October 2016
Such was the case in RR's game against Steve Hill, which we join for move 14 with the players having just exchanged pawns on d5 following a fairly formless opening which Fritz dignifies by labelling English.
RR v Steve Hill after 13 ... exd5 |
14 ... Rc8 And an apparently natural response which RR felt coming despite being worthy of ??. Why? The game continued:
15 Bxf6 Bxf6, 16 Bg4 winning the exchange, and providing a big enough buffer against future inaccuracies to win the game too.
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In this game RR finds himself with white against Cheddleton's leading junior, Jacob Boswell, and after 8 moves the game is poised for interesting play on opposing wings.
RR v Jacob Boswell after 8 ... Qe8 |
9 Nd5 Bd8, 10 Nxf6+ Bxf6, 11 e4. No development, exchanging a piece by moving it 3 times, and then offering the opportunity for black to speed up his attack by removing his f-pawn. Somehow I don't think you'll find that in any book on how to play the game.
11 ... Qg6, 12 Qc2 RR misses the opportunity to get his knight out of the line of fire with Nd4, where it won't die because of the threat of Bh5 against the black queen.
12 ... fxe4, 13 dxe4 Nc6, 14 Rb1 Bh3, 15 Ne1 Nd4
16 Qd3 Bh4 (diagram left)
RR v Jacob Boswell after 16 ... Bh4 |
17 Kh1 Unfortunately this fatally reduces the protection of the f2 pawn.
17 ... Rxf2, 18 Rxf2 Bxf2 and the knight will not be maintaining its protection against the mate for long. Fortunately (for RR) that is not how it went. Instead:
17 ... Bxf2, 18 gxh3 and black's attack has gone.
18 ... Bh4 Maybe slightly better is Nxe2, removing a defender and releasing the d4 square for the bishop, but material down it is understandable to wish to keep the remaining material on.
19 Nf3 Now it's RR calling the tune, and although as per usual he doesn't find the best continuations throughout, Jacob feels forced to call it a day on move 38 with my silicon co-commentator assessing a double digit advantage to white.
Truely a case of getting out of jail. Or remission from the black cancer that threatened to overrun white.
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RR v Richard Szwajkun after 21 f4 |
21 ... Nc6 and with a faint premonition of possible disaster for black
22 exf5 Bxf5, 23 Bc1 Re6, 24 Rde8 Another premonition proved accurate ...
24 ... Bd5 ... and another exchange to add to my early season collection!
Another dozen moves were played, but here was no way back for black. 1-0 to our hero.
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1 c4 e5, 2 Nc3 Nf6, 3 Nf3 Nc6, 4 e3 Be7, 5 d4 exd4
6 exd4 d5, 7 cxd5 Nxd5
Roger Greatorex v RR after 7 ... Nxd5 |
8 Bc4 Nb6, 9 Bd3 No doubt there are cavemen who swear by Bxf7+ at this point, but they should be destined to be swearing at such choice of move by the end of the resulting game.
9 ... O-O, 10 O-O Nb4 looking to establish a blockader on d5, a standard counter to the isolated d-pawn, though taking action directed at the pawn itself with Bf6 is probably preferable.
11 Be4 c6, 12 Ne5 N4d5, 13 f4 More support for the knight, or the start of a kingside attack? Time will tell.
13 ... Nf6, 14 Bf3 Be6 diagram right.
Roger Greatorex v RR after 14 ... Be6 |
15 g4 He's up to a kingside attack.
15 ... Bd5, 16 Nxd5 Nfxd5, 17 Bxd5 Qxd5 The first exchange was expected, the second not. Surely 17 g5 was more in tune with the kingside attack idea. It begins to look like g4 was a simple lashing out, a loss of patience with no conviction behind it. Now black's queen takes up a dominant position, freeing d8 for a rook to exert more pressure against the IQP.
18 Be3 Rad8, 19 Qc2 f6, 20 Nf3 Bd6, 21 b3 Rde8 RR now turns his attention to taking over the e-file. Nought wrong with such a plan, though Qe6 forking bishop and g-pawn provides more rapid gratification.
22 Rae1 Re6 preparing a doubling of rooks. Much stronger is Bb4, provided black sees that after Re2 he should seek to take advantage of the pinned bishop by placing the queen on the e-file, as the rook is now only defended once. Another missed opportunity, but RR still has the initiative.
Roger Greatorex v RR after 22 ... Re6 |
23 Rxe1 White has a choice of recaptures: with the rook loses the knight, with the bishop loses the f-pawn, and with the knight loses the d-pawn. And the choice was ...
