[Event "Eastside Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "2025.03.01"] [Round "1"] [White "Harwood"] [Black "Lee, Megan"] [Result "0-1"] [Annotator "Harwood,Paul"] [ECO "C37"] [WhiteElo "1861"] [BlackElo "2349"] [PlyCount "62"] [GameId "2151386565547807"] [EventDate "2025.??.??"] [EventType "simul"] [EventRounds "5"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2013.12.29"] [SourceQuality "1"] {[%evp 0,62,19,30,8,-17,-61,-21,-61,-75,-29,-27,31,-9,40,-72,-60,-76,-100,-107,-66,-30,-54,-112,-115,-188,-85,-175,-144,-99,-163,-247,-190,-242,-169,-256,-205,-63,-149,-85,-115,29,-134,-216,-190,-211,-207,-184,-141,-309,-171,-269,-139,-245,-260,-193,-278,-263,-106,-334,-190,-487,-282,-552,-405] Round 1 of the Eastside Open played at the 116 Hotel in Bellevue. I was initially paired against an unrated but the new TD had mistakenly paired players without taking their WCF ratings into account. So, after a repairing of the round, I was paired against Megan Lee, a 2357 FM who has been the WA State Chess Champion in 2020 and 2022.} 1. e4 e5 2. f4 {There has never been a greater test of my King's Gambit repertoire than now.} exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. d4 Nc6 $6 (5... d6 6. g3 Nc6 7. d5 Ne5 8. gxf4 gxf4 9. Bxf4 Bg4 10. Be2 $11) 6. d5 $1 {Gaining space and forcing the knight to move.} Ne5 7. Be2 $2 {Too passive. In the King's Gambit, White has to justify his pawn sacrifice and this is not the right approach.} (7. d6 $1 {A solid move that looks to prevent Black from playing d6, breaking up the pawn structure and vacating the d5 square for the knight.} cxd6 8. h4 {Time is of the essence. There is no reason to captureon d6. Instead White should continue the attack.}) 7... Nxf3+ 8. Bxf3 d6 {Obvious but Black is already much better.} 9. g3 {Accurate but still not enough to change the evaluation.} fxg3 10. hxg3 Be5 {Zeroing in on the weak pawn. This is the problem -- White has given up a pawn in the opening and *he* is the one forced on the defensive.} 11. Ne2 (11. g4 Bg3+ 12. Ke2 Be5 13. Be3 h6 14. Qd2 Ne7 15. Raf1 $17) 11... Qf6 (11... h5 12. Qd3 {[%CAl Gc8h3,Ge5h2,Gh8h1]} g4 13. Bg2 h4 $17) 12. O-O $2 {A silly move that simply walks into Black's attack. My thought process was a discovered Bh5, hitting the f7 pawn. However, this is by no means forced.} (12. Qd3 h5 13. Bd2 h4 14. gxh4 Rxh4 15. O-O-O Bxb2+ 16. Kb1 Be5 17. Rhf1 $17) 12... Qg7 13. c3 Bh3 14. Qa4+ Kd8 15. Re1 $2 {The final mistake. Taking the rook off of the active f-file onto the passive e-file.} h5 $1 16. Be3 h4 17. Bd4 hxg3 18. Nxg3 Qf6 19. Bg2 (19. Bg2 Ne7 20. Bxe5 Qxe5 21. Qd4 $19) 19... Qf4 20. Re3 Bd7 $2 {Her first major mistake which allows me to get back into the game.} 21. Qd1 $2 {But not that way...} (21. Qb3 $1 {I thought Qd1 was the only move to protect the rook but this is better. From here I exert pressure on b7 and threaten moves like Rf1.} g4 22. Rd3 {A subtle move as it now threatens Qxb7.} b6 23. Rf1 Qg5 24. Rxf7 Nh6 25. Rf1 Rh7 26. Rf8+ Be8 27. Qc4 {[%csl Gc6,Re8][%CAl Gc4c6,Gc6a8,Gc6e8]} Qe7 28. Rf2 $17 Nf7 29. Nf5 Qf6 30. Qa6 Bd7 31. Kf1 $15) 21... g4 22. Qe2 (22. Rd3 Ne7 23. Qd2 Qxd2 24. Rxd2 Ng6 25. Bxe5 Nxe5 $19) 22... Qh6 23. Bxe5 dxe5 24. Rf1 $4 {Missing a very basic tactic.} (24. c4 {Preventing Bb5with future hopes of launching a queenside pawn advance.}) 24... Bb5 $1 25. Rd3 Qb6+ 26. Rf2 {Both rooks are pinned.} Bxd3 {There was no need to capture the rook right away. The pin is not going anywhere.} (26... Ne7) 27. Qxd3 Ne7 28. Kf1 Ng6 29. Nf5 Nf4 30. Qd1 $4 (30. Qc2) 30... Nxg2 31. Kxg2 Rh2+ {White resigned.} 0-1