115th Congress Review

Round three proved to be an easy win for Chandler, of course it was made to look easy.

Chandler,M - Spain,G [B01]New Zealand Championship Auckland (3.4), 16.01.2008

1.e4 d5 Graeme is a Scandinavian fanatic.
2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Ne4?! Not the a main line and for good reason, More sensible moves are 5...c6, Bf5 or Bg4. Graeme normally prefers 5...c6. The move 5....Ne4 is just bad on general opening principles, not only has black developed his queen early he has moved a piece twice for very little reason.
6.Bd2 White has a choice to give black the bishop pair or have his pawn's wrecked.
6.Bd3 Nxc3 7.bxc3 g6 Nd7 8.0-0 e6 9.c4 Be7 10.Qe2 Nf6 11.c5 c6 12.a4 Qc7 13.a5 0-0 14.g3 Qd7 15.c4 Rd8 16.Rd1 a6 17.Bc2 Qe8 18.Rb1 g6 19.h3 Qf8 20.Kg2 Ne8 21.h4 Ng7 22.Bh6 Qe8 23.g4 f5 24.Ne5 Bf6 25.Rb3 Qf8 26.h5 Nxh5 27.Bxf8 Nf4+ 28.Kf3 Nxe2 29.Bd6 Nxd4+ 30.Rxd4 h5 31.gxh5 gxh5 32.Rd1 Kh7 33.Ke2 Rg8 34.Rh3 h4 35.Nf3 Rg4 36.Nxh4 1-0 Afromeev,V-Simantsev,M/Tula RUS 2007/
7...Qxc3+?! 8.Bd2 Qc6 9.0-0 With obvious compensation for the pawn.

6...Nxd2 7.Qxd2 e6 8.Bd3 Bb4 9.0-0 Nc6 10.Qf4 Bxc3?! Premature. Black already wasted time in the opening to gain the bishop pair and now just throws that advantage away.
Better is 10...Bd6 11.Qg4 0-0 12.Nb5 Be7 13.Qh3 h6 14.Qg3 Rd8! White is still better but black has good chances to equalise.
11.bxc3 h6?! 12.Rab1 a6?! Black continue's in disgusting fashion, the rabbit's ear's on h6 and a6 are not necessary and only weaken black position.12...0-0 13.Qe4 f5 14.Qf4 Qxa2±
13.Rfe1 0-0 14.h4 Another line runs 14.c4 Nb4 15.Qd2 Nc6 16.c3 Rb8 17.c5 Bd7 18.Bc2 Rfd8 19.a4 Ne7 20.Ne5 Nd5 21.Qd3 f5 22.Bb3 Be8 23.Qf3 White has a crushing grip on the position. 14...Qxa2 15.c4 Qa5 16.c5 Nb4 17.Qd2 Nc6 18.c3 Qa4 19.Bc2 Qc4 20.Bb3 Qb5 21.Bxe6 Bxe6 22.Rxb5 axb5 The unfortunate thing for black is his last few moves were probably best and that has resulted in a dead lost position. Perhaps with White faultering with a winning advantage the round before black was hoping for similar luck.
23.Qf4 Rfc8 24.Ne5 Nxe5 25.Qxe5 c6 26.Re3 Kh8 27.Rg3 Rg8 28.Qc7 Rab8 29.Kh2 Bd5 30.Re3 Be6 31.Qf4 Ra8 32.Qc7 Rab8 33.Kg3 Rgc8 34.Qd6 Rd8 35.Qe5 Ra8 36.Kh2 Rg8 37.Kg3 Rgd8 38.Qc7 Rab8 39.Kf4 Rdc8 40.Qe5 Ra8 41.g4 Bd5 42.Qe7 Rab8 43.Kg3 Kg8 44.Re5 Rf8 45.Qc7 Rfc8 46.Qb6 Kf8 47.g5 h5 48.g6 fxg6

49.Rxd5! cxd5 50.Qxg6 Rd8 51.Qxh5 Kg8 Material may appear even but positionally white has made big progress. Black's king doesn't have a safe home, both his rooks can not afford to leave the defence of pawns which are all scattered terribly and black is suffering a slow but imminent death.
52.Qe2 Rbc8 53.Qxb5 Rc7 54.Qb6 Rcd7 55.h5 Kh7 56.Qe6 Kh8 57.f4 Rc7 58.h6 gxh6 59.Qxh6+ Rh7 60.Qf6+ Rg7+ 61.Kf3 Rdd7 62.f5 Kg8 63.Qe6+ Rgf7 64.Kf4 Kf8 White is slowly improving his position by bringing two more attacking units into blacks position for the finale.
65.f6 Rh7 66.Kg5 Rhf7 67.Kg6 Rh7 68.Qe5 [68.c6 bxc6 69.Qxc6+-] 68...Rc7 69.Qd6+ Ke8 70.Qxd5 Rhf7 71.Qa2 Rcd7 72.Qa8+ [72.Qa8+ Rd8 73.Qxd8+ Kxd8 74.Kxf7]
1-0