A Baxter vs Paul Bailey [Event "Doncaster Congress"] [Site "?"] [Date "2009.02.28"] [Round "3"] [White "A Baxter"] [Black "Paul Bailey"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E94"] [WhiteElo "125"] [BlackElo "113"] [PlyCount "84"] {I’ve included this game because of the legendary 19th move…} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. d5 Nbd7 8. Qc2 a5 {Securing c5 for the knight – and then changing plan next move. Two plans are better than one?} 9. O-O Nh5 {Horribly inconsistent.} (9... Nc5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3 b6) 10. Bg5 f6 11. Be3 Nf4 12. a3 f5 13. Bxf4 {Now my dark squared bishop is unopposed, and I thought it might come to life later in the game.} exf4 14. Bd3 fxe4 15. Nxe4 Nf6 16. Rab1 Ng4 17. h3 {Weakening.} Ne5 18. Nxe5 Bxe5 {Now 19… f3 is a threat.} 19. f3 {Here we go. I had 55 minutes left when he played this and working on general principles I thought that with all the weak dark squares there would be a choice of strong continuations but the more I looked the less I saw. One of the points is that the f4 pawn is in the way. Also the knight can manoeuvre to cover entry points, a sac on h3 doesn’t work. Looking at the game a couple of days later maybe simply B-d4-e3 was good. It wasn’t time for a break through, I still had to improve my position.} Rf7 {To support h7 while I play g5 and mobilise the pawns. This left me with 10 minutes for 23 moves. Daft.} (19... Rf5 {I can play this and he can’t use the discovered attack to pick up material but is it any good.} 20. Nxd6 (20. Nf2 Rg5 21. Ne4 Rh5) 20... cxd6 21. Bxf5 Bxf5) (19... Bd4+ 20. Kh1 Be3) 20. Rfd1 g5 21. Bf1 h5 22. c5 Bf5 23. cxd6 Bxd6 24. Qc4 Bxe4 25. Qxe4 Qf6 26. Qe6 Qg7 (26... Bc5+ {Forcing the king into the corner was much better.}) 27. Bd3 Bc5+ 28. Kf1 Kh8 29. Be4 Bd6 30. Qg6 Rf6 31. Qxg7+ {He was playing quickly, if he’d used his time he’d’ve seen that that the queen can capture on h5 and escape quite comfortably.} (31. Qxh5+ Rh6 32. Qg4 Rf8 33. Bd3 Rh4 34. Qe6) 31... Kxg7 {Oppposite coloured bishops. The only reason I didn’t offer a draw now was the time differential but bizarrely I felt under no time pressure at all now.} 32. a4 b6 33. b3 Rc8 34. Rbc1 Re8 35. Rc6 Re7 36. Re1 Bc5 37. Rxf6 Kxf6 38. Rc1 Bd6 39. Ke2 Ke5 40. Kd3 Rg7 41. Rh1 h4 42. Kc4 Re7 {I made the time control offered a draw and he accepted fairly quickly.} 1/2-1/2 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)