for an opening with a drawish reputation i have found that all the various lines did well for me

wins included games against

levy im
goodman im
sandiford
pn lee (one time british champion)
tal (former world champ)
day im
patterson (former irish champion)
sugden
pelling
korom
carleton ( corr im)
dodgson
b green
n littlewood (british ch runner up)
lambshire
brogden
stimpson ( 17 wins)

draws v

kuzmin gm
browne gm
tukmakov gm
cordovil
hartston im( twice i think)
penrose gm
poutrus
e schmid (not the gm lothar schmid)
patterson
lau gm
p n lee
j adams
k harman
hindle x2
cosulich
maninang im ( i think)
hug im
d andrew
mednis gm
corden
and a portuguese player whose name i dont -at the moment-recall from lisbon 1985

i also had a win v friedman at chicago last round 1985 but i have mislaid the game score-if anyone can track it down i wd be very grateful-does anyone know a chicago player or organiser who might know?-even dr schiller cant seem to find the moves and he organised the event!!

With 25.Rd5 white doing a somersault betting. 25.Rd5 is not the best move nor would make white position better and to say more severe, white position after at the end of the move #24 is BAD. This loss is completely because of blacks ignorance.

25.Rd5 is the bait that so tempting that if someone grab it, his life would be in danger and thats what happened to black.

To win actually black need 25...Ne8! if 26.Qh5 Nxf6.

I calculated this 25.Rd5 enough deep that surprised me, once the bait taken, theres no way back for black AT ALL.

e.g.
25...exd5
26.Qh5 Bxf2+
27.Kxf2! Qc5+ (Ne4+ just like the game)
28.Kg2 d4+
29.Kf1....now to prevent checkmate black has to pose as a suicidal desperado and throw all their pieces to the lion's mouth. (1-0)

Fine? Boy that's an understatement! The opening play was elegant.. textbook perfect! I saved the game because of that alone!

But 25.Rd5?! is probably the prettiest blunder I've seen in a long time. <The loss is unavoidable..> for black if he takes, and for white if ..Ne8!

There's a disharmony in black's position after this move, resulting from the position of both knights, and most particularly from the inability of the Nd5 to use b6 again.

What is lovely, is the exact method chosen by white, to expose, demonstrate and prove that indeed, black's position IS disharmonious.

It is an example of masterly play, how white plays upon this momentary inconvenience in the black position.

Note how after c4 (already a3 was a masterly move, denying yet another square of relief to the black knight), the knight has to go to e7, denying that same square to the queen, so that after Rd1, she has to go to e8, as Qc7 unfortunately runs into Bf4, inconveniencing her again, and this time really without any good square for her.

Playing thus, in order to send the Queen to e8, is just masterly.

A great player doesn't play for win of material or an attack necessarily - sometimes a whole manoeuver is dedicated just to misplace one enemy piece, or just to create some perceivable disharmony in his position.

Already to predict that the queen will need to go to e8, and to play for it through c4, is appreciable great play.

This comes from a knowledge, that in this kind of positions, with a king castled K-side with a somewhat weakened pawn defense, a knight on f6 that isn't adequately protected, and most important, with a rook on f8, that both hinders the king's flight and will in its turn be blocked, a queen is most unfortunately placed at e8. I won and lost countless games exactly because of the set of circumstances just described.

Recognizing it, seeing that it's inevitable and playing on purpose to reach it, is really remarkable from my point of view.

One idea is Blackburn's mate - 23...Nxd7 24. Qh5!!! with inevitable destruction, as 24...gh leads to 25. Bh7 checkmate.

on replaying the game I did see 25. Rd5 before it came - but totally failed to consider the genius defense 25...Ne8. Very resourceful and shows how many unexpected possibilities the game contains!

It attacks the bishop. If the bishop goes back, ...f5 ends the attack. If still 26. Qh5, then after ...Nxf6, h7 is defended, and there's no long diagonal to support a mate in case of 27. Qxh7+ Nxh7 28. Bxh7+.

Brilliant!

But still, before move 23, I would still say that white has quite the crushing position. Isn't 23. Ng4 going to accomplish something on the K-side?

I want to come back to that moment in the game where Black suddenly finds out that he needs to misplace his Q at e8...

When you have to play Q to e8 in this kind of position, this is tantamount fo confessing in front of your opponent, to say "I really have no control over what is going to happen to my kingside for the rest of the game..."

Every alarm bell should be ringing!!!