Board 2: Am I the sacrificial lamb in this key match? My only other match this season, or for the last 20 seasons, was a 19-move draw four weeks before, with Black, on a lower board, against a weaker team!

1. e4 With white, one is supposed to try and make something of the initiative in such circumstances, so I choose an open game 1... e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Ne7?! Does my opponent want to be out of the books or is this his personal improvement on theory in the French defence? 4. Nf3 All I can do is develop as many pieces as possible, as quickly as sensible, and hope to retain some initiative. I have no idea where black is headed! 4... dxe4 5. Nxe4 Nf5?! My opponent doesn't seem to care about development; perhaps he wants to provoke me into weaknesses. He must have played against 6 g4 before. I'll just carry on with my development. But which bishop do I move first? In this position, I'm not sure, until I see what he has in mind, whether my king's bishop should go to e2, d3 or c4, so I move my queen's bishop to a safe central square. 6. Bf4 b6 He wants to embarrass my e4 knight and build long-term threats against g2, if I castle king's side. I'm very attracted by Bc4, to put pressure on e6 and f7 and, objectively, that might be the best move here, but I want the option of keeping the queen's knight on e4. 7...Nxd4 loses to 8 Nxd4, Qxd4; 9 Bb5+ and black's Queen is a gonner. 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. O-O Be7 I decide to manage the prospective threat on the long diagonal b7-g2 by counter attack. 9. Re1 My development is almost complete. What can I do with it, as I complete it? I don't want to have to play the passive c3, after he castles, so, before he does so, time to force his third king's knight move, I feel. 9... h6 He has to stop the queen's knight coming to g5, with severe pressure on e6. 10. Ng3 Nxg3 11. Bxg3 Nd7 I now have a bishop bearing down on each side of his defences, whichever side he castles. Time next move to make way for my queen and to discourage black's 12...Nf6 ready to castle king's side. 12. Ne5 Nxe5 12... Nf6 must have been more solid and would have left me ruing not having developed my king's bishop at c4, as after it I could have tried 12...Nf6, I could have tried 13 Nxf7, Kxf7 14 Bxe6+ and 15 Qd3 with very strong attack for the sacrificed piece. The problem might be that, if my king's bishop had been on c4, 10 Ng3 might be met with Nd6 attacking the c4 bishop, but that's another game entirely. 13. Nxf7 13. Bxe5 Bf6 Perhaps, black would have been better to O-O here and to counter 14 Qg4 with Bf6. 14. Bb5+ This looks like white is wasting time, but I want to close the b7-g2 diagonal "temporarily", so that I can use f3 and/or e4. 14... c6 15. Qf3 O-O Perhaps bla ck must here exchange bishops: 15... cxb5; 16 Qxb7, Bxe5 17 Rxe5! (when white's effective queenside pawn majority could prove decisive in the end game; except that it is so easy for the one with advantage to go wrong in the speed chess play of such an endgame). At this stage, our board 1 had drawn with black and our board 3 was on target to do the same, so my opponent may have felt he needed to try to make something of his potential g2 threats. 16. Bd3!! Bxe5 My opponent said after the game that he had wanted me to take the pawn he offered on c6, e.g. 16 Bxc6, Bxc6; 17 Qxc6, Rc8; 18 Qe4 (and white looks to be in control and a pawn up), but ...Bxe5; 19 dxe5, Qd2!; 20 Rac1 Rfd8 and suddenly, for the gambit pawn, black is in control and may have a draw or, given the psychological impact on white of this reversal in initiative, even a win? 17. dxe5 Qg5 The black queen is needed for defence of the king, so why not see if any tricks on g2 can be had? 18. Qe4 Simple and obvious, as most of white's moves now are; black has to defend carefully (and to seek counter play). 18... g6 19. Re3 Rab8 Black prepares to open up b7-g2! 20. Rg3 White defends g2 and launches the winning counter attack! 20... Qh5 21. Be2!? Qf5 22. Qe3 The only move that requires some depth of analysis from white, who has to decide now whether he is prepared to sacrifice possibly all 3 queen side pawns for the possibility of a mating attack. 22... Kg7! Did black now see what white did not envision on move 21? White had intended to meet Qxc2 with either: a)23 Rc1 (to cover c3 and c5 whilst coming under the white queen's protection), Qxb2 (to pressure e5); 24 Qxh6 Qxe5; 25 Bd3, Qg7; when white still has a lot to prove for the two pawns given up; or b)23 Bd3 (cutting off the black queen), Qxb2 (at move 21, white hoped that Re1, defending e5 would now prove sufficient, but after Kg7 and Rh8, white still has much to do). What white did not envision at move 21 was: c)23 Bd3, Qxb2; 24 Rb1!! Qxa2; 25 Qxh6 and white breaks through on g6 for mate (as the black queen with her haul of all white's queen-side pawns looks on hopelessly). 23. Bd3 Qh5 24. Rh3 Qg5 25. f4 Qd8 26. f5 revealing a double attack on h6. 26... Rh8 27. f6+ Kg8 28. Rxh6 Qf8! Black spots a chance to get out of jail with Qc5, when the queens come off. 29. Rxh8+ Kxh8 30. Qh3+ White would have preferred 30 Rf1, but must keep the queens on. 30... Kg8 31. Rf1 Rd8 32. Rf4 Qc5+ 33. Kh1 Rxd3 Black is now desperately hoping for 34 cxd3?? Qc1 mates! 34. Qxd3 g5 Black has to stop Rh4. 35. Rd4 Resigns. There is no acceptable response to the threat of 36 Rd8+. An interesting strategio-tactical observation is that the long diagonal b7-g2 has remained closed, since white's in between move at move 14. Despite c6-c5 being all that was required to open the long diagonal for black, white's apparent waste of a move at 14, kept the long diagonal closed for 21 moves! This diversionary tactic was possible because white had built up such an early lead in development. Match result: Alwoodley B promoted to the IM Brown competition. If the captain's promotion of me to Board 2 was tactical, it may have worked! 1-0 [Harry]