SWCC Championship - Colle from black side against Pokoroski

Following is the analysis of my last round win against Jeff Pokorsoski. I played for fun, took a a lot of risk and won eventually. My opponent played very solid but allowed himself to go to time trouble when he made a few bad moves to loose. Anyway, good game.

Click the following link to play through the game

http://www.geocities.com/saubhikr/pokorski.htm

Pokorski,Jeff (1652) - Roychoudhury,Souvik (1976) [A45]

SWCC Club Championship Waukesh (2.4), 17.07.2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.e3?! c5!?

2.e3 was premature and discloses white plan too early. Colle is ineffective against g6 set up. I should have played 2....g6 here. 3.Bd3 d5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bg4 c4 followed by Bf5/Bg4 was also good. I wanted to keep the tension in the center. 6.h3 Bxf3 [6...Bh5 I was afraid in this case white can take the c5 pawn and keep the same. Analyzed for some time but I was wrong in my assessment. 7.dxc5 e5 8.g4 Bg6 9.Bb5 This is the move I was worried 9...Bxc5 10.Nxe5 0-0 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Bxc6 Rc8 13.Bb5 Ne4

Black is down a pawn but fully developed. White's queenside is jammed and not developed. His kingside is loose due to extended pawn moves. Queen can jump to h4, pawn breaks line h5 or f5, bringing Rooks to action, sac on f2/e3 - black has a lot of play. Actually black has an advantage here.] 7.Qxf3 e6 [7...e5 I wanted to play this move but felt it would simplify things for white. May be a6 was a better profileactic move. 8.dxe5 Nxe5 9.Bb5+ Nc6 10.c4=] 8.0-0 a6 Too clever...playing for tempo so that if white takes on c5, I can take in one move. a6 is an useful move stopping Bb5/Nb5 and weakness of b6 can not be exploited given the current position. I was also thinking of cxd but that would allow white to play Bc1 first before developing the Knight on d2. 9.Nd2 Now ehite plans to take on c5 and play e4 when he can take with Knight. He has a Bishop pair with no weakness. It would be very difficult for black to extract win. 9...cxd4?! Bad move as it hands over a good structure to White. I took a risk to sharpen the game. What is my plan to win if I play the right move like Bd6 ? Here I have changed the structure to match Queen's gambit exchange variation and can play for minority attack. Since Knight is blocking the Bishop on c1, I'll be able to play Bd6 and h6 to ensure C1 bishop does not get a good square. But mu assessment was wrong as I found later. 10.exd4 cxd is bad as Bc1 will be locked and black will be the first to use the c-file. 10...Bd6 11.Re1 Here I realized something. I was thinking th Knight had no good squares but it can now go to f1-g3-h5. White has two bishops and open diagonals. The rook can be lifted. This is like Caro Kann exchange variation. This types of positions I play a lot and know there are a lot of attack white can generate. 11...0-0 12.Bc2!? Too blant. 12...Qc7?! I was also equally crude. The threat was to play Nd4 when c2 Bishop is hangling. later I realized white can also get a pawn by intermediate Bxh7+. I should have played for counterplay before white completes his development through b5-b4 [12...e5 This was found to be best move considerinbg the counterplay black gets in return of the isolated pawn. Saw a recent game by Eugene Perelstyne like this. 13.dxe5 Nxe5 14.Qd1 Re8 I was not comfortable to go for this. Not my strength.] 13.Nb3! Missed this move ! This little move defends d4, opens up Bc1 and keeps the queenside tight. I was also worried about Nc5 followed by b4 to close the queenside. 13...Rfc8 Here I realized that h6 to stop Bg5 allows white to sac the Bishop. Thought he can not do that immediately. It also makes difficult to play a later imminent g6 when white plays Qd3 as h6 will be loose. The purpose of my move was to respond Qd3 with Nb4! when I get the powerful c2 Bishop and can safely got for minority attack. 14.Bg5! White is clear better here. If I get this position, 60-70% chance I would win. 14...Be7 15.Bf4 Bd6 16.Bg5 Claer he is happy with draw. But I can not. So I took a big risk here. 16...Nd7! I would defend from trenches. This avoids exchanging one piece. I plan to play Nf8 later. This also controls e5 & c5. Just see, I have no piece in my kingside and everything is jammed on queenside. But I knew I could bring them back quickly and some of them can controlling kingside from distance. I was also thinking of Ne8 when it covers g7 square and can be activated via Nd6. This also keeps 7th rank free for Queen to cover the key kingside squares. But somehow I felt Nd7 is a better defensive move. 17.Qd3 g6 Blunts the d3 Bishop. Nf8 would locked the knight for protection. 18.Rac1! I liked this move as now my Nb4 trick does not work! 18...b5 [18...Bf4 I thought for this move or after intermediate Bh2+. This forces exschange of the Bishop but I was not sure whose Bishop was better. All my pawns were on light squares and this bishop was defending the dark squares. Plus exchanging on f4 white gets a tempo to play Re3-f3 and may be Qd2-f4/h6 etc. I felt I should start my counterplay quickly.] 19.h4! Good move. This position with g4 begs for this move. 19...b4 20.h5 Nf8?! I was afraid of hxg followed by Re6 sac. Last week only I lost a game to Ivan from a clear winning position by missing the Ne6 sac. [20...bxc3 21.hxg6 hxg6 22.Rxe6

