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1. d4 I had been hoping to get a game with Fergal who I had met at the Ennis Open in November 2021 and who initially informed us all of the tournament in Sligo! He had been on the board next to mine in the final round at Ennis. I thought this was passive. I was already improvising here, but striking for the centre can hardly be bad! This looked dodgy to me, immediately leaving a hole on e4. I thought 6. Be2 was better, but that immediately lets my knight in to e4. I wanted to plant a knight on e4 or d3 as soon as possible. I had considered 9... cxb3 but that allows him to improve his light squared Bishop which is already quite hampered. 9... a5! would have given me a big advantage, but it wasn't on my radar at all. My plan was to get in to e4 at all costs now! 10. O-O Nc8 11. a4 Nd6 12. axb5 Be7 13. Qe1 Bf5 14. Bxf5 exf5 15. Ne5 For some reason I hadn't seen this, but it's not a hole like e4 or d3, although that had been my first reaction to it. I can chase him away with f6 at some stage! Time to complete my development. 17. Ndf3 I liked seeing this, as I was already envisaging trapping his knight on e5. 17... Qc7 I considered that this move would have seemed rather nebulous if he hadn't thought about his knight getting trapped, but of course it's to take away the c6 escape route! I thought his idea had been 19. Nef3, not this! My plan still stood! 19... Ne4 20. Rc1 f6 21. Nxg6 hxg6 His Queen can't come in to g3, so I should have nothing to fear! I wanted to triple my heavy pieces on the h-file and maximise the pressure on h2. 23... a5 was better, but my plan was set down the h-file. I knew this game should be in the bag, but the resistance to come was so much greater than I could have imagined! My idea was Bd8, Ke6, Qh7 and Bb6 as necessary. I had calculated what happened next and also 29. Nxg6 Rxh3 30. Nxh8 Rxh8, both of which are fine for me. 29. Nxg6 Rxh3 30. gxh3 Rxh3 31. Kh1 Rh6 32. Rg2 Qf7 I had been planning 32... Qh7 which crazily runs in to 33. Nf8+ forking King and Queen! Scary! 33. Qg1 Nbxc3 34. Bxc3 Nxc3 35. Qa1 Hang on a sec, what's this? I considered 35... Rxg6 36. Rxg6 Qxg6 37. Qxc3 but for some reason I didn't like trading off pieces. I saw 35... Ne4 36. Qa6+ Bb6 but missed 37. Qc8+ at the end of that, as it happened. 36... Nd6 was better. 37. Qc8+ I was so scared of knight forks at this point, eg... 37... Qd7 38. Nf8+ Eeek! The heartache of chess! Time to simplify this game after a minor scare just there! Can I trap this knight too?! No! This is what I missed, freeing up f4 for the retreat! 42... Nd6 43. Nf4 Nxf5 44. Nxd5 c3 This was premature, 44... Ke6 was better. c3 ended up giving me a big headache! 45. Rc2 Ng3+ 46. Kg2 Ne4 47. Kf3 f5 48. Nxc3 Nxc3 49. Rxc3 Rxh2 At this point I was really worrying about having all my pawns swapped off and ending up with just a draw somehow. Fergal was clearly not in the mood for capitulation! Obviously not 50... Kg6 (or Kf6/e6) when 51. Rc6+ drives my king back, winning f5. Mistake! 52... Rd1 53. Kf4 Rxd5 54. e4 fxe4 55. Kxe4 Rd4+ I had seen this, I don't think Fergal had! I've got all of his pawns and managed to keep one of my own! This should be easy, surely?! 56. Ke5 Rxb4 57. Kd5 Rg4 58. Kc6 Where is he going?! Aha! Very clever, he is blocking my advance with his monarch! 60... Rg1 61. Ra3 Kd6 62. Rd3+ Kc6 63. Rd1 Oh my God! A stalemate trick! I'd probably have fallen for this if I was low on time, but I had enough here! Or 64... Bc5. Obviously not 65... Ra5+ 66. Rxa5 Bxa5 67. Kxa7 and it's just a draw! I need to figure out how to smoke his King out of a6! Controlling g7 too! Fergal whispered "good move". I know how to win this now... 69. Ka5 Bc3+ 70. Ka4 Kb6 71. Kb3 Bd4 72. Rg3 Kb5 Bring the king in first! 73... Rc5! was better. 74. Rg4 Re6 75. Rg2 Re3+ 76. Ka2 Ra3+ 77. Kb1 Bd4 78. Ra2 Now it's definitely all over! Fergal was in pretty bad time trouble too... 78... Rxa2 79. Kxa2 Ka4 80. Kb1 Ka3 80... Kb3 was better, but I was running for the corner and White resigns now anyway! Super resistance by Fergal! Time remaining 1.30mins for Fergal and 4.19mins for me. This game put me on Board 1 for the final round, I couldn't have been happier! 0-1 Annotator(s): Edward Loane. Source(s): Lichess (https://lichess.org/study/AGi6LA2r/TJZ3bbqs). Event information: Tournament report. |
