23. Rxe5? During the game we both thought that 23. dxe5 Nh5 24. Qh4( 24. Qe3 Bxg2! 25. Kxg2 Rxd3!) 24... Bxg2 favours Black, but the computer shows that after 25. Be2! Bd5 26. Bxh5 gxh5 27. Kh2! h6( worse is 27... f6 28. exf6 Qd6 + 29. Kg1) 28. Rg1 + Kh7 29. Qxh5 Black is struggling to survive. In the approaching time-trouble I didn ' t even seriously consider to give up the pawn g2, but this was the right way to continue, keeping White ' s advantage. 23... Kg7 =/+ Now the situation changed completely, as it became obvious that Black has little to fear and can try to play for more than equality. With the last move Alex correctly rejected my draw offer, since his position is very safe and he had considerably more time on the clock. 24. a3 Qd6 25. Qh4 Be6 26. Ne2 b6 27. b4
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27... a5!? Alex is trying to play as complicated as possible, using his advantage on the clock. But now the position becomes very sharp and Black is also taking risk. 28. bxa5 Qxa3 29. Nf4 Qc1 + Again the strongest continuation is spotted by the computer: 29... Bg4! with the idea Qc1xf4. ALex saw the idea, but chose the wrong move order. After 29... Bg4 objectively speaking Black is probably better, but the position remains very sharp and double-edged. 30. Kh2
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30... Bg4? Here Black should have already gone for the draw: 30... Ng4 + 31. Kg3 Nxe5 32. Nxe6 + fxe6 33. Qxd8 Nxd3 34. Qe7 + Kh6 35. Qh4 + Kg7 =. 31. Qg5! Not only protecting the knight on f4, but also creating a threat of a knight check, winning the queen from c1. Here we both realized that White is winning. Alex calculated only 31. Re3 Rxd4 but here White is actually winning as well thanks to the nice move 32. Ne2 using the pin of the bishop g4. 31... Qd1 32. hxg4 Nxg4 + 32... Qxg4 would have put up more resistance, although it would have hardly changed the result, since after 33. Be2( 33. axb6 h6!) 33... Qxg5 34. Rxg5 Rxd4 35. g3 White is technically winning. 33. Kg3 Nxe5 34. Qxe5 + Kg8 35. f3 Creating the idea 35. Nh5 + gxh5 36. Qg5 +( 35. axb6 Qb3 seemed less clear to me during the game, although it is also completely winning after 36. Qc7 Rf8 37. Kh2 g5 38. Qe5 gxf4 39. Qg5 + Kh8 40. Qh6.) 35... Qa1 36. Ne6! Here 36. Nh5?? would have been a big mistake, since 36... Qxd4 protects against the mate on g7 and Black is suddenly winning! 36... fxe6 37. Qxe6 + Kf8 38. Bc4 Rd5 39. Bxd5 cxd5 40. axb6 Qb2 41. Qxd5 1-0
Game reproduced with the kind permission of the Galway chess club. www. galwaychess. com
Cafolla, P- Rochev, Y [ B23 ] Galway Masters( 2) [ Notes by Peter Cafolla ] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 This is quite a good way of meeting the Closed Sicilian as long as you don ' t mind playing the French Defence. 3. g3 d5 4. exd5 exd5 5. d3 I’ ve struggled in this line before so decided to follow a Nigel Davies recommendation this time. 5... Nf6 6. Bg2 d4 7. Ne4 Nxe4 8. Bxe4 The alternative dxe4 is probably a bit more ambitious but against Rochev I was happy to keep things quiet. 8... Nd7 9. Ne2 Nf6 10. Bg2 Be7 11.0- 0 0-0 12. Re1 = a5 13. c3 I was already well up on the clock but I thought for quite a while here as I have a number of plausible options Qc2, h3, Nf4, a3, Rb1, Bd2, Bg5 13... a4
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14. c4?! I thought that by taking control of d5 and b5 that I might have some hope of an advantage but Fritz seems to think that all the aforementioned moves were slightly better. I can ' t honestly say that I can see what ' s wrong with c4, perhaps it weakens d3. 14... h6 15. a3 Ra7 16. Nf4 b6 I assessed the position as being slightly better for me here because of my nice Bishop and the d5 square. Philip Short said afterwards that he thought Black better because he had more space. Fritz thinks it’ s dead level. Take your pick.
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