Game three: Clifton C vs Keynsham A

I played this match the day after my loss vs Cabot and it was also an away game, taking place at the interestingly named Fear Institute(!). I was generally pleased with my play in this game, although I did miss a tactic that would have been very strong. I was playing with the white pieces.


Leading up to the position above (after 19...Nf5) white had been enjoying a slight edge and preparing b4-b5. I had thought that ...Nf5 couldn't really be played because of the damage to the black pawn structure, but when he did make the move I saw that 20.Nxf5 ...Qxf5 21.Qxf5 ...gxf5 would leave white having to deal with the dual threat of 22...Bxd4 and 22...Re2, which made this unattractive. Allowing 20...Nxe3 helps black who has less space and is looking to trade pieces so I played 20.Nc2.

Immediately after doing this I realised that I had overlooked the simple move 20.Bh3, pinning the knight to the queen and leaving white with a better position. As it is after 20...Nd6 Blacks position is quite a lot better than it had been, the knight enjoys a strong outpost eying the c4 square and also preventing b4-b5. I immediately returned my knight to e3 to cover c4, and also in the vain hope that my opponent would look for an unlikely draw by repetition with 21...Nf5, at which point I would surprise him with 22.Bh3!.


Instead black played 21...Ba7, which left me looking for ideas. Fortunately it turned out that b4-b5 can still be played via 22.b5 ...axb5 23.Bxd6 ...Qxd6 24.axb5. I followed this plan which resulted in a slightly better position. However my opponent then blundered on move 27 allowing me to win the d5 pawn, push my central passer, and eventually take the game.

My opponent forgot to press his clock a couple of times in the game, which I actually pointed out. I was surprised to watch one of the other games being played out despite a king and pawn ending with 5 pawn vs 2... some people really have trouble resigning. Over all our team won the match 4-2.