1985-02-26 - Hannon, Mark 0-1 Burgess, Graham
The first of a trio of games annotated by Graham Burgess. Graham plays what was then a rare line against the Trompovsky, quickly gets the initiative, and then mates his Pawn-grabbing opponent for a miniature.
[Event "BRISTOL LEAGUE DIV 1"] [Site "?"] [Date "1985.02.26"] [Round "?"] [White "Hannon, Mark"] [Black "Burgess, Graham"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A45"] [Annotator "Mordue,Tyson"] [PlyCount "44"] {Graham Burgess joined D&F in 1984 having moved down from Southport. He went on to become the Games Editor of Versus before being awarded his FM title at the age of 20. From the May 18-21, 1994 at the London Chess Centre he set a world record for playing marathon blitz chess, scoring (+431, =25, -54) in the 510 games played. He is also a noted and prolific chess author and has brought Mammoths back into the chess world long after they were believed extinct. In Issue 10 of Versus Graham introduced himself to the club with a selection of three games. This is the first one, a miniature against Horfield's Mark Hannon. Graham's notes are marked GKB.} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 {"The Trompovski Attack - not very pleasant to play against especially if you don't know much about it. What to do? 2...Ne4 3 Bh4 g5 4 f3 gxh4 5 fxe4 is possible but rather random - better off tossing a coin- so I chose:" GKB.} c6 {Very unusual and practically unknown. The move has its logic. White has weakened b2 so the Black Queen heads for b6. Another point is that the natural 3 e3 drops a piece to 3...Qa5+! Still I wouldn't recommend the move." GKB. Remarkably Graham had a blitz game a few years later which went 3 e3 Qa5+! When I checked on the database there were 383 games with 2...c6, and in 9 of them White played 3 e3?? One of the White players was a GM! He was one of two players who rescued a draw!!} 3. Bxf6 gxf6 4. e3 {Graham mentioned 4 e4 in his comments but in the database it only featured twice compared to 40 games with 4 e3.} Qb6 5. b3 d5 6. Bd3 Na6 {"Intending ...Nb4." GKB. In fact this is where we leave theory. Alternatives were 6...e5 and 6...c5 which had a game each, the latter being Hutchinson PA against GM Mihai Suba, Calvia 2005.} 7. c3 e5 {"Ambituous but consistent." GKB.} 8. Qh5 {"Better is 8 dxe5 fxe5 9 Qh5." GKB. Deep Rybka isn't impressed by either move sequence and prefers 8 Ne2 and the odd 8 a4.} Bd6 9. Ne2 {Graham remarked that 9 Nf3 was an alternative. It's not a good one after 9...e4 forcing 10 Bxa6 to avoid losing material and after 10...Qxa6 Black has a nice position. Instead Deep Rybka suggests 9 Bf5!? swapping off Black's apparently worse Bishop and 9 Qh6. I wonder if Graham would have replied 9...Ke7 - see the note to Black's 11th.} e4 10. Bc2 Be6 11. O-O Rg8 { "If 12 Qxh7?? Ke7! and the Queen is lost." GKB. Deep Rybka tries to prove that it isn't with 12.Qxh7 Ke7 13.Nf4 Bxf4 14.Qh4 Bd6 15 f4 even though that loses a piece, but then improves with 14...Rg4! 15.Qh7 Bd6 16.g3 Rgg8 17.Qh5 Bg4 18.Qh4 Be2 19.Re1 Rh8.} 12. Nf4 Bxf4 {Destroying a useful defensive piece and weakening the d4 square.} 13. exf4 Bg4 14. Qh4 O-O-O 15. Nd2 {"If 15 b4 to prevent 15...c5 Black has the devastating reply 15...Nxb4." GKB. The point is 16 cxb4 Qxd4 17 Na3 Qxb4 and if 18 Nb1 Qb2 regains the piece. White does better to just play 18 Qxf6. If the immediate 15 Qxf6? then 15...Bh3 wins an Exchange if White doesn't want his King exposed.} c5 {"Nothing was to be gained by straightforward play on the Kingside so I decided to open the centre up, exploiting White's lack of control of d4." GKB.} 16. dxc5 Nxc5 17. Rfe1 $2 {"I don't understand this move. Probably 17 c4 had to be played, striving for counterplay." Deep Rybka endorses the text and fails to find any substantial improvement. I suppose that e4-e3 was feared but 17 Rae1 fails simply to 17... Qa5 forking a2 and c3. The alternatives that the engine looked at were 17 h3 and 17 g3 but I'd be reluctant to play either. After the text Deep Rybka has Black at about +0.8. Unfortunately 17 c4? is even worse. Black replies with 17...Qa5 or b4 unsettling the Knight. Once it moves the two-time attack on e4 is removed so Black can just reply 18...d4 with a large centre.} Ne6 18. Qxf6 $2 {"Short of time White tries this Pawn grab, but his position was probably beyond salvation in any case." GKB. Deep Rybka doesn't think so and has a couple of suggestions. A)18.h3 h5!? 19.hxg4 Rxg4 20.Qh2 Rdg8 21.Nxe4 Rxg2+ (if 21...Nxf4 22.Kf1 dxe4 23.Bxe4 Qb5+ 24.c4 Qg5 25.g3 is +1 for White.) 22. Qxg2 Rxg2+ 23.Kxg2 Nxf4+ and now: A1) 24.Kf3 - this is a gamble, making things critical by attacking the Knight. - 24...dxe4+ 25.Kxf4 Qxf2+ 26.Kxe4 Qxc2+ is +2 or so to Black, hence the gamble fails. A2) 24.Kg1 dxe4 25.Bxe4 Nh3+ 26.Kg2 Nxf2 27.Bf5+ with a plus of about 0.6 to Black apparently, but an interesting position. A3) 24.Kf1 Qe6 25.Re3 - cutting out the threat of 25... Qh3+ - with a level position but after a while it suggests 25...h4 with a small advantage. Once again an interesting position. Alternatively B) 18. Bd1 f5 19.Bxg4 Rxg4 20.Qxh7 Rxf4 21.Re2 Ng5 22.Qg7 Rg4 23.Qe5 Nh3+ 24.Kf1 Qg6 25.g3 Nf4 26.Re3 Ne6, and at this point in what is not a forced variation the engine claims Black is better by +1.67. For the third time an interesting position, but one with material equality. Of the two 18 h3 seems more critical and certainly messier. White was reluctant to go into a complicated line because he was short of time, but now he becomes short of moves.} Rg6 19. Qxf7 Rf8 20. Qxh7 $2 {Losing a whole tempo and with it the game. Deep Rybka suggests 20 Qe7 Rg7 21 Qb4 Qxb4 22 cxb4 Nxf4 and Black for his Pawn minus has a big initiative on the Kingside. Indeed Deep Rybka is concerned enough to sacrifice pieces on e4 to break the bind. White gets three Pawns for the piece but his Queenside majority is useless because of the doubled b-Pawns and his Kingside Pawns aren't dangerous.} Nxf4 21. Qe7 Nh3+ $1 {"A very pretty picture. All of Black's pieces co-operate to force mate while White's pieces look on at a distance." GKB.} 22. gxh3 {"Otherwise Phildor's Legacy." GKB. For those readers who don't know this nice bit of tactical technique: 22.Kh1 Nxf2+ 23. Kg1 Nh3+ 24.Kh1 Qg1+!! 25.Rxg1 Nf2 with a smothered mate. After the text it's mate in three.} Qxf2+ 0-1
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