New post of old material

I have not posted for a while as I have been on holiday so I decided to post some notes to a game I played quite a while ago. These notes were first published in New Zealand Chess Magazine but they were so butchered I would be surprised if anyone could follow them in any case.

One might get the impression from this game also being against Gavin that I play him a lot. Not really true, actually we just play more interesting games.

Gavin Marner - Nicolas Croad

North Island Championship (8), 2006

This game was played in the final round of an 8-round swiss tournament. I was seeded second and currently sitting in second place however I could not catch the tournament leader and I didn't expect the only player half a point behind me would be likely to win against him. In other words neither of us required any result out of the game and we were free to play without any regard to the result.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.O-O-O d5 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.Bh6

This move was not known to me (technically also the previous move) but as Gavin informed me after the game it is known to theory. In fact he has played this way before. My reaction is very naive.

11...Bxh6 12.Qxh6 Qb6 13.e5

Initially I had gone into this position expecting to play 13...Nd7 14.f4 Qe3+ 15.Kb1 Nxe5 however I thought that after 14.h4 Nxe5 15.h5 I am completely lost. The position has taken on a very critical nature and I sank into deep thought.

13...Nh5?!

I discovered the main like here goes, 13...Nd7 14.h4 Nxe5 15.h5 Bf5 16.g4 and now, 16...f6! (the move I didn't find during the game) saves Black from his fate.

14.g4 Rb8!

The only move worth considering. I execute a piece sacrifice leading to an extremely unclear position. In return for my piece the White king takes a journey into the centre of the board and White's attack down the h-file is blocked by 2 h-pawns. Gavin in not required to take up the challenge and if there was a moment to change the course of the play it was now.

15.gxh5?!

The alternatives don't leave White material ahead and Gavin takes up the challenge.

Instead 15.Na4 Qb4 16.gxh5 (16.b3 Qf4+ 17.Qxf4 Nxf4 with some advantage to Black) 16...Qxa4 17.Bd3 Qh4! 18.Rhg1 c5 19.f4 Bg4! gives Black a significant advantage.

15.b3 Qb4 16.gxh5 Qxc3 and Black is better.

15.Bd3! is a very strong move and Gavin would probably have won this game had he played it. He clearly won a brief post-mortem after the game with this move. I didn't consider it at all being a little pre-occupied with the piece sacrifice which I thought was on the cards. Variations are hardly required, 15...Ng7 16.h4 f5 17.Na4 Qb4 18.h5 and White has great chances because Black's attack has stagnated and his king in is a precarious position. Black must force the queens off the board with the move 18...fxg4 19.hxg6 Qf4+ and hope to draw the resulting position where it is only likely he will go wrong.

15...Qxb2+ 16.Kd2 Bf5 17.Bd3

17.Rc1 Rbd8! 18.Rg1 (18.Ne2 d4 -+) 18...Qb4! 19.Rb1 Qd4+ picks up the rook.

17...Bxd3 18.Kxd3 Qa3!!

Amazing really. With Black a piece down the best move is a quiet one setting up a pin across the third rank, preparing to get the piece back. When I first saw this position I was going to play 18...Qb4 19.Ne2 Qc4+ 20.Kd2 Rb2 with an unclear position but eventually convinced myself this move is stronger.

19.Kd2

Not 19.Qe3 d4 20.Kxd4 Rfd8+ 21.Ke4 Rb4+ -+

19.Qc1 Qb4 20.Qa1 is the sort of defensive maneuvre you don't consider (and I didn't) but after 20...f6 white has serious problems to solve none the less.

19...Qb4 20.hxg6?

This move clears the f7 square for Black to defend his kingside from. White needed to realise that Black has full compensation for his sacrifice and find the most accurate way to force the draw. There is no alternative for either side in the variation, 20.Rhg1 Qd4+ 21.Kc1 Qxc3 22.hxg6 Qa1+ 23.Kd2 Qd4+ 24.Kc1 and I must take a perpetual check.

