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David J Ledger vs Gawain Jones
"Clearing the Ledger" (game of the day Sep-04-2012)
British Championship (2012), North Shields ENG, rd 11, Aug-04
Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation. Yugoslav Attack (B78)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Sep-04-12  backyard pawn: Does it look like Black has to be careful at the end -- White can draw by repetition with Qe7+.
Sep-04-12  Once: I used to play alongside David's brother, Andrew Ledger. A very strong player who could fashion a vicious attack out of seemingly harmless openings like the caro kann and closed sicilian.

Well, when I say "play alongside" he was on top board for my work team and I was way way down the food chain around board six or seven.

Good game for GOTD. We have the traditional sicilian imbalance of castling on opposite wings with white attacking on the kingside and black attacking on the queenside.

Where did white go wrong? Playing through the game in human mode it's hard to see a glaring mistake. I wasn't sure that white had the time to play 20. Qg5. I would have preferred to build the pressure with a move like g4 instead. These sicilians are often a race to see whose attack can get in fastest.

Fritzie doesn't agree with me. He sees nothing wrong with 20. Qg5. He points the finger (if computers have fingers?) at <Yourang's> 21. Nd5 but more substantially at the natural looking 26. Ra1


click for larger view

Which of us wouldn't play a move like that OTB? But the eval drops from a little under equality (-0.45) to worse than -4. Instead, Fritzie says that 26. Qe3 was essential to shore up the defences.

A sparkling finish to the game. I particularly enjoyed 29....Bxc2. It looks as if the c2 square is adequately defended, but the follow-up rook sac 30...Rxb3+ wins through tactics by threatening mate.

Very good GOTD between two strong players. Unlike some GOTDs recently, it doesn't rely on a massive mistake by one of the players. The biggest game-changing move - according to Fritz - was 26. Ra1, but it was far from obvious that this was a mistake.

Sep-04-12  Abdel Irada: A bonny counterattack by Gawain. Mordred would be most gratified.
Sep-04-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  scormus: <Once> Nice discussion. Like you I was struggling to put my finger on where W went wrong and also thought it was earlier. In fact I felt the sequence starting 15 hxg6 was all a bit slow and also hand-showing - W cant possibly force through a quick attack with the BR on f8 and able to go to f7. I thought 16 Bh6 would then be better since ... Bh8 is not an option. Be interesting to run that by my Si friend.

In any case a great game by Gawain. I like the way he gets his dragon spitting fire so quickly. The move pair ... Rb8 and ... b5 looks like a good strategy. And a devastating finish, all the guns firing in sync.

Sep-04-12  kelu: Does the sacrifice really sounds ? What would you play (without silicon)after 30. Rd3?
Sep-04-12  newzild: <kelu> 30. Rd3 Qb5

By the way, in the final position 35. Red2 loses to 35...Rxc2!

Sep-04-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  LoveThatJoker: <Once> I'm sending you this note to say that Chess is a magnificent endeavour.

When a decisive game is played between two humans, a mistake is bound to be found.

I'm not replying to your post because you are <Once>, I'm replying to your post because it is just natural to find mistakes in decisive games. And great games are no exception.

Just because the victor's opposition played an inferior move in Botvinnik vs Capablanca, 1938, or Karpov vs Kasparov, 1985, or Kasparov vs Topalov, 1999, or Kramnik vs Anand, 2008, doesn't mean that these games are not great.

These games are brilliant actually! And kudos to the victor for playing as well as he did; as well as the bested legends for attempting as much resistance as they possibly could.

Your friend in Chess,

LTJ

Sep-04-12  MATTYMONKEES: It's good to see that even really accomplished players fall into the trap sometimes of leaving their Queen too isolated to be effective. Here, Black cleverly baits White into moving his Queen far from the center of the board, then proceeds to use his own Queen to decimate with impunity.
Sep-04-12  Once: <scormus> In many ways the position reminded me of the so-called "150 attack" against the pirc/modern complex. White castles queenside and then lines up Qd2-Be3 with the intention of playing Bh6. Meanwhile he pushes his h pawn (being prepared to sacrifice it if necessary) to open the h file for the benefit of the Rh1.

Sure, moves like Rf8-Rf7 can be annoying in this kind of position, but you just keep chucking prawns and pieces at the black king. And if you lose a few prawns you just tell yourself that they are line opening sacrifices for the benefit of the black rooks.

The problem is that it is a relatively crude attacking plan. Gawain does exactly the right thing - defends and then gets his attack in first.

But I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the post-match analysis!

Sep-04-12  kevin86: The rooks and queen buffalo white's king.
Sep-04-12  zinomaniac: newzild: By the way, in the final position 35. Red2 loses to 35...Rxc2!

35...Rxc2 Qe7+ perpetual

Sep-04-12  ptr: A better pun would have been: Sir Gawain and the Pinned Knight.
Sep-04-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  gawain: A wonderful attacking game by my Avatar's accidental namesake. (I had to say something about this one, didn't I?)
Sep-04-12  Tiggler: <YouRang>: <After <25.Rb7> White plays <26.Ra1>, just pushing the Q where it wants to go >

<Once>'s Frizie also <points the finger> here.

I don't know that that is where the Q wanted to go, but when white pushed it, he might have seen where it would go and that his reply would be Rc1. Since the Q was not actually threatening anything on the a-file, the white R might have gone to c1 a move earlier. Then also 28. g4 , after a zwichenzug pushed the B somewhere. Where? Into the rightly acclaimed sacrifice on c2. Oh - and that zwischenzug (I spelled it differently this time so that one of them is right, the second probably) drove the white Q out of play.

