1983-10-01 - Macrae, Tony 1-0 Sellars, Martin

Yet another junior beats club senior game. In a hard-fought Queen's Gambit Martin takes the initiative on the Kingside. Tony defends well and slowly turns the tables.

[Event "BRISTOL LEAGUE DIV 1"] [Site "?"] [Date "1983.10.01"] [Round "?"] [White "Macrae, Tony"] [Black "Sellars, Martin"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D35"] [Annotator "Doe,John"] [PlyCount "98"] {Yet another B v A upset, this time from the match in October 1983. Tony Macrae was one of our promising juniors. Martin Sellars was an experienced player regularly graded between 170 to 180. This game is a trenchant defensive effort which comes as a change from the other spectacular crushes on this page. However. it simply proves that you have grind results out.} 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bf4 Be7 7. e3 O-O {A very typical looking Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange variation. Tony has developed his Bishop on f4 rather than g5 but the former was in fashion around then.} 8. Be2 {"8 Bd3 seems better to prevent ...Bf5. Black declines the chance anyway."} Nbd7 9. O-O Re8 10. h3 {Deep Rybka has wanted to play ...Nh5 going after the Bishop for the last few moves. This is one of the differences between Bg5 systems and those with Bf4. Now Tony has a retreat on h2. I'm not going to criticise the Pawn to Rook Three because it's a standard move in the London System where Bf4 is the characteristic move.} Nf8 11. Qc2 Ng6 {Deep Rybka prefers 11...g6 to support ...Bf5 and so do I. The engine now evaluates White as 0.5 better which seems generous but I'm not sure what Black's plan is. } 12. Bh2 Bd6 $5 {I originally gave this a ! and remarked "White has played rather passively and Black has seized the initiative." Actually Deep Rybka has White at +0.34 here but I can understand Black wanting to swap this Bishop - I've seen too many accidents on c7 and b8 in London Systems - but this move also prepares ...Nf6-e4.} 13. Bxd6 Qxd6 14. Bd3 {Battling for the e4 square but White's actual plan is a minority attack on the Queenside.} Qe7 15. Nd2 Bd7 16. a3 {I originally gave this a ? and commented that "16 b4 immediately is better. If 16...Qxb4 17 Rab1 and 18 Rxb7." Strategically quite correct. White intends to advance to b5 and swap on c6 anyway so this would accelerate the whole process. Deep Rybka suggested 16 a4? which is met by 16...a5 and demonstrates that it hasn't studied Minority Attacks. Incidentally the best counter to b2-b4 is the ironic ...b7-b5 but only if he can quickly get a Knight to c4 via b6 or sometimes d6. That doesn't apply here so the c6 Pawn would be left sticking out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately Deep Rybka comes up with a neat tactic that refutes 16 b4, namely 16...Qxb4 17 Rab1 Qd6! 18 Rxb7 Bxh3! 19 gxh3 Rxe3 20 fxe3 Qg3+ with a perpetual check on g3 and h3. So 16 a3 is okay after all. We could of course try 16 Rab1 and after 16...a5 we'd have to play 17 a3 anyway!} Rac8 17. b4 b6 18. Rfc1 {"Better seems 18 Rac1 and 19 Qb3 leaving the other Rook for the defence of the Kingside." I can't disagree with that. It's nearly the time control (move 36) before Tony moves his Queen's rook.} Nh5 19. Qd1 Nf6 {I originally suggested 19...Qg5 with the interesting line 20.f4 Ngxf4 21.exf4 Nxf4 22.Bf1 Nxh3+ 23.Kh2 (Not 23.Kh1 Nf2+) 23...Qf4+ 24.g3 Qf2+ 25.Bg2 Re3 and a big advantage for Black. Instead after 19...Qg5 Deep Rybka came up with 20.Nf3 Qe7 21.Ba6! Rb8 22.b5 breaking up Black's Queenside. That suggestion also refutes another proposed line: 19... Qg5 20 Nf3 Qh6!? 21 g4 Nhf4!? because instead of 21 g4 White can play 21.Ba6! Rb8 22.b5 again. The whole point is that there is no Knight on f6 defending d5 after ...c6xb5. Another suggested idea was 19...Ng3 with the point 20 fxg3? Qxe3+ and 21...Qxd3. Sadly 19...Ng3?? just loses a piece to 20 Bxg6 hxg6 21 fxg3 Qxe3+22 Kh2.} 20. Qc2 Nh4 21. Bf1 Nh5 {Deep Rybka originally suggested 21. ..c5 but that seems poor after 22 bxc5 bxc5 23 dxc5 Q or Rxc5 24 Nb3 and 25 Nd4 with a fine outpost in front of the isolated Pawn.} 22. Qd1 Nf6 23. Nf3 Nxf3+ 24. Qxf3 g5 $5 {"Enough messing about. Black goes over to a direct attack and at last Tony shows his expertise, even if it is just of a defensive nature." Today this simply looks odd and Deep Rybka once again suggests 25 Ba6 Rb8 26 b5 with an advantage of about 0.5 to White.} 25. Be2 Kh8 26. g4 $5 { "A very radical move. White slows down the Black attack but creates a more vulnerable target." Targets would be a better word. They are on f2 and h3 obviously. This is very original play from both sides. There are many alternative moves on both sides but there is little point in mentioning them. Martin's moves were often hard to predict anyway and Tony is playing move-by-move against a stronger opponent.