24 Nxe1 Qxd4+, 25 Kg2 Nd5, 26 Qd3 Qxd3 Typical RR. Keeping the queens on is stronger since the white position is much looser than black's, but heading for a won endgame is one of RR's favourite pastimes. Now to make sure he wins it.
27 Nxd3 Re8, 28 Kf3 Kf7, 29 h3 a5, 30 Rc1 Ra8, 31 Nc5 Bxc5
32 Rxc5 a4, 33 b4 Nc7, 34 Rc4 Nb5, 35 h4 Rd8, 36 Ke3 f5
37 gxf5 Rd7, 38 Re4 Nd6 0-1 as white is destined to lose the exchange.
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RR v Daniel Rowan after 9 ... b6 |
10 cxd5 exd5, 11 Bb5 Bb7, 12 Ne5 Rc8, 13 Qe2 Bd6
14 f4 cxd4, 15 exd4 Re7 It becomes apparent that RR's earlier pin of the c6 knight against the rook has achieved nothing. Indeed black is about to double rooks on the c-file. Not that this in itself should cause a problem as these can be forced off with a rook to c1. More important is to keep blacks minor pieces at bay with a3, which unfortunately RR omits.
16 Rac1 Rec7, 17 Bxc6 Bxc6, 18 Ndf3 Qe8 19 Qf2 The white pieces are becoming increasingly passive.
19 ... Bb5, 20 Rxc7 Rxc7, 21 Rc1 Rxc1+, 22 Bxc1 Qc8, 23 Qb2
RR v Daniel Rowan after 23 Qb2 |
23 ... Ne4, 24 Ng5 Ne1 would have been a better attempt at continuing to sit on the position and creating a safe retreat for the e5 knight. With the text move black has
24 ... f6, 25 Nxe4 dxe4, 26 Nc4 Bxc4, 27 bxc4 Qxc4 leaving him a pawn up with better pieces.
Also available is 24 ... Qc3 and white's positions collapses.
Fortunately for RR, Daniel chose another line:
24 ... Nxg5, 25 fxg5 Qf5, 26 Qf2
RR v Daniel Rowan after 26 Qf2 |
26 ... Qxf2+, 27 Kxf2 Kf8, 28 g3 Ke7, 29 Bf4 Ke6, 30 Ke3 Be8 ½-½
RR emerged unscathed apart from mental damage caused by stress.
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1. e4 d5, 2 exd5 Nf6, 3 Nf3 Nxd5, 4 d4 Bf5, 5 Bc4 e6
6 O-O Be7, 7 Re1
James Rothwell v RR after 7 Re1 |
7 ... c6, 8 a3 Nd7, 9 Bf1 O-O, 10 c4 N5f6, 11 Nc3 Nb6 A small inaccuracy as this move, relinquishing all current control over e5, can be played anytime, whereas if Qc7 not played now it may get played at all. However at the time RR did not want to deal with the immediate complications of d5 with his dark square bishop undefended.
12 h3 h6 Deeming a safe square for his bishop more important than Qc7.
13 Bf4 Rc8, 14 Qd2 Nh5, 15 Be3 Nf6, 16 Bf4 Nh7 Going badly wrong, for some strange reason fearing a sac on h6.
17 Rad1 g5, 18 Bh2 Bf6 Nf6 must be better, but with no properly planned continuation from g5, that pawn shove would have been best left unplayed.
19 Ne5 Bxe5, 20 Rxe5 Qd7, 21 c5 Nd5, 22 Nxd5 exd5
James Rothwell v RR after 22 ... exd5 |
23 Bd3 Bxd3, 24 Qxd3 Rce8, 25 Rde1 Rxe5, 26 Rxe5 Re8, 27 Qe3 Rxe5
28 Qxe5 These exchanges as is so often the case have helped the defender (RR here) by reducing the options, but RR must be careful not to allow a back row check.
28 ... Qd8, 29 Qf5 Kg7 (29 Nf8, using a dark square whilst he can must be better for creating later winning chances)
30 Bd6 Qe8, 31 Be5+ f6, 32 Bd6 Nf8, 33 Bxf8+ Qxf8, 34 Qe6 Qd8 RR would prefer not going into the last round a half point behind a leader he has already played, so keeping the queens on seems paramount. After all
34 ... Qf7, 35 Qxf7 Kxf7, 36 g4 and how does one win?
35 Kf1 Qc7, 36 g3 b6, 37 b4 bxc5, 38 dxc5 a6 RR has allowed significant weaknesses in his pawn structure in order to obtain a passed pawn, and he can no longer play Qf7 to get the queens off. But the position is no longer liable to become blocked.
