Robofriven gave me the following game against BKildahl for our analysis exchange. We see an intersting, very imbalanced position with asymmetrical castlings and no real struggle for the center. Instead, both sides seem to play for an early, decisive attack on the opponent's king. White plays a beautiful combination and gets the advantage, but unfortunately runs into big timetrouble, loses two pieces and the game.
Please keep in mind that I am not such a great player. Everybody is welcome to help and/or correct me. I tried my best!



1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6
Black plays the Pirc or Yugoslav defence and doesn't mind that white occupies the center with e4 and d4.

4. Bg5
White plays the Byrne variation (B07). Here are a few alternative plans:
4. Nf3 with the idea Be2, 0-0;
4. g3 with the idea Bg2, Ne2, 0-0;
4. f4, building a huge center, with the idea of pushing pawns forward to attack at some point.

4...h6 5. Bh4
I prefer 5. Bxf6 exf6, compromising black's kingside pawn structure. That may not be such a big advantage, but white's bishop could, in some variations, turn out to be a bit misplaced.

5...Bg7 6. Bc4
White seems to be avoiding Nf3, with the idea to maybe push the f-pawn, I guess.

6...0-0 7. Qe2 c6 8. 0-0-0
After this black starts an attack, so here is the position so far:



I slightly prefer black at this point. His position is solid yet flexible and by his next move he might be able to take over the intiative. However, white, being the lower-rated player, has made a wise choice to go for an imbalanced position, especially with 0-0-0. He keeps black thinking and awaits a mistake or a chance for a surprising tactic. And he will get it.

8...Nxe4
If white takes the knight he walks into the fork d5. So he plays the surprising:

9. Bxf7+! Rxf7
The material will be equal, but now the position of black's king is weakened.

10. Qxe4 Bf5 11. Qe3 Kh7 12. Nf3 Nd7 13. Ne4
13. Rhe1 might be an alternative, piling up on the half-open e-file and putting pressure on the e7-pawn, which is pinned to the queen.

13...Bxe4 14. Qxe4 Qh8
Black's plan obviously is to attack b2. However, e4 is well defended and now e7 is hanging.

15. Bxe7 Rg8?
I don't see the point of this move, but it looks so strange that there must be a point somehow. I'm lost here, maybe Robofriven and BKildahl can help me out.
15...Re8 looks much better, pinning the bishop to the queen and eventually winning the bishop.
This might be the most interesting position in the game:



Notice that both black's king and queen are unable to move! I thought there must be a way to exploit this, but I couldn't find a way to force anything. I looked at
16. Qh4 threatening Ng5+, can be met with Bf6;
16. Nh4 threatening Qxg6+ and Nxg6 at the same time, can be met with Re8;
16. g4 with the idea h4, h5, can be met with Bf6.
White must have seen this and simply continued:

16. Bxd6 Re8 17. Qh4 Bf6 18. Qh3 b6 19. d5
Inviting black to start an attack on the king, but there is no way to force mate. The only problem is, that black can force a draw by repeating moves.

19...Bxb2+ 20. Kb1 Ba1 21. Kc1 Qb2+ 22. Kd2 Qc3+ 23. Kc1 Re2
Black misses the chance to force draw with 23...Qc3+ 24. Kc1 etc. and allows white a brilliant move:

24. Ng5+! Kg7 25. Qxc3+ Bxc3 26. Nxf7 Kxf7 27. dxc6 Nc5 28. c7
An excellent combination. White has a big advantage: three qualities, a dangerous pawn on the 7th rank and his king is out of trouble.

28...Re8 29. Bxc5 Rc8 30. Rd7+?
30. Bd6 instead and white can keep his extra piece.

30...Ke6 31. Rhd1 bxc5 32. R1d6+ Kf5 33. h3 Be5 34. Rc6 h5 35. Rxc5 Ke6 36. Rd8 Rxc7 37. Rxc7 Bxc7 38. Rc8 Be5 39. Re8+ Kf5 40. f3
In light of what happened because of Rob's timetrouble, one wants to suggest 40. Rxe5 Kxe5, simplifing the endgame, but still winning.

40...Bd4 41. Kd2 g5 42. Rf8+ Kg6 43. Kd3 Bc5 44. Rg8+ Kf5 45. Rf8+?? 45...Bxf8
This blunder is caused by timetrouble: Robofriven tells me, he had only 15 seconds left at this point. I'm not good with endgames, but I think his best try would now be to help his kingside pawns with his king. Is it hopeless anyways? Maybe someone can help me here, this is the position:



46. g4+?
This allows black to solve the situation on the kingside easily. I think 46. Ke2 would be the better try.

46...hxg4 47. fxg4+
Again, 47. hxg4+ with the idea Ke2 might be the better try.

47...Kf4 48. c3 Kg3 49. c4 Bc5 50. Ke4 Kxh3 51. Kd5 Ba3 52. c5 Bxc5 53. Kxc5
Black happily sacrifices his bishop and is unstoppable now. White has no chance to win the pawn race.

53...Kxg4 54. Kb5 Kh3 55. a4 g4 56. a5 g3 57. Ka6 g2 58. Kxa7 g1=Q+ 59. Kb7 Qb1+ 0-1

Nice analysis!

