd2] 29 f3+, 30 Qxf3 [king retreats lead to mate] Nxf3, 31 Rxd7 Ne1+)

29 h3 Qc6, 30 Rxd7 Qxd7, 31 Nc3 Qd4, 32 Nd5 Kf7 with intention that by the time the pieces come off, my king dominates the board

33 Ne3 Ke6, 34 Qc2 Ne1+ 0-1

A second game in succession ends with a blunder, but this is not unusual when a player has for some time been struggling to find constructive moves.
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Sun 8th: Isolated Pawns OK
Ian Barwick was RR's final round opponent, RR having the white pieces. We join the game with Ian having just shoved in the centre.
RR v Ian Barwick after 12 ... e5

r2q1rk1/pp3pbp/2n3p1/2Pppb2/3P4/P1P1BN2/4BPPP/R2Q1RK1 w
Isolated pawns are often bad. But not always. RR reasons that being able to deposit his bishop on d4 should negate the negative effects, at least temporarily whilst having files for his major pieces, so elects to capture on e5: 13 dxe5 Nxe5, 14 Nxe5 Bxe5, 15 Bd4 Re8, 16 Bb5 Bd7
17 Rb1 Qc7, 18 g3 Bxd7 is equally good at saving the h-pawn.

18 ... Re6
RR v Ian Barwick after 18 ... Re6

r5k1/ppqb1p1p/4r1p1/1BPpb3/3B4/P1P3P1/5P1P/1R1Q1RK1 w
Now what? I feel the need to keep doing things else sooner or later the doubled isolated pawns will become a problem. OK I can't work out all the variations, but here goes:

19 c4 Bxd4, 20 Bxd7 Qxd4 better because it removes the options of Re4 saving the dark squared bishop or Bxf2+ as black replies.
20 ... Qxd7, 21 Qxd4 Rd8, 22 Rfd1 Re4, 23 Qxd5 Qxd5
24 cxd5 Rc4, 25 Rxb7 (is Rb5 superior?) Rxc5, 26 Rxa7 Rcxd5, 27 Rxd5 Rxd5
RR v Ian Barwick after 27 ... Rxd5

6k1/R4p1p/6p1/3r4/8/P5P1/5P1P/6K1 w
A clear pawn up in a rook ending, but RR failed to convert. Still a draw took him to 3/5 for the congress, rather more than his form leading to the event would have predicted.
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Wed 11th: Quickie
Down to Stafford tonight for an A team match. RR found himself black against Ken Wozniak for the second time this season. Early in the middlegame Ken left a piece en prise, and RR unsportingly took it. 0 - 1.
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Wed 18th: Deathwish
When your confidence is down you can only see bad points in your position, so that even when there are sane moves you discount them. Such was the effect of RR's mental outlook when he faced Fenton's Rob Taylor. We join as RR contemplates his seventh move. Having adopted an expansionist policy RR knows that he needs to worry about about his pawns being undermined. Instead of simply playing exd3 he tries to shore his pawns up, storing trouble for later.

Rob Taylor v RR after 7 N5a3

rnbqkbnr/1p3ppp/p7/2p5/2Ppp3/N2P2P1/PP2PP1P/RNBQKB1R b

7 ... Nf6, 8 Bg2 Qe7 ugly, but just about playable

9 O-O h6 Too slow. Must get bits into the game

10 e3 Bg4, 11 Qa4+ Bd7 (Nc6 on the principal of development is good must be better.)

12 Qb3 Bc6 (Nc6, 13 Qxb7 and white struggles to get his queen out)

13 exd4 cxd4, 14 Re1 Nbd7, 15 dxe4
Rob Taylor v RR after 15 dxe4

r3kb1r/1p1nqpp1/p1b2n1p/8/2PpP3/NQ4P1/PP3PBP/RNB1R1K1 b

All RR sees at this point is the pawn deficit, not really noting how inconveniently placed white finds his pieces. Castles and Qe6 - protecting one bishop and releasing the other - are both sensible at this point, but RR helps the enemy cause as white needs to move his queen again soon anyway:

15 ... Nc5, 16 Qd1 O-O-O, 17 e5 Ne8 Note that had the white queen not been pushed back the e1 rook would have been unprotected.