James Rothwell v RR after 38 ... a6 |
40 Ke2 Kf7 With time beginning to run out the players are relying on judgement as much as calculation. Very dangerous in an endgame. RR elects to take the use of e6/7/8 away from white.
41 Kd2 Qb5 42 Qf3 Qc4 RR is committed to getting his queen behind enemy lines even though it concedes a check.
43 Qh5+ Kg7, 44 Qe8 Qd4+, 45 Ke1 Qe5+ The queens come off. is black's passed pawn enough?
46 Qxe5 fxe5, 47 a4 Kf6 RR was relying on earlier calculations to keep him safe on the queenside. Has he miscalculated? No it's James who's counting has gone astray and determined the outcome.
48 b5 cxb5, 49 axb5 axb5, 50 c6 Ke6 0-1
Not an exhibit of great quality, and in the later stages RR allowed his desire to win to overrule playing with the draw in hand. But he reached the final round as joint leader of two, with five players a half-point behind. Looks like if he doesn't want to risk being part of a big pile joint first on 4/5 the final round will be another game in which playing to win will be the only item on his agenda.
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1 Nf3 Nf6, 2 c4 g6, 3 b4 d5, 4 cxd5 Qxd5, 5 Nc3 Qd6
6 Nb5 Not the most efficient way of offering the pawn (e3 is better), but it should make black wonder if RR has made a mistake.
RR v John Gorman after 12 ... e6 |
So what does white have for his pawn? Six developed pieces to two. On a three tempi equals a pawn basis, white white certainly has value. How far are the two sides from connecting their rooks (a sign of full development)? White one move. Black has to play say b4 and Bb7 (counts one move because of the gain in tempo of the pawn push), Nc6 and on to e7, 0-0 and Qd7. Five moves, four behind white.
RR v John Gorman after 6 Nb5 |
13 Ng5 Bf8, 14 Bxe6 fxe6, 15 Nxe6 Bxe6, 16 Qxe6+ Be7
17 Rxb7 Qd7, 18 Qxe7+ Qxe7, 19 Bxe7 Kxe7 20 Rxc7+ Nbd7
RR v John Gorman after 20 ... Nbd7 |
21 Ke2 Rhc8, 22 Rxc8 Rxc8, 23 Rb1 Rb8, 24 Rxb8 Nxb8, 25 f3 Kd6
26 d4 Nd5, 27 Nxd5 Kxd5, 28 Kd3 Nd7, 29 e4+ Kc6, 30 Kc4 g5
31 g3 h5, 32 f4 Inaccurate. d5+ gives white a square for his king should black play Nb6+
32 ... gxf4, 33 d5+ Kc7, 34 gxf4 Nf6, 35 e5 Ng4, 36 h3 Nf2 Unnecessary as white won't be taking the knight
37 h4 Ne4, 38 f5 Nd2+, 39 Kc5 Ne4+, 40 Kd4 Nd2, 41 Ke3 Nc4+
42 Kf4 Kd8, 43 f6 Ke8, 44 e6 Kf8, 45 Kg5 Ke8, 46 Kxh5 Ne3
47 d6 Nf5, 48 d7+ Kd8, 49 Kg6 Nxh4+, 50 Kf7 Nf5, 51 e7+ 1-0
RR v John Sugden after 5 ... e6 |
6 Nh4 Bg4 Oops, this is not a line where black had to play Bg6. Amongst his many faults RR hates admitting errors, so instead of retreating the knight or offering the exchange of bishops, he comes up with
7 f3 Bh5 Hmm. The h4 knight is looking very silly, doing no job and having no retreat. Trying to kick the bishop away with g4 runs into Nxg4 with discovered attack against the h4 knight. A mess.
8 g3 Nbd7, 9 Be2 Bd6, 10 O-O Qe7 Crisis survived, but John looks like a man intending to castle long and throw his kingside at white. Getting the knight out of the line of fire with Ng2 has virtues, but it would be the arrival of the black h-pawn that would really cause problems. There's time to develop the queen's knight.
11 Nc3 O-O-O, 12 a3 (slow) Rdg8
RR v John Sugden after 12 ... Rdg8 |
13 cxd5 Nxd5, 14 Nxd5 cxd5, 15 b4 Kb8, 16 Qb3 there is much to be said for f4 at this juncture, with probable exchange of light squared bishops.
16 ... Rc8
RR v John Sugden after 16 ... Rc8 |
17 ... Be5 Surely f6 is a better way of blunting white's dark square bishop and preparing for further expansion either in the centre or on the kingside.
