Cork Congress OTB Help please

I went to a W/end tournament in Cork (great place) which was very enjoyable despite fact I didn't quite play good enough.

I drew on Friday night with Black – played the dragon to his e4
I won all 3 games Saturday - 2 Grob's with White and another dragon.

On Sunday morning there was just 2 players with 4 from 4 so they played each other on board 1. There were 3 of us on 3.5. I played against 1 of them and won again with the dragon. The other player with 3.5 lost so the results on board 1,2 and 3 left one player with 5, one with 4.5 (me) and several with 4.

So for the last round I was playing on board 1 needing to win game to win tournament and the 400 euro. All he needed was a draw. Unfortunately for me he had also already played with Black 3 times so one of us would have to play with black pieces for 4th time. It was me.

Played KID against his d4 and was holding my own. He wasn’t risking much cos he only needed draw. Tried to push for a win, made small positional mistake with my Queen followed swiftly by missing a tactic and he won a piece. Because he was short of time I played on a while a piece down trying to swindle a draw with a perpetual check. He played out win well though and didn’t make any mistakes I could see so resigned when he exchanged off my Queen. Oh well, another one bites the dust!

I have no engine for analysis. Can anyone have a look at this and see where it all went wrong (before the obvious 30…Bxc6 blunder!)

I suspect that 27…f6 wasn’t the best plan. Perhaps cxd5 with central attack would have been better? I also think 28…Bxf6 was weak. If I’d recaptured with Queen I would have minded the e6 square. I don’t think his attack was all that strong before I gave him a piece! Who was ahead after his 27. Qh4 - I'd say it was fairly even

Help appreciated.

Cork Congress
Round 6 – Board 1
1 d4 Nf6
2 c4 g6
3 Nc3 Bg7
4 e4 d6
5 f3 0-0
6 Be3 Re8
7 Qd2 Nbd7
8 0-0-0 e5
9 d5 a6
10 Bd3 b6
11 Ne2 Nc5
12 g4 Nxd3+
13 Qxd3 Nd7
14 Qd2 Nc5
15 Kb1 Bd7
16 h4 b5
17 cxb5 axb5
18 Nc1 b4
19 Ne2 Qe7
20 Bxc5 dxc5
21 b3 Bf8
22 g5 Red8
23 h5 Bb5
24 hxg6 hxg6
25 Ng3 c6
26 Qh2 Bg7
27 Qh4 f6?!
28 gxf6 Bxf6?
29 Qg4 Qg7
30 dxc6 Bxc6??
31 Qe6+ Qf7
32 Qxc6 Rxd1
33 Rxd1 Qf8
34 Rd6 Kg7
35 Rxf6 Qxf6
36 Qxa8 Qxf3
37 Qb7+ Kh6
38 Nge2 g5
39 Qc6+ Kh5
40 Qe8+ Kh4
41 Qh8+ Kg4
42 Qxe5 Qe3
43 Qf5+ Kh4
44 e5 g4
45 Nf4 Kg3
46 Nce2+ Kf2
47 Nd5+ Qf3
48 Qxf3 gxf3
49 Nef4 Kg3
50 Nfd3 resigns…

Originally posted by malinga
[b]I have no engine for analysis. Can anyone have a look at this and see where it all went wrong (before the obvious 30…Bxc6 blunder!)[b]

You can't download the free Arena GUI and one of the many free UCI or Winboard engines? It's really a pretty good GUI. You can stick with the regular Arena 1.1 if you want a proven GUI, or try one of the newer beta versions.

http://www.playwitharena.com/

Move 11 should read Nfe2
Move 18 should read Nec1

Originally posted by Mad Rook
You can't download the free Arena GUI and one of the many free UCI or Winboard engines? It's really a pretty good GUI. You can stick with the regular Arena 1.1 if you want a proven GUI, or try one of the newer beta versions.

http://www.playwitharena.com/

I can't download anything. My machine at home is banjaxed - needs repair - and my machine at work is firewalled to the max.

Thanks for advice though. I'll look at that when my home machine well again.

Originally posted by malinga
Move 11 should read Nfe2
Move 18 should read Nec1

I think 11 reads... Nge2, but what is move 19? I'm guessing N3e2.

