[Event "WDCL Div 1"] [Site "?"] [Date "2022.05.04"] [Round "?"] [White "McCarthy, Damian"] [Black "Stuttard, David"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C42"] [Annotator "Damian"] [PlyCount "49"] [SourceVersionDate "2007.11.01"] [WhiteTeam "Culcheth A"] [BlackTeam "Winwick A"] {[%evp 0,49,19,31,34,42,23,21,59,80,75,27,24,13,13,5,-6,-22,-31,-28,-28,-18, -18,-95,-27,-28,-14,22,165,174,412,356,335,406,406,399,397,391,453,408,419,416, 596,487,583,633,633,624,865,880,910,326]} {I have played Dave Stuttard many times over the past 15 or so years so knew well his syle of play before the game. He loves to unbalance the game and won't hesitate to give up material to achieve this! In this game he stays true to this style, giving up a pawn on move 3... A Bishop on move 13.. Then a further exchange on move 14! Thankfully fo me, Black ran out of steam.} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d5 {A pet line of David's which he has played for many years} 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. d4 Nc6 6. Nxc6 Qxc6 {Here White is up a pawn but the task will be how to get the King to safety with the queens pressure on g2 stopping natural kingside development. Nc3 was one idea I had here but then the reply Bb4 will put pay to any Bb5 idea's. After some thought I decided to try c4 with the idea of a further d5. If this worked I felt it would be a refutation of Blacks opening play. However I was aware it was an approach that carries some risk with the king not getting closer to being developed.} 7. c4 Bb4+ 8. Bd2 Bxd2+ 9. Nxd2 O-O 10. d5 Qb6 ({ when I played c4 I was visualising} 10... Re8+ 11. Be2 {here with White ready to castle next move}) 11. Nb3 (11. Be2 {Now would be a safe way to play, returning the pawn to castle. I was very reluctant to give the pawn back so easily however and eventually played the somewhat dubious Nb3}) 11... Bg4 ( 11... Re8+ {was a big expectation to which I would have played} 12. Be2 Qb4+ 13. Kf1 {When white is still at least maintaining the extra pawn despite the clumsy position of the king.} (13. Qd2 {would be bad in view of} Qxc4 {with the worst of all possible worlds.})) (11... Qb4+ $1 {would have been the best way to punish my overly optimistic opening play} 12. Qd2 Re8+ {Now Be2 is rules out due to Qxc4 so I have to play} 13. Kd1 Qxd2+ 14. Kxd2 Ne4+ 15. Kc2 Nxf2 $17 {Where Black has regained the pawn with a somewhat better position. White still has very awkward development.}) 12. f3 {forced} Rae8+ 13. Be2 { Now White will meet Qb4+ with Kf1 or Re7 with c5 in both cases maintaining the extra pawn but Black will certainly have compensation for it. It would have been an interesting game seeing if I could have unravelled. However here David pushed the boat out a bit to far with...} Bxf3 $4 14. gxf3 Rxe2+ $4 {perhaps David only considered Qxe2?} 15. Kxe2 Re8+ 16. Kf1 Qe3 {Blacks pieces are extreamly active but White is a full rook up, so with a couple of careful moves the game should now be over.} 17. Rg1 (17. Rc1 {was another option but I suspected David would try} Ng4 {which is also quite unsound in actual fact but Rg1 first seemed to rule out any of these potential swindling pitfalls} 18. fxg4 $18) 17... Qf4 18. Kg2 Re3 19. Kh1 {This seemed the simplest option. If Black captures on f3 with th queen of course we are happy to trade, and Rxf3 will be met by Qd4 and Re1 completing development and tying up black to the back rank defence} Rxf3 20. Qd4 Qh6 21. Rae1 {Qxf6 is threatened} g5 22. Rxg5+ {Again this seemed the simplest option to conclude the game} Qxg5 23. Rg1 Rf1 24. Rxf1 Ng4 25. Qxg4 {Faced with th trade of his final piece Black resigned} 1-0