Tebb,D - Littlewood,J [B33]
Merseyside League, 2000
[David Tebb]
*** Knight Tour Ends In Draw *** A draw against John Littlewood is always a good result, but White should have done a little better... 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 is a major alternative, preferred by Kasparov 9...gxf6 Black has to allow his pawn structure to be wrecked as 9...Qxf6? 10.Nd5 Qd8 11.c4 gives White a large plus 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bd3 Be6 12.0-0 12.Qh5 Rg8! is ludicrously complicated 12...Bxd5 The reasoning behind this capture is basically to free up the diagonal for Black's bishop, whilst bringing the knight to its best square on e7 13.exd5 Ne7 14.c3 Preparing a retreat square for the bishop and enabling the knight to re-enter the game 14...Bg7 15.Qh5 White's plan is to attack Black's weak pawns and prepare an eventual kingside attack 15...e4 16.Bc2 16.Be2 is supposed to be inferior becuse the bishop is much more active on its current diagonal 16...Qc8 The queen is heading for the useful square c5 17.Rae1 17.Rad1 is played as frequently 17...Qc5
17...0-0 is probably better, keeping Black's options open 18.Kh1 A useful move, preparing f3 or g4 18...0-0 19.f3 e3!? 20.g4!? I decided to attack! 20.Bxf5 Nxf5 21.Qxf5 Rfe8 intending ...b4, gives Black compensation for the pawn 20...Rae8 He doesn't seem to have anything better 20...Qxd5 21.Rxe3± is miserable for Black 21.gxf5 Nxd5 21...Bf6 loses to 22.Rg1+ Kh8 23.Qh6 Nxd5 24.Be4 22.Rg1 22...f6 The last thing Black wanted to do was block up his own bishop but this was forced Black is soon mated after 22...Kh8?? 23.Rxg7! Kxg7 24.Rg1+ Kh8 25.f6 Nxf6 26.Qh6 23.Qg4 It was tempting to try 23.Rg4 The reason I didn't play this is because Black has 23...e2! and the pawn helps black to both defend, preventing Reg1, and counterattack! i.e. ...Qf2 23...Re7 24.Bb3 Threatening something nasty on the daigonal 24...Kh8 25.Bxd5 Time to cash in on White's advantage 25...Qxd5 26.Rxe3 Rff7 Drat! (The website apologises for this uncharacteristic outburst of strong language from the annotator.) Of course not 26...Rxe3?? 27.Qxg7#; I was more realistically hoping for 26...Rfe8?? 27.Qxg7+! Rxg7 28.Rxe8+ Rg8 29.Rexg8+ winning a piece 27.Nc2 Heading for e6 27...Re5! 28.Rxe5 dxe5 Not 28...fxe5?? 29.f6 winning 29.Nb4 The knight tries to get there by another route 29...Qd2 Queen retreats allow White to play Qe4 with a big advantage 30.Nxa6 Qxb2 31.Nc5 Qxa2 32.Ne6 Finally the knight reaches its ideal post. It was a long journey (g1-f3-d4-b5-a3-c2-b4-a6-c5-e6) but well worth it! 32...Qa7 33.h4 A good move, giving the King more space and threatening to march to h6 Surprisingly Black is still fighting after 33.Qh5 Qd7 34.Ra1 Bf8 33...Rd7 34.h5 h6 It had to be stopped. However White now has an invasion point at g6 35.Nf8 I was now in time trouble 35...Rf7 36.Ne6 Rd7 37.Kh2 Before playing Qg6, I decided to spend a couple of moves improving my King safety 37...Kg8 38.Rg2 Rf7 39.Qg6 At last! 39...Qe3! This position would make a very good "White to Play and Win" problem. 40.Qg4 Boo! Hiss! My only excuse is that I was suffering from a cold ?! [Black had prepared a beautiful defence to 40.Nxg7 Can you see it? The answer is : 40...Qf4+ 41.Rg3 Qh4+ 42.Kg2 Qxg3+!! 43.Kxg3 Rxg7 and Black regains all the material. I saw all this and avoided taking the bishop. However, if I had looked a little further, the pawn ending is winning for White, starting with 44.f4!; Another solution, suggested by Helena Griffiths is 40.f4! with the idea 40...exf4 (or 40...e4 41.Qxh6) 41.Nxg7+-; I think the simplest win is 40.Ra2! Qxf3 (40...Ra7 41.Qe8+ Kh7 42.Rg2!+-) 41.Rd2! and Black has no defence against the threat of Rd8+ 40...Qa7 41.Kh3 I intended to improve my position still further with Rg3 before heading back to g6 41...Qa1! Another good defensive move, preventing Rg3 42.Rg1 Qa7 43.Rd1 I was now very short of time 43...Rd7 44.Rxd7 A desperate man would try 44.Qxg7+ Rxg7 45.Rd8+ hoping for 45...Kh7 46.Nf8+ Kg8 47.Ng6+ Kf7 (47...Kh7 48.Rh8#) 48.Rf8# Unfortunately, I cannot see anything for White after 45... Kf7 44...Qxd7 45.Qg6 With less than 2 minutes for all my moves, I offered a draw which was immediately accepted. With more time I would have played on as White still has an advantage. However, with this draw we won the match 5-3! 1/2-1/2
