[Event "Tromso vs. Maine (board 1)"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.01.31"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Notkevich, Benjamin"]
[Black "Hendrix, Wyatt"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "B33"]
[WhiteElo "2470"]
[BlackElo "1918"]
[Annotator "Wyatt Hendrix"]
[PlyCount "89"]
[EventDate "2021.01.31"]
[SourceVersionDate "2020.08.09"]
1. e4 {This was played in the second of two games of my match on board 1 in
the Maine vs Tromso match in honor of Boris Spassky's 84th birthday! The
Norwegians had fielded a very strong and particlarly top-heavy field. Benjamin
Arvola Notkevich is a 27 year-old Grandmaster who is a member of the Norwegian
Olympic team, and achieved his GM title while playing on board 4 for the team
at the 2018 Batumi Olympiad.} c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6.
Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 f5 11. c3 (11. Bd3 {is more
popular here}) 11... Bg7 12. Bd3 {sort of transposing to some lines with 11.
Bd3 Be6 12.c3 Bg7, black could avoid this by not putting the bishop on e6 but
there's not much reason not to} Be6 (12... Ne7 {has been played by some big
players such as Kasparov but I was of course going for a specific line after
13.Nxb5 that my opponent hadn't played so well previously so I had no reason
to do this.}) 13. Nxb5 {Perfectly playable but white has had better prospects
in 11.Bd3 Be6 12.0-0 at the top level so this line hasn't had a ton of play.
Not to mention that 13.Qh5 is a very legitimate option and I trust Mike's
analysis that this is a better try for white objectively speaking. My opponent
had aimed for this line in virtually every game against the Sveshnikov so I
was willing to go for this mostly because I was virtually certain I would get
it and could prepare, not because I have some sort of refutation or anything.
I also found that he picked an incorrect plan after the critical 17...e4! as
we will see later and so I aimed for that position.} axb5 14. Bxb5 Rc8 (14...
Bd7 {leads to some different positions as white can't play Qa4 but as
mentioned earlier I was aiming for a specific line and I prefer Rc8 anyways.})
15. Qa4 Bd7 16. exf5 {with the exception of 14...Rc8 vs 14...Bd7 these last
few moves have been forced. I won't go into too much detail aboput the
compensation but these sorts of piece sacs for the 3 pawns are typical in the
sveshnikov and a lot of other sicilian positions.} O-O (16... Nb8 {is playable
but I don't really like it}) 17. O-O (17. Qg4 e4 $1 $15 {and now white can't
even capture on e4 nor can 18.f6 be played because of the pin from the bishop
on d7.}) 17... e4 $1 {A good solution for black. Without this move I think
black could fall into difficulties. This hadn't been tried against my opponent
but 2 times out of probably a few dozen games and so he had racked up an
impressive score in this 13.Nxb5 line. Black gives white a 4th pawn in
exchange for a tempo for Re8 and to vacate the e5 square. It should also be
pointed out that black will likely win the f5 pawn.} 18. Qxe4 {I don't think
this is the best way to play but it should be fine} (18. Rfe1 $1 $44 {is
stronger but 18.Qxe4 should still be okay}) 18... Re8 19. Qf4 $2 {I had
noticed that my opponent had played this poor move when confronted with this
line. Basically white's queen (which was placed on the kingside in hopes of
targeting black's king) stands poorly and will be kicked around by black's
pieces alowing him to surge pieces towards white's kingside with tempo.} (19.
Qa4 {is best but even after} Re5 $13 {I prefer black}) 19... Re5 $1 $17 20.
Rfd1 Bxf5 $1 21. a4 Be6 22. Ne3 {There are other moves here but none solve
white's problems} Ne7 $1 {[%csl Gg6][%CAl Ge7g6,Ge7d5]} 23. Bd3 {There were a
lot of moves here that I checked but this one surprised me} (23. g3 $6 {
is what he had played previously and was the mainline of my preperation} Nd5 {
is simple} 24. Nxd5 Bxd5 25. Rd2 {is what he had played previously} (25. Bf1
Qc7 $1 26. h4 $140 Ba8 $1 27. Bg2 Bxg2 28. Kxg2 Qb7+ 29. Kg1 Qxb2 $19) 25...
