Annotated Chess Game 14571967

White beezore, Black moonbus. Rating differential about 140 points. Notes by moonbus.

It looks like White is going to offer a gambit pawn here, so I'll go for it.

I figured this pawn would be indefensible and that I would be able to pluck it off at my leisure later. Little did I know.

I figured I was now effectively 3 pawns up, counting the indefensible d6-pawn. With a connected outside passer, I would just have to weather a middle game k-side attack and then clean up the endgame.

So, is white's middle game attack going to get going with f2-f4-f5 soon?

Black wastes no time mobilizing his q-side majority. Stockfish now rates black at +2.34.

Ah, here comes the white k-side attack.

Clearing a path for the the q-side pawns to advance.

Possibly preparing Rh1, Kg1, then advance h4-h5, with a bishop sac on h6 if black plays h7-h6. If this is the k-side attack, it is rather slow.

Clearing a path for the the q-side pawns to advance.

No white k-side attack has materialized to hinder black's plans, and now the q-side pawn mass is in motion. Stockfish rates black's position at +4.12.

This is a big risk; I figured that 2 connected passers with rooks behind them would be worth the knight. I also figured that if the white queen took the knight, it might even get trapped behind the lines. However, if I had this to play over again, I'd play ... Ra6 defending the knight.

With queens off the board, black is safe from any k-side attack. Surely, a q-side pawn advance will prove decisive now.

! A fine move. The dark-squared bishop, which had no future on the k-side, it is brought over to the q-side, where it plays an important role holding back the black q-side pawn majority. It also prevents the black rook from taking the d6-pawn on account of Ba3 skewering the rook against the king.

There is no time for ...Ra6 to support the advance of the a-pawn, as white would immediately reply Ba3 and leave it there, halting the pawns' advance indefinitely. So, a pawn must be sacrificed to gain entry for a black rook on the b-file. 30... Ke8, which looks tempting, fails to Bxd5!

Black hopes to turn the c-pawn into a winner, but he is now effectively a bishop in minus and Stockfish rates white better now at +5.73.

With both white bishops and the rook now on the q-side, black's hopes of promoting a pawn are very dim.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Black sacs more material to gain back two connected passers.

This scotches any hope of black advancing the q-side pawns. So black is now simply a rook in minus. His last hope is to keep the position closed to prevent the rook from entering the black camp.

Black must eliminate the d6 pawn in order to free his king to move.

Black can keep the rook out, but he can no longer keep the white king out; the white king can advance b2-a3-b4 etc. and the black king must yield. Black resigned.