20...fxg6 21.Rhg1 Rf7

The game comes to a sudden and not very favourable end after, 21...Rxf3 22.Rxg6+ hxg6 23.Qxg6+ Kf8 24.Qh6+ Ke8 25.Qh5+ Kd8 26.Qxf3 d4 27.Ke2! +- or the alternative, 21...d4 22.Rxg6+ Kf7 23.Rg7+ Ke8 24.Qxc6+ Kd8 25.Ke2 +-

22.Rb1 Qd4+ 23.Ke2 Qxe5+?

I was feeling my way through the complications here and had not even realise that I could/should play on in this position. The most accurate move here was 23...Rd8! not allowing White any alternative but to transpose into the position which the game reaches on move 28.

Of course not 23...Rxb1 24.Rxb1 Qxc3 25.Rb8+ Rf8 26.Rxf8#

24.Kd2?

Gavin doesn't want the draw which can happen after 24.Qe3 Qxh2+ 25.Qf2 Qe5+ 26.Qe3 but he now ends up in a difficult position. Instead Black can play on with 25...Qxf2+ 26.Kxf2 Rbf8 27.Rg3 e5 though this looks a bit more like a losing attempt than a winning attempt.

24...Qd4+ 25.Ke2 Qc4+ 26.Kd2 Qd4+ 27.Ke2 Rd8!

I repeated the position here a couple of times to gain clock time while I was deciding if I would play on or accept the repetition. My last move keeps the queens on the board and shows Black really has the advantage here. Amazingly enough White has only one decent response.

28.Qd2 Qe5+ 29.Kd1

29.Qe3 Qxe3+ 30.Kxe3 d4+ -+ was the most important point of 27...Rd8.

29...Rxf3 30.Re1!?

A clever concept which I completely over-looked. Gavin gives back the piece to double rooks on the seventh rank. Good alternatives are difficult to come by, 30.Re2 Rdf8 31.Re1 Qxh2 leaves White struggling without even having material equality. Still when you have sacrificed material it is always some relief at the point when you actually get it back again.

30...Qxc3 31.Qxc3 Rxc3 32.Rxe7 Rh3 33.Rbb7 Rxh2 34.Rg7+?!

Making the win easy. More resistance was offered by 34.Rxa7 d4 35.a4 d3 36.cxd3 Rf8 37.Re1 Ra2 38.a5 Ra1+ 39.Kd2 Rf2+! 40.Ke3 Rxe1+ 41.Kxf2 Ra1-+ but I should win here with my rook behind the pawn.

34...Kh8 35.Rxa7 Rf8 36.Ke1?!

This shortens the game a little however after 36.Kc1 Rf1+ 37.Kb2 Rf2 38.Rgc7 Rxc2+ 39.Kb3 Rb2+ 40.Kc3 Rb8 41.Rxc6 Rd8 -+ the win is no longer in doubt.

36...Rb8 0-1

When great players follow your games

In the year 2000 I won the New Zealand Junior Championship mostly as a result of the strongest junior (and now second strongest adult) player in the country catching a cold and not playing. As a result of this I was eligible to play in the World Junior Championship in Yerevan Armenia. It was an amazing trip to the other side of the world where I ended up competing in a tournament along side many young stars of today. My opponent in this game was at the time only a FIDE master but has since gained the GrandMaster title.

Recently I noticed a game where a real star of junior chess follows an idea and game which I played there. Notably of course with a better result than I could achieve. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this because this is one game from the tournament where I might have won. Who knows who might have beaten me in the subsequent rounds if I had won this game.

FM Morteza, Mahjoob - Croad, Nicolas

World Junior Championship (2), Yerevan Armenia, 2000

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nd5 Be7

Though I tried my best to prepare for the tournament it was a hopeless task and my openings were sorely under done. The result of this was that I had to think about my move here 5...Be7 which is however a good and known book move. I think that the time I took to decide on this move may have helped to get my creative juices flowing.

6.Nxd4 O-O 7.Nb5?! Nxe4?

Here David Howell played the move 7...Bc5 which is significantly stronger however the game transposes back shortly.

8.Nbxc7?

The better move 8.Bd3 would have completely refuted my idea. This is why Howell's move is significantly more accurate. After 8.Bd3 I am forced to essay the dubious piece sacrifice 8...Nxf2 9.Kxf2 Bc5+ 10.Kf1 or allow White to secure a significant and stable advantage after 8...Nf6 9.Nbxc7 Nxd5 10.Nxd5 += (and if 10...Qa5+ 11.c3). Now we reach the same position by transposition.

