Ahmet Hoscan (149) vs Mike Hackett (115)

This game was played in the 6-board division 2 match between Beverley Beavers and Hull Futures A, on 23rd January 2019.

Captain Gerry had "rested" his top three players, giving others, such as Mike a chance to shine, and shine they did!

Annotations by Mike.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. b3 b4 5. Nd2 g6 6. Bb2 Bg7 7. Ngf3 d6 8. e4 e6 9. Qc2 exd5

This is an error, on the back of Qc2 which I felt was somewhat wasteful I decided I needed to break up the centre a bit, given his poor prospects for both queen and light square bishop I anticipated 10. exd5 and I felt this was good for me, I overlooked the more typical 10.cxd5 assuming he would try to improve pieces.

10. exd5 O-O 11. O-O-O a5 12. Bd3 a4

Following the frankly bizarre long castling I decided it was time to charge the king and after a5 and Bd3 I considered a4 immediately given both my light square bishop and knight can help me recover the pawn should he take.

13. h3 axb3 14. axb3 Ra2 15. Qb1 Qa5 16. Rde1 Nxd5

His dark square bishop is the only thing keeping him in the game, any safe knight retreat is better than the sac I went for, but given the sac works well enough, it does at least open the king a bit more.

17. Bxg7 Kxg7 18. cxd5 Ra1 19. Kc2 Rxb1 20. Rxb1 Ba6 21. Ra1 Bxd3+ 22. Kxd3 Qb5+ 23. Nc4 Qd7 24. Ra5 Qf5+ 25. Kd2 Qxd5+ 26. Kc2 Qe4+ 27. Kd2 Qf4+ 28. Kd3 Nc6 29. Ra2 Ne5+ 30. Nfxe5 dxe5 31. f3 Rd8+ 32. Ke2

Here I considered 32... Rd4 with the threat of 33... Rxc4 33.bxc4 Qxc4+, forking the King and the Rook on a2, but in light of Nd2 making playing e4 difficult later I decided I had to do it now.

32... e4 33. fxe4 Qxe4+ 34. Kf2 Qd4+ 35. Kg3 Qd3+ and Ahmet threw in the towel, 0-1.

Overall I am pleased with the game, it could have been more accurate in terms of the unnecessary knight sac, and 9... exd5 was a failing in my judgement skills but my opponent's moves 9.Qc2, 11.O-O-O and 13.h3 were certainly self destructive.