[Event "2023 Kenya National Chess Championship"] [White "Mehul Gohil"] [Black "Joseph Methu"] [Site "Sarit Centre , Nairobi."] [Round "2"] [Annotator "USER"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [Date "2023.12.29"] [PlyCount "97"] {This was the critical game of the tournament. Joseph Methu, the strongest player never to have won a National Championship, goes up against the reigning and 3 time National Champion Mehul 'Gorilla' Gohil. Methu was half a point ahead of the Gorilla at this point, the penultimate round. He needed just a draw. The Gorilla needed a win to retain his title.} 1. d4 g6 {Methu is perhaps the best Kenyan at playing odd side-lines. He studies them seriously. This move can move into the worlds of KID, Benoni, Modern or Pirc. It suits Methu's style as he likes positions which allow for multiplicity of metamorphoses. I was aware of this and had prepared accordingly.} 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. c4 Nf6 4. Nc3 {Methu was slightly surprised that I was allowing a straight up KID or Benoni. He had a short think here.} O-O 5. Bg5 {This was my surprise. This move ushers play into the Symslov System of the KID. It is something I had been looking at since August. I really liked what I saw. The Smyslov System is less reliant on memorisation of key lines and more about understanding the plans and manouvers. So it doesn't matter how black will play, if you have done your homework you will know how to react and move ahead.} c5 6. d5 d6 7. e3 {Making him ponder a bit as it is more standard to go e4. This is a bit conservative but right in line with the Smyslov approach to things KID or Benoni.} Qb6 $6 {I didn't understand the point of this. The queen does nothing here. Psuedo-aggression.} 8. Qd2 Bg4 {In the Benoni structure the light squared bishop is weaker than the f3 knight. Black has less space and the bishop is always in the way and is one piece too many for the capcacity black has. So black wants to exchange it.} 9. Be2 e5 $2 {A strategic error. Methu doesn't seem to know whether he wants to play a KID structure or a Benoni. He played this rather quick, within a minute. More thematic, Benoni-wise, was preparing e6 at some point. But then, ask yourself.. .what is that queen doing on b6? It blocks the typical black q-side pawn activity.} 10. e4 $1 {[%csl Yc5,Yd6,Ye5,Yg7] Blockading the dark squares. Now black is behind several tempi in effecting the typical KID K-side pawn storm. The g7 bishop, usually a strong one in a Benoni structure, is not as muscular in a KID one.} h6 $5 {Typical Methu. Inviting an opponent to grab poisoned things.} 11. Be3 {The rule is: Don't give Methu an initiative for free. Plus, a pawn on h6 makes the g7 bishop more useless.} Kh7 {Not so much to protect h6 as to free up g8 for the knight.} 12. O-O {This looks like a normal developing move. But it also sets up a positional trap. That is what I thought. I didn't realise it also sets up a dynamic trap as well.} Ng8 $2 {If it were me, I would have simply played Bxf3.} 13. Ne1 {This is not a bad move. Positionally it is ok. I avoid the exchange of my strong knight for bishop and invite black to instead swap of bishops. The light squared bishops. In the KID structure, unlike the Benoni, the light squared bishop is THE bishop. Without it black has no K-side pawn storm in essence. This I understood thus quickly and simply went Ne1. But I missed a stronger opportunity:} (13. Ng5+ $1 hxg5 14. Bxg4 {I saw this, and I think so did Methu. But I didn't calculate it any deeper. At this point I evaluated this resulting position on general grounds. I thought "now he can just push f5 and I am being kicked around and he is gaining K-side traction". This was lazy thinking.} f5 (14... Nh6 15. Be2 f6 16. g3 {here Fritz shows a simple elegant plan. Kg2, Rh1, h4...exploiting the g5 hook to open the h-file favourably.} )15. exf5 gxf5 {I saw this. But had I given it more thought, there was the simple tactic:} 16. Bxf5+ $1 Rxf5 17. Qd3 {And the rook is gone.} )Bxe2 14. Qxe2 f5 15. f3 Nd7 16. Nd3 {A typical KID plan by white. The knight repositions nicely to aid in pressuring the Q-side whilst at the same time keeping an eye on the f4 square. Note, black really misses the light squared bishop.} Qd8 {The sad consequence of Qb6} 17. a3 Ndf6 18. b4 {White's play is easy. It is black who has to produce the imaginative stuff here to survive.} b6 19. Rfb1 Nh5 20. bxc5 bxc5 {If:} (20... dxc5 21. a4 {[%csl Yc3,Yd3,Ye3][%cal Ra4a5,Ya1a8,Yb1b8,Ra5b6] (This is why I played Rfb1 instead of Rab1) and white has the hook on b6 to make progress with. All his pieces are piling on the pressure on the Q-side, to say nothing of the long term asset in the form of the protected passed d-pawn. Note how many tempi behind black is with his KID K-side attack.