8...Bc5!

9.Qf3?

David Howell's opponent H Toufighi found an interesting resource, which indicates he is a good player in his own right. That game went 9.Bd3? Nxf2! 10.Bxh7+ Kxh7 11.Qh5+ Kg8 12.Bg5 and it looks like the Black queen is trapped however 12...Re8+ 13.Kf1 Re5 0-1. While most of Howell's moves here were forced I would suspect that many of them were found before he played 9...Nxf2 or even 7...Bc5.

An annotation of that game gives 9.Be3 Bxe3 10.fxe3 when the position could probably be judged unclear. I think that now Black must play 10...Rb8 because he doesn't gain sufficient compensation for the piece sacrifice after 10...Qh4+ 11.g3 Nxg3 12.hxg3 Qxh1 13.Nxa8 +-. In this position with both White knights in this precarious position and the White king vulnerable I would certainly rather take the Black side however.

9...Nxf2 10.Be3

Instead with 10.Nxa8 Nxh1 White must follow up with 11.Be3 transposing because 11.Nac7 loses to 11...Nd4! 12.Qd3 Qh4+ -+.

10...Bxe3 11.Nxe3

White loses a queen after 11.Qxe3 Nxh1 12.Nxa8 Re8 -+

11...Nxh1

Maybe clearer though weaker here was 11...Qxc7 12.Qxf2 and Black is a pawn up and has already castled. I think that given the difference in our ratings I was not confident about holding onto the advantage of just one pawn and decided to try for the maximum. The choice is more a matter of style or ability. I think my move in the game was more correct but I didn't really complete the calculation requirements to actually justify playing it so in a sense I was gambling on my positional intuition.

12.Nxa8 Qh4+ 13.Kd2 Qb4+ 14.c3 Qxb2+ 15.Nc2 d5

White's last couple of moves have been forced and Black's moves clearly strong but now there is no straight killer blow so it is time to stop and decide how to follow up. Obviously White has a slightly easier time of it extracting his knight than I will.

16.Bd3 d4?

I think after 16...Ne5! I would have secured the whole point. White must choose between 17.Qf4 Nxd3 18.Kxd3 g6 where both 19.g4 Bxg4 and 19.Nd4 Nf2+ leave a position which Black should win without difficulties, and the alternative 17.Bxh7+ Kxh7 18.Qh5+ Kg8 19.Qxe5 Nf2 -+ where Black has both the safer king and more material.

The move I missed here in my calculations was 18.Qe4 attacking the knight and threatening mate on h7, though this is really because my calculating ability was rather limited at this time and I was becoming confused and tired of calculating variations even at this stage in the game. The major lesson I learned from my games at the World Junior was that it is always possible to put up resistance, no matter how bad your position is and often to win. Many of my opponents did exactly this to me throughout the tournament even when I was better or winning against them.

17.cxd4 Nxd4 18.Qe4 Nf5

Trying to keep as many pieces as possible on the board. The alternative 18...Bf5 19.Qxd4 Qxd4 20.Nxd4 Bxd3 21.Kxd3 +- leaves White with a piece for two pawns regardless of how I follow up. White is clearly winning in either case.

19.Rxh1 g6 20.Nc7 Bd7 21.Re1 Rc8 22.Nd5 Be6 23.Qe5!

Once the queens are exchanged there are fewer chances for White to slip up even with his king in the centre.

13...Qxe5 24.Rxe5 Kg7 25.Nc3 Rd8 26.Rc5 Ne7 27.a3 Nc6 28.Ne3 Nd4 29.Rc7 Nc6 30.Ke2 Nd4+ 31.Kf2 Nb3 32.Bc4 Rd2+ 33.Kf1 Bxc4+ 34.Nxc4 Rc2 35.Nd6 1-0

Marner does it again!