18 Bxc6 bxc6, 19 b4 Another weakness of the earlier careless knight move - white gets his queenside pawns rolling with gain of tempo.

19 ... Ne6, 20 Bd2 Qb7, 21 c5 g5 With the long white diagonal closed to black's queen for at least a few moves RR realises that only a kingside attack gives him any hope of balancing the threats to be posed by white knights coming into the holes near RR's king.

22 Nc4 Bg7, 23 Nd6+ Nxd6, 24 exd6 Qd7 RR fails to follow through with his intention of a snap kingside attack. Instead he stages a go-slow.

25 Na3 f5, 26 Nc4
Rob Taylor v RR after 26 Nc4

2kr3r/1q3pb1/p1pPn2p/2P3p1/1P1p4/6P1/P2B1P1P/RN1QR1K1 b

Hardly unexpected, but its enough to expose the fallacy in RRs thinking. Now black is unable to use his queen both to protect his knight and his king against the coming queen and knight assault. RR pretends that his attack might still happen, but in truth its just a matter of when he chooses to accept the inevitable defeat. The rest is for viewing from behind the sofa only.

26 ... Qf7, 27 Qa4 Kb7, 28 Na5+ Ka8, 29 Qxc6+ Ka7, 30 Rxe6 Rd7 31 Qb6+ Ka8, 32 Qxa6+ Ra7, 33 Qc6+ Kb8, 34 Rae1 Rd7, 35 Re7 1-0
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Ian Jamieson writes:
Is 7... f5 continuing your expansionist policy playable or is it asking for it? You wouldn't normally make so many pawn moves but white has moved his king's knight 3 times already and is going to have to move it again to get it into the game.

RR: I considered it at the time, but didn't have the guts to play it even though I couldn't and can't see anything immediately wrong with the idea.


Mon 23rd: Toughie
Newcastle have decided to enter the Hickman cup this year, the county open competition in which we expect to be outgunned. The draw gave us a home tie against Walsall Kipping and RR a game against county first team captain David Anderton.
RR v David Anderton after 9 ... e5

rnb1qrk1/pp4bp/2pp1np1/4pp2/2PP4/1PN1PN2/PB2BPPP/R2Q1RK1 w

We join the game after 9 moves in which RR had avoided doing anything daft. He has a marginal lead in development and obvious chances of taking over the d-file, whereas David looks likely to force a pawn to e4, and slightly more control over the a1h8 diagonal as his bishop on g7 is protected whereas RR's on b2 is not.

10 dxe5 dxe5, 11 Qd6 Nfd7, 12 Rfd1 Na6, 13 Ba3 Abandoning the long diagonal may seem strange, particularly with the rook on a1. However there is no quick way for black to exploit this as e- and c-pawn shoves push the f3 knight to b5 via d4 where it sits happily, with his partner ready to go to d5 once the rook has moved.

13 ... Rf6, 14 Qe7 Re6, 15 Qxe8+ Rxe8, 16 Rac1 e4
RR v David Anderton after 16 ... e4

r1b1r1k1/pp1n2bp/n1p3p1/5p2/2P1p3/BPN1PN2/P3BPPP/2RR2K1 w

With the queens removed the game moves to its next phase, with David vacating e5 ready for use by a knight wanting to eye d3.

17 Nd4 Ne5, 18 Bd6 Bf8, 19 Bxf8 Kxf8, 20 Na4 Bd7
RR v David Anderton after 20 ... Bd7

r3rk2/pp1b3p/n1p3p1/4np2/N1PNp3/1P2P3/P3BPPP/2RR2K1 w

David finally gets to bring his light-squared bishop into play. Decision time for RR. One idea is to play c5 seeking to deny the bishop activity but conceding control over d5. a3, preventing Nb4 with intent to visit d3 is also sensible. RR elected to take more direct action:

21 f4 exf3, 22 Nxf3 Nxf3+ Rad8 leaving white's e-pawn isolated, rather than his h-pawn, is possibly better for black

23 gxf3 Re7, 24 Kf2 Rae8, 25 Rc3 c5, 26 Nb2 Bc6
27 Rd2 Nb8, 28 Nd1 Before playing f4 earlier RR had checked that he could set up solid defences of his e-pawn, his bishop and against threat of f4 from black. We've all seen positions in which a pinned pawn loses the game, and RR hoped not to be another victim in this way.

