06-11-2011, 10:12 PM
Round 4 Scotland 1.5 - Norway 2.5
Alan had a nice win against a GM, Graham lost a close game against an opponent called Frodo, i drew an endgame where there would have been some winning chances and Martin lost in a reversed benoni. Tomorrow we play finland and just need to play Sweden to have met all the scandinavian countries...
Andy is recovering well and should be in line for selection tomorrow.
Here's my game from today....
White - P.Roberts 2222
Black - L.E.Johanneseen 2515 GM
Closed Catalan / Dutch Stonewall
European Team Championship Round 4
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.g3 Bb4+
This was a slight surprise as my opponent recently played a delayed Open Catalan with 4...Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4
5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.Bf4
Now 9...Nh5 10.Bc1 Nhf6 transposes back into a standard closed Catalan where white can play either 11.Bf4 and allow a repetition or something like 11.b3 or 11.Rd1. It's good practice to repeat the position twice then to play on...
9...b6 10.Rd1 Bb7 11.Nc3 Nh5 12.Bc1 f5
Black decides to take the game into a kind of Dutch Stonewall. The key differences from a standard stonewall are (1) the bishop is on e7 and not d6 (2) the QB has already committed itself to b7. It is not necessarily bad there after an eventual liquidation of the centre with c6-c5 (3) the horse is on h5 and may have to stay there for a while to prevent Bf4
13.Rb1
I thought this move made sense as the standard reply ...Qe7 slowing down b4 is not available
13...Rc8 14.b4 Ba6
Now a major decision, to play 15.b5 or 15.c5. After 15.b5 cxb5 16.cxd5 b4! wins for black. In the game I thought 16.cxb5 Bb7 was comfortable for black as there is the useful c4 square available for the rook. In fact (as GM Aagaard later pointed out) black's pieces are very passive and white should be clearly better. I decided to play 15.c5 as 15...b5 16.a4 is good for white and, at the right moment cxb6 will leave a backward c-pawn and further scope to open up the queenside with b5
15.c5 Qc7 16.a4 Bb7
16...bxc5 was tempting as 17.bxc5 is good for black as the pawn break ...e5 is rather unpleasant. Fortunately I had 17.dxc5! Bb7 18.Nd4 attacking e6 followed by 19.Nb3 and 20.Na5
17.Bg5 Rce8
After 18...Bf6 19.Bxf6 gxf6 20.cxb6 it will be harder to play ...e5
18.Bxe7 Rxe7 19.cxb6
Otherwise black plays bxc5 with a comfortable position
19...axb6 20.Rdc1 Nhf6 21.Ra1
Normally it's more prudent to play e3 to prevent f5-f4. Here I got away with allowing this as there is sufficient counterplay on the queenside. The key is to go after the bishop on b7 which is black's worst piece.
21...f4 22.a5 fxg3 23.hxg3 bxa5 24.Rxa5 Qb8 25.b5 c5 26.dxc5 Nxc5 27.Nxd5 exd5 28.Qxc5 Rxe2 29.Qc7
Quite an important move as black was planning on attacking f2. Now the threat is Qxb8 followed by Rc7 and Ra7
29...Qxc7 30.Rxc7 Rf7 31. Rxf7
Now 31...Kxf7 32.Ra7 Re7 33.Nd4 Bc8 34.b6 Rxa7 35.bxa7 Bb7 36.Bf1 Ke7 should be a draw, though white does have an initiative.
1/2-1/2
Alan had a nice win against a GM, Graham lost a close game against an opponent called Frodo, i drew an endgame where there would have been some winning chances and Martin lost in a reversed benoni. Tomorrow we play finland and just need to play Sweden to have met all the scandinavian countries...
Andy is recovering well and should be in line for selection tomorrow.
Here's my game from today....
White - P.Roberts 2222
Black - L.E.Johanneseen 2515 GM
Closed Catalan / Dutch Stonewall
European Team Championship Round 4
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.g3 Bb4+
This was a slight surprise as my opponent recently played a delayed Open Catalan with 4...Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4
5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.Bf4
Now 9...Nh5 10.Bc1 Nhf6 transposes back into a standard closed Catalan where white can play either 11.Bf4 and allow a repetition or something like 11.b3 or 11.Rd1. It's good practice to repeat the position twice then to play on...
9...b6 10.Rd1 Bb7 11.Nc3 Nh5 12.Bc1 f5
Black decides to take the game into a kind of Dutch Stonewall. The key differences from a standard stonewall are (1) the bishop is on e7 and not d6 (2) the QB has already committed itself to b7. It is not necessarily bad there after an eventual liquidation of the centre with c6-c5 (3) the horse is on h5 and may have to stay there for a while to prevent Bf4
13.Rb1
I thought this move made sense as the standard reply ...Qe7 slowing down b4 is not available
13...Rc8 14.b4 Ba6
Now a major decision, to play 15.b5 or 15.c5. After 15.b5 cxb5 16.cxd5 b4! wins for black. In the game I thought 16.cxb5 Bb7 was comfortable for black as there is the useful c4 square available for the rook. In fact (as GM Aagaard later pointed out) black's pieces are very passive and white should be clearly better. I decided to play 15.c5 as 15...b5 16.a4 is good for white and, at the right moment cxb6 will leave a backward c-pawn and further scope to open up the queenside with b5
15.c5 Qc7 16.a4 Bb7
16...bxc5 was tempting as 17.bxc5 is good for black as the pawn break ...e5 is rather unpleasant. Fortunately I had 17.dxc5! Bb7 18.Nd4 attacking e6 followed by 19.Nb3 and 20.Na5
17.Bg5 Rce8
After 18...Bf6 19.Bxf6 gxf6 20.cxb6 it will be harder to play ...e5
18.Bxe7 Rxe7 19.cxb6
Otherwise black plays bxc5 with a comfortable position
19...axb6 20.Rdc1 Nhf6 21.Ra1
Normally it's more prudent to play e3 to prevent f5-f4. Here I got away with allowing this as there is sufficient counterplay on the queenside. The key is to go after the bishop on b7 which is black's worst piece.
21...f4 22.a5 fxg3 23.hxg3 bxa5 24.Rxa5 Qb8 25.b5 c5 26.dxc5 Nxc5 27.Nxd5 exd5 28.Qxc5 Rxe2 29.Qc7
Quite an important move as black was planning on attacking f2. Now the threat is Qxb8 followed by Rc7 and Ra7
29...Qxc7 30.Rxc7 Rf7 31. Rxf7
Now 31...Kxf7 32.Ra7 Re7 33.Nd4 Bc8 34.b6 Rxa7 35.bxa7 Bb7 36.Bf1 Ke7 should be a draw, though white does have an initiative.
1/2-1/2