Stephen Fairbairn vs Anna Zozulia (2007)

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Stephen Fairbairn vs Anna Zozulia
Isle of Man Masters (2007), Port Erin IMN, rd 3, Sep-24
English Opening: King's English. Taimanov Variation (A25) · 0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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May-16-17		agb2002: 24... Nxh4+ crossed my mind too quickly. The 'supposed easy puzzle' syndrome, perhaps.

May-16-17		Walter Glattke: This 26.Ne7+ really spoils my analysis, good made, so I try 25.-Bxe2 26.Qxe2 Nxh4, and maybe 27.Bf4 Nf5 gets a rook for Bishop for black then.

May-16-17		Walter Glattke: No, 24.Bxe2 all one move earlier.

May-16-17		Walter Glattke: 24.Kh1 Bxe2 25.Qxe2 Nxh4 26.Bf4 Nf5

May-16-17		Iwer Sonsch: I can't find anything better than 22...Rf1+ 23.Bxf1 Nf3+ and Nxd2. Winning only a little bit of material...

May-16-17		Iwer Sonsch: The point of this puzzle was to see that after <24.Kh1 Nxh4!> click for larger view Both after 25.Bg2 Bxe2 26.Bxg7 Qxg7 27.Qxe2 Nxg2 28.Kxg2 and 25.Bf4 Qf5 26.Ne3 Qe4+ 27.Ng2 Bxe2 28.Qxe2 Qxe2 29.Bxe2 Nxg2 30.Kxg2, Black wins the exchange. Whereas 24...Nxd2?? only equalizes. Way too easy for a Tuesday.

May-16-17		morfishine: Strange one for a Tuesday. Simple enough is <22...Rf1+> 23.Bxf1 opening up <f3> allowing <23...Nf3+> forking the Queen But it turns out better to capture the rook *****

May-16-17		Willber G: Too many subtleties and complexities for a Tuesday.

May-16-17		Walter Glattke: Adventurous was 22.-Kg8 23.h3 Nf3+ 24.Bxf3 Rxf3 25.Ne7+ Kf7 26.Rf4+ Rxf4 27.Qxf4+ Bf5 28.Nxg6 Bxh6 29.Qh6 with black advantage. So, for the Moment, 22.-Kg8 seems to be a good option. Happy Tuesday, you all!

May-16-17		Walter Glattke: 22.-Kh8 23.Rxe5 dxe5 24.Qxd3 c6

May-16-17		Walter Glattke: or 24.-Rf2!? not easy.

May-16-17		Iwer Sonsch: <Walter Glattke> 22...Kg8? 23.Rxe5! dxe5 24.Qxd3 (2.26 @depth 24). White leaves the path of playable moves with 19.f4?! exf4 (-0.79 @depth 27). Instead, all 19.b3, 19.Nc3, 19.Ree1 and 19.f3 (and maybe many more) would have been playable (-0.15 to -0.22 @depth 35). With 22.Bxh6!?, losing White gives a puzzle for Black, including a nifty queen sacrifice offer (<That's why this should be Monday, btw, a Queen sac to decline!>), and Black only has a winning advantage (-2.58 @depth 24) if solving it correctly.

May-16-17		I Like Fish: walter glattke... one line... one post... the utmost... u can take... at a time...