You are right that 15..Rg8 is terrible. It was my first ever two-square mouse slip. Rob offered a takeback like a gentleman, but I refused. Since I never give them, it would be a little cheesy of me to accept one.

It's too bad that he got into time trouble, because there isn't a nicer guy to lose to!


Brett

Thanks for your comments grampus, nice analysis.

"4...h6 5. Bh4
I prefer 5. Bxf6 exf6, compromising black's kingside pawn structure. That may not be such a big advantage, but white's bishop could, in some variations, turn out to be a bit misplaced. "

Been there, and I thought the same thing the first time I played this against BK, thing is I've found that when you do that, that weird pawn square with the bishop is the most secure thing EVER! There is no way to break into that for any kind of attack until you take every last other piece on the board and then he's forced to move something. Only luck I've had against him is playing very actively as he prefers slow games and possibly sacrificing material to break open his king.

At the first diagram you say you think Black is a bit better at the end of the opening. I'm not entirely sure of this. White has superior developement and spacial advantage, but black has a rock solid defensive position. I think it just comes down to my play was active and BK's was a bit more defensive minded. I'd call it roughly even.

about 30. Rd7+ I knew I could keep the bishop, but he wasn't doing much anyway and I knew if I brought my rooks into it he would either have to lose a rook or let me queen, so I wasn't too worried about giving him the bishop back as (I figured) it would at worst be a rook vs knight endgame, which should have been winning for me.

Other than that I think your analysis was spot on (and the things that differed to your thinking are all really just style and or personal choices, you made no mistakes that I can see.) Thank you for all the effort you put into this. It is sad that I couldn't go on to win this game after he bludered the mouse slip. (Against people I know/like I'll give them a takeback on a pretty obvious mouse slip as I liken it to someone dropping a chess piece on the board, if it happens to fall on a square I'm not gonna make them keep it there.)

Oh, and about the endgame, I analyzed this pretty extensively and will post my version of how I think I could win it pretty easily, I'm at school now so don't have access to it.

Anyway, thanks again for all your work.

Oh I see, so that strange rook move was a misclick. And I thought: Why can't I find this very dangerous thread that makes him protect the bishop?!
I'm looking forward to see your analysis of the endgame. Our little exercise made me realize that I, among other things, really have to learn more about endgames.
Rob, besides the two games you gave me I also saw your training journal, and I believe you will soon reap the fruits of your training and become a very strong chess player one day.
Thank you both for your nice comments.

Thanks grampus, I have been putting in quite a bit of work studying chess lately and it's always great to hear people say that you're improving as there are times when it's hard to see in yourself.

Damn! I lost that pgn. That sucks cause I spent a lot of time on it trying to find the win for me. I"ll have to see what I remember of my analysis of the endgame.

Anyway, from what I remember, 45. g4 was winning for me. I had my rook lined up with the pawns after the exchanges and it ends up driving his king away and I was able to swindle a win out of it that way. (I know it's not up to my standards for analysis, but I'm lazy cause I already did that one once. )

Hi Robo!

Just a few comments.

After 8... Nxe4 9. Qxe4 d5 10. Nxd5 cxd5 11. Bxd5 and White is a pawn up and threatening both 12. Bxb7 and 12. Qxe7 (if 11... Qc7 defending against 12. Bxb7) winning a second pawn.

After 15. Bxe7 Re8 wins a piece for Black.

Black missed 21... Re2 forcing 22. Nd4 Bxd4 to avoid 22... Qb2#.

All that work CTS has clearly helped out. You wouldn't have seen 25. Ng5+ a month ago. Sweet!

You missed a crusher: 28. Bxc5 bxc5 29. c7 Re8 30. Rd8 kills.

Either 30. Re7+ Kf6 31. Bd6 or 30. Re7+ Kd5 31. Rd1+ Kxc5 32. Rd8 wins outright. If 31... Kc6 then 32. Rd8 Rxc7 33. Rxc7+ Kxc7 34. Re3 and White's extra rook will ultimately prevail.

36. Re1 wins the bishop.

40. Rxe5 wins. You're giving up the exchange, but Black has zero counterplay and will lose the K+5P vs. K+3P ending unless White blunders. The reasoning is similar to Black playing 52... Bxc5 later.

You're clearly getting stronger, so keep up whatever you're doing!

L8erz...
=wild=

Thanks Wild. Praise is always a good thing. But as your post pointed out, I have a LOT more to learn what with the fact that you pointed out 7 things in just one game.

Hey Robo,

The first time I went over one of your games (on August 16), I found 4 things you missed in a 19 move game. In this one I found 7 things in a 59 move game. So you've gone from one Wildman suggested improvement per 4.75 moves to one per 8.43 moves in about a month. That's serious improvement over the course of just three weeks, even if you allow for some error due to inconsistency on either of our parts.

Rome wasn't built in a day and it took years for Kasparov to learn to play like Kasparov. As you climb the mountain, it's OK to sit down on a rock, look back down to see how far you've come, and pat yourself on the back. If all you ever do is look at the mountain in front of you it's easy to get discouraged. Folks who have 2500 ratings still have to figure out how to beat the 2700+ crowd -- and that's a lot of mountain left to climb...

L8erz...
=wild=

Nice analogy, I like that. And again, thanks for the kudos. Really helps to have someone with an outside perspective say that you're improving.