[Event "Isle of Man"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.10.18"] [Round "?"] [White "Waddington, Mike"] [Black "Moyse, Nigel John"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B07"] [Annotator "Waddington,Mike"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "2019.10.18"] {The last round. My play had been uneven all week. I had lost an up and down game in round 4 and was always trailing the leaders. The last round pairings on the top 3 boards were all 4.5 v 4 encounters while I was playing the number 2 seed on board 4, both of us on 4 points. The rest of the field trailed this score. I had the advantage of the white pieces and aimed to steer the game into a complicated state as possible.} 1. Nc3 d6 2. e4 Nf6 3. d4 g6 4. Bg5 Bg7 5. Qd2 O-O 6. O-O-O c6 7. f4 h6 8. Bh4 $5 {Keeping it complicated.} Bg4 9. Nf3 b5 10. Bd3 Qa5 11. Kb1 b4 12. Ne2 c5 13. dxc5 Be6 14. Nc1 {a3 or b3 were also possible but I was trying to avoid pawn moves around my king.} dxc5 {An important moment in the struggle. Black is threatening c4 and if e5 then Nd5 when Nc3+ is in the air and I felt I would be forced to play Nb3 Qb6 with a5-a4 to follow and was unsure how the resulting position would work out. And the clock was ticking. I decide to remove the dangerous knight and to try to seize the initiative.} 15. Bxf6 $1 (15. e5 Nd5 16. Nb3 Qb6 $13) 15... exf6 $1 ( 15... Bxf6 $2 16. f5 $1 gxf5 (16... c4 17. fxe6 cxd3 18. exf7+ Rxf7 19. Nxd3) 17. exf5 Bd5 18. Qxh6 {with Ng5 threatened.} Bg7 19. Qh4 c4 20. f6 $1 cxd3 21. fxg7 {and black is in trouble. i.e.} dxc2+ 22. Ka1 $1 Kxg7 23. Qg5+ Kh7 24. Rd4 ) 16. f5 gxf5 (16... c4 17. fxe6 cxd3 18. exf7+ Rxf7 19. Nxd3 $18) 17. exf5 Bd5 18. Qe2 Nc6 19. Rhe1 {Not an easy position to evaluate. Neither side has a clear attack and both sides had a little over half an hour to reach the time control at move 40. Message to self: play quicker and get all of my pieces into the game.} Qc7 {I was happy to see this move as it seemed to me my opponent was running out of ideas.} (19... Rae8 $5 {I had dismissed this move at the board but was I right to?} 20. Qxe8 Rxe8 21. Rxe8+ Kh7 {seems extremely murky} 22. Nb3 Qb6 23. Nbd2 {and is at best unclear to me.}) 20. Bc4 {I was happy to remove his bishop.} Bxf3 21. Qxf3 Ne5 {What is the best move now and the follow up? I will not give this as it is similar to the game. Your calculation ability needs to be brilliant.} 22. Qg3 $5 {You never know!} Rad8 23. Nd3 $1 Qd7 $4 {Seemingly clever, stepping out of one pin and introducing a pin on the d-file with a back rank mate to boot. This appears to win material but for one slight detail...} 24. Rxe5 $1 {The pin breaker! introducing a deadlier pin.} Qd4 {2 threats Qxc4 and Qxe5 but I have them covered.} 25. b3 $1 a5 26. Ree1 a4 27. Nb2 {There is no coming back from here. This was the first game to finish and I was back in' the clubhouse' after posting my score and could finish no worse than 4th. The nervy game on board 3 soon finished in a draw and one of the co-leaders lost badly on board 1.This left a very tense game on board 2 that reached a double rook ending with white 3 pawns to the good but resulted in a miraculous draw after many hours of excruciating play for players and spectators alike. This meant a 4 way tie for first place. The tournament was controlled excellently by Jack Rudd along with the anti-cheating scanners. Complimentary refreshments were provided each round along with complimentary pens and chess magazines. There was a superb buffet provided at the prizegiving with free pint at the bar thrown in and of course a 1/4 share of £3,300 didn't hurt!} 1-0