} )21. Rb7 {I realised this had to be played immediately, as obvious as it looks. My initial plan had been to play the bad:} (21. g3 $2 f4 22. Bf2 fxg3 23. hxg3 {I thought I was extinguishing his entire K-side hopes by taking full control of f4 and now I could calmly play Rb7 when I noticed} Rf7 $1 {and black is back in the game. White suddenly has no penetration on the Q-side.} )Nf4 {As a consequence of his poor opening play, Methu without having done anything so bad thereafter has gradually drifted into a difficult position. His only option is to throw some pieces forward and hope something happens.} 22. Bxf4 $1 {The knights are the stronger minor piece set in this structure. Though the a1-h8 diagnol opens up, the g7 bishop has been nuetered. There is the gaping e6 hole as well (remember black's precious light squared bishop which is no longer...)} exf4 23. Rxg7+ $5 {I started making not chess but psychological mistakes from this point on. I strongly felt I had convincingly outplayed Methu upto this point. I started making my decisions a bit quickly. I think this was the result of the 'burden of the throne'. Had I not been national champion and had this position I would have been in a more 'killer' mode and taken a good 10 minutes to reflect on the good position that had been achieved and looked to tighten the screws better. Instead of rushing with the exchange sac:} (23. Nxf4 Qf6 24. Ne6 {would have kept strong control of the position. The e6 knight is obviously boss. I quickly and superficially thought} Rf7 {is decreasing my pressure. But here some slow calm thinking would have shown} 25. Rab1 Re8 26. Rxf7 Qxf7 27. Nb5 {And black is pratically forced to give up the exchange on e6 to escape the grip. Simplification has happened and white would simply be a clean exchange up. Note that the g7 bishop is firing only blacks along the a1-h8 diagnol. A serious missed opportunity.} )Kxg7 24. Nxf4 Qf6 25. Ne6+ Kh8 26. e5 dxe5 27. Nxf8 $5 {Nothing wrong with this. But another psychological mistake. I did see Na4 will simply gobble the c5 pawn, with a result monster knights coordination and two connected passers. This would have been VERY strong. But I was unable to escape the 'burden of the throne' impasse and played 'safely' and 'restored' material balance. Also, my calculation started to become fuzzy or rather I started relying more on general thinking as a crutch at this point. I sort of saw the resulting sequence but though by picking the knight at f6 eventually I am just winning.} Rxf8 28. Na4 e4 29. Rd1 Qa6 30. Qb2+ Nf6 31. Nxc5 Qxc4 32. Nd7 Qa4 {We both saw this sequence coming. But again over this phase I made another psychological mistake. I took much time rechecking, quadruple checking stuff. Should have all been played much quicker.} 33. Nxf8 Qxd1+ 34. Kf2 e3+ 35. Kg3 $2 {Why am I giving this move a '?'. Because of the time spent playing it. At this point I had about 8 minutes left on the clock (with 30 seconds increment per move). I recalculted lines over and over again. Of course, it is obvious e3 cannot be taken (perpetual) but I pondered over it alot. I did see my king going to g4 but I just couldn't see h4 push at this point. I thought there was no win suddenly and started recalculating Kxe3. I should have immediately just played Kg3 and then after Qxf6 I would have had a good 8 minutes. Enough time to calm down and find that h4. After playing Kg3 I was down to less than 1 minute on the clock!!} e2 36. Qxf6+ Kg8 37. Ne6 e1=Q+ 38. Kh3 Qa1 39. Qxg6+ Kh8 40. Qxh6+ Kg8 41. Qg6+ Kh8 42. Qh5+ Kg8 43. Qg6+ Kh8 44. Qh6+ Kg8 45. Qf8+ Kh7 46. Qxf5+ Kg8 {Forced sequence. Not seeing a mating net playing with a constant 1 minute on my clock, I offered a draw!! I was afraid to play the king to g4 seeing no follow up after a queen to b1 then imagining I could even lose if the black queens managed to come back to the aid of the black king. It was enourmous psychological pressure. The position is won!!!} 47. Qf8+ {variation analysis} Kh7 48. Kg4 $3 {Incredibly I did see this. It is the follow up quite move I needed more time to see.} Qeb1 {it is here where I was getting stuck after he played the e3 check. Had I gotten to this point with 8 minutes on the clock then maybe I would have retained the 'throne'. I couldn't see the next move. I thought this was now perpetual. And I thought I risked if I tried to find something else (where was the time even). But with 8 minutes on the clock I believe it would have been possible to find:} 49. h4 $3 {And it is over. Ng5 and h5 checkmate!! That would have been the most incredible finish of my chess life. As it was, Methu showed survival skills for just that one extra move and I had a psychological crisis. And that was what made the difference. Congrats to our new champion Joseph Methu.} 1/2-1/2