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