April 2002 - Tournament Round 2 - Game 4
| White over reaches and black pounces on the pawns. White has calculated that black cannot
risk taking the pawns. In the end it takes extremely fine calculation to find the one winning line for black. White
was so very nearly right, the third pawn grab is always very risky! As in any games where opposite castling occurs, its an explosive race to attack the opponents king position! |
 Position after 17. ... Q x d4! |
PGN: 1.d4 d6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e3 a6 4.Nf3 Nd7 5.Bd3 c6 6.O-O h5 7.e4 Be7 8.e5 Nh6 9.Ne4 Nf8 10.Nfg5 g6 11.f4 d5 12.Nf2 Qb6 13.c3 Bd7 14.h3 O-O-O 15.b3 Bxg5 16.fxg5 Nf5 17.c4 Qxd4! 18.Rab1 Ne3! 19.Bxe3 Qxe3 20.Qc2 Qxe5 21.Rbe1 Qxg5 22.Qc3 f6 23.cxd5 exd5 24.Qa5 Ne6 25.Bxa6 bxa6! (the only saving move) 26.Qxa6+ Kc7 27.Qa5+ Kd6 28.Qb4+ c5 29.Qc3 Nf4! 30.g3 h4 31.g4 Rhe8! 32.Rxe8 Rxe8 33.Kh2 Re2! 34.b4 c4 35.Re1? Rxf2+ [0-1] |
| And now the white counter-attack swings in. It fails however as he cannot get more pieces
up to support the queen once black plays b x a6! Any other move ends with queen and bishop winning the game for
white. After weathering the storm, black starts to threaten whites position, and quickly builds a strong K-side attack. |
 Position after 25. Bxa6! |
 Position after 29. ... Nf4! |