It's Better to be Lucky Than Good

Last night at the Arcadia Chess Club I faced off against long-time nemesis Gordon Brooks. Gordon and I had played each other ten times previously, with the score heavily in my favor (+5 =4 -1). However, I was extremely lucky in at least a couple of those games, taking advantage of Gordon's addiction to time trouble to turn lost or drawn positions into wins. Gordon has also been making a bit of a comeback lately; after hovering near his 1900 rating floor for a long time, he is back up to 1962. As he used to be rated over 2100, I couldn't take anything for granted.

I knew I would have the black pieces and knew that Gordon would play the English Opening. He is one of those players who is easy to prepare for, because he usually plays the same thing, but what he does play he knows very well and this can make him a dangerous opponent. I had done some preparation over the weekend but, right up until I made my first move, I wasn't 100% sure if I would play 1. ... e5 or 1. ... c5. I had prepared something in both lines based on the moves Gordon had made in our earlier games. As it turned out, I opted for 1. ... e5 and obtained what I thought was a pleasant position out of the opening but Fritz disagrees completely.

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 f5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d3 Bb4

In a previous game of ours in this line, Gordon had played 5. Nf3?!  which is a bit dubious after 5. ... e4. 5. ... Bb4  is a standard response (Bc5 is also playable), looking to trade on c3 and double white's pawns.

6.Bd2 0–0 7.Nf3 d6 8.0–0 Bxc3

The first of several dubious decisions by me. Capturing on c3 makes more sense if white has spent a tempo by playing a3 first. I was concerned about the knight jumping into d5 but, with hindsight, I don't think this is particularly dangerous.

9.Bxc3 Qe8

A standard maneuver for black in the e5 English.

10.Qd2 h6

Probably OK but I should have seriously considered shoring up the queenside first by playing Rb8 and b6 at the earliest opportunity. 10. ... h6 does prevent black from playing his queen to g5 but I shouldn't have been so concerned about that. Black can either trade queens or drop his own queen back and play h6 later.

11.b4 Qh5 12.b5 Ne7 13.a4 Ng4

Fritz doesn't like this at all. White is starting to get some serious play on the queenside, the very side of the board I have been neglecting. Again, black would have still had decent attacking chances after securing the queenside first.

14.h3 Nf6 15.Nh2

After white's 15th move, we reached this position:

It's clear that white is counting on his queenside activity to distract black from his own play on the kingside. However, in addition to unleashing the bishop on g2, 15. Nh2  had another point: white wants to play f4. I knew Gordon wanted to play f4 and had to decide how to meet this. The computer says that black should play 15. ... f4!  himself and, even though white is slightly better, there's not too much in it. Unfortunately, I decided to be hyper-aggressive and banged out the scary looking but incorrect...

15. ... g5 16.f4 gxf4 17.gxf4 Ng6 18.e3

Which lead us to this position:

 

 

The position is now becoming critical and I realized I had committed one of GM Jesse Kraai's cardinal sins, namely playing with my "pretty pieces" before I had completed my development. True, the bishop on c8 does potentially play a role in the attack but my rook on a8 isn't too happy, especially with white's g2 bishop eyeing it. I should just bite the bullet and play 18. ... Rb8  and then develop the bishop to d7 or e6. Instead, I decided to be flashy but made a crucial miscalculation. I decided I would sac the exchange on a8 in return for winning white's h pawn. This wouldn't have won a pawn, since black would also win my b7 pawn, but I thought it would open his king up enough to give me some chances. This was really playing "hope chess" in many ways because, if we look at the force count over on the kingside, black will have at best four attackers (the queen, rook and both knights) but that won't happen immediately because I'm going to spend two tempi capturing the bishop on a8 once it takes my rook and then moving it back to f8. In the meantime, white already has queen, rook and knight defending his kingside and it's easy to get the other rook involved via a2. Watch what happens...

18. ... Be6 19.Bxb7 Qxh3 

Here I have missed my last chance to bail out and just accept being down a pawn and having a significantly worse position. If I had moved the a8 rook to safety instead of sacrificing the exchange, black is much worse but I can play on. Instead, I had played 19. ... Qxh3  thinking I would have reasonable compensation for the exchange due to white's insecure king and my dangerous looking knights. In reality, white's king would be perfectly safe tucked away on h1 and my king's safety isn't much better. It's nowhere near enough for the exchange.