18 a4 Bxb2, 19 Qxb2 Qf6, 20 Qb3 RR wishes to keep the queens on but feels uncomfortable with the pawn structure after d4, which I imagine is a superior choice.
20 ... h6, 21 a5 Bg6, 22 Rfc1 Another daft move which fails to keep enemy pieces out of c2 because of the queen threat against the a1 rook. Thus Ra2 or Rac1 would have been better, but still not as good as continuing the pawn advance with b5 even though that would cede c5 to black.
22 ... Qe7 Black too is unaware of the plot.
23 a6 b6, 24 Bb5 Rxc1+, 25 Rxc1 Rc8, 26 Rxc8+ Kxc8
27 Qc3+ Kb8, 28 Nf4 (Qxg7 must be better)
28 ... Nf6 29 Ne2 Qc7, 30 Nd4 Qxc3, 31 dxc3 e5 To have any chance black needs to just sit and do nothing. After this move RR switches to mopping up mode:
32 Nc6+ Ka8, 33 Nxe5 h5, 34 Kf2 Kb8, 35 Ke2 Kc7
36 Kd2 Kb8, 37 Bc6 Kc7, 38 Bb7 Ne8, 39 Nxg6 fxg6
40 Bxd5 Kd6, 41 Bf7 Nf6, 42 Bxg6 1-0 Black calls time 4 pawns down. Eventually a winning start to the congress, but a far from efficient one, hindered particularly by the "it seemed a good idea at the time" Nh4.
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1 Nf3 d5, 2 c4 c6, 3 e3 Nf6, 4 b3 Bg4, 5 Bb2 Nbd7
6 h3 Bf5, 7 Be2 a6, 8 O-O h6, 9 d3 e6, 10 Nbd2 Bg6
11 Ne5 Nxe5, 12 Bxe5 Bd6, 13 f4 Bc5, 14 d4 Bb4, 15 Bxf6 Qxf6
16 Qc1 Bxd2, 17 Qxd2 Qe7, 18 c5 O-O, 19 b4 Be4, 20 a4 f6
21 Bd3 Bxd3, 22 Qxd3 e5, 23 Rfe1 Rae8, 24 Qd2 exf4, 25 exf4 Qd7
26 Kf2 Rxe1, 27 Rxe1 Re8, 28 g4 Kf7, 29 Rxe8 Qxe8, 30 Qe3 Qxe3+
31 Kxe3 g5, 32 f5 1/2-1/2
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Rostislav Raychev v RR after 14 ... Rac8 |
19 ...Bxe5, 20 Bxe5 Rd5, 21 Bg3 Rcd8, 22 Rd3
Rostislav Raychev v RR after 22 Rd3 |
23 Rfd1 c4 But this push is not. Increasing the pressure with Qd7 must be better. White will be tied to the defence of the pawn whether he diverts black's c-pawn with
b4 cxb4, cxb4 or not.
24 Re3 Qd7, 25 Rde1 Qa4, 26 a3 Rb5, 27 R3e2 Rdd5 28 Qg4 Rg5
Rostislav Raychev v RR after 28 ... Rg5 |
29 Qe4 Qa6, 30 Rd2 Rgd5, 31 Qe2 Rb3, 32 Red1 Qc6, 33 Re1= Rg5
34 f3 Qd5, 35 Qe4 Rb6, 36 Qxd5 Rxd5, 37 Bc7 Rc6, 38 Bg3 f6
39 Kf2 Kf7, 40 Ree2 h5, 41 h4 Rc8, 42 Re1 a6, 43 Rde2 Re8
44 Kf1 f5, 45 f4 Very happy to see this as we seem to be heading for a good knight v bad bishop ending. But the rooks need to come off for this, which means opening up a file or two on the queenside without allowing white into RR's position. Being somewhat short of expert, RR didn't know the best way to achieve this, so inevitably took the long road.
Rostislav Raychev v RR after 45 f4 |
58 Rdd2 Na4, 59 Kf2 b5, 60 Rc2 Nb6, 61 Re5 Rd5, 62 Ree2 b4
63 axb4 axb4, 64 Bd2 Na4, 65 cxb4 Nxb2
Rostislav Raychev v RR after 65 ... Nxb2 |
Dave Cole v RR after 12 0-0 |
Like the band on the Titanic, RR played on, but for all the effect his efforts had he might as well have resigned immediately. Ne8 proved a pretty effective way of bringing an end to RR's hopes of a podium finish at the congress.
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We join the game after black's eleventh move. RR has an isolated d-pawn, so would prefer to prevent black establishing a blockading piece on d5. Consequently he wants to keep his bishop on the a2g8 diagonal.
