Pete Micklethwaite vs Andrew Hards (Round 3) [Event "Barnsley A vs Nomads A"] [Site "Hewlett-Packard"] [Date "2017.04.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Pete Micklethwaite"] [Black "Andrew Hards"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A06"] [Annotator ",ahards@hotmail.com"] [PlyCount "42"] {Our third meeting in the league… Pete has been White every time and the two previous encounters ended in pretty dull (and quick) draws. This time around would things be different?} 1. Nf3 {Probably not 🙂} c6 2. c4 d5 3. b3 e6 4. Bb2 Nf6 5. e3 Be7 6. Be2 O-O 7. O-O Re8 8. d4 Nbd7 9. Nbd2 Nf8 10. Ne5 Ne4 11. cxd5 exd5 12. Nxe4 dxe4 13. Qc2 f6 {Weakening my kingside – I had to be wary of tricks and tactics along the a2-g8 diagonal but at the moment Be6 staves off any checks.} 14. Nc4 Bd6 15. Rfd1 f5 16. Qc3 ({Pete spent a long time weighing up this move before rejecting it – but it was probably the best chance of opening up the position.} 16. d5 c5 17. Qc3 Re7 18. Ba3 b6 19. b4 cxb4 20. Bxb4 Bxb4 21. Qxb4 {Looks promising for White with Black’s pieces nearly all stuck on the back rank.}) 16... Be7 17. Bh5 Ng6 18. Bxg6 hxg6 19. Ne5 Kh7 20. Qc4 Qd5 21. Qxd5 cxd5 {And a draw was agreed. Fritz scores me ever so slightly ahead here – I suspect because I have the bishop pair – but I don’t see a plan for either player. My d-pawn is backward but Pete doesn’t have a white-squared bishop and I can easily keep his rooks out of my position. By the same token, his pawn structure doesn’t really have any weaknesses – my only threat might be to exchange off the rooks and try to advance king and pawns on the kingside with his bishop stuck behind the pawn chain but g2-g3 likely puts a stop to any of that nonsense!} 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)