So after the aborted round one, and the pummeling of round two, I was hoping round three would at least give my opponent a decent game.
Yeah, right! If anything, this game was even worse than the one against Zvradko, not so much for the attack-neutering blunder in the middle, as for the utterly moronic ending. Here’s the game, with annotation:
[pgn eo=t autoplayMode=none pieceFont=alpha ss=64 ps=64 h=800 commentsDisplay=newline]
[Event “St.Benildus Club Championships”]
[Site “St.Benildus”]
[Date “2014.07.30”]
[Round “3”]
[White “Mark Dennehy”]
[Black “Eddie Gahan”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “1019”]
[BlackElo “1410”]
[EventDate “2014.07.30”]
[Annotator “Stockfish 210214 64”]
1. c4
{+0.10 John’s going to hate me for going back to the English instead of the d4 opening he was showing me, but I’m just not having any damn fun on d4 and I like this opening…}
1. … d6
{+0.36}
2. g3
{-0.10}
2. … g6
{+0.33 Huh. I might be able to play the Botvinnik system here. Haven’t been able to do that in a while…}
3. Bg2
{+0.19}
3. … Bg7
{+0.23}
4. Nc3
{+0.13}
4. … Nf6
{+0.29}
5. e4
{-0.14 Well, definitely not classical, but it might work…}
5. … O-O
{+0.00}
6. Nge2
{-0.03}
6. … e5
{+0.20}
7. d3
{+0.10}
7. … Nbd7
{+0.14 Well, that’s toasted the usual Botvinnik setup completely, but we’re not looking too horrible overall. f4 push should still work…}
8. O-O
{+0.14}
8. … Nc5
{+0.20}
9. Be3
{+0.00}
9. … Ne6
{+0.20}
10. Nd5
{-0.07 That should annoy his knight if nothing else.}
10. … Nh5
{+0.37 Well, now it’s still focussed on f4, but it’s also shunted out of the way a bit.}
11. f4
{+0.06 That’s about all the pieces I’m going to be able to bring to bear, and I’m probably starting this attack a tempo or three late as it is, so no more futzing about.}
11. … exf4
{+0.21}
12. Nexf4 $6 $10
{-0.45 / +0.21 Didn’t even consider gxf4 because I’m being over-protective of my king. Need to think about that for future games…}
( 12. gxf4 c6 13. Ndc3 f5 14. Qd2 Bd7 15. exf5 gxf5 16. Ng3 Nxg3 17. hxg3 Bd4 18. Rae1 Qb6 19. Bxd4 Qxd4+ 20. Re3 Rae8 21. Ne2 Qb6 22. d4 Nc7 23. Rff3 Qa6 24. Rxe8 Rxe8 $10 )
12. … Nhxf4
{-0.10}
13. Nxf4
{-0.30}
13. … Nxf4
{-0.25}
14. Bxf4 $6
{-0.83 / -0.25 Again, not gxf4 because of over-protectiveness}
( 14. gxf4 Bxb2 15. Rb1 Bg7 16. f5 b6 17. Qd2 Bd7 18. Qf2 Qf6 19. Bh3 gxf5 20. Bxf5 Bxf5 21. Qxf5 Qg6+ 22. Kh1 Rae8 23. Rf2 Qxf5 24. Rxf5 Be5 25. d4 $10 )
14. … Bxb2
{-0.85}
15. Bh6
{-0.92 Yeah, well, the rook he’s attacking is passive and his is fairly vital, right? Nope. And this was worse than it was. As in, the actual analysis says it’s not horrible, but the reason for doing it was all wrong, I was seeing BxR, BxR, QxB, QxB and now I’m still even and my Q is looking down that long diagonal at black’s king. Instead…}
15. … Bxa1 $2
{+1.46 / -0.92}
( 15. … Bd4+ 16. Kh1 Re8 17. Qf3 Be6 18. Rab1 Rb8 19. Be3 Bxe3 20. Qxe3 a6 21. a4 b6 22. Qf4 Qd7 23. Ra1 b5 24. cxb5 axb5 25. a5 b4 26. a6 b3 27. a7 Ra8 28. Kg1 c5 )
16. Bxf8 $4
{-7.09 / +1.46 Glork! And there’s the blunder that shatters the attack because I’ve completely missed the check on his next move. Even stockfish is crying here, if I’d just captured with my queen, I had that long diagonal and a nasty potential check or two lined up.}
( 16. Qxa1 f6 17. Bxf8 Qxf8 18. Rxf6 Qe7 19. e5 c6 20. Rxd6 Be6 21. Qc3 Rf8 22. a4 Rd8 23. Rxd8+ Qxd8 24. Be4 Qd7 25. d4 Qf7 26. c5 Bd5 27. Qe3 Bxe4 28. Qxe4 Qc4 $14 )
16. … Bd4+
{-7.11 And there it is. That’s the (limply) beating heart ripped right out of the chest of my game.}
17. Kh1
{-7.16}
17. … Qxf8
{-7.11}
18. Qf3
