In a similar vein to my round 3 opponent, Gordon Brooks, Craig is very easy to prepare for because he always plays the same openings, namely the Scandinavian against 1. e4 and the Dutch against 1. d4. Again, this is helpful in terms of his opponent's preparation but, on the other hand, it means Craig is very well versed in Scandinavian and Dutch theory because he is exposed to so many games in those lines.
With white, Craig always plays the London System regardless of black's response. Therefore, I decided to be cheeky and play the London against him, just to see how he would react. In our previous games, I had opened with 1. e4 twice and 1. d4 once, where I fianchettoed my kingside bishop against his Dutch setup. This time, I had prepared an interesting pawn sacrifice recommended by Cyrus Lakdawala in his book, Play the London System. Lakdawala devotes an entire chapter to playing against the Dutch (incidentally, an opening he doesn't think too highly of) and, although I didn't have time to read it all, I had played through some of the sample games and had gleaned enough information to think I would be on solid enough ground.
The day after, I had my fourth lesson with GM Jesse Kraai and we went over this game. I have paraphrased some of his comments, adding them to my own below.
1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bf4 Nf6 4.h3 g6 5.e3 Bg7 6.Bc4 e6 7.g4
This is the pawn sacrifice. There are two main options for black if he wants to accept the sacrifice, both of which give him a virtually lost position already.
He can try 7. ... fxg4 8. hxg4 Nxg4 9. Ng5! when the knight is attacked and the e pawn is falling.
Alternatively, if black tries to shut down white's bishop on c4 so that it no longer attacks e6, things turn out even worse for him after 7. ... d5 8. Bd3 fxg4 9. hxg4 Nxg4 10. Rxh7! when black's kingside is being carved apart.
Craig was either aware of the sac or intuitively knew it was dangerous, so he wisely declined it.
7.g4 Qe7 8.Rg1 fxg4 9.hxg4 Nc6 10.Nc3 Bd7
After black's 10th move, we reached the position above. Here I was out of my book knowledge already. I knew that putting a rook on g1 was fairly standard, having seen it in one of the sample games in Lakdawala's book. After that, it made sense to put the knight on c3.
Jesse said that I should have seriously considered 11. g5 here, which really puts black's knight in an awkward position. I instinctively didn't play g5 because I figured black would just play 11. ... Nh5 but, although this move looks annoying, it's just an illusion. After 12. Bh2 the knight on h5 is horribly placed and black is virtually playing down a piece. He has no way to get the knight back into the game quickly and white still has all the trumps in the position.
As I had dismissed 11. g5, I figured I needed to castle queenside and had to decide between 11. Qd2 and 11. Qe2. Fritz says that both moves are equally good but, as Jesse said, it makes more sense to put the queen on e2 because there it defends the loose knight on f3. Therefore...
11.Qe2 0–0–0 12.0–0–0 Na5 13.Bb5
Jesse made some highly instructive comments here, both about 12. ... Na5 and also 13. Bb5. I am a little embarrassed to admit that his way of looking at this position didn't even cross my mind during the game even though, with the benefit of hindsight, his comments make total sense. When Jesse and I were going over the game, I dismissed 12. ... Na5 as being suspicious and rather artificial looking. Jesse's exact words were that he had "some sympathy for Na5", the reason being that black is cramped and wants to trade pieces. By playing 12. ... Na5, black is putting the question to white's bishop.
Equally, my assessment of 13. Bb5 was also incorrect because I felt b5 was a natural square for the bishop and there way no way black would capture it as it would bring my queen over towards the queenside where black is castled. However, as Jesse pointed out, there is an old rule in chess that the side with less space should try to trade. That way, he will free up space for his other pieces. In this position, black should want to exchange bishops for that very reason. Funnily enough, Craig obviously didn't appreciate this either because he didn't take on b5!
13. ... Rdf8 14.Bg5
After the game, Craig and I briefly analyzed it and he said he thought I would play 14. Bg5. Indeed, the computer thinks that white is still doing well here, giving a 0.4 pawn advantage. However, as Jesse pointed out, putting my bishop on g5 is another step in the wrong direction. I am basically offering to trade pieces again, which can only benefit black because he has less space.
Additionally, white has much better options such as 14. Bh2!, a move Jesse suggested and actually something I did consider during the game. However, I was already getting a little low on time here and, through inertia, playing the more forcing Bg5.
