1. d4 { Opening the game in typical fashion with a pawn out in the center to claim territory. } 1... d5 { Black responds classically and symmetrically which should not be criticized. } 2. c4 { Heading towards a Queen's gambit game where white hopes to trade off the opponent's more centralized pawn. } 2... c6 { Entering the Slav defense which aims to support the strongpoint on d5. } 3. Nc3 { Ignoring the potential loss of the c4 pawn and banking on the fact that development will mean more than a pawn early in the game. } 3... dxc4 { Capturing the pawn, possibly with the idea of holding on to an extra pawn. But this may come at a dangerous price. } 4. e4 { Taking advantage of the fact that black has lost control of the e4 square. } 4... b5 { Supporting the c4 pawn before white has a chance to regain the pawn. } 5. a4 { Aiming to break up the black pawns on the queenside, hoping to prove that black's greedy play was too much. } 5... b4 { Attacking the Knight but weakening the c4 pawn. } 6. Nce2 { Also interesting is 6. Na2 pressuring on the b4 pawn. } 6... Nf6 { Developing a piece while attacking the undefended e4 pawn. } 7. Ng3 { Untangling the pieces while adding protection to the e4 pawn which was threatened. } 7... e5 { A rare theoretical choice in this variation. The aim is to break up the central pawn duo white has but this try has not found much success at all as shown in the game "Hillarp Persson - Kononenko, 2004, Reykjavik, ISL" } 8. Nf3 { Simply continuing with standard development, not getting distracted by black's previous move. } 8... exd4 { Black has achieved the desired result but at what cost? } 9. Bxc4 { Regaining a pawn while quickly bringing another piece out to an active post. } 9... Ba6 { The best move. Black must try to catch up in development and trade off some of the active white pieces. } 10. Bxa6 { Forcing the black Knight out to the side of the board where it is not placed well. } 10... Nxa6 { Black has achieved the goal of trading off one of white's most active pieces but now the Knight does not look good on a6. } 11. e5 { Forcing the Knight from f6. } 11... Nd7 { A mistake! Better was to play 11...Nd5 when the Knight is strongly placed rather than entertaning ideas to hold onto an extra pawn. } 12. O-O { Yes! Not even worrying about regaining the pawn but rather continuing with development to keep the initiative with the lead in development. } 12... c5 { Black has already dug a hole with the opening play and must commit to trying to hold the extra pawn. } 13. Ng5 { A great square for the Knight! From here it attacks f7 supports an e6 advance and can move back to e4 if ever needed. } 13... h6 { What black thought would force the Knight back... } 14. Nxf7 { Yes! White cashes in on the initiative and starts the attack on the King. } 14... Kxf7 { Of course the sacrifice must be accepted as the Knight was forking two major black pieces. } 15. Qb3+ { Bringing the Queen out with check and not allowing the black King to hide in on g8 where it may have been safe. } 15... Ke8 { Even less pleasant would have been 15...Kg6 when the King is out in the open and quite vulnerable. } 16. Qe6+ { A Queen fork! Now the Queen attacks the black King and Knight on a6 which was known to be a weak position for that Knight. } 16... Qe7 { Blocking the check and hoping for a Queen trade but we know white will not go for this. } 17. Qxa6 { Regaining the sacrificed piece. And now the two respective King positions and King safety will make all of the difference. } 17... Qxe5 { Winning a pawn and preventing white from playing the Rook to e1. } 18. Bd2 { Preparing for one of the Rooks to quickly come to the open e-file. } 18... Qd5 { Either the King or Queen had to be removed from the e-file seeing as white was bringing a Rook to e1 soon. } 19. Qg6+ { Forcing the black King to take an unwanted journey. } 19... Kd8 { Note that on 19...Qf7 20. Qe4+ winning for white. } 20. Rfe1 { Threatening to invade on e8. } 20... Kc7 { Desperately trying to find a safe spot for the King. } 21. Nf5 { Quietly improving the position of the Knight as it is better on f5 than it was on g3. } 21... Kb7 { Most accurate was 21...Rd8 to allow the Rook to participate in the defense and battle for survival. } 22. a5 { Threatening to advance to a6 now. } 22... a6 { Preventing white from advancing to a6 but now white has a firm grasp of the b6 square. } 23. Re6 { Continuing to improve the activity of the pieces. A valuable strategy when searching for a move to play. Many times you must try to improve your worst placed pieces. } 23... Rc8 { Now the Rook comes out for defense but it already may be too late! } 24. Nd6+ { The Knight comes to attack the King. } 24... Bxd6 { Correctly exchanging the Knight as it had a dominant position on d6. } 25. Rxd6 { Bringing the Rook further into the opponent's territory. } 25... Rc6 { A clever move to keep chances for survival alive. } 26. Rxd5 { Exchanging the Queens as it will result in a winning endgame as white has calculated out. } 26... Rxg6 { Regaining the Queen. } 27. Rxd7+ { Winning the Knight with check and putting the Rook on the opponent's 7th rank. Usually a great place for your Rooks! } 27... Kc6 { Getting out of check and attacking the Rook. } 28. Ra7 { Saving the Rook while threatening the a6 pawn. } 28... Kd5 { Moving off of the 6th rank so that the Rook on g6 will guard the a6 pawn. } 29. b3 { Preventing black from getting 3 advanced connected pawns. Now the black c-pawn may be traded off if it advances. } 29... Ke4 { Hoping that the King activity will save the day. } 30. Rc7 { The active Rook comes to bother the c5 pawn. } 30... Kd3 { Counter attacking on the Bishop on d2. } 31. Be1 { Safely retreating the Bishop and now the threat on c5 is renewed. } 31... Rg5 { Guarding the c5 pawn. } 32. Rc1 { Adding another attacker onto the c5 pawn! } 32... Ke2 { Clearing the way for the advance of the d4 pawn. } 33. Re7+ { Forcing the King back to the d-file. } 33... Kd3 { The only square for the King. } 34. Kf1 { Allowing for the Rook to come back to e2 when there are serious mating threats. } 34... Rf8 { In any case there was no saving move. } 35. Re2 { And now checkmate is threatened with the Rook coming to d1 and there is no good way to prevent it. Therefore black resigns here. White wins, 1-0 } 1-0
This is so nice game about initiative and active play that I wanted to share it but we still we have annotation support in our viewer ðŸ˜
When it will be done ???
However, if you click on the PGN, below the board, you can see the annotations.
