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20... Nc4 21. Bxc4
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As foretold. |
 
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21... Rxc4 22. Ra1 Bg4
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Offering his a-pawn in exchange for attacking chances again White's King. I would not have accepted the pawn except I had found an attractive attacking idea for White, based on a Rook check on the back rank and the queen's attack on h7. |
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23. Rxa7
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(!?) (With a deep breath) |
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23... Bxf3 24. Ra8+
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White interposes this check to force the DSB back to f8. My idea was to offset Black's chances on the king side with my threat to win the pinned Bf8 with Qa3 or Qb8 in a couple of moves' time. |
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24... Bf8
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(Forced) |
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25. gxf3 Qxf3
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I had thought this was a mistake, considering that there was no way for Black to meet White's threat of winning the pinned Bishop - other than by going in for the perpetual check after the White queen moves (with ...Qd1 and ...Qg4 ), something I was perfectly content with given my positional difficulties. |
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26. Qb2
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(??) A crucial mistake. Because I had missed Black's 26th move I did not consider the importance of keeping my queen covering the d1 square. I thought it was enough to be threatening either ...Qb8 or ...Qa3 next move. Qb3 would have allowed both of these moves but also kept an eye on d1 (and thereby prevented Black's winning counter-attack). |
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26... Rc6
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(!) Ouch! Black is going to checkmate White long before he can capture the Bishop on f8 (the threat is, on say 27. Qa3, just ...Rg6 28. Bg5 ...Rxg5 29. Kf1 and ...Qd1 ). Now it can be seen that if White's queen was on b3 this combination would not be possible. 27. Qb8 is a little better, allowing the Queen to backtrack to g3 to block the rook's check from g6 but the loss of his queen would still be fatal in the long run. The best bet would have been just to accept the earlier mistake and play 27.Qb3 now. However without an attack on Black's king, White is just a lot worse. Nothing is given by the sacrifice: 27. Rxf8 after ...Kf8 28.Qb8 ..Ke7 29. Qb7 .. Kd6, there is no perpetual. Going from bad to worse, I conceived of a plan involving the sacrifice of my Bishop to block the g-file: |
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27. h4
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Intending to meet ...Rg6 with 28. Bg5 and hoping for 28...hxg5 29. h5 ... (rook moves) and then 30. Qb8, winning the f8 bishop at last, with some drawing chances. |
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27... Rg6+ 28. Bg5 hxg5 29. h5
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So far so good... Now, if I can juuuuust get Qb8 in... |
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29... Re6
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Aah. (That would be the "...rook moves..." bit of my analysis... I was expecting ...Rh6). Now, of course, 30 Qb8 is met with ...Re1 and mate next move with ...Rh1 . So, faced with huge loss of material after something like 30. Qa1 ...Re2 31. Qf1 ..Re4 (threat Rg4 ) 32. Qg2 ..Re1 33. Kh2 .. Qxh5 34.Qh3 .. Rh1! (netting the queen), White resigns.
A game that shows how much the little things count - the difference between 26 Qb2 and 26. Qb3 is only one square but probably cost the whole point. Hope you enjoyed the notes, oao - Pikket |
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