1.c4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 Transposition into slav 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Be7 [5...Nbd7 is the main line] 6.b3 I get the feeling this is comfortable with black; the only games in the Fritz openings book are from two 2600 odd players and it scored 100% with white 6...0–0 7.Bd3 b6 [7...c5 was the most critical reply by the look of it. It looks like there are a lot of possible replies, but dxc is poor so black only needs to worry about cxd or 0–0 8.0–0 a) 8.cxd5 cxd4 9.Nxd4 exd5 (9...Nxd5 may be ok too 10.Nxd5 Qxd5 11.0–0) 10.0–0 Nc6; b) 8.dxc5 is questionable 8...dxc4 9.Bxc4 (9.bxc4 is visible poor 9...Nbd7) 9...Qxd1+ 10.Kxd1 Bxc5; 8...Nc6] 8.0–0 Bb7 9.Qe2 it seems quite logical to put the queen here controlling a6 to e2 diagonal and if Nf3 moves it has access to the kingside, and it supports e4 9...Nbd7 [it probably would have been better again to contest the centre with 9...c5 ] 10.Rd1 Qc7 continuing development; I'm not sure if it is good or not but looks playable 11.Bb2 well placed for long term x ray effect on black's king 11...Rac8 expecting my opponent to put a rook/rooks on c file, I don't want my queen anoyingly stranded there when things open up; I was struggling to find a better plan and didn't want to play planlessly 12.Rac1 Qb8?! I was concerned about tactical threats to the queen, but maybe this is too passive; Fritz edges the evaluation a little further in favour of white. I supposed it looks a little like black was psyched out about nothing with this move [e.g. 12...g6 13.h3 (13.cxd5 exd5 and there are no immediate threats to the queen(of course not 13...cxd5 14.Nxd5 which was the kind of tactic I was concerned about) ) ] 13.e4 logically pushing e4 13...dxe4 14.Nxe4 Nxe4 [it may have been better not to trade knights, e.g. 14...Rcd8 ] 15.Bxe4 Nf6 [or 15...g6 ] 16.Bb1 a very nice move I think; Bc2 would have been similar but it seems logical not to block the rook; now white's bishops look very nicely placed; maybe the problem is that some of black's pieces (queen and light bishop) are similarly placed but whereas all white's pieces lend themselves to an attack on the opponent's king, black has no similar threats of a coordinated attack so his pieces should serve some other purpose like specifically setting up to defend the potential white attack 16...Rfe8?! F doesn't like this, and indeed it seem a little bit slow; I think I was preparing a possible bf8 then there is an Xray effect of the rook on the white queen as well as the bishop being a good defensive piece [16...g6 probably would have been better] 17.Ne5 White increases his positional advantage to pretty much it's full potential and will want to strike soon 17...c5 I think this is the correct move for black 18.dxc5 Bxc5 19.Nd7 Nxd7 20.Rxd7 Re7 both white and black have chosen the best moves in this sequence according to Fritz 21.Be5? Amazingly Fritz says this allows a forced draw 21...Qa8? it is understandable that I thought this was the only move; white still has a significant advantage now. To be fair I have given myself a ? too for missing it. [21...Qxe5!! if this really does lead to a dead draw then I think it deserves two ! 22.Qxe5 Rxd7 I don't know if Fritz is serious about this being a draw, or if the position is just beyond the horizon of the computer; it seems like white should be able to find a way through; 'on paper' he is a point up in material with a queen for bishop and rook, but admittedly the bishops are extremely solid 23.a4 F shows this 23...Rcd8 mate threat 24.Rf1 (24.g3?? Rd1+ 25.Rxd1 Rxd1+; 24.h3?? Rd1+ 25.