James Marley vs Andrew Hards [Event "Ecclesall A vs Nomads A"] [Site "Sheffield"] [Date "2015.01.22"] [Round "?"] [White "James Marley"] [Black "Andrew Hards"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D45"] [Annotator "Hards,Andrew"] [PlyCount "110"] {Rematch vs Ecclesall and a chance to renew battle with James – we’ve drawn the last three of our four matches.} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 e6 4. e3 Nf6 5. Nc3 Be7 6. Qc2 Nbd7 7. Bd3 dxc4 8. Bxc4 b5 9. Bd3 a6 10. O-O c5 11. Rd1 Bb7 12. dxc5 Bxc5 13. Ne4 Rc8 14. Nxc5 Rxc5 15. Qe2 Qa8 { Putting pressure on the diagonal.} 16. Bd2 Ne5 17. Nxe5 Rxe5 18. f4 Rd5 19. Bb4 Bc6 20. Rac1 a5 21. Bc3 {I assumed that was James’ plan… but actually he can just take the pawn as recapturing on a5 leaves the bishop on c6 loose.} b4 22. Bxf6 gxf6 23. e4 Rd7 24. Bb5 {Forcing some exchanges – in fact, I probably need to exchange material to avoid a mating/queen-winning web here.} Rxd1+ 25. Rxd1 O-O {Looks decidely dodgy but I think the best move in this position. There’s no time for James to bring pressure to bear on h7.} 26. Bxc6 Qxc6 27. Qg4+ Kh8 28. Qh4 Qxe4 29. Qxf6+ Kg8 30. Qg5+ Qg6 31. Qxg6+ $11 {I considered the draw offer (in fact James is slightly better after Qxa5) but given the position on the rest of the boards felt duty bound to play on. My thinking was… that I might be able to make something of my e-pawn, that his f-pawn might prove vulnerable, and that my a-pawn is relatively safe at the moment.} hxg6 32. Kf2 Rc8 33. Rd2 Rc1 34. Ke3 Kg7 35. Kd4 Kf6 {Here I thought I had a good chance to get the initative with an active king in and amongst the kingside pawns.} 36. Re2 Kf5 37. a3 bxa3 38. bxa3 Rd1+ 39. Kc4 Rd5 { Boxing the white king in.} 40. a4 g5 {Simply capturing on f4 exposes my f-pawn and splits my two remaining kingside pawns. Invading immediately with the king might be risky after Re5. So thought I’d try a different approach.} 41. g3 gxf4 42. gxf4 Kg4 43. Rg2+ Kf3 44. Rg1 Rf5 45. Rh1 {I didn’t realise at the time (I actually thought I already had a bigger advantage than I did) but this would appear to be the losing move. Now both kingside pawns are lost.} Rxf4+ 46. Kb5 Rf5+ 47. Kc4 Kg2 48. Rd1 Kxh2 49. Rd4 Kg3 50. Re4 Rf4 51. Rxf4 Kxf4 52. Kb5 e5 53. Kxa5 e4 54. Kb6 e3 55. a5 e2 {And James resigned.} 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)