Cracker of a game that won the Best Game Prize from the recent Edinburgh Congress.
Mathew Turner (GM) - Alan Tate (FM) Edinburgh Open 2014
Black sacs his Queen for a bucket load of play with tricks 'n' traps all over the board.
White tries to offer his Queen back but Black refuses and goes for the White King.
1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nc3 Nc7 6. b3 e5 7. Bb2 Be7 8. Rc1 O-O 9. Nh3 Nc6 10. O-O Be6 11. f4 Qd7 12. Nf2 exf4 13. gxf4 f5 14. Na4 Nd5 15. Nd3 b6 16. Qe1 Rad8 17. Qg3 Bf6 18. Ne5 Bxe5 19. fxe5 Nde7 20. Rfd1 Ng6 21. d4 Nxd4 22. Qf2 f4 23. Kh1 Nxe5 {White now kicks things off with....} 24. Nxc5 bxc5 25. Rxc5 {The idea being to exploit the pinned d4 Knight.} 25... Ng4 26. Qg1 Nxe2 {A brave move requiring a lot of OTB calculation. Both players are deep in the think tank.} 27. Rxd7 {Black has no time to take White Queen because of Rxg7+ which mates Black.} 27... Rxd7 28. Bd5 {Again White leaves his Queen hanging and again Black cannot take it due to Bxe6+.} 28... Rxd5 29. Rc7 {Again White offers up his Queen and again Black gets mated with Rxg7+} 29... Rf7 30. Qxa7 {The last arrow. White is threatening to mate Black with Qa8+ and Rxg7+. But Black has what Bronstein calls the most powerful thing in Chess.....The Move.} 30... Rd1+ 31. Kg2 f3+ 32. Kh3 Nf2+ {A Double Check. It's Doom. White realising he is taken part in something special sportingly played on to allow the Checkmate.} 33. Kh4 Rf4+ 34. Kg5 Rd5+ 35. Be5 Rxe5 {Checkmate - That is quite a powerful move as well.}
What was white's plan around the point of his 12th move?
I personally find the set-up with white's f and g pawns very unsettling,
and having the bishop and knight in their places on f2 and g2 is just comical.
This cannot be a common set-up, especially amongt GM's?
Either way, that was a good, polished execution by black
and very sporting of white to allow it to happen
I know Alan quite well though we have not discussed this game.
Let us say it went something like this.
White's play is a sound set up to possibly avoid theory where the supoosed
weaker player is meant to drift into a poor position.
Probably used in the past with a high rate of success.
Black restrains himself and sets up a solid 'OK you are better than me - prove it' position.'
White now realises he has to get involved to take out Black so does a
bit of probbing - game on.
Originally posted by 64squaresofpain I just gotta comment on this.
What was white's plan around the point of his 12th move?
Far be it from me to second guess what was on a GM's mind but it looks like White was trying to extend the influence of his dark squared bishop towards g7 from around move 10-19, including the occupation of e5. The knight went via f2 and d3 and the queen via e1 to g3 supporting e5 and also looking down the g file with maybe Kh1 and Rg1 also in mind at some point. A hypermodern strategy of controlling the centre with pieces rather than occupying it with pawns and an attack down the g file in the back pocket. Maybe his position lost its integration once he had to play fxe5 and his knight not really contributing on a4, although he still had sufficient faith in it to launch his attack based on the pin of the black knight on d4 and potential weakness of g7 via the 7th rank.
Originally posted by greenpawn34 White's play is a sound set up to possibly avoid theory where the supposed
weaker player is meant to drift into a poor position.
Black restrains himself and sets up a solid 'OK you are better than me - prove it' position.'
So you could argue there was a lot of psychology at play...
There is thumbs up and down game going on. Quite funny and harmless.
It was probably Alan himself.
Hi 64.
Although Matt knows Alan is on the up and will soon be an IM. he
knows his GM title still carries some before game clout.
Usually the weaker player makes an opening deviation in a well known line
to take the GM out of the book. This is what the stronger player looks for.
He may not have wanted to take Alan on in theory because as I said Alan
is hot ATM and may be more up to date, so plan B, suck him in.
The position just got too hot, Black saw his chance and went for it.
Often the weaker player chickens out thinking the better player has seen it
all coming and he is missing something the GM has seen .
Alan's nerve held. 0-1.
Originally posted by Paul Leggett Who on earth is giving the "thumbs down" here? This game was so good, I'd be proud to be on the losing side of it!
I think there are some disgruntled people from the 'safer and better place' thread that are doing it at random across this forum. How sad and pathetic they must be to stick around only to do that.
The Best Game Prize.
14 Apr '14 12:092 edits
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