1984-01-01 - Spry, John 1-0 Waine, James
Another 1984 Club Championship featuring club regular John Spry against yet another junior James Waine. In the best style of Petrosian John fixes a weak Pawn, triples his major pieces on it, wins it and wins the endgame, all without allowing an iota of counterplay.
[Event "D&F CLUB CHAMP"] [Site "?"] [Date "1984.01.01"] [Round "?"] [White "Spry, John"] [Black "Waine, James"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A05"] [Annotator "Mordue,Tyson"] [PlyCount "93"] {"A game between two grinders. John 'Petrosian' Spry shows how to win a Pawn and an endgame." John Spry has been a solid player and a club regular for years. James Waine was another of our juniors, not spectacular but with a knack for grinding out results.} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d6 3. Bg2 e5 4. d3 h6 $6 { Given that White has chosen a closed system Black feels that he can spend a tempo ruling out Bg5. Seeing that one of White's moves is g2-g3 denying the Bishop the g3 square in the event of Bg5 h6, Bh4 g5 then I'd want White to play Bg5 so as to gain a tempo with ...h7-h6! My campaign against unnecessary Pawn to Rook Threes continues.} 5. c4 Be7 6. Nc3 O-O 7. O-O Be6 8. Rb1 {An immediate 8 b4 is possible. Deep Rybka has a hankering for 8 d4 because if 8... Bxc4 then 9 dxe5, while if 8...exd4 9 Nxd4 and both b7 and e6 are en prise. The move Black should have played instead of ...h7-h6 is ...Nb8-c6, much more useful in meeting a break in the centre. Regardless, there is nothing wrong with a slow Queenside advance.} c6 9. b4 Na6 {"An unnatural move. 9...Nbd7 looks better." Deep Rybka says that this is the difference between a small plus for White and the same for Black. Now if we want to be consistent then 9.. .Nbd7 does block the retreat for the e6 Bishop but White can't attack it with Nf3-g5 because of ...h7-h6!} 10. a4 Bd7 $2 {"If you can understand this move please send your answer on a postcard to ..." Throughout the game this Bishop never settles and ultimately this is Black's undoing. There is a lot of sensible advice about not moving pieces twice in the opening and I still fail to appreciate the the point of this move today. If Black is concerned about sensitive points on the Queenside then 10...Qd7, with an eye to playing ... Be6-h3, or 10...Nc7 or 10...Rb8 all have concrete ideas.} 11. Ba3 Qc7 12. Nd2 Rab8 {"With the Bishop on e6 Black could attempt 12...d5 here." A bit of a bolted horse and stable door remark but valid regardless.} 13. b5 cxb5 $2 { Seriously weakening the d5 square. Black should play the immediate 13...Nc5 not fearing 14 bxc6 bxc6! 15 Bxc5 dxc5 because of his control of the b4 square and the chance to outpost a Rook there. Of course this is very commital and definitely not in James' style.} 14. axb5 Nc5 15. Nb3 b6 $2 {This sets the a7 Pawn up as a fixed, backward target on an open file. John now proceeds to triple on the open file and James has to perform contortions to defend the weak Pawn. Although I wrote the John 'Petrosian' Spry comment in 1984 I was unaware that there was a game Petrosian-Donner, Santa Monica 1966 in which the World Champion laid seige in similar fashion to a fixed Pawn on a7. Unlike Petrosian John actually wins that Pawn. It's easy to suggest improvements such as 15...Rfe8, 15...Be6 or 15...Ne6 but Black's weaknesses will remain.} 16. Nxc5 dxc5 {"Black has gotten his pieces more space but he is now weak on the light squares and his a-Pawn looks very sick. Possibly 16...bxc5 gives him more defensive options. Now White quickly sets his sights on the weak Pawns." Deep Rybka seems to have a preference for the text because it says it can use d6 for the Bishop. I'm not so sure about this. It feels like one of those old computer moves BN2-R1 (choose your corner) where the engine says that it has improved its position because control of Knight two is better than control of Rook one. The trouble with ...d6xc5 is that the e5 Pawn becomes a target as well, hence the use of 'Pawns' at the end of the original comment.