2017 3 Tables - October Round 3 Anton Taylor, 1948 - CM Drew Hollinberger, 2103 Spanish: Exchange (C68)

2017 3 Tables - October Round 3 
Anton Taylor, 1948 - CM Drew Hollinberger, 2103
Spanish: Exchange (C68)

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d4 exd4 6. Qxd4 Qxd4 7. Nxd4 Bd7 Be3 is the mainline and is far batter than this move. If black focused on attacking the knight he could have taken over the central squares with 8. Bc5 Nb3 (to avoid Bc3 or Be3 moving the bishop twice in the opening) 9.Ba7 8. Bd2 O-O-O 9. O-O h5 10. Nb3 Nh6 11. Bc3 c5 12. N1d2 f6 13. Nf3 White is playing to push e5 but black is fine with this as he simply trades and can play against white's weak c-pawn. 13. ... Bc6 14. Nbd2 Bd6 15. Rad1 Rhe8 16. Rfe1 Nf7 17. Nh4 It takes komodo a depth of 22 ply before it sees that this move is the only way for white to struggle here. The move it recommends at the same depth is the bad looking g3 preventing Bf4. Bf4 will be strong after black advances his knight pawns on both sides and this weakens the d2 square by removing both defenders (the f3 knight and the c3 bishop). I chose the more active move. 17. ... Re6? This leads to equality 17... b5! 18. b3 b4 19. Bb2 Bf4 20. Nc4 Rxe4 21. Rxd8+ Kxd8 22. Rxe4 Bxe4 and white is lost. 18. f3 b5 19. b3? I had planned this escape for the bishop but better is Nb3 giving the bishop space to roam and keeping the pawn structure. Never push pawns on the side of the board that the opponent has an extra pawn. It just helps his advance to make a passed pawn. 19. ... Nh6 20. Nf1 c4 21. Bd4?? With zero calculation I "take-over" a central square without hesitation and this move loses a potential draw. Ne3 is the way to hold everything together. as the pin from Bc5 is not fearsome. 21. ... g5 22. Nf5 Nxf5 23. exf5 Rxe1 24. Rxe1 Bxh2+ 25. Kxh2 Rxd4 26. Re6 Rd6 When I played Bd4 I actually missed this rook retreat that holds black together and keeps an advantage for him. Looking at the position now in front of me on the board it is obviously lost for white even without Rd6 but in my mind's eye I thought this was a slight advantage for white with his attack on the bishop. After the game drew admitted that he was glad to have Rd6. This tells me that he too did not see this far after Bd4. We both need to work on expanding our chess horizon to see further but for me it is worse as I deliberately played into this position thinking it was better for me when in fact the opposite is true in most variations. It feels good to look back on this and think there was something to be learned. 27. Rxd6 cxd6 28. b4 This advance just muddies the water to try for the draw in a lost position. If I'm allowed to keep my knight and get secure pawns on the opposite color to black's bishop I can at least draw even a pawn down. 28. ... d5! I liked Drew's endgame technique here and it's worth looking at. 29. c3 d4 30. cxd4 c3 31. Ng3 c2 32. Ne2 Bd7 33. Kg3 Bxf5 34. Kf2 Kd7 35. Ke3 Kd6 36. Kd2 Kd5 37. Kc3 h4 38. Nc1 g4 39. fxg4 Be4 0-1

2017 3 Tables - October Round 1 Mike Thomas, 2022 - Anton Taylor, 1948 Indian (A45)

2017 3 Tables - October Round 1
Mike Thomas, 2022 - Anton Taylor, 1948
Indian (A45)

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 d6 d5 is more common at top level but this move has been played fairly often so it isn't bad. 3. Nc3 Nbd7 4. Nf3 g6 All sorts of moves have been tried here. Probably the most direct route with 4. ... c5 is better than this but this is fine as well. 5. Qd2 e4 is better but only slightly. Qd2 is a good choice as well. White has a small space advantage in either case. 5. ... Bg7 6. e4 O-O 7. O-O-O White is already very comfortable here and has all the long distance planning. It's possible that black has just played too "solidly" and built his only coffin. There is game to play but it is tedious and precise for Black and in a human-versus-human game that might be ok but it isn't preferable. 7. ... c5 8. dxc5 Nxc5 9. e5 Nfe4 10. Nxe4 Nxe4 11. Qe3 d5 12. Bd3 It's interesting that this move is condemned by Komodo. Instead Kb1 is preferred. Neither move is a direct victory path for white so I suspect the ending is much the same. However, it is worth noting that this move takes some squares away from the white queen and makes Qb6 stronger. 12. ... Qa5 This seemed a better alternative to me than Qb6. That move was rejected because it leads to isolated double pawns and I assumed this was headed to an endgame. Komodo thinks this is drawn with a slight plus to white. I agree. 13. Kb1 Be6?? Here was my error. Nc5 or Bg4 are better choices. 13... Bg4 14. Bxe4 dxe4 15. Qxe4 Rac8 16. Rd5 Bf5 17. Rxa5 Bxe4 18. Rc1 a6 seems a good start to black's recovery from his lackluster opening. I simply missed the obvious and crushing reply to Be6. 14. Nd4 Nc5 15. Bh6 Rfc8 Things are pretty bad but this loses much faster. My idea was a double attack after Nxe3 and Qc7 when I can possibly grab the e5 pawn but this idea is far too slow and not at all backed by any sound calculation. 16. Bxg7 Kxg7 17. h4 Bd7 18. h5 Rh8 19. h6+ 19. e6! Nxe6 20. Qe5+ Kg8 21. hxg6 f6 22. gxh7+ Kf8 23. Nxe6+ Bxe6 24. Qxe6 19. ... Kg8?? Already beaten ... I miss the bit of greater resistance from Kf8. More poor calculation. 20. e6 Bxe6 21. Nb3 1-0

This game is fairly humiliating. Poor results in my last several tournaments has undone most of my years work rating-wise. I am suffering burn-out and a drop in confidence. After my next game related post I plan to share some of my method of attack for solving these and other issues.