1986-01-01 - Handley, Mike 1-0 Jones, Derek
Another King's Indian, Classical varaition. Young Mike Handley's opponent makes a positional howler on move 17 and gets swept off the board.
[Event "CARDIFF"] [Site "?"] [Date "1986.01.01"] [Round "?"] [White "Handley, Mike"] [Black "Jones, Derek"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E98"] [Annotator "Doe,John"] [PlyCount "67"] {This game was in BCT issue 55, March 1986. Notes by Mike Handley (MH).} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. Nd3 c5 {"I do not like 10...c5. It does not succeed in its aim of blocking White's Queenside attack, and costs valuable time needed for Black's Kingside counterplay." MH. There were twenty-one games on the database with this move. Several Black players were GMs but the general percentage is in White's favour.} 11. a3 f5 12. f3 Nf6 13. Bd2 f4 14. b4 b6 {"Consistent with 10...c5." MH.} 15. a4 {Svetushkin-Vajda, Bucharest 1999, continued 15 Qe1 g5 16 Nf2 Ng6 17 bxc5 dxc5 18 a4 a5 19 Rb1. Black failed to achieve a breakthrough on the Kingside while White overran the Queenside. 1-0 in 31 moves.} Bd7 16. a5 $5 g5 {At first Deep Rybka suggests 16...cxb4 17 Nxb4 bxa5 18 Nc2 with advantage to Black. However, this sort of structure is not meant to be good for Black. After a bit more analysis the engine discovers that 18 Nd3 is better than 18 Nc2, no surprise there, but eventually produces 18.Na6 Rc8 (not 18...Qb6+ 19.c5 dxc5 20.Bc4+/=) 19 c5 dxc5 20 Bc4 anyway with an equal position. Once a5 collapses White should have a clear advantage.} 17. Qc2 {"If Black had continued 17...h5 White would have played 18 Rfb1 Ng6 19 bxc5 bxc5 20 Nb5 Ne8 21 a6 and White has Queenside pressure, but Black gets good counter-chances on the Kingside with ...Rf7, ...Bf8 and...Rg7, followed by breaking open the g-file." MH. After 17...h5 18 Rfb1 Ng6 Deep Rybka suggests 19.axb6 axb6 20.Rxa8 Qxa8 21.bxc5 bxc5 22.Rb6 with an evaluation of +1 to White. Analysing further it produces 22...Ne7 23.Rxd6!? Nc8 24.Rxf6 Bxf6 25.Be1! followed by Bf2 which ensures that c5 will fall. This gives White two advanced Pawns for the Exchange and the evaluation remains at about +! to White. Instead of 18...Ng6 the engine wants to play 18...cxb4, but this is similar to the lines above which the engine misjudged. This all strongly suggests that the move 10...c5 is strategically inferior to playing on the Kingside with 10...f5.} bxa5 $2 {"A positional blunder. Having invested time in securing the point c5, Black now allows that point to collapse. My opponent said [in the post-mortem] that he had only looked at 18 bxa5, after which he could play ...a7-a6, ...Ra8-a7 covering the second rank and preparing to bring his Rook to the Kingside. However, after White's reply Black's Queenside is shattered." MH. An astonishing mistake for a player graded 172 (according to Mike's notes) to make. Even in the anticpated variation 18 bxa5 a6, the b6 square is left as a gaping hole and Deep Dybka is more concerned with trying to plus the gaps with ...Qc7 and ...Rfb8 rather than switching rooks to the Kingside via the second rank.} 18. bxc5 dxc5 19. Rfb1 {"Of course not 19 Nxc5?? Qb6." MH.} g4 20. Nxc5 {Not surprisingly Deep Rybka has White at nearly +2 here.} gxf3 21. Bxf3 Bg4 {"Sets a trap, but after the exchange of light-squared Bishops the Knight comes in at e6 crippling Black's position." MH. This is just about Black's only chance. If White gets to play Nxd7 then Black's chances of breaking through on the Kingside while White keeps his own light-squared Bishop are virtually nil.} 22. Bxg4 Nxg4 23. Ne6 Qc8 24. h3 { "Not 24 Nxf8?? Qc5+ with Philidor's legacy: 25 Kh1 Nf2+ 26 Kg1 Nh3+ 27 Kh1 Qg1+ 28 Rxg1 Nf2 mate." MH. This makes, in this instance, Pawn to Rook Three a good move.} f3 {"Probably Black's best practical chance. The retreat of the Knight would result in the decisive advance of White's centre Pawns."} 25. gxf3 {"25 hxg4 f2+ might give Black swindling chances. 25 gxf3 is far safer." MH. Deep Rybka evaluates 25 hxg4 more highly than 25 gxf3 but both are over +3 to White. The White Knight on e6 keeps the Black Queen from getting to the Kingside, so Black only has a Rook in White's territory and that is swiftly dealt with.} Rxf3 26. hxg4 Rg3+ 27. Kf2 Rxg4 28. Rg1 {And it's White who takes control of the newly-opened g-file.} Rxg1 29. Rxg1 Ng6 30. Nb5 Bf8 {"To stop Nd6." MH.} 31. Qc3 {"Threatening 33 Qxe5." MH.} Bc5+ 32. Be3 Bb4 33. Qxe5 Qd7 34. Bd4 {Ironically stepping on a square that 10...c5 was mean to be controlling permanently!} 1-0
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