With 21 club games in the past four days, there was always going to be a couple of interesting positions. Here’s two that were sent in to us.
On Monday night, John Healy moved to within 3½ points of our first Armstrong board prize in at least a decade – Gerry and Tim have come closest since 2003/04 with 7½ each – with his first ever league win over a 2000-rated player. Having sacced a piece, as you do, he reached this position –
Black’s in a bit of trouble, but the game still has to be won. White would love to get his knight in to d6, forcing the king to d8 (otherwise NxB sets off a windmill – the game without the black knight could continue 1. Nd6+ Kf8?? 2. NxB+ Kg8 3. Ne7+ Kf8 4. KxP+ Ke8 5. NxR, for example), when there’s king and rook forks appearing from f7. However, black’s knight is current covering the d6 square. Black, for his part, is threatening 1. … Qd4+, swapping the queens and emerging a piece up and the pressure lifted.
All signs point to one thing. If white is to win, the knight must die…
1. RxN! gxR Black can’t afford to open the e-file with 1. … exR, which gives the white rook scope to enter the game decisively. 2. Nd6+ Kd8 3. Qa5+ Qc7 4. NxP+ Kd7 5. QxQ+ KxQ 6. NxR and white is two pawns up and has went on to win the ending without too much trouble.
Last night, meanwhile, Ciarán found himself in a game with head-spinning variations. Here’s the full game –
Art Coldrick (1712) v Ciarán Ruane (1559); Heidenfeld Trophy; 21 Nov ’12
Notes by Ciarán Ruane
1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5 e6 4.e4
Strangely after opening with d4, we’re now in a mainline Classical French!
4…Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.f4 a6
c5 straight away runs into 8. Nb5 threatening 9. Nxc7+, winning the rook, and 9. Nd6+ stopping castling.
8.Nf3 c5 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.O-O-O b5
Surprisingly (to me at least), this is all theory. I thought castling queenside was asking for trouble with black being able to get a pawnstorm going quickly but it seems to be OK.
11.g4
11.dxc5 is the usual move here which would blunt my pressure a bit.
11…b4 12.Na4 c4 13.Qf2 b3
Fritz wants to castle here which looks a little dangerous to me.
14.axb3 cxb3 15.c3 Qd8 16.f5??
I had expected 16.Kd2 Qa5 17.Nc5 (Fritz prefers the cute 17.Be2 as 17…Qxa4 is hit with 18.Ra1 trapping the queen!) 17…Nxc5 18.dxc5 with a strange position. Fritz thinks black is a little better and wants to bring the queen back and castle kingside but there’ll be some defending to do.
16…Qa5
This wins material by force but it gets a bit hairy.
17.fxe6
Saving the knight with 17.Nc5 Nxc5 18.dxc5 is bad as 18…Qa1+ 19.Kd2 Qxb2+ 20.Ke3 Qxc3+ is crushing with the b-pawn close to queening, the e-pawn hanging and the king wide open.
17…fxe6
17…Qxa4 isn’t as good as after 18.exd7+ Bxd7 19.Kd2 white keeps the material level and his king is pretty safe.
18.Ng5 Rf8 19.Qh4 Qxa4 (D)
20.Bd3
I’d missed this. 20.Qxh7 (the only other reasonable move) allows black an easy advantage after 20…Qa1+ 21.Qb1 Qxb1 22.Kxb1 Nb6, though Fritz says 20…Rf2 is completely winning.
The text move allows the bishop to drop back to b1 stopping the Qa1+, Qxb2+, Qxc3+ stuff from earlier; this means that Nxe6 is a threat now. It also gives white ideas of checks along the e8-h5 diagonal.
20…Nb6?!
This is fine but 20…Ndxe5! 21.dxe5 Nxe5 22.Bb1 Qf4+ 23.Rd2 Nc4 just wins straight away. Strangely, I considered 20…Ndxe5 but didn’t see how strong 22…Qf4+ was.
21.Rhf1 Rxf1 22.Rxf1
23.Qf2 is a dangerous threat now with mating ideas after 24.Qf8+. For example 22…a5 (a random, rubbish move) 23.Qf2 Qa1+ 24.Bb1 Kd8 25.Qf8+ Kc7 26.Qd6+ Kb7 27.Rf7+ Ka6 28.Qxc6 is pretty awful! The king can’t run away either as 22…Kd8 is hit with Nxe6 double check cutting off the escape route and 22…Kd7 allows 23.Rf7+ Ke8 24.Qxh7 and more disaster.
22…Ne7
The idea is to allow the king to escape checks via d7 and c6.
23.Qf2 Qa1+ 24.Bb1 Nc4 25.Qf7+
Moves like 25.Nxh7 allow the king to escape to the queenside. E.g. 25…Kd7 26.Nf8+ Kc6 when white’s attack is gone and black is up a piece and the plan of marching the a-pawn up the board should win.
25…Kd8 26.Rf2= (D) 1/2-1/2
Embarrassingly, I’m winning in this position where I accepted a draw. 26…Na3 (as suggested by Phibsboro’s board 1) 27.bxa3 (27.Qf8+ Kd7 doesn’t change anything) 27…Qxc3+ 28.Kd1 Qxd4+ and wherever the king goes, the queen can fork it and the knight.
I was going to play 26…Ra7 to defend the knight and allow the king to make it to the queenside; this is less clear after something like 27.Qf8+ Kd7 28.Nf7 but still better for black.