14. ... Qe8 15.Bxd7+ Qxd7
We reached the above position after black's 15th move. White is still better but it's not as good as it could have been. As Jesse said, "black owes us a tempo with his knight on a5" because it's so poorly placed. However, my next series of moves are a bit suspect. Not losing or anything but definitely not in the spirit of the position.
16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.Ne5
This move looks nice and flashy, the point being that 17. ... dxe5 18. dxe5 and black regains the piece with a slightly favorable position. The other main idea behind this move was to keep black's queen off the c6 square, which was I was a bit concerned about. However, black is not obligated to take on e5 and I am really starting to sour what had been a very promising position.
17. ... Qe8 18.Nc4
Attempting to justify my knight sortie to e5 but why on earth would I want to trade my good knight for black's horrible knight on a5? This is a result of me not fully understanding the position and also my time trouble, which by this point was getting serious.
18.Nc4 Nc6 19.Ne4 Kb8 20.Nxf6 Rxf6 21.g5 Rf7 22.Nd2 e5 23.d5 Ne7 24.Ne4 Qa4
By now, things have gone badly awry for me. I knew that black would play 24. ... Qa4 but I couldn't see what else I could do except to take the plunge and play my Ne4 plan anyway.
25.Nc3 Qa5
A huge surprise. I had assumed that black would play 25. ... Qh4 when I am going to have trouble holding both my f2 and g5 pawns. I'm not sure if Craig saw a ghost and perhaps thought his queen would be short of squares on h4, or if he just flat out missed it (he was also getting low on time by this point).
26.Kb1 Rhf8 27.f4 exf4 28.exf4 Nc8 29.Rh1 Qb4 30.Qd2 Nb6 31.a3 Qc4 32.Rde1 Rxf4 33.Rxh7 Rd4 34.Qe3 a6 35.Qe7 Rc8 36.Rg7
The wrong piece! Correct was 36. Qf7, as Jesse pointed out, because after I capture on g6 with the queen she will be guarding my c2 pawn. Also, my rook really doesn't want to be in front of the pawn. Jesse said it's something common we tell children, "rooks belong behind passed pawns!" He is quite right, of course, and my only excuse is that I had only a few minutes left on the clock. Indeed, I'd had only 4 minutes left to make 9 moves after making my 31st move.
36. ... Nxd5 37.Nxd5 Qxd5 38.Rxg6 Rd1+ 39.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 40.Ka2 Qd5+ 41.Kb1 Qd1+ ½–½
I was surprised that Craig didn't capture my pawn on c2 and play on for a bit. He really has nothing to lose and can bail out into a perpetual check any time he wants it. During the post-game analysis he said he thought my g pawn was dangerous and he couldn't be sure if he was winning or losing if he didn't take the perpetual, so I suppose it was an understandable decision.
I thought this was a very interesting game. Looking back on it, with Jesse's comments still ringing in my ears, I think that neither my opponent or I fully grasped what was happening most of the time. I kept offering to trade pieces, despite having a big space advantage, and black kept declining despite the fact that this would have helped free up his position. On the other hand, I thought my opening preparation was pretty good and that both Craig and I fought well. A draw was the fair result in the end.
Here is the entire PGN of the game:
Hayes,Matthew (2124) - Faber,Craig Allen (2123) [A80]
Istvanyi Open Arcadia (4), 22.09.2014
1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bf4 Nf6 4.h3 g6 5.e3 Bg7 6.Bc4 e6 7.g4 Qe7 8.Rg1 fxg4 9.hxg4 Nc6 10.Nc3 Bd7 11.Qe2 0–0–0 12.0–0–0 Na5 13.Bb5 Rdf8 14.Bg5 Qe8 15.Bxd7+ Qxd7 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.Ne5 Qe8 18.Nc4 Nc6 19.Ne4 Kb8 20.Nxf6 Rxf6 21.g5 Rf7 22.Nd2 e5 23.d5 Ne7 24.Ne4 Qa4 25.Nc3 Qa5 26.Kb1 Rhf8 27.f4 exf4 28.exf4 Nc8 29.Rh1 Qb4 30.Qd2 Nb6 31.a3 Qc4 32.Rde1 Rxf4 33.Rxh7 Rd4 34.Qe3 a6 35.Qe7 Rc8 36.Rg7 Nxd5 37.Nxd5 Qxd5 38.Rxg6 Rd1+ 39.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 40.Ka2 Qd5+ 41.Kb1 Qd1+ ½–½
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