2017 3 Tables - March Round 3 Daro Mott, 2043 - Anton Taylor, 2001 Caro-Kann, Short's Ne2 (B10)

2017 3 Tables - March Round 3 
Daro Mott, 2043 - Anton Taylor, 2001 
Caro-Kann, Short's Ne2 (B10)

1. e4 c6 2. Ne2 d5 3. e5 c5 4. d4 Nc6 5. c3 Bf5 6. dxc5 e6 7. Be3 Nxe5 8. Nd4 Bxb1? A mistake on several fronts but I was completely out of my book knowledge already so I wanted to shake things up. The simple Bg6 is preferable and the advanced c-pawn becomes a target for black to play against. 9. Rxb1 Bxc5? This is borderline suicide but my opponent misses the correct continuation Bb5+ followed by the immediate Nxe6! 10. Qa4+ Kf8? This is the third move in a row that I miss crucial moves. Is it a wonder that I lost this game? The simple Nd7 seems to hold everything together. 11. Nxe6+ fxe6 12. Bxc5+ Ne7 There is no good move so everything loses here. Black's long-term problems are more pressing than the threatening attack on his king. There is no good way to protect black's e-pawn. It is here that I determine to simply play aggressively to off-balance my opponent. 13. Be2 Nd7 14. Ba3 Kf7 15. O-O Nf6 16. Rfe1 Re8 17. Rbd1 Qb6 There was no clear target in white's camp until he moved the rook and now f2 is the lone target. I settled on this developing move to connect my own rooks and aim at the pawn. 18. Bd3 Nc6 19. Qh4 e5 20. Re3 So it turns out that this "attacking" move is actually weaker than the quiet 20.c4! asking immediate questions of the awkward center pawns and exposed black king. 20. ... e4 21. Bc2 Ne5 Working on the only plan that holds promise ... trapping the white queen. 22. Bb3 Ng6 Rad8 apparently would have equalized but that seems passive and black still has chances to crumble. The text is weak but it is difficult to see why without komodo pointing the way at a depth of 20 or so. It may be simpler to see in a few moves. 23. Qg3 Re5 24. h3? C4! would once again deliver a killing blow to black. White will either win by a tactical shot or simply gobble black's central pawns for a huge advantage. 24. ... Rc8 25. Rd4? Once again the c4 advance hangs in the air with deadly effect and both players miss it. 25. ... h6? Komodo sees a road getting paved to equality for black playing the odd looking Qe6. Such a move might be easy to find if you see the danger and the need to control c4. I did not. 26. f3 h4 and Rb4 are much better candidates than this move and Komodo agrees. However, during the game I could not figure out how to play here. The next few moves I played from the analysis I did in this position. 26. ... Rg5 27. Qd6 I was mentally exhausted and I could not focus enough to calculate Rc6. to some extent Rc6 was the reason for playing Rc8 much earlier so throwing it in here makes a lot of sense to me now but I could not justify it. I thought perhaps the queen trade alleviate some of black's problems but it turns out a bishop controlling the diagonals from d6 is actually a lot worse for black than a queen there. Nh4 is alsop a candidate which komodo rates highly but I don't have the calculation skills to see the continuation. 27. ... Qxd6?? 28. Bxd6 Nh4 29. fxe4 Rxg2+ 30. Kf1 Rxb2 Alright, confession time. Once again here is the fruit of my laziness, or rather, my inability to calculate to a sufficient depth. I calculated to this position on move 27 but I did not see the killing reply. 31. Bg3! From this point on there is no real need to analyze. Black is completely lost. 31. ... Ng6 32. exd5 Rxb3 drumming up complications in mutual time pressure. 33. axb3 Ne7 34. Rf3 Kg6 35. d6 Nf5 36. Ra4 a6 37. Rb4 b5 38. Rbf4 Nxd6 39. Rxf6+ gxf6 40. Bxd6 a5 41. Ke2 a4 42. bxa4 bxa4 43. Kd2 Rd8 44. Rd3 Kf5 45. c4 Ke4 46. c5 f5 47. Kc3 f4 48. Rd4+ Kf3 49. Rxf4+ Kg2 50. h4 1-0