shocked when he played this, since he must have seen that White will immediately win the pawn back with a tactic. I felt at the time that the c5 pawn was so weak that Black had time to prepare to capture it more safely and gain a two pawn advantage for the exchange. However on reflection maybe it’ s not so clear cut, since the natural 24 … Ndc7 neutralising 25. a4 and with the idea 25 … Nxc5 does not work after 25. Rd6 Nxc5 26. Rxc6 and anything else beginning with 24 … Nac7 is probably too slow, eg; 25. a4 bxa4 26. Ra1. 25. Bxb5 Kd6( If 25 … cxb5 26. Rxd5) 26. Bc4 Rb8 27. b3 Nd7
����������� ����������� ����������� �����������
����������� ����������� �����������
����������� ����������� �����������
Here I start to drift and it’ s where I lose any realistic winning chances. Having overlooked the elementary 29 … Rb7, it’ s clear I’ m not going to improve my position any further by one-move threats and I would have been better employed organising a blockade of black’ s trump card – the passed e pawn. One line could go 28. Re2 N7d6 29. Rde1 Nf4( or else 30. g3) 30. Rxd6 + Nxd6 31. Rxd6 + Kc5 with chances for an edge for White. 28. Re3 N7f6 29. Rg3? Rb7 30. Rf3 e5! Naturally enough. 31. h3 e4 32. Rf5 Re7 33. g4 Kc5 34. g5 I could try to restrain the King with 34. a3 but then 34 … g6 35. Rff1 e3 36. Be2 Ne4 is unpleasant for White. Alternatively just a simple and natural 34 … a4 would threaten to open up my Queen’ s side. 35... hxg5 35. Rxg5 Kb4 36. Be2
����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� �����������
Pretty much forced. Simplifying into a materially equal endgame with 36. Bxd5 cxd5 37. Rgxd5 Nxd5 38. Rxd5 is superficially attractive, but after 38 … e3 39. Kf1 Rf7 + 40. Ke1 Rf3 it’ s Black who has all the active play. 36 … Ka3 The Black King invades, but maybe I can turn it to my advantage by sacrificing a pawn to open some lines. Alternatively, 36 … Nf4 37. Rd4 + Kc3 38. Rc4 + Kd2 would have become very messy for both sides. 37. Rd4 Kxa2 38. Ra4 + Kxb3 39. Rxa5 Nc3 40. Kf1 Nfd5 41. Rc5 Ne3 + 42. Kf2! Anything else loses eg; 42. Ke1? Nc2 + 43. Kd2( 43. Kf1 Rf7 + 44. Rgf5 Ne3 + 0-1) Rd7 + 0-1 42... Nc2 43. Bc4 +! Covering the vital f7 square. 43 … Kb4 44. Rxc6 And after some aggressive defence White has reduced the pawn deficit again. 44 … e3 + 45. Kg2 45. Kf1 allows 45 … Rf7 +! and moving anywhere else loses to a Knight fork. 45 … Nd4 46. Rc8 e2 47. Bxe2 Ncxe2
����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� �����������
Now my plan becomes very simple – to sacrifice all my remaining material for Black’ s Rook and pawn, leaving him with a King and two Knights versus my King. There now follows a long passage of play with White alternately threatening the g pawn and if a Knight moves to cover, switching to cutting off the Black King. 48. Rg4 Rf7 49. Rg8 Nf4 + 50. Kh2 Nfe6 51. Rc8 Kb5 52. Rg2 Nc7 53. Rg8 Nde6 54. Rc2 Nc5 55. Rg2 N7e6 56. Rc8 Kc4 57. Rd2 Rf3 58. Rh8 Kc3 59. Ra2 Kd4 60. Rh4 + Ke3 61. Rg4 Nd3? 62. Rg3 Rxg3 63. Kxg3 Part 1 accomplished. 63... Ke4 64. Ra8 Ne5 65. Rg8 Kf5 66. h4 Nf7 67. h5 Nh6 68. Rxg7?! Nxg7
����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������� ����������
69. Kf3 After 68 … Nxg7 I had kind of assumed that I had reached the finishing line with a draw, but with IM Welling playing on, it slowly dawned on me that this was not so. In fact, as he confirmed to me after the game, the position after Black’ s 68th move is a theoretical win for the second player. The pawn needs to be on the 6th rank for White to be sure to draw on best play. What’ s going on here of course is that with the pawn on, White has to lose a tempo with a pawn move while the Black Knights and King are stalemating their opponent, enabling checkmate to be delivered the move following. In my play I had only considered the case of mate being delivered where the White King is hemmed in, the vital escape square being blocked by his own pawn: I thought by running across to the other side of the board I would be safe. Not so. However,
25 | P a g e I r i s h C h e s s J o u r n a l