1985-06-04 - Marke, Terry 1-0 Hocking, D
Yet another game from a D&F Chairman. Terry Marke plays his then favourite Stonewall Attack. His opponent misplays the opening and comes under heavy attack after a fine Exchange sac. Terry momentarily fluffs it but is then gifted a second chance and walks all over the weakened dark squares, ironically without ever moving his Queen's Bishop!
[Event "NATIONAL MINOR CHAMPIONSHIP PLATE"] [Site "?"] [Date "1985.06.04"] [Round "?"] [White "Marke, Terry"] [Black "Hocking, D"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A45"] [Annotator "Mordue,Tyson"] [PlyCount "49"] [EventDate "1985.??.??"] {Terry Marke was another D&F chairman in his time. A cheerful and utterly enthusiastic chess player who went on to form Cossham Chess Club before being seduced by playing chess and other games on the Internet. "Terry's beloved Stonewall Attack helped D&F into the last eight of the National Minor Championship Plate Tournament... [with victory over Thornbury]." Original comments by Terry marked TNM.} 1. d4 d6 2. e3 Nf6 {"2...Bf5 thwarts the Stonewall early." TNM. If 2...Bf5 then I'd try 3.Qf3!? Qc8 4.e4 Bg6 5.Bd3 and White has managed Bd3 unopposed and has a better position. We may be in the realms of a Modern or Pirc now rather than a Stonewall but that looks like an improvement to me!} 3. f4 g6 4. Bd3 Bg7 5. Nf3 c5 6. c3 Qa5 $6 {I don't understand this move at all. In the Stonewall or Colle or London systems Black's ...cxd4 should always be answered, if appropriate, by exd4, so pinned the c3 Pawn is irrelevant. What's more the Queen does nothing of any value on a5 at any point and subsequently loses a tempo when forced back to c7. There plenty of other playable move here and 6...Qc7 is one of them.} 7. O-O Nbd7 $2 {"Better is 7...Nc6 to free the Queen's Bishop and threaten ...e5 at the same time." TNM. The Queen's Bishop was already free but now it's blocked in again. In fact it never moves at all. The move ...e7-e5 is not so much a threat as an important freeing move in a fianchetto line against the Stonewall. Several times in my career I had (say) 1 d4 Nf6 2 e3 g6 3 f4 Bg7 4 Nf3 d6 5 Bd3 0-0 6 0-0 Nc6 7 c3 e5. The e5 square is meant to be a strongpoint for White in the Stonewall but not here. Disconcerting for White players who frequently went wrong shortly afterwards.} 8. Na3 {"[Now] Nc4 gains a tempo if Black plays ... e7-e5." TNM. Black eventually gets to ...e7-e5 after the steed has kicked Her Majesty away but, as predicted, Black has lost time with his Queen by then.} cxd4 9. exd4 O-O 10. Qe2 {10 Re1 looks more natural but I know Terry wanted to keep his Rook on the f-file fo attacking purposes. Deep Rybka suggests 10 Qc2 as well which is okay - there are no tactics involving ...Nb4 because the Knight's misplaced on d7 - but I would prefer 10 Qe1 followed by a later Qh4. The immediate 11 Qh4 is met by 11...Qh5 so Nc4 needs to be thrown in first. Alternatively 10 Bd2 might persuade the Queen to retreat anyway.} Re8 11. Ng5 { Terry gave this an ? but no explanation why. Deep Rybka prefers 11 Re1 and the more straightforward 11 f5, evan as a Pawn sacrifice - while there is definitely a case for 12 Bd2 and 12 Rae1. I suppose Hocking was reluctant to play the weakening 11...h6 pushing the Knight away, so he plays the other Pawn to Rook three instead. The intention is to play ...b7-b5 but, like the rest of Black's Queenside, it never happens.} a6 12. Nc4 {The immediate 12 f5 is fine but Terry plays his tempo-gaining move before ...b7-b5 denies the Knight this square.} Qc7 13. f5 {"Before Black plays ...e5!!)" TNM. From White's perspective I'm not too concerned about ...e7-e5. What does concern me is that ...e7-e6 does hold up f4-f5 so Terry is right to get it in as soon as possible. Now he has a decent set of squares for his Queen's Bishop to go to. That's why I wanted to play Qe1 earlier because after Qh4 the move Bh6 is a clear candidate.