2017 Owensboro June Open Round 2 Anton Taylor, 2027 - William Brooks, 1623 Sicilian: Moscow Variation

2017 Owensboro June Open Round 2
Anton Taylor, 2027 - William Brooks, 1623
Sicilian: Moscow Variation

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. a4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. O-O g6 7. d4 This is my divergence from common theory in this system. It seems foolish to open things up when the bishop gets fianchettoed but I felt the queenside activity and the transfer of the king's knight over to that side makes up for the weaknesses. 7. ... Nxd4 8. Nxd4 cxd4 9. Qxd4 Bg7 10. f3 O-O 11. Qf2 Bxb5? This gives white a small advantage. The rook attack on a7 wins the initiative and controls a full file. 12. axb5 b6 13. Be3 Qd7 14. Rfd1 Rfc8 15. e5 Ne8 16. Bd4 d5 17. Ra4 Nc7 18. Rda1? This drops the advantage in favor of equality. Qe2 holds the advanced pawns and prepares the doubling on the file. The text is just harder. 18. ... Nxb5 19. Nxb5 Qxb5 20. Rxa7 Rxa7 21. Rxa7 e6 22. c3 Rb8 This move made me happy. Black's passive rook gets even more passive and I can work freely with my own rook. Qd2-g5-e7 seems like a possible plan (but black can impede the progress of this plan. 23. g4 This was my idea: advance the pawns and break on the f5 square. The unfortunate side effect of this idea is that my king too gets exposed and black gets counter chances. the queen route plan has no such drawback. 23. ... Qb3 24. h3 guarding the g-pawn after Qe4+ when I advance my f-pawn. 24. ... b5 25. f4 Bf8? This position is lost for black but I could not calculate just how. I felt I was winning. 26. f5 gxf5 27. gxf5 Qd1+ 28. Kh2 Qh5 29. fxe6? let's look at a potential variation: 29. Qg1+ Kh8 30. Qg4 Qxg4 31. hxg4 Kg8 32. Ra6 exf5 33. gxf5 b4 34. Kg3 Rc8 35. Kg4 Be7 36. Kh5 Bf8 37. Ra1 h6 38. Ra5 bxc3 39. bxc3 Bg7 40. f6 Bf8 41. e6 fxe6 42. Kg6 Rc7 43. Ra8 Rf7 44. Bc5 e5 45. Bxf8 Rxf8 46. f7+ Kh8 47. Rxf8#  Considering that this is not a mainline and certainly not the best play by black there is so much to calculate I just couldn't do it. However, I did not need to calculate all of this and instead I could just have trusted in the rook lifting between the a-file and g-file operations. I did see that but I went about it with the text move that is drawn technically. 29. ... fxe6 30. Ra1? This is the wrong timing of the lift. Qf6 right now is best. I saw this move but I thought the rook on g1 was safer than leaving it on the seventh rank. 30. ... Rb7 31. Qf6 Qe8? Qe2+ was the drawing method. This is much better for white. 32. Ra6 Re7 33. b4 Bg7 34. Qf1 Rf7 35. Qa1 Rf8 36. Qd1 Qf7 37. Qg4 Re8 38. Ra5? pointless Rb8?? 38... Kh8 39. Rxb5?? Qf1! 40. Rb7 Bh6 and black is winning. So, in essence the pawn is indirectly defended so this rook move is a waste. 39. Ra7 winning 39. ... Qg6 40. Qxg6 hxg6 41. Re7 Kf8 42. Rxe6 Kf7 43. Rd6 Ke7 44. Rxg6 Bf8 45. Bc5+ Kf7 46. Rf6+ Kg7 47. Bxf8+ Rxf8 48. Rxf8 Kxf8 49. Kg3 1-0 Two extra pawns is enough for my opponent to resign.