RR v Keith Palmer after 11 ... Rc8 |
12 ... Na5 13 Ba2 Bxa3 Never saw that coming. The bishop retreat has left the b-pawn overloaded. But luck is on RR's side; a spoiling move is available:
14 Bxe6 Bxe6, 15 Rxa3 and material equality is retained
15 ... Re8, 16 Be5 Nc6 An attempt to be clever with
Back with the game, black has set up a tactical blow for white
16 ... Bc4 fails as white has
17 Bxf6 Rxe2, 18 Bxd8 Rxe1+, 19 Nxe1 Rxd8, 20 Rxa5 Rxd4 and white now even has time to play
21 Rxa7 because of the immediate mate threat it creates, so he emerges a piece and pawn ahead. Yes, RR was ready to play this.
RR v Keith Palmer after 16 ... Nc6 |
19 Ne4 Qg6, 20 dxc6 Bxc6 and white has won material. Instead black should have tried
18 ... Nd4 19 Nxd4 Bd7 and white's queen is overloaded trying to protect both the e1 rook and the d4 knight so black immediately gets the piece back.
21 Re3 f5, 22 Qc4+ Kh8, 23 Neg5 h6, 24 Nf7+ Kh7, 25 N3g5+ Kg8
26 Ne5+ Kh8, 27 Nxg6# 1-0
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RR v Chris Rhodes after 15 dxc5 |
15 ... dxc5, 16 Bf3 It must be better for white to instigate the exchange of bishops as this leaves the black king on g7 and hence white with the useful option of checking on the long diagonal should it later be needed.
16 ... Bxb2, 17 Qxb2 Nd7, 18 g3 Rb8, 19 Ne4 Ne5 Too interested in his own plans, RR has created weaknesses around his king for his bishop to control, so doesn't want to allow his bishop to be exchanged for the black knight. Nor does he want those white squares around the king to be abandoned, so
20 Bg2 Nd3 Petunias! There goes another exchange. Of course had RR started the exchange of dark squared bishops his queen would still have been safely on b3. this looks like being far from RR's finest hour.
21 Qc3 (21 Qc2 Nxc1, 22 Nxc5 and at least white gets a pawn for the exchange)
21 ... Nxc1, 22 Rxc1 can't take the pawn because of the fork on e2
22 ... b6
RR v Chris Rhodes after 22 ... b6 |
33 Rxd1 Rxd1+, 34 Kg2 Rd4, 35 f4 Qd6
36 Ng4 Qc6+, 37 Kf2 Qd7, 38 Ne5 Qe6
RR v Chris Rhodes after 38 ... Qe6 |
39 Qf3 Kg7, 40 Qc3 Kg8, 41 Qe3 Qf5, 42 Kf3 Qh5+
43 Ng4 e5, 44 bxc5 e4+, 45 Kf2 Qxc5 ,46 Kg2 Qxc4
47 Ne5 Qc2+, 48 Kh3 Qc8+, 49 g4 Qc5, 50 Kh4 Ra4
RR v Chris Rhodes after 50 ... Ra4 |
51 Qb3+ Rc4, 52 Qxc4+ Qxc4, 53 Nxc4 and the rest is a mopping-up exercise:
53 ... b5, 54 Nd6 a6, 55 Nxe4 Kf7, 56 Kg3 h6, 57 h4 a5
58 Nd6+ Ke6, 59 Nxb5 Kd5, 60 Nc3+ Kc4, 61 Nb1 Kb3, 62 h5 gxh5
63 gxh5 Kc4, 64 Kf3 Kd5, 65 Ke3 Ke6, 66 Ke4 Kf6, 67 Nc3 1-0
So this was a variation of the season's theme of exchange losses in which the victim got lucky and escaped to victory.
The final sting in the tail is what didn't happen at the end. Return to move 51 and suppose that black abandons his rook and plays Kg7 instead. Qf7+ looks fun, but there is no immediate mate as the black queen covers f8. White then may well choose to take the rook, and we have
51 ... Kg7, 52 Qxa4 Qf2+, 53 Kh3 Kg5 is not an option for those wishing not to be mated
53 ... Qf1+, 54 Kg3 Qe1+, draw as white cannot escape the checks.
To win white has to find
52 Qf7+ Kh8, 53 Qe8+ Kg7, 54 Qd7+ Kg8 55 Qxa4 so that he can play Kg5 after
Qf2+. Would RR have found this. We'll never know, but Qb3+ was definitely played with intent to grab the rook, and RR too had little tiime to consider alternatives.
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