My final day at the Edinburgh Chess Congress didn't go according to plan. In the morning I had been defending all game as Black against David Findlay (FIDE 2231), when we reached the position above. Best now is probably to play 18 ... Bxc5 19 Nxc5 Ng6; 20 Nxb7 Qxg3 and attempt to hold the ending with a pawn for the exchange down. Instead I saw the opportunity to try for more, and risked 18 ... Qb6. But, after the follow up 19 c3 Nxc5; 20 Qxe5 f6 can you work out how White forced a decisive material advantage?
In the afternoon, I played the opening horribly, but managed to hold the material level and scramble a draw. Overnight leader FM Richard Jones was held to a draw on Sunday morning, and looked to be in trouble in the afternoon when I left.
2 comments:
Roger - as no-one seems to have had a go yet, and I don't see the answer posted...I'll take a stab at this
It seems obvious that we need to start with Nxf6+ Bxf6; then it took me a little while. I wanted to make Rxf6 gf; Qxf6 work, but couldn't against e5....so my next try was to take advantage of the h5-e8 diagonal by taking on f6 then playing Qh5, hittinh the rook on e8 and the h7 pawn - I'm sure this is winning (though a little messy) BUT there is a claeaner win in playing Bxh7+ as the fopllow-up..this wins everyth9ing with check..
So final answer Nxf6+ Bxf6; (if gxf then Qh5 wins) Bxh7+ Kxh7; Qh5+ Ke8; Qxe8+ and with a rook lift imminent this is all over (though actually I haven't won any material yet!)
Paul,
spot on as usual!
Unbelievably we were both quite short on time after just 18 moves (time control was 30 in 90 minutes). I think I had about 10 minutes to go, and David about 15.
When I played 18 ... Qb6 I'd seen as far as ... Bxf6 and thought I was (amazingly) doing ok, unfortunately I overlooked Bxh7+ picking up the rook on e8, and the bits c5 and c8 are also ripe to be harvested.
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