Ewan Cormack vs Andrew Hards (2016-17 season) [Event "Nomads A vs Ecclesall A"] [Site "Hewlett-Packard"] [Date "2017.01.25"] [Round "?"] [White "Ewan Cormack"] [Black "Andrew Hards"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B19"] [Annotator ",ahards@hotmail.com"] [PlyCount "92"] {Our third or fourth meeting in the league – I have an edge but our games are almost always tight, edgy affairs with lots of positional play and not a great deal of action!} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 e6 10. Bf4 Ngf6 11. O-O-O Nd5 12. Bd2 a5 13. Rhe1 Be7 {Spent a good 10 minutes on this move. I was seeing ghosts involving a rook sac on e6 but actually whilst it’s a little uncomfortable for a minute, I’ve got the important squares covered and prevent Ewan’s knights joining the attack.} 14. Ne4 (14. Rxe6 fxe6 15. Qg6+ Kf8 16. Qxe6 Bf6 17. Ne5 Nxe5 18. dxe5 ) 14... Nb4 15. Bxb4 axb4 16. Qb3 O-O {At this point I had spent a lot more time thinking and felt much worse. The silicon brain actually scores me slightly better here so I must have gone badly wrong over the next few moves… } 17. g4 Qc7 {I rejected both recommended Fritz moves (Bxh4 – too risky for my king, Qa5 – what’s it actually doing there?) but this doesn’t score as badly as I thought.} 18. g5 c5 { Too ambitious. Qf4+ (my original plan with Qc7) was better.} 19. dxc5 Nxc5 20. Nxc5 {Bishop or Queen? (The former gives me a very, very small edge. Naturally I went with the latter)} Qxc5 21. gxh6 {I most feared g6 here, so was pleased I didn’t have to face it. Turns out it’s not as scary as I thought it was, although it does seem to end up with a pretty dead draw.} (21. g6 Qxf2 22. gxf7+ Rxf7 23. Rxe6 Qxf3 24. Qxf3 Rxf3 25. Rxe7 Rxa2 26. Rxb7 Ra1+ 27. Kd2 Rxd1+ 28. Kxd1 Rf4) 21... g6 22. Ne5 {And now things are quite scary. I actually didn’t see this coming – I was more concerned about h5 when I thought g5 was my only response.} (22. h5 g5 23. Ne5 Qxf2 24. Rf1 Qe2 { X-ray protection of e6. If that falls, I’m done for.} 25. Rde1 Qa6 26. Kb1) 22... Bxh4 23. Kb1 (23. Nd7 Qg5+ 24. Kb1 Rfd8 25. Qxb4 Qa5 26. h7+ Kg7) 23... Qxf2 {I thought this was actually forced – covering f7 in the event of a sac, and giving my queen g3 to run to if it’s hit with a rook. Fritz prefers a bishop capture and a few exchanges.} 24. Nxg6 {This doesn’t work now because I can cover f7 with queen or rook. Both of us approaching the 5 minute mark on the clocks too here.} fxg6 25. h7+ (25. Qxe6+ Qf7 {Ewan had looked at this line when he sacced the knight. However, his follow up move doesn’t work because there’s a nasty check in the position that actually scores +29 for me (so I’m guessing there’s a nasty 25 move forced mate in there too).} 26. Qg4 Qxa2+ 27. Kc1) 25... Kxh7 {Trying to expose my king and generate counter play but the heavy pieces on the f file can fend them off if need be and actually h6 is a pretty safe square for my king regardless.} 26. Rd7+ Kh6 27. Rh1 Rad8 { I’m a piece and a pawn up so it makes sense to exchange pieces. Plus there is a sneaky trap here if White is tries to pick off a pawn.} 28. Rxd8 (28. Qxe6 Qf1+ 29. Qe1 Qxe1+ 30. Rxe1 Bxe1) 28... Rxd8 29. Qxb4 Rd4 (29... Qd4 $4 { looks natural, but loses immediately to …} 30. Rxh4+ { Forking king and queen and stopping the back rank mate.}) 30. Qxb7 Rg4 { Aiming to simplify.} 31. a3 Rg1+ 32. Rxg1 Qxg1+ 33. Ka2 Qd4 {Centralise your queen! I’m now thinking long term about hitting b2 and possibly even exchange Q+B for Q there if my pawns are far enough down the board. Ewan meanwhile will be looking for perpetuals.} 34. Qc8 e5 35. c3 Qd5+ 36. c4 Qd4 37. c5 e4 38. Qg4 Bf6 {And there’s the threat of mate.} 39. Qh3+ Kg7 { No immediate checks so I’m going to get a move to do something.} 40. Qg2 g5 { I thought I was being clever here, making a little hidey-hole for my king. Fritz damns this move by giving +10 more to the one I should have played although longer term there’s no significantdifference!} (40... Qd5+ 41. Kb1 Qd1+ 42. Ka2 e3) 41. b4 e3 42. Qb7+ Kg6 {No more checks.} 43. Kb3 e2 44. c6 Qd5+ {An intermezzo before queening. It shouldn’t matter but just in case… the c-pawn is fixed for at least one more move!} 45. Ka4 e1=Q 46. c7 { Ewan resigned here – before I had chance to play my last move which was….} Qed1# {I fully expected when looking at this game to have been disastrously worse for the majority. Turns out I underestimated my position (or overestimated his attack). Either way, the one particularly poor move I made was probably 21. … g6. Otherwise things were never as desperate as I thought!} 0-1 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)