} Nf8 {Deep Rybka has a decided preference for going in the other direction either with the immediate 13...Nb6 - which doesn't make sense because 14 Nxb6 Qxb6 blocks the b7-b5 advance so the Queen wull have to move again! - or the better 13...b5 14 Ne3 Nb6 and the control of the d5 square may well be important. Other than reinforcing h7 it's not clear what the Knight does on f8. However, a D&F captain recently lost quickly after failing to put a Knight there in an analogous position. The tactic he'd overlooked was Nxh7.} 14. fxg6 {I don't see any need to release the tension by rushing this capture. I'd play 14 Ne3 giving me the option to recapture on f5 with the Knight if Black should injudiciously play ...g6xf5.} fxg6 $2 {As indicated in other games on this page it is always a difficult choice to decide between ...h7xg6 and f7xg6. Here Hocking removes the f7 Pawn from the gaze of certain White pieces, and he hopes that the weakness of e6 will be negated when he advances . ..e7-e5. However, 14...hxg6 feels more solid, less Pawn islands for one and maintained coverage on the a2-g8 diagonal for another, and the defence of h7, with or without a Pawn on that square, is not a problem with the Knight on f8. Perhaps Hocking wanted to keep the option of ...h7-h6 but that's more weakening and he never plays it anyway. I declined to give 13...Nf8 an ? but I feel the text deserves one. Deep Rybka says the difference is +0.46 for White after 14...hxg6 compared to +0.76 after 14...fxg6 so it agrees.} 15. Ne3 { Threatening a very inconvenient 16 Bc4+. Perhaps Black should prevent this with the simple 16...d5 although then the e5 square needs attention. 15...b5? is strongly met by 16 a4! and the b5 Pawn is simply exposed as a weakness too. } e5 $2 {Terry gives this an ! In fact it's an awful move that gives up several important squares, and fails to a combination that Terry actually finds the first two moves of!} 16. Rxf6 $1 {Terry gives this an ?! while Deep Rybka says White now has a plus of +1.76. The point is that the dark squares start to cave in after the White Knights get to the superb light squares on d5 and e4.} Bxf6 17. Nd5 Qg7 18. Qf3 $2 {Inconsistency in good positions was one of Terry's biggest faults. Here 18.Nxf6+! Qxf6 19.Ne4 Qg7 (if instead 19... Qd8 - 19...Qe7 meets the same reply but is even worse! - 20 20.Bg5! Qb6 21. Nf6+ wins the Rook outright. If 21... Kf7 22 Rf1 and with all White's pieces in play Bklack won't survive. Or 19...Qe6 20 Bc4 d5 21 Bxd5 Qxd5 22 Nf6+ is a family fork.) 20.Nxd6 Rd8 21.dxe5 with two Pawns and a huge position for the Exchange).} Bd8 {The right move keeping the dark-squared Bishop. If instead 18. ..Bf5? 19 Nxf6+ Qxf6 20 g4 wins two pieces for the Rook. Deep Rybka looks at 20...e5 so that if 21 gxf5 e4 is good, but then dismisses it after 21 dxe5! Qb6+ 22 Be3 Qxb2 23 Rf1! - if 23...Be6? (better is 23...Qxc3 24 gxf5 Qxe5 but after 25 Bf4 Deep Rybka has White at well over +3) 24 Nxe6 Nxe6 25 Qf7+ Kh8 26 Rb1! followed by 27 Rxb7 is winning.} 19. Bc4 $2 {With an obvious threat to which there are several equally obvious defences. Instead White keeps his advantage with 19 Ne4 threatening 20 Nf6+ again and Nxd6.} Ne6 {The correct choice. If 19...Kh8 20 Nf7+Kg8 21 Nxd8 and if 21...Rxd8 22 Nb6+ wins the a8 Rook. If 19...Be6, a tempting move just to get the laggard Bishop into play, then 20 Ne4 - once again threatening 21 Nxd6 and 21 Nf6+ - 20...Nd7 - givving the e8 Rook space 21 Nd6 Rf8 22 Qe4 White has a Pawn and a lot of play for the Exchange and Deep Rybka says White is still better.} 20. Ne4 exd4 $4 {After securing a playable position Hocking blunders. After the correct 20...Rf8 preventing the fork, picking up a valuable tempo on the Queen and showing up 18 Qf3 as an error, Black stands better.} 21. Ndf6+ Bxf6 22. Nxf6+ Kh8 {Having to leave the Rook undefended and going a piece down. 22...Kf7 loses the Queen immediately to 23 Nh5+ which 22...Kf8 is met with more finesse: 23.Bxe6 Bxe6 24.Bh6! Qxh6 25.Ng4+.} 23. Nxe8 Qe7 24. Qf6+ Kg8 $4 25. Qxe7 {"I guess his 24th was an impossible dilemma. The last time I played Mr Hocking I was lucky to scrap a draw when he had White against my Sicilian Dragon." TNM. Well, I think the last remark just reinforces how important the g7 (g2) Bishop is in fianchetto positions and that Terry should have played 18 Nxf6+!} 1-0
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