5 September 2019 - Swale Club Championship - Round One

Swale Club Chess Championship - Round One

Thursday 5 September 2019

White: Keith Nevols (157) - Black: Alin Popa (76)

French Defence

The start of a new season!!

1. e4 e6

2. Qe2

My regular anti-French. A target for the year ahead - find some better anti-French systems.

2. .....  c6!?

An interesting idea which I assumed was to help get d5 through. I considered 3. c4 d5 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. exd5 Qxd5 6. Nc3 but just thought my d-pawn looked a bit odd without any neighbours.

3. d4 Nf6

3. .. d5 would have been better. Now I get the chance to gain some time.

4. e5 Ng8

A better alternative would have been 4. ... Nd5 5. c4 Nb4 (5. .. Nc7!?) I looked at 6. a3 Qa5! and whether I should try 7. Kd1?? (which would have been a huge blunder after 7. .. Qa4+ 8. Ke1 Nc2+) or the more simple 7. Nc3 where Black could try 7. .. c5.

5. Nf3 h6

Black's position is not good - the knight on b8 and bishop on c8 will struggle to get out. Having said that, my queen is not very well placed on e2, so I resolve to sort out the kingside.

6. g3 b5

I had guessed the idea was to establish a knight on d5 via e7, but now I am thinking how I can make use of the weakened Black squares.

7. Bg2 Ba6

Ruling out castling so I have to go somewhere with the queen and think that the centre is as good as place as any.

8. Qe4 Bb4+

9. Bd2

Happy to exchange bishops - again with those weak Black squares in mind, especially the one on d6.

9. ......  Qa5

10. O-O

10. Qg4 is interesting, but let's just get the king out of the way before any accidents.

10. ....  Bxd2

11. Nxd2 b4

12. Rfd1

This move was after I performed the 'which rook on which square' debate familiar to all chess players. I figured that the rooks would better placed on c1 and d1, with a plan of Nb3-c5, Rac1, c3 etc. Or even a3. 

Black's best move here is 12. ... Ne7, with those squares on d5 or f5 to consider, and then castling and somehow developing the knight on b8.

12. ......  f5?

But this is a mistake, letting the queen infiltrate the kingside.

13. exf6 Nxf6??

And this is game over. Black had to play 13. .. gxf6 14. Qg6+ Kf8 15. Ne4 Qd8 and then White will try to get the rooks into play to keep up the attack.

As played, the game now finishes very quickly.

14. Qg6+ Kf8

15. Ne5 Kg8

16. Ne4 Qd8

16. .. Nxe4 mates after 17. Qf7+Kh7 18. Bxe4++.

17. Qf7+ Kh7

18. Nxf6+ Qxf6

19. Be4+

Black can now resign but instead allows me the chance to perform a neat checkmate.

19. ....  Qf5

20. Bxf5+ exf5

21. Qxf5+ Kg8

22. Ng6 Kh7

23. Ne7+ g6

24. Qxg6 mate