} 17. Bb2 $1 {Immediately clearing the a-file for the heavy pieces. John has studied a lot of straegical theory and knows exactly where he needs his pieces, even if he has to take time get them there.} Rfe8 18. Ra1 Bd6 19. Ra2 {"Not 19 Ra4? a5."} Re7 20. Qa1 {The opening could well have been classified as a Reti. Reti himself often put his Queen on a1 to back up the b2 Bishop so this position would gladden his heart, particularly in view of what John does with his other Rook.} Be6 {"The moving Bishop, having got in the way, moves on."} 21. Rc1 { "John here suggests 21 Rb1 to avoid moving the well-place Knight on c3." The engine makes nothing of the difference but upon seeing the game continuation one can understand the comment.} Rd8 22. Nd1 Bg4 23. Bc3 Rde8 {I gave 22...Bg4 an ! and now I commented "23...e4 was a last chance to gain some freedom after 24 Bxf6 gxf6 25 Bxe4 Be5." I stand by the comment but Deep Rybka seems unimpressed preferring Ne3 on both moves 24 and 25. It says its suggestion is a plus of about 1.75 to White while my line is exactly +1 after 26 Qb1 Bd4 preventing Ne3. The difference is of course that Ne3 picks up a tempo on the g4 Bishop and the Knight has immediate access to d5.} 24. f3 {"Although this blocks in the King's Bishop Black is unable to exploit it because of the pressure on his a7 Pawn."} Bc8 25. Ne3 g6 $2 {"Creating needless weaknesses on the a1-h8 diagonal." Upon seeing the game continuation I can understand why James has done this. A Black Rook is going to d7 which will cut off the Bishop's defence of the f5 square. The obvious way to avoid this is to play the Bishop to e6 but this reduces the vertical defence of e5. Nevertheless he should have done this because in the game his defensive set-up is easily broken.} 26. Bb2 Rd8 27. Rc3 Qb8 $2 {This was the last chance to play 27...Be6. } 28. Rca3 {A classic position with the Queen supporting batteries down the a-file and along the a1-h8 diagonal.} Rdd7 29. Bh3 $1 {"The penalty for his omission of ...Be6." Black can't prevent the collapse of a7. A lot of pieces are going to be exchanged and they are mainly active White ones for passive Black ones. However, Black's remaining pieces are passive too and he has no away of generating counterplay because of the clamp White has on the e4 square. } Rc7 30. Bxc8 Qxc8 31. Rxa7 Rxa7 32. Rxa7 Rxa7 33. Qxa7 Qb8 {"Black exchanges Queens because the White one paralysed his position." A paraphrasing of a comment actually given at move 37.} 34. Qxb8+ Bxb8 35. Kf2 {Even better is 35 f4! when the pin of the a1-h8 diagonal forces 35...Nd7 when White has the option of dropping his Knight on to d5 now or after further swaps on e5. Here 25...g6? would have been exposed for the weakening move that it was. I suspect the reason why both players missed this is that they were hurrying to get to the time-control which is indeed move 35.} Nd7 {Allowing Nd5 unopposed but there was no stopping it anyway.} 36. Nd5 {"The sealed move. White now intends e2-e3 and f3-f4 to put pressure on the e5 Pawn. If Black play ...e5xf4 White recaptures g3xf4 and smothers him with the massive Pawn centre. If Black defends with ...f7-f6 White plays g3-g4 and h2-h4-h5 to force Black to put more Pawns on the same colour square as his Bishop."} Kg7 37. e3 f6 38. f4 Kf7 39. Kf3 Ke6 40. h3 h5 {"More weaknesses."} 41. d4 {An alternative way is 41 fxe5 fxe5 42 g4 to make progress on the Kingside, helped by Black's last move. With the text White "threatens to undermine e5 completely with g3-g4-g5."} exf4 $2 {It was better to play 41...exd4 to avoid a weakness on e5. Black's problem is that he doesn't have many waiting moves.} 42. Nxf4+ $1 {"Forcing Black to trade Bishop for Knight because if 42...Kf7 White walks in with Kf3-e4-d5 etc. " If Black still had his Pawn on h7 then g6 wouldn't be weak. That takes us back to move 4!} Bxf4 43. gxf4 g5 $2 {Complete desperation but just helping White even more.} 44. fxg5 fxg5 45. d5+ Kf5 46. e4+ Kg6 47. e5 1-0
The games viewer used here was developed by
http://chesstempo.com
and is licensed under
CC BY 2.0.
