[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "2025.06.29"] [Round "?"] [White "Crockart, George"] [Black "Melling, Hugo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D00"] [Annotator "Hugo"] [PlyCount "98"] [EventDate "2025.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2019.03.01"] {[%evp 0,98,16,-32,-20,-34,-23,-23,-23,-17,-17,-12,-42,-53,-6,-13,-6,-75,14,-10,7,5,17,19,52,62,52,27,30,27,50,32,49,25,33,-12,30,11,4,-32,-36,-92,-61,-103,-99,-98,-86,-78,-83,-88,-69,-84,-96,-89,-99,-99,-94,-120,-115,-119,-114,-149,-119,-114,-114,-126,-126,-145,-136,-145,-145,-145,-142,-147,-143,-141,-144,-145,-148,-304,-148,-148,-136,-122,-126,-126,-122,-271,-298,-309,-277,-1303,-29978,-29979,-1106,-1106,-1147,-1149,-1409,-1838,-1267]} 1. f4 {The Bird's, not very popular, especially not at the top level but I was expecting it} d5 2. Nf3 g6 3. e3 Bg7 4. d4 {this was a slightly different setup to games of his I'd seen previously with Be2 and d3 but my moves remained roughly the same} Nf6 5. Bd3 O-O 6. Nbd2 Nbd7 7. b3 c5 8. c3 Qc7 $11 (8... cxd4 9. cxd4 Ng4 10. Qe2 Nc5 $1 $15 {was better, going after the bishop pair since} 11. Bc2 {is met by} Qa5 {when Qc3 is hard to meet}) 9. O-O b6 10. Bb2 Re8 11. Ne5 Nf8 12. Rc1 Bf5 13. Qc2 (13. Bxf5 gxf5 {and e6 and Ne4 will follow, allowing me to put all the pawns on light squares, complimented by my dark squared bishop and getting an outpost for the knight}) 13... e6 14. c4 Rac8 15. h3 h5 (15... Red8 16. g4 Bxd3 17. Qxd3 dxc4 18. Ndxc4 $11) 16. Kh1 {neither of us wanted to relieve any of the tension in the middle of the board} h4 17. Rf3 (17. Ndf3 Nh5 {threatens the fork and allows the pawn to be defended with Bf6 or Qe7 on the next move}) 17... Qb7 (17... cxd4 18. exd4 Nh5) 18. dxc5 {White finally trades the pawns after the engine has been keen for both sides to do so for the last few moves} Rxc5 19. Ba3 Rcc8 20. Bxf8 {I don't understand this decision by White to give up the good dark squared bishop for the seemingly much worse knight. I was happy with the position at this point} Kxf8 21. Bxf5 exf5 22. Qb2 Ne4 {I realised that this led to a win of a pawn in the position after 24...Qe7} 23. Nxe4 dxe4 24. Rff1 Qe7 {The position has been simplified and the knight is trapped in middle of the board} 25. Rcd1 Bxe5 26. fxe5 Qxe5 27. Rd4 Rcd8 28. Rfd1 Rxd4 29. exd4 Qf6 30. Qa3+ Qe7 31. Qb2 e3 32. d5 Kg8 {We enter a heavy piece endgame that's winning for Black but still requires some care and technique due to White's pawn chain and the passed pawn on d5 that could become dangerous} 33. Qe2 Qd6 34. Kg1 f4 {At this point I realised that White was effectively stuck, the queen can't move due to e2, the rook can't move much due to ideas of getting a piece to d2 and forcing the pawn through, so I decided to just restrict the position and all of White's pawns} 35. Rf1 f5 {stops any Qg4 counter play in the future} 36. a4 Re4 37. Rd1 a5 {White is now completely stuck} 38. Kh1 Kf7 {I wanted to bring the King to d7, stopping the d-pawn, allowing me to play Qc5 and Rd4 trying to get the pawn through} 39. Kg1 Ke7 {It turns out there's not much white can do about this} 40. Qe1 g5 41. Qe2 Kd7 42. Qh5 {The king has completed its journey and White now decides they have to try and make something out of an otherwise hopeless position} Qf6 (42... e2 {does work and is forcing but I was low on time and had calculated the line played in the game through}) 43. d6 Rd4 44. Rxd4 Qxd4 45. Qxg5 e2+ 46. Kh2 Qxd6 (46... e1=Q {is cleanly winning but in the moment I'd missed that it covers the e7 square and so doesn't lose to 47. Qe7+ and Qc7#}) 47. Qxf5+ {last few checks but I'd already found a safe square for the king after Kd8, Qe7 and Kc7} Kd8 48. Qg5+ Qe7 49. Qxf4 Qc7 0-1