Play of the week

This week play of the week just so happens to span an entire game.Oh, well

Ashley v. Martin, July 1^st, 2012, Mates Gully Restaurant, Wagga Wagga

A game with an unusual finish (& the first to be annotated from the Wagga Wagga Chess Club!) played between rising star, Ashley (Black) & old hand Martin. Enjoy, learn, be captivated…. then look over this game.

Vienna Game

1. e4 Nf6 – (the Alekhin defence…)

2. Nc3 (…avoided) e5

3. f4 Nc6? (this isn’t right because of 4. fxe5 Nxe5 5.d4 and after the knight moves there follows e5 & the other knight is embarrassed).

4. Nf3 (However, Black fails to spot this…) Bd6 (an awkward square for the bishop. More natural looking squares are e7, c5 or even b4)

5. Bb5 Nd4 (!) (Black mixes it up, with good effect)

6. Nxd4 exd4

7. e5 dxc3

8. exf6 Qxf6

9. dxc3 O-O

10. O-O Bc5+

11. Kh1 c6

12. Bd3 d6 (protecting the bishop, which was necessary, as white threatened Qh5 attacking h7 & the unguarded bishop on c5, as well as enabling the development of the white squared bishop).

13. Qh5 g6

14. Qh6 Re8

15. Bd2 Be6

16. Rf3 Bd5

17. Rh3 Qe6 (Qg7 was the obvious defence)

18. f5 Qe5

19. Qxh7+ Kf8

20. fxg6 (It was pointed out, thanks Joe, that Rf1 here is probably winning & is certainly an improvement on what was played). Ke7 (Now 21. Qh8+ picks up the queen rook & should win the game. However, Black was after bigger fish…)

21. g7+ (looks fine) Qxg7

22. Bh6?? (Winning a queen shouldn’t be losing…) Bxg2 checkmate!

An unusual end position.