Friday 28 December 2007

A lucky escape

As promised, my game from the chess exhibition in Commonwealth Park just before Christmas. As with any public demonstration it is hard to judge the ability of the player in front of you, and although I suspected my opponent had a fair idea of what he was doing, I still played an unsound sacrifice. Of course I didn't know it was unsound, even going so far as to say "This should work" as I played Nxf3. Of course it didn't and I was just down a piece. Fortunately for me my opponent missed my plan of f6 and g5, trapping the bishop on h6. I then offered a draw by repetition with Kg6-f7-g6, but my opponent played on for a win. Unfortunately it didn't quite work for him.

Gifford,Toby - Press,Shaun [C45]
Sunsets 07 , 22.12.2007

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 Bc5 6.Be3 Bb6 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Nc3 d6 9.Qd2 Ne5 10.b3 Re8 11.Nd5 Nxd5 12.exd5 Nxf3+ 13.gxf3 Qh4+ 14.Kd1 Re5 15.Bf4 Re8 16.c3 Bd7 17.Rg1 Bxd4 18.Qxd4 g6 19.Kd2 Qh3 20.Rgf1 Bf5 21.Rae1 a5 22.Rxe8+ Rxe8 23.Re1 Rxe1 24.Kxe1 Qxf3 25.Bh6 Qe4+ 26.Qxe4 Bxe4 27.b4 axb4 28.cxb4 f6 (D)
29.Kf2 g5 30.Kg3 Kf7 31.a4 Kg6 32.Bf8 Kf7 33.Bxd6 cxd6 34.a5 Ke7 35.b5 Kd8 36.a6 bxa6 37.bxa6 Kc7 38.Kg4 Bg6 39.Bb5 Kb6 40.Kf3 h5 41.h3 f5 42.Ke3 f4+ 43.Kf3
and I went on to win 0-1

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