2011-02-27 - Harvey, Marcus 1-0 Clarke, Brandon

Tyson - This is arguably the best game of 2011 by anyone, anywhere. I was the controller so I saw it live. It's a five star brilliancy yet you won't find it on the internet. Hold your breath as White goes on a sacrificial rampage: One Pawn and then another, an Exchange, a Knight and then a Rook! At the point the Knight is accepted then it's mate in fourteen!" A comment from a BCM editor went "That's going on my bedroom ceiling!

[Event "WECU Junior"] [Site "Swindon"] [Date "2011.02.27"] [Round "4"] [White "HARVEY, Marcus"] [Black "CLARKE, Brandon"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Mordue,Tyson"] [PlyCount "69"] [EventDate "2011.??.??"] 1. g3 f5 2. d4 Nf6 3. Bg2 g6 4. c4 Bg7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Nc3 d6 {The Leningrad variation of the Dutch defence. Black avoids the weakening of e5 in the traditional formation with d5, e6 and f5. He intends to go ...Qe8 and ...e7-e5 and ultimately attack on the Kingside. Of course this strategy exposes his own King and in this game White is the one who attacks.} 7. O-O Qe8 8. Re1 {Much more critical is 8 d5 so as to take en passant when Black goes ...e7-e5.} e5 9. dxe5 dxe5 10. Nd5 {The main move here is 10 e4 to block Black's central advance. After the text Black can consider the sacrifice 10...e4 11 Nxc7 Qf7 12 Nxa8 exf3 13 exf3 but it is not clear if he can win the trapped Knight quickly and White already has a good position. The simplest reply to the text is probably 10...Na6. By exchanging immediately Black runs into a small tactical problem} Nxd5 11. Qxd5+ Kh8 {Clearly 11...Be6 leaves the b7 Pawn en prise but both 11...Qe6 and 11...Qf7 both lose a Pawn after 12 Ng5 Qxd5 13 Bxd5+ Kh8 14 Nf7+ Kg8 15 Nxe5+. This means the White Queen gets to stay on d5 for a while and later the obvious ...c7-c6 will just invite Her Majesty to snuggle in on d6 instead.} 12. Be3 {Other reasonable moves are the thematic 12 e4 and the more ambitious 12 Bg5. The text rules out the possibility of ...Rb8 defending the b7 Pawn and then ...Be6 because the Rook moves just drops the a7 Pawn. 12 Be3 also introduces the possibility of Bc5. Maybe Black could just ignore the latter by going 12...Nc6 but he prefers to prevent it altogether. However, this is the last we see of this steed for quite a while.} Na6 13. Rad1 h6 {Black is struggling for moves. As noted previously 13...c6 just allows 14 Qd6 while 13...e4 is well answered by the obvious 14 Nd4, but even better is 14 Bd4! exchanging the dark-squared Bishops. If 14...exf3 15 exf3 Qa4 (15... Qf7 16 Qxf7 Rxf7 17 Re8+ mates!) 16 Bxg7+ Kxg7 17 Re7+ is very strong. This makes the point that Black's Queenside pieces are not well-placed to defend against a Kingside attack, a point that will be seen again. With the text Black hopes to gain more space on the Kingside. White prevents that and the net result is that Black just has more weaknesses. For example a later Qd2 will hit h6 twice so this explains Brandon's next.} 14. h4 Kh7 15. a3 $6 {I'm not a big fan of the move Pawn to Rook three - it's the most common bad move in chess. It can be a poor pass move, a voluntary weakening of Knight three (that is b3, g3, b6 or g6) the creation of a target, a knee-jerk reaction to Pawn to Knight four by the opponent and a few other things. Here this move does cut out ...Nb4 but it also takes the a3 square from the White Queen in the game line. I suspect a waiting game was going on here. Maybe better moves are 15 h5 or 15 Qd2. On the other hand maybe Marcus was trying to provoke Brandon. If so then it worked. Incidentally I've been playing the Najdorf (5...a6) variation of the Sicilian for over 40 years so Pawn to Rook three is a good move occasionally.} c6 16. Qd6 e4 17. Nh2 $5 {Yet again 17 Bd4 is a good move. If 17...exf3 18 Bxg7! and now 18...fxg2 19 Bxf8 and 18...Kxg7 19 exf3 win material for White (if 19...Qf7 20 Re7). A line that doesn't lose material is 18...fxe2 19 Rxe2! Qxe2 20 Bxf8 but it leaves Black badly placed - the threat is 21 Qf4 hitting h6. However, 17 Nd4?? is a bad one - 17...Be5 wins the Queen because a3 is now occupied. This was the point of inserting the moves 15...c6 16 Qd6.} Bxb2 {Hindsight is always good but 17...Be6 cries out to be played. Now Marcus gets to take immediate advantage of the dark-squared Bishop's absence from the Kingside} 18. h5 $1 g5 {If 18...gxh5 19 Qxh6+ is clearly bad. However, Black must now constantly reckon with Qg6+ and after White's next move ...Qxh5 may not be a candidate move because of the loose Rook on f8. The dark-squared Bishop was defending both f8 and h6 a move ago and already these squares feature as tactical weaknesses.