{-7.53 Now without a plan and flailing wildly to try to stop the counterattack. Out of ideas, the entire attack is destroyed, the momentum lost and I’m rather demoralised.}
18. … Be6
{-7.41}
19. e5
{-8.13 Wasted effort attacking b7}
19. … c6
{-7.73 And he easily counters}
20. exd6
{-7.79 No choice now but to do the exchange and in the process gift him a more useful square for his queen}
20. … Qxd6
{-7.84}
21. Qe4
{-8.58 Still no plan, just centralising the piece}
21. … Qe5
{-7.16 / -8.58 Feck. Forced queen exchange now, it’s just a matter of what end result we get.}
( 21. … Bb6 22. Qe2 Re8 23. a4 Qd4 24. a5 Bxa5 25. Rf4 Qc3 26. Re4 Kg7 27. Bf3 Bb6 28. Qd1 f5 29. Re1 Bf7 30. Rxe8 Bxe8 31. g4 Bd7 $19 )
22. h4
{-8.33 Pushing the pawn mainly to create some space.}
22. … Qxe4
{-7.79 / -8.33}
( 22. … Qd6 23. Kh2 Rd8 24. Rf4 f5 25. Qe1 Re8 26. Rf3 Bb6 27. Qc1 Bd7 28. Qf4 Qxf4 29. gxf4 Re2 30. Kg3 Rxa2 31. Rf1 Ra3 $19 )
23. Bxe4
{-8.06}
23. … Re8
{-8.06}
24. Rb1
{-8.26 Attacking b2 again but mainly to get a back rank rook position, because it’s doing me little good back here}
24. … Bxc4
{-7.95}
25. Rxb7
{-8.06}
25. … Bxa2
{-8.14}
26. Bxc6
{-8.59 We’re just pawn-nibbling now.}
26. … Re1+
{-8.21}
27. Kg2
{-8.27}
27. … Re2+
{-7.99 Here he comes…}
28. Kh3
{-327.44 Ironically, this felt like the safer option, but it’s a lost position here, stockfish just threw up its hands and gave up.}
28. … Be6+
{-327.45}
29. g4
{-327.45}
29. … Re3+
{-9.34 / -327.45 Oh wow. Talk about a lucky escape. Seriously, I was sure I was lost here. Be5 boxes me in and then it’s just a matter of not very much time at all.}
( 29. … Be5 30. Bg2 Bd5 31. Rb8+ Bxb8 32. h5 g5 33. Bxd5 Rh2# $19 )
30. Kg2
{-9.54}
30. … Bxg4
{-9.72}
31. Rb8+
{-10.01 I know how it looks, but honest, it’s not a spite check! 😀 I wanted to get across to attack the dark bishop and this was the best way to do that.}
31. … Kg7
{-10.24}
32. Rd8
{-11.29}
32. … Bh3+
{-11.26}
33. Kf2
{-11.41}
33. … Re8+
{-2.53 And I resigned. Yes, you read that right. He’s just hung the bishop I was attacking, and we’re facing into an even-ish endgame, but I was so demoralised by this point that my brain quit and went home instead of doing its job. What was I thinking? Nothing, that’s the point, I’d given up. This is the worst ending of any chess game I’ve played of late that I can think of.}
( 33. … Re8+ 34. Rxd4 Re6 35. Be4 Re5 36. Rd6 Bf5 37. Kf3 Bxe4+ 38. dxe4 a5 39. Ra6 Rb5 40. Kf4 Rh5 41. Kg3 Rc5 42. Ra7 Rb5 43. Kf3 h6 44. Ra6 Rh5 45. Kg3 Rb5 46. Kf3 )
0-1
[/pgn]
One major blunder in the middle of the attack, okay, I can live with that. Stupid mistakes happen, Eddie made one when he missed the 29…Be5 mate. But that ending… good fecking grief. That was worse than embarressing or bad, that was downright appalling. That was me letting my fustration over the blunder in the attack kill off my morale completely, leaving me just wanting out of the room at any cost. That’s the sort of thing I spent twenty years controlling for every single shot in target shooting; have I forgotten that much since going on hiatus to have Calum? Because that would be… worrying.
Even the graph is enough to make me bang my head off the desk in fustration:
The club report on the night is here. I think the comments just about capture how I feel about this game.
Round 4’s draw is up and I’ve a bye for this round (but I’ll be playing a friendly match).
Postscript: the Round 4 draw was revised. I still have a bye, but for a moment there, it looked like I had to play John, which would have been about as even a match as Round 2 against Zvradko!
Tags: Club Championships