(1) Morrison,G (2325) - Rowson,J (2490) [E60]
Scottish Ch. Edinburgh (1.1), 17.07.1999

This game is dedicated to GM Keith Arkell who helped me understand how to play chess in this way:

1.Nf3 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.b3 By no means insipid; White wants to exert pressure on the centre with both fianchettoed bishops and perhaps make it less desirable for Black to play the natural breaks ...c5 and ...e5. I'm really not sure how Black should play now, but the way I did it is almost certainly not best.

4...Bg7 5.Bb2 0-0 6.Bg2 Nbd7!? [6...c5 7.0-0 cxd4 8.Nxd4 d5! looks like quite a solid alternative.]

7.0-0 e5 8.dxe5 Ng4 9.c4 [9.Qd2!? is perhaps even better. The pawn on c4 doesn't much help White if Black takes on e5 with the pawn. 9...Ngxe5 (9...dxe5 10.h3 Nh6 11.e4 +=) 10.c4+=]

9...dxe5!? This may look like a strange move to some but I think it's much more testing for White than taking on e5 with a piece. After: [9...Ngxe5 10.Nc3 we can already say that White has the better pawn structure. Not only does the pawn on c4 help to clamp the d5 square, but White has good chances of giving Black a queenside pawn weakness in the long term while it is difficult for Black to do the same on the kingside because he needs to keep his kingside pawns at home to shelter the king. Keith once remarked that when playing the Speckled Egg(1d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6. 3b4!?) against Russians they often played ...e5 but would only do so when they could recapture on e5 with a pawn because they don't like having less space.]

10.e4!? A reasonable idea; White hopes to make use of his space advantage. However, now I have the d4 square on which I can coordinate my efforts. [10.h3 Nh6 +=(10...e4? 11.Bxg7 exf3 12.exf3 Nxf2 13.Qd4+-) ]

10...Nc5!? Now White has to be a little careful; I have some tactical ideas.

11.Nc3! Sensibly developing another piece. [11.h3!? 11...Nxf2 12.Qxd8 Rxd8 13.Rxf2 Nxe4 At the time I thought things were promising for Black here but actually it's not so clear. 14.Rc2 (14.Nxe5!? giving back some material to quash the initiative may probably leaves White with some advantage e.g: 14...Nxf2 15.Kxf2 Rd1 16.Bf3) 14...Nxg3 15.Bxe5 Rd1+ 16.Kh2 Nf1+ 17.Bxf1 Rxf1 18.Kg2 Bxh3+ is not an implausible continuation, but White can certainly improve. (11...Nd3? 12.hxg4 Nxb2 13.Qe2 Nd3 14.Rd1; So I would probably just settled for 11...Nf6! and if 12.Ba3 I could either make some exchange sacrafice on e4 or simply play 12...b6 after which Black seems to be fully OK.) 11.Ba3 is tempting for White, but I think Graham was rightly afraid of 11...Nxe4 12.Bxf8 Qxf8 When Black's dark square and central control probably gives more than enough compensation for the exchange.]

11...Ne6 [11...f5?! It is tempting to make use of the active knights, but I am not sufficiently mobilised to justify such a weakening advance and White's pieces are ideally posted to meet it. 12.Ba3 looks particularly hard to meet because ...b6 will allow the bishop on g2 to smile at the rook on a8.]

12.h3 Nh6 13.Qxd8 Played with a knowing flourish. but although this gives White a promising position I was more concerned by [13.Ba3 Re8 14.Qxd8 Rxd8 15.Nd5 With the threat of Be7 and Nf6. 15...c6 looks forced and after 16.Ne7+ Kh8 The other benefit of Ba3 is that I have to misplace my king. 17.Nxc8 Raxc8 18.Rad1 f6 19.h4 Here I think white has a significant advantage. Some small details, the weakness of d6 and the misplaced king on h8 in particular, make it preferable to the game continuation. This suggests I have already made a mistake somewhere; probably my entire opening strategy was too ambitious.]

13...Rxd8 14.Nd5 f6 15.Ne7+ Kf7 16.Nxc8 Raxc8 17.Rfd1 And now he let me think for two minutes before offering a draw. I'm not sure if he knows this is bad etiquette because later he did the same thing to Paul Motwani. In any case I didn't take the offer seriously enough to be too unsettled; there is plenty of play in the position. Keith taught me that such a position is really no more or less drawn than the starting position; there is still an almost infinite scope for error. I suppose I am slightly worse because my co-ordination is a few moves behind optimality and I do have some potential light square problems. However, I have a good king and if White plays insipidly I can probably cause dark square problems (i.e. try to exchange DSbishops and access d4 and/or c5) and re-route my h6 knight before anything too nasty happens. Besides, the draw offer was encouraging because it suggested my opponent was on some sort of auto pilot and to play such a position well requires considerable attention to detail.

17...Bf8! Ideally I want my bishop on c5, king on e7 and knight on f7 but since the knight may also take the g8-e7-c6 route I thought I should improve my bishop first. Moreover, White may well try to play h4 in which case I want to make him think twice about allowing Ng4.

18.Bc3 He wants to play b4, c5 and possibly Bf1-c4. It is better to do it this way than by weakening the queenside with a3 when ...Nc5-a4 may be annoying. I am now faced with a big positional threat and he has subverted my plan to play ...Bc5 which would be met with b4.