D

Fritz says - Yeah, 27...f6 wasn't the best move. It would allow white to play 28. Qh7+ Kf8 29. Qxg6 with white a pawn up. (Black can't play 28....Kf7, because then 29. Rh6 quickly gains more than a piece for White. Best play would continue 29...Kf7-e8 30.g5xf6 Bg7xf6 31.Qh7xg6+ Qe7-f7 32.Qg6xf6 Qf7xf6 33.Rh6xf6)

With an 8-ply quick check, Fritz liked 27 ...c5-c4 28.d5xc6 Rd8xd1 29.Qh4-h7+ Kg8-f8 30.Rh1xd1 Bb5xc6 31.b3xc4 Qe7xg5 32.Rd1-d6 Qg5xg3 33.Rd6xc6 [-1.19/8] (Although when I let the analysis run longer, Fritz came up with different lines.)

White's 28th move let you off the hook and would have given you a very slight edge had you played 28...Qe7xf6 29.Qh4xh6 Bg7xh6. With the played moves, after 29.Qh4-g4 Qe7-g7 Fritz gave White about a pawn evaluation edge, and White has a choice of a couple of lines. (And I think a third different line with slightly less than a pawn edge.) But both of the better lines generally use a sac of the knight via Ng3-f5 combined with soon playing Rh1-h7. (After the knight sac, the White queen captures the black pawn on f5 and protects the rook when it moves to h7)

Originally posted by Mad Rook
Fritz says - Yeah, 27...f6 wasn't the best move. It would allow white to play 28. Qh7+ Kf8 29. Qxg6 with white a pawn up. (Black can't play 28....Kf7, because then 29. Rh6 quickly gains more than a piece for White.)

With an 8-ply quick check, Fritz liked 27 ...c5-c4 28.d5xc6 Rd8xd1 29.Qh4-h7+ Kg8-f8 30.Rh1xd1 Bb5xc6 31.b3xc4 Qe7xg5 32.Rd1-d6 Qg5xg3 33.Rd ...[text shortened]... better lines generally use a sac of the knight via Ng3-f5 combined with soon playing Rh1-h7.

How did you do that with an incomplete/incorrect pgn?

D

Originally posted by Ragnorak
How did you do that with an incomplete/incorrect pgn?

D

I just inputted the moves manually into Fritz, and guessed that the right move was 11.Ng1-e2, based on general development. Looking at the later moves, it turns out my guess was right. Also, I assumed 19.Nc3-e2 was the right move.

I just had Fritz look at your 27...c6xd5 idea. Eval was about -0.6 or so until Fritz hit 10 ply, then the eval changed to -0.3 (that's a minus 0.3). So that idea wasn't bad.

Originally posted by malinga
Who was ahead after his 27. Qh4 - I'd say it was fairly even

You're pretty close. Fritz's initial suggestion of 27...c5-c4 starts out at an eval of -1.25, but at 11 ply it drops to -0.25. After 11 ply, a handful of other lines give evals ranging from about -0.9 to -0.7. (And more than a dozen lines ranging from -0.9 to -0.1)

Originally posted by Mad Rook
I just inputted the moves manually into Fritz, and guessed that the right move was 11.Ng1-e2, based on general development. Looking at the later moves, it turns out my guess was right. Also, I assumed 19.Nc3-e2 was the right move.

You are right with your assumptions. Thanks bvery much for your effort Mad Rook

Originally posted by Mad Rook
I just had Fritz look at your 27...c6xd5 idea. Eval was about -0.6 or so until Fritz hit 10 ply, then the eval changed to -0.3 (that's a minus 0.3). So that idea wasn't bad.

Again thanks a bunch.

Idea here is to deflect action away from my Kingside and maybe open up diagonal for B on g7.

Of course moving my bishop to f8 was very bad. I see that now. Better here would have been Qd6.

Originally posted by malinga
Again thanks a bunch.

Idea here is to deflect action away from my Kingside and maybe open up diagonal for B on g7.

Of course moving my bishop to f8 was very bad. I see that now. Better here would have been Qd6.

I can't comment on the strategy of Black's move 21, but Fritz actually evaluates 21...Bg7-f8 the same as 21...Qe7-d6. (-0.69 for both moves at 13 ply). It likes 21...Bd7-b5 the best at -0.97. So, at least tactically, the bishop to f8 isn't a real bad move.

Originally posted by Mad Rook
I can't comment on the strategy of Black's move 21, but Fritz actually evaluates 21...Bg7-f8 the same as 21...Qe7-d6. (-0.69 for both moves at 13 ply). It likes 21...Bd7-b5 the best at -0.97. So, at least tactically, the bishop to f8 isn't a real bad move.

That's interesting especially as effectively it's giving away 2 tempos after Qh2 forces it back.

Originally posted by Ragnorak
I think 11 reads... Nge2, but what is move 19? I'm guessing N3e2.

D

You're right. Apologies to all who bothered to look at this and then had to contend with my incomplete notation.