} Rf8 27. Kg2 Ne4 28. Nxe4 dxe4 29. Qg3 f5 30. gxf5 {"30 Qe5+ exchanges Queens but leaves White with a dismal endgame." I stand by that one. The e5 Pawn looks as if it would drop off very quickly. Currently the Black King looks just as exposed as the White one so it's in White's interests to keep the Queens on. Deep Rybka judges the position to be equal although dynamically balanced may be a better description. } Rxf5 31. Rh1 {Adopting a siege attitude. As indicated above White has potentially weak Pawns on f2 and h3 so Tony hurries to give then solid protection. Deep Rybka doesn't like these moves and prefers both 31 Bg4 and 31 b5. I don't like either of those! The former could well result in the swap of Bishops and that accentuates the weakness of f3. The latter could be answered by the easy 31...c5 and I'm unhappy that White has put a Pawn on a light square, the same colour as the Bishops although you could argue that White could swap the Bishops with Bg4!} Rcf8 32. Raf1 R8f7 $6 {"In view of White's 34th move 32...a5 at once seems better. It is correct to switch the attack to the Queenside while White's pieces are on the Kingside." I strongly suspect that Martin was in time-trouble - he usually was! - and he missed the forthcoming check on b8. Much better is 32...Qf7 tripling against f2 and preparing to invade on the Queenside, although Black must take care whilst Bg4 is a move for White. For example if it after 32...Qf7 were it Black to move again and he chose 33...Qa2 play could go 34 Bg4 R5f7 35 Bxd7 Rxd7 36 Qe5+ (not 35 Qxg5?? Rg8 or g7 wins the pinned Queen) and the e4 Pawn drops.} 33. Rh2 {A passive move that has the clear intention of guarding f2 after the white King retreats to h1. However, it is met by a mistake that blunders a Pawn.} a5 $2 34. Qb8+ Rf8 35. Qxb6 axb4 36. Qxb4 Qf7 {Time control reached but White has a job on to win this. The outside passed Pawn is helpful though. Tony's next reveals his foresight in playing 33 Rh2.} 37. Kg1 h5 38. Qb1 {Quite a cunning move. If Black wants to keep his e4 Pawn then he must guard it with a major piece. That reduces the pressure on f2 and enables Tony to come up with an impressive regrouping.} Qe8 {We published this game with a diagram at this point and the caption "Black has played 38...Qe8. White to move....?". I wonder how many people came up with 39 Bg4 based on the point 39...hxg4? 40 hxg4+ wins an Exchange. There is nothing wrong with it and it does force an exchange of Bishops and deflect another piece from the f-file after 39..R5f7 40 Bxd7 Rxd7. The move that Tony played is much more subtle. He plays to swap Rooks, not Bishops.} 39. Rc1 $5 {Given an !! with the remark "A very simple idea but sufficient to change the game." This was going over the top. The reply 38...Qf7 might well be sufficient to force the return 39 Rf1 given that 39 Qxe4 Rxf2 40 Qe5+ Kh7 41 Bd3+ Kh6 seems more dangerous for the White King than the Black one. Deep Rybka says this position is level and I'm not inclined to disagree. If instead 39...Qe8 then we can try 40 Bg4. However, after Black's weak reply the balance does switch markedly in White's favour.} R5f6 $2 {Black chooses to avoid a Rook swap and screen his g-Pawn laterally. However, this just reduces the scope of his rooks. I originally wrote that "I prefer 39...Be6 40 Rc5 Bd5 even if White has 41 Bc4." My positional judgement was fine as Deep Rybka says White is +0.8 after the Bishop swap, but my eyesight wasn't as 39...Be6?? just allows 40 Qxe4 for nothing.} 40. Rc5 { Suddenly Deep Rybka has White at over +1.3. Quite understandable given the fresh activity of the White Rook. The engine wants to retract the last move with 40...Rf5. Martin persists with his idea and the plus advances to 1.8!} Bf5 41. Qd1 $1 {I didn't remark on this move first time around but I really like it. The White Rook and Queen have done a little dance on the first rank and this neat sidestep increases the pressure on Black's position to breaking point.} h4 {Deep Rybka says that White can answer 41...Rh6, which is a miserable move anyway, with 42 a4 and 43 a5. And why not? White is back in control.} 42. Bg4 {This is okay but 42 Rg2 first is even better.} Qd7 43. Bxf5 Rxf5 44. Qh5+ {"Black now pays the penalty for wasting his attacking opportunities while overextending his position." Indeed White is now winning another Pawn by force.} Kg7 45. Rxf5 Rxf5 46. Rg2 Qd5 47. Qxh4 Kf7 48. Qh7+ Kf6 49. Qh8+ Kf7 {After playing this move Black conceded because "50 h4 opens up too many lines to cope." A fine victory by Tony and a proper chess tussle.} 1-0

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