Game two: Clifton D vs Cabot

My second game for the Clifton Club, this time for Clifton D, was my first away game. I was playing against Cabot as board 1 at a bar location that looked a little bit like the race finish locations of the classic MD game Road Rash. The free crisps and cheese sandwiches were nice but the game was not. I lost with the white pieces against my 143 rated opponent, resigning on move 22 having made an elemental tactical blunder while trying to carry out an ill advised minority attack.


In the above position white needs to decide on a middlegame plan. A minority attack on the queenside or an attempt to force e3-e4 look like the main ways to break open the position, and I chose the former. In this position the computer however prefers quiet piece improvement with 13.Ne1 14.Nd3.

I played 13.b4 14.a4 and 16.b5, but even at the time I could feel that there were real problems with this plan - most especially the placement of my a1 rook. It really wants to be on b1 but the threat of ...Bf5 prevented this. Maybe I should have looked at trying to resolve that issue before beginning the queenside push.


By the time we reached the position above (after 17...Qb6) white is already very uncomfortable. However the crucial blunder occured in the position below.


It would be fair to say that at this point whites position is horrible. Rea8 is coming, and Rxa6 ...bxa6 is obviously losing for white. Here I played 20.Ba3??, with the idea that it might be strong posted on c5. My opponent played 20...b4 and I resigned two moves later.

Unfortunately our team lost the match 4-2.