Recently at the Wellington Chess Club we completed the Club Championships. This is usually a round robin event with sections based on playing strength. There were three sections A,B,C and I was playing in the 10-player A section as I have for several years. The ratings of the players in the A section range from around 2348 to 1960 and the tournament eventually split into two halves with players in the top half usually beating the players in the bottom half. I finished clear third so you might imagine that I consistently beat the players in the bottom half however you would be wrong about one of them, Gavin Marner. In fact for several years now I have struggled to get the better of him in a Club Champs game. This one was far from error free and as you will see arrived at a very original position with 2 pawns drawing against queen and pawn!

Croad, Nicolas - Marner, Gavin

Wellington Chess Club Championships (3), 2007

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.O-O Nf6 6.d4 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Nxd4 8.Qxd4 O-O 9.Nc3 d6 10.Qd3 Be6 11.Bg5 Rc8 12.b3 Qd7 13.Rac1 Bh3?!

Gavin misses the following exchanges which leave him with an inferior pawn structure. However I over-estimated the size of my advange in the resulting position. Black might have avoided the damage to his pawn structure with a move such as 13...Rfe8 or 13...Rfd8 preparing ...Bh3 at a later point. Note the alternative 13...Rc5 fails to a similar continuation to the game 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 15.Ne4 Rf5 16.Nxf6+ Rxf6 17.e4 and the rook is completely mis-placed on the f6 square.

14.Bxf6! Bxf6

Not possible is 14...Bxg2?? 15.Bxg7 Bxf1 16.Bxf8 and black loses a piece.

15.Nd5 Bxg2 16.Nxf6+ exf6 17.Kxg2 Rc5!

I didn't see this last maneuvre coming and only now I started to realise the actual magnitude of my advantage here. White has the better pawn structure without a doubt but Black will be no worse if he can play d6-d5 and exchange away his only really vulnerable pawn. I would quite like to play 18.e4 to fix the pawn but since I am not threatening the pawn immediately Black can exchange this pawn away with 18...f5 I decided it would be better to threaten the d6 pawn first and maybe then fix it with e2-e4 also.

Note that 18.Rfd1 is the wrong rook because of 18...Qc6+ 19.Kg1 d5! and any advantage White had has gone already.

18.Rcd1 Rd8?

Black gets his rook pinned down and White's advantage becomes significantly more tangible. Instead Black should have sought to defend the d-pawn from the side first counterattacking against the e2-pawn. After 18...Re8 19.Rd2 Qc6+ 20.Kg1 Re6 Black has minimized his dis-advantage and may soon be able to equalise with pawn breaks like b7-b5.

19.e4 Qc6 20.Kg1 b5 21.cxb5 Qxb5 22.Qxb5?

So far White has achieved the maximum which was available and the positional advantage is secured but here I made a slip-up. The Black queen is relatively impotent while the White queen has several weak pawns to attack. After 22.Qd4 f5 23.exf5 Rxf5 24.Qxa7 Black drops a pawn while following 22.Qd4 Kg7 the f-pawn is pinned and Black can't exchange it for the e-pawn. Subsequently I would have been able to secure the advantage by doubling rooks on the d-file.

I thought at the time that control of the c-file by my rooks would be worth more than it actually was. Now the game enters a grinding phase where I attempt to convince Gavin that my advantage is greater than it actually is and apply enough pressure to induce a serious error from him.

22...Rxb5 23.Rc1 Ra5 24.Rc2 Kf8 25.Rd1 Rd7 26.Kg2 f5 27.exf5 Rxf5 28.Rc6 Ra5 29.a4 Ke7 30.f4 Ke6 31.Kf3 Rd5 32.Re1+ Kf6 33.Re3 Rd2 34.h3 Rh2 35.Rd3 Ke7 36.h4 h5 37.Ke3 Rb2 38.Kd4 Rb7 39.Kc4 Ke6??

Late in the game and the evening Gavin blunders. It's always difficult to explain the reason for these sorts of moves. Instead 39...Rc2+ 40.Kd5 Rxc6 41.Kxc6 Rb6+ 42.Kc7 and it's still not clear that White has any advantage from his aggressive king position. For example, 42...Ke6 43.a5 Rb5 44.Rxd6+ Kf5 = and White has too many weak pawns to hold onto the extra one.