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 26.Kh2 Bd6) 24...Rd2 25.Qc7 R2d7 26.Qf4 remarkably the black position is apparently an impenetrable fortress! I may investigate this in more detail another time to test if it is really true. In any case, maybe this apparent draw indicates that white's move Be5 was too good to be true.] 22.Rxe7?! Fritz thinks this takes away quite a lot of the pressure and simply Rcd1 doubling rooks was strong [22.Rcd1 athough after 22...Bc6 it is beaten back anyway 23.R7d2 Bb4 24.Rd3 f6 25.Bb2 (25.Bd6?! Bxd6 26.Rxd6 Bxg2 27.Rxe6 with quite a complicated position) 25...Bc5] 22...Bxe7 23.Qg4 In this position I felt under a lot of pressure; amazingly my queen has no squares to move to at all; maybe my opponent can be credited with skillfully forcing it into the corner in this way, and I have to defend with less defenders than attackers. I would like to play Be4 here but it is impossible because e4 is controlled by white's queen and bishop. I can see Rf3 to Rh3 or Rg3 etc coming too so I know without accurate play I will be doomed 23...Bf8 This is the best move in this position I think. At first Fritz recommends g6 but then sees the brilliant sacrifice Bxg6 is very good for white [23...g6 24.Bxg6 hxg6 (if 24...fxg6? 25.Qxe6+ Kf8 26.Rd1 Bc6 27.Rd4 Qb7 28.Rf4+ Ke8 29.Qf7+ Kd8 30.Rd4+ Bd5 (30...Bd7 31.Qg8+ Bf8 32.Qxf8#) 31.Rxd5+ Qd7 32.Qg8+ Bf8 33.Qxf8#) 25.Qh3 this looks like inevitable mate but black can avoid it at a cost 25...f6 the only try (e.g. 25...f5 26.Qh8+ Kf7 27.Qg7+ Ke8 28.Rd1 Bd5 (28...Rd8 29.Qg8+ Bf8 30.Qxg6+ (or 30.Qxe6+ Be7 31.Qxg6+ Kf8 32.Bg7+ Kg8 33.Bh6+ Kh8 34.Qg7#) 30...Ke7 31.Bf6#) 29.cxd5 exd5 30.Bf6 Rc7 31.Qg8+ Kd7 (31...Bf8 32.Re1+ Re7 33.Rxe7+ Kd8 34.Qxf8#) 32.Qxa8) 26.Qxe6+ Kf8 27.Bxf6 Rc7 28.Be5 none the less this requires accurate play from white 28...Rc6 29.Qh3 Qc8 30.Qh8+ Kf7 31.Qg7+ Ke8 32.Qg8+ Kd7 33.Rd1+ Rd6 34.Qxc8+ Bxc8 35.Bxd6 Bxd6 probably not the best line for white, but he may have good odds of winning the endgame] 24.h4 looks like a reasonable way to proceed. F says it gives away some of the advantage though [simply 24.Rd1 was better according to Fritz] 24...Rc5?! it's understandable that I would want to assist the king's defence with the rook, but seeing as there are no unattacked squares due to the bishops, this is futile and putting the rook on the open file is better [24...Rd8 Fritz says this is basically a draw with only a tiny edge for white; practically speaking white can drum up some nasty threats though so I'm not sure I agree, but none the less it is clear this was black's best move] 25.Bd4 [F also suggests 25.Re1 ] 25...Rc7 26.h5 continuing with the plan; I think the computer struggles to evaluate the game because of the type of position and black has a difficult defensive task 26...Qe8?! inaccurate according to F. It is visibly unnatural; I presume I felt forced into this move looking through various possibilities, but if I had kept my cool there would have been more chance of holding the position [26...Rd7 is the best move according to F] 27.Re1 I am quite proud of how I defended so far against a strong opponent who has been pushing a material advantage in a jiu jitsu kind of way, but my following move is a mistake 27...Bc8? The primary proble of this is now the light diagonal is not occupied by the black bishop and white can put the queen on e4; this was a bad positional slip [27...Qd8 28.Bc2 (28.h6?! g6 29.Be3 Rd7 F says black is slightly better) 28...Rd7 black is pretty solid] 28.Qe4! f5 appears to