Last month (April 2008) I played in the Major tournament in the Nottingham Chess Congress. This was for players with an ECF grade of 160 (about 1880 Elo) or under.
Here is my final round game playing white against M. Harris (139 ECF / 1720 Elo). It was quite an eventful game, but also quite a commedy of errors (at least on my part). Several times I had winning positions and I let him get away with a draw!
I’m going to discuss my play in future posts, so for now here’s just the game. Sorry no diagrams this time, but this is really just for reference - I’ll include diagrams in the posts where I discuss the game.
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nbd2 Be7 7.h3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.Qe2 Ne4 10.0-0-0 Nd7 11.h4 Qc8 12.Kb1 a5 13.Ng5 cxd4 14.cxd4 Ndf6 15.Rc1 Qd7 16.Rc7 Qd8 17.Rxb7 Bd6 18.Bxd6 Nxd6 19.e4 Nxb7 20.e5 g6 21.exf6 Qxf6 22.Ndf3 Nd6 23.h5 h6 24.Nh3 g5 25.Ne5 Nf5 26.Nd7 Qxd4 27.Nxf8 Kxf8 28.Bxf5 exf5 29.Re1 Qe4+ 30.Qxe4 fxe4 31.Kc1 Ke7 32.Kd2 f5 33.Rc1 Rd8 34.Rc6 g4 35.Nf4 Rd6 36.Rxd6 Kxd6 37.Ke3 Kc5 38.Ng6 d4+ 39.Kd2 Kd6 40.g3 b5 41.Nf4 a4 42.Ng2 b4 43.Ne1 b3 44.axb3 axb3 45.Ng2 Kd5 46.Nf4+ Ke5 47.Ne2 Kd5 48.Nf4+ Ke5 49.Ng6+ Kf6 50.Nf4
Draw agreed.
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Cracking website! Lots of interesting material on the Dutch. However, what’s put me off playing the opening recently is coming up with reasonable response to 1. Bg5, which is a very difficult move to counter. I don’t particularly like g6 or h6, the standard responses. What else can black do?
I only got as far as 15… Qd7??? and 18.Bxd6?? - but there are definitely errors on both sides. :^) Tactical blindness by both players?
Not wishing to detract from the Dutch, but does anyone have any exciting lines against the Scandinavian (e4 d5)? In order to cut out a lot of theory, I was thinking of simply playing e5 in response to black’s d5. Is that sound?
Concerning more Dutchy chess, does anyone have any suggestions for the greatest Dutch game ever - or a top 5? Surely that Tartakower game must feature - the one with one of the most saucy sacrifices ever to be uncorked over the board.
Alan,
Thanks for the comment, and yes, a lot of errors on both sides - hence the “comedy of errors” in the title of the post. In the spirit of this blog, I will be quite open about these when discussing this game in future posts, and quite ruthless when discussing my own errors.
Kevin,
Thanks for your comment, and I know what you mean! As I mentioned in my “The Dutch Defence and Checkmate In Two Moves, Revisited” post, I have the same problem with the 2.Bg5 system myself - like you, I don’t like the idea of playing 2.g6 (and encouraging a quick h2-h4-h5 by white), and I don’t like the idea of playing a quick …h6 when the only logical follow-up is to weaken the king’s side with an early …g5. Soon, I hope to look up some of black’s alternatives and dedicate a post to them.