[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