} 19. Bd4 $1 {As an attacking player Marcus must have reckoned it was worth a Pawn to remove Black's key defensive Bishop. The exclusion of the Black Rook on a8 and the Knight from the defence of the Kingside will have encouraged him to assess this position as in White's favour.} Bxd4 20. Rxd4 Be6 21. Red1 c5 $6 {Going after another Pawn but this potentially hands the d5 square to White.} 22. R4d2 Bxc4 $2 {More circumspect was 22...Qf7. The c4 Pawn is not going to run away. White now must play actively to justify the superior placing of his pieces. Foremost he must undermine Black in the centre hence the next move. The most important battle here is in the mind. White must regard the two Pawn deficit as meaningless and concentrate on getting all his pieces into attacking positions regardless of material loss. Faith in your attacking ability is paramount in these situations. Keep going forward. This is exactly what Marcus does and in great style.} 23. g4 $1 Be6 {It looks useful to nudge a Rook off the d-file with the intermezzo 23...Bb3. However, as per the advice in the last note White should keep going forward. Here 24 gxf5! Bxd1 25 Ng4 Qxh5 26 Rxd1! Qxg4?? 27 Qg6+ Kh8 28 Rd7 forces mate. This variation is not forced but it does demonstrate White's attacking possibilities and Black/^s defensive difficulties. Another line shows that White's pluses are not confined to the middle-game. If 23...Qf7 24 gxf5 Qxf5 25 Qd7+! demonstrates that the centre of Black's position is very soft. In the endgame the Pawns on b7, e4 and h6 are all weak and the Black Knight on a6 has clearly never been to the employment centre.} 24. gxf5 Bxf5 25. Rd5 {Exploiting the weakness created by Black's 21st move. One threat is 26 Re5 followed by 27 Re7+ which is certainly good after 25...Kg7. Brandon plays the obvious move. By this time I was paying a lot of attention. If Marcus had his 27th move right it was going to be a very special game.} Qf7 26. Rxf5 $1 {The key-defender of the dark-squares was exchanged off a while ago. Now the other Bishop must be eliminated even though costs an Exchange.} Qxf5 27. Ng4 $3 {A superb move that creates many threats. Clearly nothing else will work. Later GM Matthew Turner helped me establish that 27...Rac8 28 Qd7+ Qf7 29 Bxe4+ Kh8 was demolished not by 30 Rd7 Qxe7 31 Rxe7 (threat 32 Rh7+ Kg8 33 Nxh6 mate) 31... Rc7! - finally the Knight on a6 gets a word in edgeways - but by 30 Qe5+ Qe7 31 Rd7! Qxe5 32 Rh7+ Kg8 33 Nh6 mate again. Immediately after the game Marcus said that he thought Brandon's only chance was 27...Rad8 and he's right. Play should continue 28 Bxe4! (Note 28 Qe7+ Rf7 29 Bxe4 fails to 29...Rxd1 with check) 28...Rxd6 (Here 28...Qxg4+ is not legal and 28...Qxe4 loses to the simple sequence 29 Qxh6+ Kg8 30 Nf6+ Rxf6 - 30...Kf7 31 Nxe4 leaves White ahead on material - 31 Rxd8+ Kf7 32 Qf8+ Ke6 33 Rd6+ Ke5 34 Qxf6 mate) 29 Bxf5+ Rxf5 30 Rxd6 and despite his Pawn minus Peter Richmond concluded White is doing very well here. The White pieces still interact nicely and the h6 Pawn will fall soon while Black is uncoordinated and full of holes. Analysis of this cracking game was still going on the prize-giving six hours later! After using up most of his remaining time Brandon chose to take the Knight. However he is now getting mated by force. The sequence is fourteen moves long but this should not discourage you from working it out.} Qxg4 $2 28. Qg6+ Kh8 29. Qxh6+ Kg8 30. Qg6+ Kh8 {Time control reached, a pause for breath, clocks reset and on with the attack.} 31. h6 Rg8 32. Qf6+ Kh7 33. Rd7+ $3 {A tactical resource foreseen long ago. This deflects the Black Queen from the defence of e4. The White Bishop finally gets into play and Black's resistance crumbles.} Qxd7 34. Bxe4+ Rg6 35. Bxg6+ {Black now resigned by anticipating the finish 35...Kg8 (If 35...Kxh6 36 Bf7+ Kh7 37 Qg6+ Kh8 38 Qh6 mate) 36 h7+ Qxh7 37 Bxh7+ Kxh7 38 Qf7+! and 39 Qxb7 which costs Black his redundant Knight as well. Perfectionists and those solving the mate in fourteen may have spotted the more accurate 35 Qxg6+ Kh8 36 Qf6+ Kg8 37 h7+ Qxh7 38 Bd5+! Qf7 39 Bxf7+ Kf8 40 Bc4+ Ke8 41 Bb5 mate. This doesn't detract from Marcus's conception at all and I think the line in the previous paragraph is an amusing way of demonstrating the uselessness of Black's Queenside pieces.} 1-0

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