be the best option for black 29.Qxf5 exf5 30.Rxe8 Kf7 31.Re3 g6 32.hxg6+ hxg6 after 28.Qe4 black's play has pretty much played the best moves under the circumstances and white still has a job to do in order to win 33.Kf1 Bg7 [F suggests 33...Rd7 and maybe keeping all the material on - the bishops in particular, is the best plan for black] 34.Bxg7 Kxg7 35.f4 Kf6 36.Bd3 Bb7 37.Be2 Rh7 at least trying to present white with problem to make his job difficult (Fritz only evaluates this +0.65 so I had done well to salvage this position despite the original loss of a pawn in the middle game when things looked very unpleasant for black. Of course black could have played better in that middlegame and played on to draw. Fritz does not criticise any of the moves from either player in the endgame hitherto. It seems to me in this example and in other games, oftentimes the more moves are made in an endgame, the more it benefits the side trying to draw and the advantage can slowly reduce, (another example is my game against Andy McDougall in the Hampshire Congress where I also went down a pawn in the middlegame but the evaluation started to get closer to a draw in the endgame) after a while. 38.Rh3 Rd7 [F seems to prefer 38...Re7 ] 39.Rd3 Re7?! a mistake according to Fritz [39...Rg7 e.g. 40.Rd6+ Ke7 41.Rd2 Kf6] 40.Bd1?! F thinks white has missed a strong opportunity [40.Rd6+ is good according to F, beating the king back; e.g. 40...Kg7 41.g3 Be4 42.Kf2 Kf7 43.b4] 40...Re4?! [40...Rg7 was more solid according to F] 41.g3 Re7 42.Rd6+! Kf7 43.Kf2 This time Mark does exactly as Fritz recommended in the note before, and now the black king is cut off 43...Be4 [apparently 43...Kg7 was more solid] 44.Bf3 [Fritz says that 44.b4 is the strongest 44...Kg7 45.Ba4] 44...Bb1 trying to cause some kind of problems for white; Fritz prefers BxB marginally [44...Bxf3 45.Kxf3 Kg7 white should win according to the computer 46.g4 Kf7 47.g5 Kg7 48.Rc6 Rb7 should be a relatively easy win for white] 45.Bd5+ Kg7 46.a3 Bc2 47.b4 Bd3? I was starting to feel pretty hopeless about any prospect of drawing, but white can win clearly after this [47...Bb3 was the way to keep playing for a draw according to Fritz, e.g. 48.b5 Bd1 49.Be6 Bc2 50.Ke3 Kh6 51.Kd4 Kh5 things could have stayed somewhat interesting] 48.Be6 Kf6?? a blunder is an already lost position; I'm not happy with it but at the same time I realised I was 99.99% sure to lose the endgame against Mark by now and lost the plot [48...Be4 49.Bd7 Kf8 50.c5 bxc5 51.bxc5 Rg7 52.Ke2 a5 53.c6 Ke7 54.Rd4 Rg8 55.c7 Bb7 56.Bb5 Rc8 57.Rd7+ Kf6 58.Kd3 Rf8 59.Kd4 Bc8 60.Kc5 Ke6 61.Rd6+ Ke7 62.Rxg6 a4 63.Ba6 Bxa6 64.Rxa6 Kd7 65.Kb6 Rc8 66.Rxa4 Rg8 67.Rd4+ Kc8 68.Rd8+ Rxd8 69.cxd8Q+ Kxd8 + -] 49.Bc8+ Kf7 50.Rxd3 All in all I was happy with how I played in this game; I feel that it was far from a total annihilation by my very strong opponent and I made him work hard to convert the positional grind into a win. There was a spectacular possibility of a fortress in the middlegame (according to Fritz but I'm still not totally convinced) and the computer insists I could have made white's task tougher in the later middlegame with some simple principled moves such as moving the rook to the open file. I also seem to have somewhat swindled the position closer to a draw than it necessarily should have been in the endgame but I'm also not 100% sure about this. In any case the level of play was quite good from both players and I think I can take some valuable lessons from this game. 0–1
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