Thursday 9 August 2007

Graham Pace

On Tuesday I played Graham Pace in a club championship match:

[Event "Spondon Championship 2006/07"]
[Date "2007.08.07"]
[White "Graham Pace"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A48"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c3 Bg7 4. e3 d6 5. Nbd2 O-O 6. Bd3 Nbd7 7. e4 e5 8. dxe5 dxe5 9. O-O Re8 10. Re1 Nc5 11. Bc2 Bg4 12. h3 Bd7 13. Nb3 Qe7 14. Bg5 Rad8 15. Qc1 Bb5 16. Nxc5 Qxc5 17. Be3 Qe7 18. Bh6 Bxh6 19. Qxh6 Qf8 20. Qxf8+ Kxf8 21. Rad1 Rxd1 22. Rxd1 Be2 23. Re1 Bxf3 24. gxf3 Rd8 25. Re2 Nh5 26. h4 Nf4 27. Re1 Rd2 28. Bb3 Nd3 29. Rd1 Rxd1+ 30. Bxd1 Nxb2 31. Bb3 Kg7 32. Kf1 Nd3 33. Kg2 Nf4+ 34. Kg3 Ne2+ 35. Kg2 Nxc3 36. Kf1 f6 37. Kg2 a5 38. Kh3 a4 39. Be6 a3 40. Kg4 Kh6 41. Bb3 Kg7 42. h5 gxh5+ 43. Kxh5 h6 44. Kg4 c5 45. f4 exf4 46. Kxf4 b5 47. Be6 b4 48. Bc4 Na4 49. e5 fxe5+ 50. Kxe5 Nb6 51. Be6 c4 52. Kd4 c3 53. Bb3 h5 54. Kc5 h4 55. Kxb4 Nd5+ 56. Kxa3 h3 57. Bxd5 c2 58. Kb2 h2 59. Kxc2 1-0


I played Kings Indian defence and got to an even material but better positionally point by whites move 28:


I then played Nd3, but better would have been Rxd2, I think I was trying to be too clever and should have just played the obvious move.

I worked the position and after whites move 36 I got here:


At this point I wasn't really sure about how to finish off this winning position. The general idea was to obviously push up the a,b&c pawns but I just couldn't get the strategy right. I understand in rook endings you should get the rook behind the passed pawns, but had no idea what to do here.

Anyway the crucial point I went wrong was after whites move 47:


What now looks obvious to me is playing c4, but for some reason I played b4, keeping my pawns on the opposite colour to his bishop. Even after that I got to the position below on move 52:


I should have played b3 and then whatever he does, I queen the pawn.

I'd love to hear anyone's opinion on what my plans should have been. I've obviously fritzed it to death and know individual moves I could have played better, but am still in the dark a bit about the concepts.

I think what I should learn from it is to concentrate more on calculating the variations and taking more time to make sure I get it right.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps most striking is how White's king moved from f1 to f4 to d4 and ultimately won the game, while your king stayed home at g7. Your fxe5+ was very surprising since Kxe5 blocks your king out.

Dean said...

Thanks, yes I did leave my king grounded, I think at the time I thought it would protect the pawns near it, and the rest would fall into place.

Also thanks for all the comments here.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dean,

It's not like I am an endgame genius, but some thoughts on the position at move 36.

I would try at first to let the game run itself dead in the left half of the board, so I would start with 1...f5. If everything goes as it should whites' king should end up on the left half, just like blacks'. If it is possible, I would try to get all my pawns on this side on black squares, too. After this I would try to get my pawns on the right half going and they should -together with the knight- be sufficient to breakthrough or at least win the bishop. If they get through, the game is over. If the bishop is won, then the knight can be taken to the left side and k+n should get some pawns and eventually win.

kind regards,
svensp