No one here yet commented about the ending position. I had to look at it quite a while to see why white resigned.

Sep-05-12  newzild: <zinomaniac: newzild: By the way, in the final position 35. Red2 loses to 35...Rxc2!

35...Rxc2 Qe7+ perpetual>

Ooops. You're quite right. Correct is 35...Qf1+ 36. Qe1 Rxc1+ 37. Rxc1 Rxc1+ 38. Kxc1 Qxe1+

May-24-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Solved it, then played the entire game and wondered if 27...Kg7 and 28...h6 were that important.

Yes. If the Queen had remained on g5, after ...Qd3+; Qd2 beats back the attack. Astounding in its own quiet way.

May-24-24  mel gibson: I wasn't sure.

Stockfish 16.1 chooses a different ply:

29. .. Qb4

(29. .. Qb4 (1. ... Qb4 2.gxf5 Qxh4 3.Rg1 Kh8 4.Nc1 Qf4 5.Rgg2 Qxf5 6.Rd3 a5 7.Rg4 h5 8.Re4 Rbc7 9.c3 Qg5 10.Na2 Qg2+ 11.Kb1 Rb7 12.Nc1 Rcb8 13.c4 a4 14.Re2 Qg1 ) +7.76/38 259)

score for Black +7.76 depth 38.

If I force SF to play the game ply it's far stronger but White sacs its Queen:

29. .. Bxc2

30. Qe7+ (30. Qe7+ (1.Qe7+ Rxe7 2.Rdxc2 Qe3 3.Rxc8 Qxe2+ 4.R1c2 Qxf3 5.g5 hxg5 6.Rh2 g4 7.Rch8 Rf7 8.Ka3 Qf1 9.R2h7+ Kf6 10.Rh1 Qa6+ 11.Kb2 Qe2+ 12.Kb1 g3 13.R8h3 Qd3+ 14.Ka2 Qxd5 ) -33.50/34 616)

score for White -33.50 depth 34.

May-24-24  mel gibson: When White resigns it's mate in 20:

35. Red2

(1.Red2 Qf1+ 2.Qe1 Rxc1+ 3.Rxc1 Rxc1+ 4.Kxc1 Qxe1+ 5.Rd1 Qc3+ 6.Kb1 e4 7.Rc1 Qb4+ 8.Ka1 e3 9.Rc2 Qe1+ 10.Kb2 e2 11.Rc1 Qxc1+ 12.Kxc1 e1Q+ 13.Kc2 Kf6 14.Kd3 Qc1 15.Ke2 Kg5 16.Kd3 Kxg4 17.Kd4 Kf3 18.Kd3 g5 19.Kd4 Ke2 20.Ke4 Qf4+) -M20/87 108

Black wins _ mate in 20.

May-24-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  scormus: <mel> SF16.1 missed 29 Bxf2 :O

A beautiful forcing line which might have all the way to winning Q for R with 9 successive checks.

I see we discussed this game in 2012, but I don't remember the puzzle. Maybe it was GOTD then

May-24-24  mel gibson: <<mel> SF16.1 missed 29 Bxf2 :O>

No - it missed 29. .. Bxc2.

Stockfish sometimes gets the wrong answer.

May-24-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  chrisowen: Ju c z its o tap brick v Bxc2 its accomodate its accord its muck cc go coffin its abe leeway its dub choose its abacus its black its aob jib Bxc2 cat
May-24-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  Fusilli: <An Englishman: Good Evening: Solved it, then played the entire game and wondered if 27...Kg7 and 28...h6 were that important.

Yes. If the Queen had remained on g5, after ...Qd3+; Qd2 beats back the attack. Astounding in its own quiet way.>

Congrats on solving it!

You pose a good question. But remember white played 28.g4. Without Kg7, the pawn would still be on g2 and there is no Qxf3+. If we play the game's line starting with Bxc2 on move 27 (instead of Kg7), black ends up winning with Rxc1+ in response to Nc1. But then again the computer says black would win with Rxc1+ in response to Nc1 in the game anyway (instead of the more immediately deadly Qxf3+).

Then I asked the computer what its choice is at move 27... It chooses 27...Rb6 (with Qb6 second). In fairness to Gawain, 27...Kg7 is better than Bxc2, though.

All this is splitting hairs, of course. Gawain played a fine game and skillfully unveiled the hidden attacking themes in the position. I am particularly impressed by 25...Rb7. It seems to me that mounting pressure on the c2-pawn with Rfc7 is the natural move. Maybe the computer would say Rfc7 is best (I am not checking) but to me, 25...Rb7 comes with "grandmaster move" stamped on it.

May-24-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  scormus: <mel <No - it missed 29. .. Bxc2>>

Right! My chesslexia got me again.

May-27-24  tibone: a)
29...g5?= 30. Qh3 Bg6 31. Rh1 Bxc2 32. Qxh6+ Kf7 33. Qe6+ Kg7 34. Qh6+ Kf7 35. Qe6+ and so in - this would lead to a draw.

b) 29...Qe3!

b1)
30. Rdd1 Rxc2+! -+

b2)
30. Rcd1 Bxc2! -+

May-27-24  tibone: My evaluations were wrong:

29...g5!-+ 30. Qh3 Bg6 31. Rh1 h5!

29...Qe3? 30. Qe1!= Bd7 31. Ng1!

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