What to do in the last London League match of the season, your 8th Black out of 9 games (thanks Captain Bob) before heading to Thailand to avoid the red-shirts and play the Bangkok Open? Win in 25 moves with the Killer Dutch of course!

I was going to annotate my game against Oleg Romanishin from Iceland, but I don’t have much time before going away. This one’s quicker and easier and a better advert for the DVD!

You can replay the game on a Flash board at the bottom of the page.

Harari, Zaki (2197) – Ansell, Simon (2385), London League 2010

1. d4 f5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. g3 O-O 6. Bg2 d6 7. O-O a5 “Ye Olde Faithful”, as Simon calls this move on the DVD. 8. Qc2 Nc6 9. Rd1!?

9. a3 e5 10. d5 Nb8 11. Ng5 is Romanishin – Ansell, Reykjavik Open 2010 (9), which was an interesting drawn struggle and will be annotated exclusively for this website at some stage!

9… Qe8 10. a3 e5 11. d5 Nb8

11…Nd8!? could be an alternative now that the d8 square has been vacated (compared to Romanishin – Ansell in the note to White’s 9th move). 12. Nb5 Qd7 with a weird position where Black might actually be ok. Though the Black pieces are slightly awkward right now I can’t see a way for White to exploit this; Black does have his centre. But I was on auto-pilot, as one often is in the London League.

12. e4?! 12. Ng5! a la Romanishin must be the best move. I’m not entirely sure how the inclusion of the moves 9. Rd1 Qe8 affects things, need to do some analysis! 12… Nxe4 Taking with the knight to avoid 12…fxe4 13. Ng5, though Black should be fine here also. 13. Nxe4 fxe4 14. Nd2

On 14. Qxe4 I was intending 14…Qh5, when Black is already threatening …Bg4, so White has to play something artificial such as 15. Re1, when Black must be doing well. 14… e3! Of course White isn’t going to be allowed to put his knight on e4 for free. 15. fxe3 Bg4

16. Re1 I was expecting 16. Rf1 Rxf1+ 17. Nxf1 when after Qh5 18. e4 Nd7 19. Ne3 Bg5

Black certainly has no problems and might be able to claim a slight edge; he can aim for a good Nd7 vs bad Bg2 position.

16… Na6 There are numerous decent moves for Black here, but I was taught to develop my pieces, so I did. 17. b3 I don’t see any other way for White to develop the queenside. Nc5 18. Bb2 Bg5!

Now that e3 is weakened by the bishop leaving c1, and with a specific idea in mind: 19. b4 Bf5!

20. Ne4 19…Bf5! was indeed the idea, but I had to think before playing it as I suddenly realised my intended 20. e4 Bxd2? didn’t work, for a couple of reasons: one being 21. exf5 Bxe1 22. bxc5 and the Be1 is trapped. Fortunately I found 20. e4 Qa4!

when all the tactics work for Black (check them for yourself!) and White is in trouble.

20…axb4 The next few moves are forced; when playing 17…Nc5, I’d analysed to the position after 24…Qa4 and concluded that White was struggling to hold the position together. This was probably slightly over-optimistic, but Black is certainly better (see the note to White’s 25th). 21. axb4 Rxa1 22. Bxa1 Nxe4 23. Bxe4 Bxe4 24. Qxe4 Qa4

25. Qb1? 25. Bc3! is the best try, which I had thought wasn’t possible due to Qa2 26. Rf1 Rxf1+ (maybe the computer line 26…Qe2!? 27. Rxf8+ Kxf8 28. Qf5+ Bf6 is an improvement) 27. Kxf1 Qxh2 but White has 28. Qf5! with sufficient counterplay. So maybe 25 Bc3! Qb3 when the position is still unpleasant for White. 25… Qa3!

Now Black wins at least a pawn and my opponent blundered with: 26. Qc1? Qxc1 0-1

So that’s +2 =2 –0 with the Killer Dutch so far, let’s hope I get the Black pieces another 8 times next season!

Replay the game

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