28 ... Nd7, 29 Rcd3 Ne5, 30 Rd8 g5, 31 Rxe8+ Kxe8, 32 h3
With a pair of rooks leaving the scene and no obvious way for black to advance without reducing the superiority of his pawn formation, RR is still in the game.
RR v David Anderton after 32 h3

4k3/pp2r2p/2b5/2p1npp1/2P5/1P2PP1P/P2RBK2/3N4 b

32 ... Rd7, 33 Rxd7 Kxd7, 34 f4 equalising pawn islands

34 ... gxf4, 35 exf4 Nf7, 36 Bd3 Finding the right squares for ones pieces in these positions is difficult. Although the bishop is fine here, perhaps from a practical point of view Bf3 to remove the bishops would have been better. then there would be no risk of black's bishop becoming better.

36 ... Nd6, 37 Nc3 Ke6, 38 Ke3 a6, 39 a3 b5
40 cxb5 axb5, 41 a4 How do you judge whether b4, giving black a supported passed pawn, but fixing his pawns on white squares is better?

41 ... b4, 42 Nb5 Ne4, 43 Bc4+
a5 would have been an easy draw as black is forced to worry about this pawn. Bb7 would ask for a6, with the bishop unable to capture because of Nc7+. Alternatively Nd6 loses a pawn after Nxd6. Hence black needs to find a more time consuming defence.

43 ... Kd7 44 Na7 white is struggling for moves - a5 would have been more active

44 ... Ba8, 45 Bg8 A "natural" move when out of ideas, but it allows black to get on top

45 ... Nf6 46 Bc4

Fortunately events elsewhere now led David to accept a draw - Nd5+ would now leave RR very much on the back foot and probably looking for piece for pawns sacs to escape. Still, much better play overall from RR than has been evident in his recent games.
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Tue 24th: Letting it slip
My diary has featured many games in which RR has escaped from the jaws of death. In this one it is RR's turn to fail to convert a decisive edge. We join the game with white having chosen an aggressive Qb3 with threats to storm the queenside.
Doug Barnett v RR after 8 Qb3

r2qkb1r/pp2pppp/2n5/3n4/3P2b1/1QN2N2/PP3PPP/R1B1KB1R b

8 ... Bxf3, 9 gxf3 Nb6, 10 Bf4 with intent to cause unpleasantness on c7. RR lacks the courage to play Nxd4, there seeming to be too many variations to consider after Bb5+, so instead takes with the queen:

10 ... Qxd4, 11 Be3 Qb4, 12 Bxb6 Qxb6 Despite RR's desire to get the queens off he is awake enough not to play Qxb3.

13 Qxb6 axb6, 14 Nd5 O-O-O, 15 Nxb6+ Kc7, 16 Nc4 e6 Rather tippy-toe. e5 is perfectly safe.,p> 17 Be2 Bb4+ RR embarks on a manoeuvre to stop Doug castling, to remove material, and to establish a rook on the seventh, all of which he likes the idea of.

18 Kf1 b5, 19 Ne3 Nd4, 20 Rc1+ Kb6, 21 a3 Nxe2
22 Kxe2 Rd2+, 23 Kf1 Be7, 24 Rg1 g6
Bh4 is annoying for white, but once he defends the threat I couldn't see an enticing continuation for black.

25 Rg4 Rhd8, 26 a4
Doug Barnett v RR after 26 a4

3r4/4bp1p/1k2p1p1/1p6/P5R1/4NP2/1P1r1P1P/2R2K2 b

26 ... Rxb2 (f5 must be superior as it forces the rook backwards. Worrying about knight coming to c4 can come later. The chosen move allows Doug to loosen RR's grip on the position.)

27 axb5 Rxb5, 28 Rf4 f6, 29 Ra4 Bc5 With no pawns to hide his king RR gives the job to pieces. Wouldn't it have been nicer had there only been one white rook to worry about?

30 Nc4+ Kc7, 31 Na3

Blacks last move enables white to win the exchange, but with black retaining a pawn and structural advantage against this both players are content with a draw.
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