[Event "WDCL Div 1"] [Site "?"] [Date "2023.03.15"] [Round "?"] [White "McCarthy, Damian"] [Black "Ellis, Mark"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B90"] [Annotator "McCarthy,Damian"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r2qkb1r/1p3ppp/pn1pbn2/4p3/4P3/1NN1BP2/PPPQ2PP/R3KB1R w KQkq - 0 10"] [PlyCount "31"] [SourceVersionDate "2007.11.01"] [WhiteTeam "Culcheth A"] [BlackTeam "St Helens A"] {[%evp 0,49,19,30,53,52,83,59,59,37,37,30,57,41,58,31,31,15,38,17,55,40,96,64, 77,68,112,48,77,68,124,104,139,129,115,117,142,170,176,140,214,188,185,184,181, 182,169,174,198,188,264,285] [#]} {White has just castled Queenside in a Najdorf position where Black has delayed castling in favour of quicker queenside play.} 10. O-O-O Nc4 11. Bxc4 Bxc4 12. Kb1 ({I almost played} 12. g4 {on autopilot however luckily I made myself look at the board first, it occured to me that} a5 {was Black's idea when I would have to play} 13. Kb1 a4 14. Nc1 a3 15. b3 {Which is probably also fine for White but I much preferred being able to stop the a pawn on a4 as in the game when Black's Queenside play grinds to a total hault.}) 12... a5 13. Nc1 a4 14. a3 {now it is going to be very hard for Black to achieve anything on the Queenside} Nd7 (14... Ra5 { to try and play d5} {I thought would be met by} 15. Qf2) 15. Nd3 {taking control of b4 and heading for the d5 outpost} (15. Qf2 {was a big consideration } b5) 15... f5 {Mark is a very resourcful player and i'm sure recognises that he has a very bad position and therefore offers the fpawn to try and create practical chances} 16. Nb4 (16. exf5 d5 {and the engine may say White is still totally winning but at least Black has gained some activity for his pieces. I didn't see a reason to give him this.}) (16. f4 $5 {after playing Nb4 I suddenly wondered if I should have given this move some serious consideration which I had not looked at. Trying to open the position with Blak's King in the centre.}) 16... f4 17. Bf2 Qa5 18. g3 {this move was my longest think of the game. Nc-d5 seemed very safe but g3 trying to open the postion seemed to me the principled way to continue. I think I spent longer here partly as psychologically I felt at the moment I had black in a complete bind and a move like g3 will begin to introduce some complications. However I just wasn't convinced I would have enough to win the position without this break} fxg3 19. hxg3 O-O-O 20. Ncd5 Bxd5 {Mark offered a draw here} 21. Nxd5 Qxd2 22. Rxd2 g6 23. Be3 {again played after a long think, being able to double rooks on the a file seemed very appealing especially after I could see Black's natural defence Bg7 and h5 cannot be played due to Ne7+. It turns out this is exactly what happened in the game.} (23. Nc3 {i could see won the a pawn but does rather let Black off the hook positionally so I was convinced this couldn't be the optimal move}) 23... Bg7 (23... Nc5 {I thought at the very least I had} 24. Bxc5 dxc5 25. Nb6+ Kc7 26. Rxd8 Kxd8 27. Nxa4 {but perhaps this was Black's best try?}) 24. Rdh2 h5 25. Ne7+ {and here perhaps a bit prematurely (although after my last game I can't talk!) Mark decided he had had enough and resigned. The g6 and h5 pawn's are falling.} 1-0