[Event "WDCL Div 1"] [Site "?"] [Date "2020.03.11"] [Round "?"] [White "McCarthy, Damian"] [Black "Clissold, Richard"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C14"] [Annotator "damian"] [PlyCount "92"] [SourceVersionDate "2007.11.01"] [WhiteTeam "Culcheth B"] [BlackTeam "Winwick A"] {[%evp 0,18,16,28,55,22,53,30,47,-10,40,34,52,56,62,36,65,32,30,35,66]} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. f4 f5 {an unusual move here, now I had a decision to make, one plan is to castle queenside and build towards a kingside attack using g4 as a pawn lever, this would however lead to a more closed kind of game which I had a feeling my opponent desperately wanted. Therefore I took on f6 with the idea of transposing back to a more normal line.} 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. g3 {An idea I have seen before in these kind of positions, the bishop may be best placed on h3 to target the backward pawn.} a6 11. Bh3 Nf8 {Clissold has a style of playing possum in that he plays somewhat passive moves in the hope that his opponents overreach themselves. This worked well for him in a recent encounter against our A team board 1 Marek where Richard scored a win. However I think this move is taking things too far. Nb6 is far more natural.} 12. Qe2 Bd7 13. O-O-O O-O-O 14. Rhe1 h6 {preventing Ng5, now I had two ideas, Ne5 followed by Nd3 and Nc5, and also the more direct Rd3. I preferred playing Rd3 first to begin with but then became troubled by the possible reply g5 trying to exploit the loose bishop on h3 so I decided to first play Ne5} 15. Ne5 Be8 16. Rd3 Qd6 17. Re3 Kb8 18. Nd3 Qb6 19. Nc5 Bf7 {this I think is a key moment, white has controlled the game so far but needs to find more then just the weak pawn on e6. At is rarely possible to win at chess targeting only one weakness. Whilst I did briefly look at Na4 here for some reason I didn't consider the follow up Rb3, which would be very strong. Instead I had the idea of getting the rook to e7, which i think is also good but not so strong as Rb3.} 20. Qd2 (20. N3a4 Qc6 21. Rb3 {I missed this idea}) (20. Bxe6 {would clearly be wrong releaving all the pressure}) 20... Rd6 21. f5 {I think this was probably the best move, trading one advantage for another i thought, however the game has now become much more dynamic in nature.} exf5 22. Re7 (22. N3a4 {again this move is very strong which i missed, i just never looked at the Rb3 idea.}) 22... Bg6 23. Rxg7 Ne4 24. N3xe4 fxe4 25. Rf1 {again! Re3-b3 still be close to winning} Ka7 { a useful move to avoid Nd7+ tricks} 26. Qf4 Be8 27. Qe5 {Ill be honest after playing this move I expected to have the game wrapped up in short order, remarkably given the discordination of blacks pieces he finds a way to continue.} Bb5 (27... Bg6 {was what i had expected} 28. Qe7 {which i thought would be winning}) 28. Rff7 {the last move is still good but has played rather hastily, as soon as i played it i saw his Qa5 which shook me a bit, luckily it still after looking at it, it seemed ok for me after c3 after only the queen can get involved with the knight keeping the bishop out. I figured worst case scenario would be a draw after Bd3 Nxd3 Kxd3 Qd1 and it seemed like I should be able to run to the queenside safely. I noted the bishop on a3 means that the king can safely travel to the e3 square without fearing being skewered by the d6 rook.} Qa5 29. c3 Qxa2 30. Rxc7 (30. Qxd6 {was an idea i didn't consider.}) 30... Qa1+ 31. Kc2 Bd3+ 32. Nxd3 exd3+ 33. Kxd3 Qd1+ {this was the position I thought would happen and hoped should be good for me. It is importent that the bishop on h3 covers e6 as otherwise when the king goes to e3 black could play Re6, although I did see this before playing c3} 34. Ke3 Qe1+ 35. Kf3 Qh1+ 36. Kg4 (36. Bg2 {was probably better but I thought I was reaching relative safety in front of the pawns}) 36... Rg6+ 37. Kh4 Rb6 { at this point I couldn't believe it wasnt an easier win, I cant win the rook on a8 with Rxb7 because of the knight fork on g6 at the end.} 38. Rxb7+ { instead i used all my time (a continuing theme of my games) to the point that I was under 2 minutes and in danger of losing if I didn't make a move. With Steve having just won his game I decided to bailed out with a draw by perpetual. I continued the game with quite a few checks much to my opponents disgruntlement in the hope he would either lose on time or put his king on a bad square, but we agreed the draw when it became clear he was not about to blunder and can claim a draw before losing on time.} (38. Qe7 Qe4+ 39. Qxe4 dxe4 {was whites best bet and should be winning}) 38... Rxb7 39. Rxb7+ Kxb7 40. Qe7+ Kb8 41. Qd6+ Ka7 42. Qc7+ Ka8 43. Qc6+ Kb8 44. Qb6+ Ka8 45. Qxa6+ Kb8 46. Qb6+ Ka8 1/2-1/2