22...Bh2+ 23.Kh1 Nf8! 24.Rxc6 (24.Re2 cxb2 25.Rb1 Nb4 26.Qh3 Re8!!-/+ A lot of analysis still needs to be done.) ] 21.Qh3 Bf4 Now it is clear that Bf6 is a big threat with Queen aiming the h8 and I must exchange this powerful Bishop before it is too late (say allows him to sac the exchange) 22.Bxf4 [22.hxg6? Bxg5 23.gxh7+ Kh8 24.Qg4 Qf4 25.Qh5 bxc3 26.bxc3 Qf6-/+] 22...Qxf4 23.hxg6 hxg6 I thought for a long for Ng6 but that isolates my pawns and the Knight remains pinned to h7. White still has an advantage. 24.g3 Aiming as Kg2 followed by Rh1. 24...Qf6 The Queen defends the kingside very well and can not be forced out from her trench (f6 or g7). 25.Kg2 bxc3 26.bxc3 After a long forced moves, I got a breathing time. Thought for a long here. e5 was one idea and same is Rb8. Recently I lost a few games by trying to be over aggressive. Today I wanted to play like Petrosian and win through accurate defense. I felt I must move the Nc6 to open the Rc8 to c3 pawn. After all the key is to have a counterplay. I can't just defend and win. White has not sacrificed anything (yet). 26...Nb8 Not the best move but practical choice. The knight heading to d7 controlling the c5 square in case white plays Nc5 to block the c-file. But this is too slow. 27.Rh1? At last the blunder comes. I was hoping for a false step from my opponent from a long time. He was taking a lot of time but was playing solid. Here He had less than 10 mins. But I think Bb1 first to keep the c3 pawn was better. Position is again becomes unclear. 27...Rxc3! I thought for a long time here as white has a strong threat of Bg6 when my Rc3 is undefended. But eventually I saw I could defend the position. 28.f4 Prevents the Qf3+ [28.Bxg6? Qf3+! Black queen abandones the kingisde to get counterplay. Leaves the defensive duty to the brave knight on f8 alone. All other move loses. 29.Kg1 Rxc1+ 30.Nxc1 Nxg6 was better but I planned this move. 30...fxg6 31.Qh8+ Kf7 32.Rh7+ Ke8 Nh7 was better but in the trees analysis I was this move though really risky but wins. I am sure I would have played otherwise when the position would have come on board.] 28...Rc4 Qg7 was better but somehow I was anxious to not keep my Rook loose for long. 29.Rh2? Bad move. Nd2 was better. [29.Nd2 Rxd4? White gets a tempo on Nf3. Rc8 was better. 30.Nf3] 29...Nc6 I was anxious to develop my queenside and here I needed to bring the knight back on c6 toi attack the d4. Note c6 is a loose square but my opponent was in time trouble and I wanted to complicate things more for him. 30.Nd2 Here I felt Nd2-Nf3-Ng5 is a strong concept. May be white could have gone for this earlier. 30...Rxd4 White gets a tempo on Nf3. Rc3 was better. 31.Nf3 Rc4 32.Ne5 Bad move again as it losses a pawn and opens the f-file for Queen. White lost a tempo on Rh which allowed me to play Nc6. If he would have gone for Nd2 straight away, Ne5 could have been a strong move. 32...Nxe5 33.fxe5 Qxe5 34.Bxg6 Allows mate with 1 sec on clock. 34...Qe2+ 35.Kg1 Rxc1+ 0-1 MATE