May-16-17		patzer2: Here's a look at today's Tuesday puzzle (24...?) and game with the chessgames.com opening explorer, Deep Fritz 15 and Stockfish 8: <1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. e4> Though sometimes played at GM level, such as in the draw in K Piorun vs Naiditsch, 2016, slightly more popular are 5. e3 as in Black's win following a White blunder in Stefansson vs S Guramishvili, 2017 5. d3 as in White's win in M Vachier-Lagrave vs R Mamedov, 2016 5. Rb1 as in White's win in Aronian vs M Mchedlishvili, 2016. <5... Nge7> Though not often played, this appears to be quite sound. By far the most popular reply is 5... d6 as in the clever draw by perpetual in M Bezold vs A Stefanova, 2016. <6. Nge2 d6 7. O-O O-O 8. d3 Be6 9. Nd5 f5 10. Bg5!?> Though favorably evaluated by the computers, 10. Bg5!? ignores the hole in White's position on d4. That might explain why it's the only game with 10. Bg5!? in the chessgames.com opening explorer. With the objective of protecting d4, the popular move is 10. Be3 = to (+0.28 @ 28 depth, Stockfish 8) as in the draw in I Krush vs K Shanava, 2013. <10... h6 11. Be3 Qd7 12. Qd2 Kh7 13. Rae1 a5 14. Nec3> This is fine, but a good alternative is 14. f4 Rae8 15. fxe5 dxe5 16. Nec3 (+0.48 @ 28 depth, Stockfish 8) <14... Rf7 15. Nxe7?!> This releases the tension, loses the White advantage and gives Black a level game. Much stronger and maintaining the White advantage is 15. f4 (+0.51 @ 26 depth, Stockfish 8) <15...Rxe7 >= (+0.14 @ 28 depth, Stockfish 8) Black has equalized and now begins to work on securing an advantage. <16. exf5> Two good alternatives are 16. Nd5 = (+0.09 @ 29 depth, Stockfish 8) 16. f4 = (+0.10 @ 29 depth, Stockfish 8) <16... Bxf5 17. Nd5 Rf7 18. Re2 Raf8 19. f4?> This move, allowing 19...exf4 to , is where White's game starts to go down hill. Instead, White can keep it level with 19. Ree1 when play might continue 19...Bg4 20. b3 Bf3 21. Bxf3 Rxf3 22. Kg2 g5 23. Qe2 Qf7 24. h3 = (0.00 @ 29 depth, Stockfish 8) <19... exf4> to (-0.66 @ 30 depth, Stockfish 8) Black now has the advantage. <20. Rxf4?!> Putting up much more resistance is 20. Bxf4 g5 21. Be3 Ne5 22. Bd4 Bh3 23. Ref2 when play might continue 23...Nf3+ 24. Rxf3 Bxd4+ 25. Kh1 Rxf3 26. Rxf3 Rxf3 27. Bxf3 c6 28. Nc3 Qe6 29. Qe2 Qxe2 30. Bxe2 Kg6 (-1.46 @ 35 depth, Stockfish 8) <20... Ne5 21. Rh4 Bxd3 22. Bxh6 Rf1+!> Black's deflection sacrifice sets up a winning Knight Fork which solves the Tuesday May 15, 2017 chessgames.com puzzle. <23. Bxf1 Nf3+ 24. Kg2> This makes the decision to play 24...Nxh4+! easy for White, as the second player's advantage is now overwhelming. Putting up more resistance and giving Black a chance to go wrong is 24. Kh1 Nxh4! (Not 24... Nxd2? 25. Bxd2+ Kg8 26. Ne7+ Kf7 27. Re1 =) 25. Bg2 (25. Re1 Be4+! 26. Bg2 Bxg2+ 27. Kg1 Bxd5 28. Qxd5 Nf3+ 29. Kf2 Nxe1+ ) 25... Bxe2 26. Bxg7 Qxg7 27. Qxe2 Nxg2 28. Kxg2 Qe5 29. Nc3 Qxe2+ 30. Nxe2 g5 (-4.03 @ 33 depth, Stockfish 8) <24... Nxh4+! 1-0> White resigns in lieu of 25. Kg1 (25. gxh4 Qg4+ 26. Kh1 Rxf1#; 25. Kh1 Rxf1#) 25... Nf3+ (-59.35 @ 25 depth, Stockfish 8)

May-16-17		Iwer Sonsch: <patzer2> My Stockfish disagrees with yours - it sees for White a lot of almost equally good options for both the 19. and 20. move.

May-16-17		kdogphs: I got it, changed my mind, then looked at the game... dagnabbit...

May-16-17		mel gibson: so easy.

May-16-17		stst: Visual training... Should make use of the strong double R: 22.........Rf1+ 23.BxR (forced) Nf3+ forks KQ 24.Kg2 (Kh1 later subject to Rxf1+) NxQ 25.RxN BxB+ (if 24.Kh1 then Rxf1+) and Black prevails & wins easily.

May-16-17		stst: Oh yeah, greedy too soon....Nh4 forces mate better than NxQ.... Visual training...got Visual Lesson!!

May-16-17		swclark25: I was also good until move 24 and I then took the Queen with Nxd2. So does all the analysis from <Iwer Sonsch> and others agree that 24)...Nxh4! is best?

May-16-17		patzer2: <swclark25> Yes 24...Nxh4+! is clearly best. White gets a lot more active play and counter chances after 24...Nxd2 25. Bxd8+ Kg8 26. Ne7+ Kf7! 27. Rf4+ Ke8 28. Rxf8+ Bxf8 29. Nd5+ Kd8 to (-1.62 @ 34 depth, Stockfish 8) The win is far simpler and much easier with the stronger 24...Nxh4+! (-59.35 @ 25 depth, Stockfish 8)

May-16-17		Marmot PFL: looks good for white until you see the rook check followed by the knight fork (all forced). White should have avoided such sharp lines against a strong woman player. They always find tactics so it's better to head for the ending.

May-16-17		patzer2: <Iwer Sonsch> You're right about White's 19th move offering a lot of better options than 19. f4?, which gives Black a clear advantage after 19...exf4 . It took me a while shuffling pieces up to 30 plus depth on two analysis programs before settling on 19. Ree1 = as offering White's best chance of equalizing. However, I'm sure there are also some other good equalizing alternatives available on White's 19th turn. The same might also be said for White's 20th where, instead of 20. Rxf4?! (which appears to be losing), I picked 20. Bxf4 as giving White his best chance for survival -- after looking at two or three programs up to 35 depth before settling on that choice.

May-16-17		Iwer Sonsch: Either way, White would have fared better with 24.Kh1, when 24...Nxd2 even equalizes. He made it too easy.

May-16-17		Walter Glattke: 24.Kh1 Nxh4 25.Rf2 not Bxh6 26.Rxf8 Bxd2 27.Nf6+ but 26.-Be4+ 27.Kg1 Nf3+ 28.Rxf3 Rxf3 quality or 27.Bg2 Bxg2+ 28.Rxg2 Nxg2 quuality.

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