18...a6! One of my best moves of the tournament. This was NOT played with the intention of playing b5, which would merely encourage White's LSbishop to get into the game. The idea is prophylactic; designed to prevent the above mentioned idea of b4 with the ...c5 counter-punch. Then white cannot close the position with b5 so easily due to tactical problems when the knight lands on d4. [18...Ng8 19.b4 Ne7 (19...c5 20.b5 is better for White. Black's only trump is the d4 square and most of his pieces look idle. White can play for further space gains on the queenside, h4 and Bh3, possibly re-routing the knight to d5 and mabye an eventual f4 break.) 20.c5 Nc6 21.Bf1 is at least slightly better for White who has gained space and shown the strength of the unopposed bishop.]

19.b4? Graham said he was worried about me playing b5 and saw the following but overestimated his queenside counter play. [19.Kf1!? looks much better, renewing the "threat" of b4, although it is less dangerous without the accompanying threat of Bf1-c4. 19...Ba3!? 20.b4 Ke7 21.c5 Nf7 22.Ke2 a5 23.bxa5 Nxc5 is somewhat coopoerative from White but shows some of Black's prospects.; 19.h4 Ng4 20.Bh3 h5 21.Nh2 (21.Bxg4 hxg4 22.Nh2 Nc5) 21...Nxh2 22.Kxh2 Bc5 transposes to a line we could have had without Bc3 and ...a6. Now Graham thought 23.Bxe6+ Kxe6 was dead equal but I slightly prefer Black because his pieces are slightly more purposefully placed.]

19...c5! 20.b5 Now the main idea is to play ...Nd4 and so threaten the b5 pawn and Ne2 check whilst disallowing Bf1 due to Nxf3+. However, I have to be careful with the move order.

20...Rxd1+ Otherwise White has Ba5 resources.

21.Rxd1 Nd4 I thought if I played this having first taken on b5 he may have been tempted to play more creatively: [21...axb5 (Forget that Rd7+ now; Imagine I'd taken on move 20) 22.cxb5 Nd4 23.Bb2!? Ra8 (23...Nxb5 24.Rd7+ Be7) 24.Nxd4 cxd4 (24...Rxa2 25.Nc6 Rxb2 26.Rd7+ Ke6 27.Rxb7) 25.Bf1 and now the position is fairly unclear.]

22.Bxd4? [22.Bb2 is somehow less obvious now and I have the additional option of 22...Ra8 When I suppose I'd rather be Black, but White is not significantly worse.]

22...cxd4 23.Bf1 Graham had foreseen this position and thought he was OK, but Black's structural advantage and immediate initiative leaves white surprisingly close to defeat.

23...axb5! I was very pleased with this decision because I had to convince the part of me that wanted to keep c4 as a weakness that the following sequence was sufficient justification for this transition. [After the tempting 23...a5?! Both my opponent and GM Colin McNab felt that white's position was very "solid"........The point is that there is really only one weakness whilst it's hard to make use of my main asset whilst in the game I make a favourable minor-piece exchange, gain the c-file and White's remaining queenside pawns will eventually be weak.]

24.cxb5 Bb4! Now White cannot bring his knight to it's ideal d3 square and will also have difficulty activating his king.

25.Ne1 I thought this was playing into my hands, but it's difficult to see another way to make couterplay. [25.Rb1 Ba5 26.b6!? looks more challenging however. Also, 25.Nxd4!? exd4 26.Rxd4 Be7 27.Rd7 may have been worth a punt for White considering how bad things were in the game, but I convinced myself that White didn't have enough for the piece and knew Graham wouldn't play it in any case.]

25...Bxe1! It's not so much that I want a good knight bad bishop scenario, but just that White has no good blockaders left to deal with the giant on d4.

26.Rxe1 Ke6! An accurate move. I would probably have put the king on a dark square in Blitz to avoid any tricks but it's important not to give white a check on the seventh rank in the following forced sequence: [26...Ke7 27.a4 b6 28.a5 bxa5 29.Ra1 Nf7 30.Rxa5 Nd6 31.Ra7+]

27.a4 b6 28.a5 bxa5 29.Ra1 Nf7 30.Rxa5 Nd6 31.Ra6 Rc3! The beginnings of delicate rain dance. The next few moves are hard to understand but all make good sense. I was reminded of Keith's line about a certain technical position only needing "a few taps in the right places" to bring a good position to victory and that's what I began to do now. First of all I want the rook actively placed behind the passed pawn and supporting the advance of my own pawn.

32.b6 Rb3 33.Kg2 Rb2! Now I want to coax the king to f3 to allow me to play ...f5 with added effect or the bishop to d3 to give me Nb7-c5 with tempo.

34.Bd3 Rb4! Intending to re-route the knight without allowing counter play based on Bc4+.

35.Kf1 Nb7! 36.Ra7 Nc5 37.Ba6 Rxb6 38.Bc4+ Kd6 39.Bd5 Rb1+ 40.Kg2 f5 Now it's all over, but the finish is quite sweet.

41.f3 d3 42.Ra2 Rc1 43.Kf2 Rc2+ 44.Ke3 f4+ Forcing the exchange of rooks and the queening of the d-pawn. 0-1