Vlad Shaposhnikov vs Andrew Hards [Event "Doncaster Congress"] [Site "?"] [Date "2009.02.28"] [Round "2"] [White "Vlad Shaposhnikov"] [Black "Andrew Hards"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D10"] [WhiteElo "108"] [PlyCount "48"] {I had taken a bye for the Friday night game so I could finally chase a football around this week… So my first game was ‘early’ Saturday morning.} 1. d4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. e3 Bf5 4. Nc3 {Avoids the pawn-grabbing 4. … Bxb1 5. Rxb1 Qa5+} e6 5. Nf3 Nd7 6. Be2 Bb4 {I think this is a mini-blunder – it gives Vlad the chance to force me to exchange my black-squared bishop for his knight.} 7. Qb3 Bxc3+ 8. Qxc3 Ngf6 9. O-O {At this point, I felt my position was sound enough to start making inroads against his castled position immediately. As it turns out, my h-pawn does more damage than I imagined.} h5 10. Bd3 Bg4 11. Ne5 Qc7 12. Nxd7 {3 recapture choices – the knight would simply have to return to f6 afterwards, the queen is better putting a little bit of pressure on h2… and my king doesn’t want to castle king-side, and queen-side castling would put it on the same file as my queen – a file Vlad can half-open immediately. So there’s only one logical choice for me.} Kxd7 13. f3 Bf5 14. Bxf5 exf5 15. Qd3 g6 {I have to be alert to threats now that force any exchange of the f5 pawn – as my knight would then likely be pinned to the f7 pawn.} 16. Bd2 h4 { With my pawn structure somewhat awry, I thought I should try to generate some counterplay against Vlad’s king. My overall plan, as it happens, revolves around this move and through happy coincidence I am ultimately forced into playing what I was planning to.} 17. Rac1 Rae8 18. cxd5 Nxd5 19. e4 Nf4 { I had seen up to here when I played my rook to e8 – and felt that if the minor pieces were exchanged I might get something from having my queen deep in Vlad’s kingside. However, I rightly suspected he wouldn’t be keen on the exchange.} 20. Qc4 {The only non-capturing move which prevents 21. … Ne2+} Rh7 21. d5 {I didn’t s ee the possibility of the check until Vlad played this move. But this move actually helps me to disguise my intention with the knight on f4.} Qb6+ 22. Kh1 Nh5 {Played almost instantly – to give the psychological impression, to some extent at least, that that was a forced move. I guess it is (in that my knight has no other square) but this move was part of my original plan several moves ago. Vlad himself said after the game that as he saw this was forced, he didn’t pay close enough attention to it.} 23. dxc6+ bxc6 24. exf5 {My pawns are all over the place – two isolated and another two set to become doubled. However….} Ng3+ {Splat! The game comes to an abrupt end – only about 45 minutes into the round. Paul was sat on the board next to me – I think he was still deliberating his second move at this point! Vlad resigned, on account of: 25. xg3 xg3+ 26. Bh6 Rxh6+ 27. Qh4 Rxh4#} 0-1 You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization.