Patrick,Derek (1825) - Roychoudhury,Souvik (1879) [D05]
SWCC April Showers Milwaukee (Round 4, Board 1), 28.04.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 Colle System 3...c5 4.c3 This move characterizes the Colle-Koltanowski system. White 'over-protects' the d4 pawn, makes a hole in c2 where Queen or Bishop (in case of c4) can drop in and also avoids future Nc6-Nb4 moves. The other variety is Colle-Zukertort where back plays b3 to fianchetto the dark square bishop and sometimes plays c4. Derek played this variation against me in the Team tournament and I managed to win the game after a tough fight. 4...d5 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.0-0 b6 7.Nbd2 This position is the ciritical tabya for Colle. White's idea is to play e4 to free the dark squared bishop and allow heavy pieces to use e-file to generate a king side attack. There are two ways he can do so, either play Qe2/Re1 & direct e4 and accept isolated Queens pawn if blacks exchanges on d4. Alternatively, white first plays dxc5 and then only plays e4. 7...cxd4?! A bad move; rather a bad idea ! This is the only advantage of playing uncommon variations. I would have hardly played an out-of-book (and bad) 7th move in Nimzo-Indian ! Black should have played Bd6 or Be7 and keep the tension in center. Black's idea in Colle is to watch out for white's e4 followed by e5 idea. Sometimes black plays e5 himself to stop this threat - this opens up the diagonal for his own light squared bishop while blocking that of his opponents. This premature exchange in center makes white's life easy. 8.exd4 Bd6 9.Re1 Qc7 One of the key idas white has is to play Ne5, followed by f4. It also clears the third rank for the potential Rook lift (Re3/f3 and then Rh3/g3). Concentration of more pieces around black king creates potential for a kingside attack. It is not easy to remove this Knight once it arrives there as after Ne5, de5 or fe5 removes the important f6 Knight which allows Bh7 sacricfice etc. So I tried preventing this move with Bd6 & Qc7 10.Nf1 Frees black squar bishop. Also good was Qe2 and then Ne5. 10...h6 Stops Bg5. Since my dark square bishop is not defending the f6 Knight (say from e7), it was important precaution. Now white's dark square bishop really lacks good squares. 11.h3?! Wastage of time. Qe2-Ne5 should have been played. Ng4 wasn't a threat as white can simply play h3 with tempo. Now black equalizes. 11...0-0 12.Be3 Na5?! Again a bad move & again a bad idea. It allows Ne5 which I was stopping so long. But what should I have played here ? lets spend a minute. White is perfectly developed but there is no immediate threat. Black's light square bishop is bad and is locked in by his own pawns (f7,e6,d5) which are not likely to move. So better was to plan for exchanging this for white's bishop/knight by playing a5-Ba6. But then what ? Look carefully, the pawn structure is similar to Queen's gambit declined exchange variation with colors reversed. So the natural idea should have been to go for minority attack with a5-b5-b4. 13.Ne5! Nc4 14.Nxc4? Bxc4 should have been played. Now white loses the strong e5 Knight and also a tempo to remove the attacked Bishop. Blacks is slightly better now. 14...dxc4 15.Be2 Bb7 16.Bf3 Bd5 I was planning to play Qb7 to force the exchange of light squared bishops when I would have much better minor pieces. 17.Bxd5 Nxd5 18.Qg4 Threatening Bh6. 18...Kh8 19.Qh4 Again threatening Bh6 with the idea of perpetual. 19...Qd8 It was a big mental fight for me. I was trying to win this game (I would loose 4-5 point in case of a draw) and apparently Queens on the board will increase the chance of a result. However, here White's Queen was more active and more imporantly, in thr end game, I would have a much better chance due to better minor pieces. 20.Qxd8? White should have kept the Queens with Qh5/g4. 20...Rfxd8 Selecting which Rook to move is a very critical decision (and as I found we very often choose the wrong one). Here I moved the f-Rook as the other one will be required for b5-b4 push. 21.Rad1?! Not clear what was the idea. White should have played Nd2. 21...b5 22.Nd2 Rdc8 23.Ne4 Be7 24.g3 Kg8 25.a3 a5 26.Ra1 Ra6?! Too clever. Better was direct b4. 27.f4 f5?! 28.Nd2 g5?! Black looses the advantage. I was trying to play everywhere (queen side, king side and center) which was not possible (& practical). 29.Nf3 g4 30.hxg4 fxg4 31.Ne5 h5 Now white has slight advantage due to backward e6 pawn and open e & h files. My only hope (for the last few moves) was white's bishop was bad, restricted by his own pawn chains in the same color. But I had to exchange the Knight first. 32.Kg2? Kf2 was better as it also protects the e3 Bishop and frees R on e1. 32...Kg7 33.Bd2 Bd6 34.Rh1 Bxe5 35.fxe5 At last !! Just compare the Knight on d5 with poor Bishop on d2. Black is better again. I now needed to exchange the Rooks so that the difference in power becomes telling. 35...Kg6 36.Rhf1 Raa8 Another downside of incorrect 26th move (Ra6). I had to spend one more move to bring it back to where it was originally in. 37.Rf2 Rf8 38.Raf1 Rxf2+ 39.Rxf2 One pair gone but should I remove the other pair also ? I thought for a long time but couldn't crack the question. My rook was definitely better than white's and I could have used it for playing b4 thrust. But I felt in the absence of Rooks, my Knight is even more powerfull than the white Bishop. This also tells the difference in Chess understanding between a Class A player and a Master. How many times I have seen similar position where a GM clearly explained whether to exchange a piece or not. 39...Kg7 40.Kf1 Kg8 Rf8 can not be played due to the threat of Bh6 skewer. 41.Bg5?! This allows the rook exchange in favorable condition. Better was Ke2 with the idea of Rh2 & a tough defense. 41...Rf8 42.Rxf8+ Kxf8 Yes !! I felt that I have almost won the game (what a pity !). Black had clear advantage for having a much better Knight as compraed to White's dark squared Bishop. Note all Six (!) white pawns are on the same color of the Bishop. But what's next ? 43.Bd8! Forces a4 which temporarily stops the b4 break. should I have had the Rook on board to protect it and play b4 ? 43...a4 44.Kf2 For the next couple of moves Black could have played b4. But I had anly around 10 mins (may be a lot of time for others like Ashish but for me it was scary to go under 5 mins). I felt I would be able to win the g3 pawn or create a passer there. I forgot I am not a pawn up and ....wait few more moves. 44...Kf7 45.Bg5 Kg6 46.Bd2 Kf5 47.Ke2 Ne7 48.Be3 Ke4 49.Bg5 Nf5 50.Bh4 Now Black can play 50...Nxh4 51.gh and get the protected g pawn as passer - what I was hoping for. I got what I wanted only to realize that I better have not wanted that. Read the variation 50...Nh4 first. 50...Ne3 [50...Nxh4 51.gxh4 g3 I got the passer but then what ? I can't push it to become Queen as White's King is within the square to stop it. But is it not the case of overloaded piece ? White's King is protecting both the g pawn and stops black king from going to the queenside and grab all pawns. Sure it is !! But wait one more minute, can I really take my king to queenside. No ! as White has his own share of passed pawn and wins by playing d5 and push it to d8 (if black does not take it) or push e pawn to e8 if black takes on d5. In both the cases White queens first and wins. I sadly realized that Black's king is also overloaded !
