Annotated Game #35: Thou Shalt Falsify

Following Annotated Game #34, over a year passed between tournaments.  During this next tournament, I was at a point in my life where I had just moved and was preparing to move again soon for another job.  I also had not been serious about studying chess for a while.  These factors all combined to produce a notably poorer quality of play throughout the tournament.

In this game, the first round of the tournament, as White I get a very pleasant position out of an English Opening; my opening play continued to be effective, at least.  Black enters a dubious variation (a transposition to an Old Indian Defense) and drops a pawn, leading to an unusual middlegame where White has an outside passed pawn early on.  If White had known what plan to follow, this would most likely have led to victory.  However, rather than actively pushing the pawn and exploiting his queenside dominance, I played too passively and had a game-ending thought process mistake on move 19.  The failure to falsify my candidate move (which would have immediately picked up Black's threat to take the Nc3) was a reflection of an unstructured thinking process, something which in fact I've only recently rectified.

[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "ChessAdmin"] [Black "Class B"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A54"] [Annotator "ChessAdmin/Fritz/Houdini"] [PlyCount "86"] [EventDate "2003.??.??"] {A54: Old Indian Defence with Nf3, but without e4} 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 d6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Be7 6. g3 Bd7 7. Bg2 Nc6 8. O-O Nxd4 {only one game in the database has this.} (8... O-O {is the overwhelming choice here}) 9. Qxd4 $14 {White already has a pleasant game and control of the center, while Black is slightly behind in development and must attend to the threat on the long diagonal.} Rb8 $6 {this simply drops a pawn.} (9... Bc6 $5 {is what the engines like. At first glance} 10. Bxc6+ bxc6 11. b3 {looks a bit ugly for Black with the doubled pawns. However, with the light-square bishop off the board, the c6 pawn is not so weak and it covers the key d5 square.}) 10. Qxa7 $14 {Fritz originally gave White more of a plus here, but Houdini shows about a half-pawn advantage for White. Black has the opportunity to get some initiative for the pawn, but it's not enough compensation in the long run.} Bc6 11. Bxc6+ bxc6 {unusually, White now has a passed a-pawn in the early middlegame. Houdini shows the best plan is to push it for all it's worth, something which I unfortunately neglect to do.} 12. Bg5 {probably not a move I'd choose today. The bishop itself is unprotected and exchanging it for the Nf6 would greatly improve the scope of Black's bishop. If Black simply castled here, he'd be OK. Taking the b-pawn is only a temporary gain for him, however.} (12. a4 $1) 12... Rxb2 $14 13. Rab1 Rxb1 14. Rxb1 O-O 15. Rb7 {the point of the sequence for White.} Ne8 16. Bxe7 {a typical reaction at the amateur level, only looking at the immediate capture.} (16. Rb8 Qd7 17. Bxe7 Qxe7 18. Qa8 { and White is dominant on the queenside and in Black's back rank, with the outside passed pawn waiting in the wings.}) 16... Qxe7 17. Qa4 (17. a4 { passed pawns must be pushed!}) 17... Qe5 18. Qc2 {a passive choice, either b3 or b4 would be a better square.} f6 19. Qe4 $4 {this kind of oversight (leaving the Nc3 hanging) is a thinking process flaw, namely failure to falsify.} Qxc3 $19 20. Qe6+ {the best chance for a swindle, although I'd seen that 21...Qe5 saves Black.} Kh8 21. Rb8 Qe5 22. Qxe5 fxe5 (22... dxe5 $2 { interestingly would have given the game to White, as Black couldn't untangle his pieces in time to stop the a-pawn without losing material.} 23. a4 c5 24. a5 $18 Kg8 25. a6 c6 26. Rc8 Kf7 27. a7 Nc7 28. Rxc7+ Ke6 29. Rxg7) 23. a4 Kg8 24. a5 Nf6 25. Rxf8+ Kxf8 {and now the knight can stop the a-pawn without difficulty. White is lost, as both the a- and c-pawns will inevitably fall (although in the game Black never gets around to taking the a-pawn).} 26. e4 Nd7 27. a6 c5 28. f4 Nb6 29. a7 exf4 30. gxf4 Ke7 31. Kf2 Ke6 32. Kf3 c6 33. h4 g6 34. Kg4 d5 35. e5 Kd7 36. f5 gxf5+ 37. Kxf5 dxc4 38. Kf6 Ke8 39. h5 c3 40. h6 c2 41. Kg7 c1=Q 42. Kxh7 Qg5 43. e6 Qe7+ 0-1