(1) Mike,Doran - Kaiser,Malik [B01]
Terrill Trophy Final - WQ2a V SB1a Olton Chess Club, 07.04.2009
[Mike Doran]
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.Bb5+ Nbd7 3...Bd7 is more common, but Nbd7 is fine 4.Nc3 a6 5.Be2 I didnt want to give up my B for a N so I have to move it. Moving the B to c4 or a4 would give Black the b5 pawn push for free, so Be2 is a 'no brainer'. 5...Nb6 6.Nf3 Nbxd5 7.Nxd5 White doesnt want the N on c3 blocking the advance of the c pawn, so he is happy to exchange N's 7...Qxd5 Aggressive. Nd5 would have been safer, but Black wants to free up the d8 square so he can castle Q-Side and get a Rook on d8, pressurising the d pawn. Black wants to win this game! 8.d4 Bg4 9.0-0 0-0-0 10.Be3 Qf5 A key moment . I felt uncomfortable here with the d-file Rook pressure on my d4 pawn, with ideas like c5 by Black in the offing. But then I decided there must be a good move here for me because White had made no mistakes and therefore couldnt be worse. And so I thought for a while until I found 11 Ne5. 11.Ne5 Bxe2 12.Qxe2 Qe6 At this point I started to think in terms of winning the game rather than not losing. I want to find ways to harrass the Black Queen while it is tied to defence of f7. I'd like to play c4 followed by d5 hitting the Queen on e6. But the slight tactical hitch is that after d5 by White, Black takes the Knight on e5. So f4 is the key move. The feint is that it threatens f5, which means Black plays g6 to prevent this. But the real benefit is that the f4 pawn supports the e5 Knight, so White can press on with the plan of c4 and d5. 13.f4 g6 14.c4 Nd7 15.d5 Qf6 16.Bd4 e6 A key moment. 17 Nc6 looks very attractive, the tactical point being that Nc6 defends the Bishop on d4. But Malik is a very good player, and e6 lays the trap/\ If 17 Nc6 Bc5! 18 Bc5 bc, when White bursts into tears and the Terrill goes to South B'ham. I'd seen 16.. e6 trap and so made a point of responding with 17 Qe3 immediately to try and dishearten my opponent. (well it was a cup final). 17.Qe3 Bg7 18.Nc6 Qh4 19.Bxg7 bxc6 20.Bxh8 Rxh8 21.dxc6 Nb8 Another key moment. The game is objectively won, but 'objectively won' doesnt put a point on the score card. Whites 22 Qa7 threatens Qb7+. Now the game is over. 22.Qa7 Nxc6 23.Qxa6+ If 23/\ Kd7. 24 R (either) d1+. We now needed another point for the Trophy. Adam soon after agreed a draw, fighting back from an early pawn defecit. This left us needing one more draw. It came in the last game to finish when Callum, two pawns down in a pawn and Bishop endgame with a clearly lost position decided this neednt stop him getting a draw against the older of the Malik brothers. And so it proved. What a night! 1-0 1-0