Qe7 26. Bf1 Ba8 $1 {Black has powerful play against white's king. The bishop
pair is pretty strong here.} 27. Qb4 Re8 28. a5 (28. Rxd6 Bf8 $1 $19) 28... Bh6
$1 29. Rxd6 Be3 $3 30. fxe3 Rd5 $1 $19 31. Rg6+ hxg6 32. Qxe7 {otherwise Qxe3+}
Rxe7 $19 {is where my prep ended with a winning endgame and I luckily was able
to remember it when doing these annotations, mostly because the aesthetics of
29...Be3 and 30...Rd5 served as a great memory hook.}) (23. Bf1 Ng6 $17 {
[%csl Gh5][%CAl Ge5g5,Gg5h5,Gc8c5,Gd8h4] with a powerful attack for black}) (
23. Qh4 Rcc5 $1 $17 {[%CAl Ge5h5,Ge5g5,Gg5g2,Gh5h2,Ge7g6] is a nice idea and
also served as a cool memory hook}) (23. Rd2 Ng6 $17 {is the same story}) 23...
Nd5 $2 {I missed a tactical point which we'll see below} (23... Ng6 $1 {
would lead to a strong attack as seen in other lines. I think I was worried
about 24.Bxg6 but I rejected this way to quickly.} 24. Bxg6 $6 hxg6 $19 {
Black's two bishops, and in particular the LSB, are even stronger without
white's LSB on the board.}) 24. Nxd5 Bxd5 25. Bxh7+ $1 {Only here did I
realize that white could play 26.Rxd5 and 27.Qe4+} Kxh7 $6 (25... Kf8 $1 {
is a tough move but probably best since I keep my strong LSB on the board.})
26. Rxd5 $1 Rxd5 27. Qe4+ Kg8 28. Qxd5 $13 Rc5 29. Qb7 Rf5 $5 {not giving up
on play against the king and rejecting some calmer plans such as Qe8 and Ra5
ideas just freezing white's pawns and just trying to hold the ending. Some of
the computers suggested that this was quite bad, but my stonger engine
runnning on better hardware overturned this and I think black has sufficient
play after looking at this more.} 30. g3 Qe8 $1 31. a5 Bh6 $1 {The idea of
going Bh6-e3 in the other line made finding this much easier.} 32. a6 Be3 $3 {
I hadn't really found a solution to 33.fxe3 Qxe3+ 34.Kh1 Qd3 35.Qg2 Ra5 36.
Rf1! yet (honestly I didn't spend much time trying since it doesn't matter)
but it was clear to me that there are no other moves (32...Qe2 loses to 33.
Qc8+ winning the rook on f5 and anything else just loses easily) so it's
obvious that I have to play like this.} 33. fxe3 (33. a7 Bxf2+ (33... Rxf2 $4
34. a8=Q $18) 34. Kh1 Bxa7 $1 35. Qxa7 Qe2 $1 $11) 33... Qxe3+ 34. Kh1 (34. Kg2
Qe2+ 35. Kg1 Qf2+ 36. Kh1 d5 {with a perpetual coming}) 34... Qd3 $4 {I played
this to hit the f1 square} (34... Kg7 $3 $11 {is the solution I needed. The
point is I avoid checks on the bank rank so I don't have to worry about Qc8+
winning the rook (or even a promotion with check). I am then prepared to play
d5 cutting off the queen and giving a perpetual. I am sad to have missed this
since I had been looking at an opportunity to play something like this since
my king was not well placed on g8. This reminds me of a lot of Kasparov games
actually, not a specific position but just playing a quiet king move to bring
more attacking resources into play by avoiding checks (Kasparov - Karpov, Lyon,
1990 (20), Portisch - Kasparov, Moscow, 1981 (41...Kg8!!)).}) (34... d5 $4 35.
Qc8+ Kg7 36. Qxf5 $18) 35. Rg1 $4 (35. Qg2 $1 {was simple} Ra5 $5 36. Rf1 $1
$18 {and I hadn't seen a satisfactory answer when playing 32...Be3 and it's
clear there just isn't one.} (36. Rxa5 $4 Qd1+ 37. Qg1 Qf3+ 38. Qg2 Qd1+ $11 {
with perpetual is of course the point.})) 35... d5 $1 {My opponent said he had
just missed this. A very pleasant surprise for me.} 36. h4 $4 (36. Qe7 $8 $11 {
is the only move, stopping Qe4+ (the problem with Qf3+ is that black can't hop
over the black queen with the rook to play Rf2 or Rf1+).}) 36... Qe4+ 37. Rg2
Rf2 38. Qc8+ Kg7 $4 $11 {A total blank moment. Simply playing 38...Kh7 would
win as white no longer has the same perpetual to save himself.} (38... Kh7 $19
39. Qh3 Rf1+ 40. Kh2 Qb1 $1 $19 (40... Qe1 $4 41. Rg1 Rxg1 42. Qf5+ $11)) 39.
Qh3 Rf1+ 40. Kh2 Qe1 41. Qg4+ Kf8 42. Qc8+ Kg7 43. Qg4+ Kf8 44. Qc8+ Kg7 45.
Qg4+ *