Here's what I had missed:

20.Bxa8 Rxa8 21.Qg2!

And I have a major problem. I had hallucinated that this move wasn't possible because of 21. ... Qxe3+  but it doesn't work. White will just play 22. Kh1  and suddenly my a8 rook and g6 knight are en prise. Black would be totally busted. This was another consequence of my dubious g5 pawn push earlier in the game; opening the g file has been to white's benefit, not black's.

Funnily enough, Fritz says that 20. Rf3  is even better when black's queen is suddenly in danger of being trapped. The text move is still winning, however.

After white's 21st move, I knew I was dead lost with the queens coming off the board but what to do? All I can do is play on and try to find some way to generate complications.

21.... Qxg2+ 22.Kxg2 Kf7 23.fxe5 dxe5 24.Nf3 Ng4

At least now I am finally following all of the computer's top recommended moves. Better late than never! After black's 24th move we reached the position below. Gordon was starting to get a bit low on time (as was I) and he had cracked in time pressure in some of our games in the past. White should play 25. Rfe1  but Gordon played 25. Rae1  instead. At a glance, it looks natural to want to keep the rook on f1 where it is because it opposes black's king on f7. However, there is no real way to exploit that at the moment and we'll see in a moment why 25. Rae1  is a mistake.


 

25.Rae1 Rd8!

White suddenly has problems holding all of his pawns.

26.d4 Bxc4 27.Nxe5+ N4xe5 28.Rxf5+ Ke6

Here Gordon's time pressure was getting severe and he had a total meltdown. He should just concede that things have gone awry and play 29. Rxe5+ Nxe5 30. dxe5  and we reach an endgame where white is up a pawn but black has excellent drawing chances. Psychologically, that's a tough adjustment to make when white was winning only a few moves ago. Instead, Gordon opts to go into a position where black has two pieces for a rook and is much better.

29.Rh5 Nd3 30.Rd1

And we reached the position below. Black to play and win.

30. ... Ndf4+ 31.Kf2

Compounding the problem. White needs to play 31. exf4  so at least he is only dropping the exchange and not an entire rook.

31. ... Nxh5 32.Rh1 Rf8+ 33.Ke1 Ng3 34.Rxh6 Rf1+ 35.Kd2 Ne4+ 36.Kc2 Rf2+ 0–1

Gordon resigned. Even though black isn't winning a piece immediately (if I take the c3 bishop my knight on g6 hangs), black can just play the calm 37. ... Kf6  (after white's king moves out of check) and white is down two pieces, his bishop is still en prise, and is king is close to being in a mating net too.

This was a very curious game, probably quite typical of amateurs where the advantage shifted dramatically from one side to the other in the space of a few moves. I was not at all happy with how I played up to move 22 but, once I had calmed down and realized that, yes, my position was objectively lost but I could still create some complications, I felt I played quite well. I was certainly aided by Gordon making a number of terrible blunders, which can at least partly be explained by his time trouble. The crowd of people that had gathered around to watch the game only increased the tension.

I will look forward to my next encounter with Gordon. Our games are usually very interesting and this wasn't the first time I had gotten out of jail, so to speak. In fact, it was at least the third time (although ironically, in our last game it was the other way around where I had thrown the game away after absent mindedly walking into a pawn fork on my king and rook).

 Here is the complete PGN:

Brooks,L Gordon (1962) - Hayes,Matthew (2124) [A25]

Istvanyi Open Arcadia (3), 15.09.2014

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 f5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d3 Bb4 6.Bd2 0–0 7.Nf3 d6 8.0–0 Bxc3 9.Bxc3 Qe8 10.Qd2 h6 11.b4 Qh5 12.b5 Ne7 13.a4 Ng4 14.h3 Nf6 15.Nh2 g5 16.f4 gxf4 17.gxf4 Ng6 18.e3 Be6 19.Bxb7 Qxh3 20.Bxa8 Rxa8 21.Qg2 Qxg2+ 22.Kxg2 Kf7 23.fxe5 dxe5 24.Nf3 Ng4 25.Rae1 Rd8 26.d4 Bxc4 27.Nxe5+ N4xe5 28.Rxf5+ Ke6 29.Rh5 Nd3 30.Rd1 Ndf4+ 31.Kf2 Nxh5 32.Rh1 Rf8+ 33.Ke1 Ng3 34.Rxh6 Rf1+ 35.Kd2 Ne4+ 36.Kc2 Rf2+ 0–1