40.Rcxd6+ Ke7 41.R6d5 Rc2+ 42.Kd4 Rb4+ 43.Ke3 Rb7 44.f5 Rb2 45.fxg6 fxg6 46.Rb5 Rxb5 47.axb5 Ke6 48.Kd4 Rc2 49.Rc3 Rxc3?

This swap into a pawn endgame came as a complete surprise. I had to check again my calculations of the pawn endgame which results. Clearly Gavin didn't make any calculations before entering this endgame or he would have rejected this exchange. His only excuse for this is time trouble and the that superficially it looks like he might be slightly ahead.

50.Kxc3 Kf5 51.Kb4 Kg4 52.Ka5 Kxg3 53.Ka6 Kxh4 54.Kxa7 g5 55.b6 g4 56.b7 Kh3 57.b8=Q g3

58.Qf4??

Satisfied that the game was completely in my grasp I casually brought my queen back to f4, expecting Gavin to resign. Only after I had moved did I begin to realise what was actually happening on the board. Of course 58.Qc8+ would have won easily here with the point that 58...Kh2 59.Qh8 wins Black's h-pawn.

58...h4

First I noticed the following variation 59.b4 g2 60.Qf2 g1=Q 61.Qxg1 with stalemate! It didn't seem like this would cause too much of a headache until I also found the variation, 59.Qf3 Kh2 60.b4 g2 61.Qg4 g1=Q+ 62.Qxg1+ Kxg1 63.b5 h4 with a draw once both players queen.

59.Ka6

Thinking that perhaps I might still eek out a win after 59...g2 60.Qf3+ Kh2 61.Qg4 g1=Q 62.Qxh4+ Kg2 63.Qg4+ Kf2 64.Qxg1+ +- and with a certain trap in mind but it turns out this move is also insufficient.

59...g2 60.Qf3+ Kh2 61.Qe2

Once I realised that 61.Qg4 h3 amounts to the same thing I decided to try a different move order where I get to advance my pawn a further square towards promotion first.

61...h3 62.b4 Kh1 63.Qf3 Kh2!

Gavin avoids my trap and it becomes clear that this game will end in a draw. Not 63...h2?? 64.Qe4! Kg1 65.Qe1#

64.Qf4+ Kh1 65.Qg4 Kh2 66.Qf4+ Kh1 67.Qg3 h2 68.Qf3 Kg1 69.Qe3+ Kf1 70.Qf4+ 1/2-1/2

About this Blog

Hello, Welcome to my Chess Blog.

My real name is Nicolas Croad and I live in Wellington, New Zealand. My FIDE rating at the time of writing is a little over 2300. Because of this it would be insulting to many for me to espouse false modesty and describe myself as a weak player. I hope that I don't go too far the other way however and describe myself as a great player, I am not.

During this blog I will annotate my chess games. Of course the thing that annotation requires most is an audience which is why I am making my analysis public on this forum. If you enjoy reading autobiographical games collections then perhaps this is the blog for you.

Though it would be wrong for me to describe myself as a weak player I wish to improve. I have read lots of chess literature especially describing training, strategy and improvement and the common thread throughout is the process of analysis of your own games.

I intend not to use a computer at all, even before adding my analysis here for a couple of reasons. First because using a computer to annotate games will encourage me to be lazy in my annotations and second I want to keep this site interesting for you, the reader. Inevitably despite my best efforts there will be mistakes in lots of the analysis which I publish here. I hope that the reader will read with a critical eye the analysis I post and find mistakes (please add comments at the end). Bearing this in mind I hope that the audience finds this a challenging and interesting activity in it's own right and so interacts with the material at a deeper level than they would otherwise have done so. Later I may correct the analysis given on the main page from comments however I will give reference to the name of the poster who made the correction.

If you prefer you can correct and add comments with the help of a computer program. I certainly don't object to this at all. Feel free to give the source of the correction as either the name of the program or your own as you see fit. The only times I am likely to violate my rule about computer analysis is when I feel there is an interesting point to be made about computer chess and analysis.

I apologise if my analysis of the opening is somewhat limited here. This is because I am still an active player and so I would hardly be helping myself by giving away opening knowledge here. With the state of chess preparation this has simply become the reality of the game.

I can't be certain how often I will post here but hopefully around once a week I will have prepared something new.

Enjoy!