52.Kf1 Kd3?? (52...Kf3?? 53.d5 g2+ 54.Kg1 exd5 55.e6 d4 56.e7 d3 57.e8Q d2 58.Qxh5+ Ke3 59.Qd1) 53.d5 Kc2 (53...exd5 54.e6) 54.dxe6 Kxb2 55.e7 Kxa3 56.e8Q] I felt I had everything. I had a dominating king, a better minor piece, better pawns, potential passer.....but where is the win. The only thing I didn't have was exactly what I wanted....time in clock so that I could think & calculate. 51.Be7? Had to play Bg5 51...Nc2? Missed the win.. I thought I'll get some sac on a3 or d4. I missed win could come through other roads. [51...Nd5 52.Bf8 (52.Bg5 Discussed at the end) 52...b4!! 53.Bxb4 a) 53.cxb4 c3 54.bxc3 Nxc3+ 55.Ke1 Nb5 56.Be7 Nxa3 57.Kd2 Nb5 wins; b) 53.axb4 Nxc3+! 54.Kd2 (54.bxc3? a3 and promotes) ; 53...h4!! 54.gxh4 g3 55.Bc5 Nf4+ 56.Kd2 Nd3 57.Ke2 g2 58.d5 Nxc5 59.Kf2 Kxd5 60.Kxg2 Kxe5 King stops h pawn and Knight gets the queenside pawns and black wins easily] 52.Bd8 Na1 53.Be7 Nb3 54.Bg5 Kf5 55.Be3 Ke4 56.Bg5 Na5 57.Bd8 Nc6 58.Bb6 Nb8 59.Bc7 Nd7 60.Bd8 Nf8 61.Bg5 Ng6 62.Bd2 Ne7? Missed again [62...h4! 63.gxh4 (63.Kf2? h3 Only 2 squares from queening and would tie down black king. Now white is loosing as I have got the passed pawn while keeping the Knight at d5 which can block white passer. So white king is overloaded but mine is not. I could take my king to queenside and digest white pawns.) ] 63.Be3? Bg5 was again the only move 63...Nd5? Return gift !! How many bad moves we exchanged till now ? [63...Nf5!
64.Bf2 (64.Bf4 h4! 65.Kf2 hxg3+ 66.Bxg3 Kd3 67.d5 exd5 68.e6 Kc2 69.Bh4 Kxb2 70.e7 Nxe7 71.Bxe7 Kxc3 White has many different ways to loose the ending.....my five small Dogs (pawns) were better than one mighty white Tiger (Bishop)...sometimes, size doesn't, rather number matters.)
64...h4! 65.gxh4 g3 66.Be1 (66.Bg1 Nxh4 67.Be3 g2 68.Bg1 Ng6 69.Kf2 (69.Bh2 Nf4+ 70.Kf2 Nd3+ 71.Kxg2 Nxb2) 69...Kd3 70.Kxg2 Kc2 71.Kf3 Kxb2 72.d5 exd5 73.Bd4 Kxa3 74.e6 Kb2 75.Kg4 a3 and queens) 66...Kf4 67.h5 Kg4 68.Bd2 Kxh5 69.Kf3 Kh4 70.Be1 Kh3 71.Kf4 g2 72.Bf2 Ne7 73.Bg1 Nd5+ 74.Kf3 b4 75.cxb4 Nxb4 76.Ke3 Nd5+ 77.Kf2 Nf4 78.Kf3 Nd3 79.Ke3 Kg4 80.d5 Kf5 81.d6 Nxe5 82.Kf2 Nd7 83.Kxg2 e5 84.Kf3 Ke6 85.Ke2 Kxd6 This is a winning ending for black.] 64.Bg5?
This was not the last blunder of the game. Black had one final blunder to make......settle for Draw !!!
This was the time to play the move I was trying for last 10-15 moves...... 64...-- [64...b4!!
I saw the move and did some calculation as well but was not sure to the fullest extent. I had only 5 mins and was leading the tournament (just won against Ashis)...so chicken out with the draw. I won the tournament but still feels only if I could win the gem of this ending !!
Black wins in all variations. Proposing you to analyze this position and let me know if black wins ! White Candidate moves are 65.Bd2; 65.cxb4; 65.axb4; 65.Kd2; 65.Kf2)
1/2-1/2
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