Stan Kirby

Tuesday evening I had a very enjoyable game with Stan Kirby, the first time I've played him. It was round 4 of the Derbyshire Individual Championship. My standard OTB drawing streak is now at five. Of course since Stan's rating is 101, more than double my 46, I would have been happy with a draw beforehand. But I was very disappointed afterwards because I was up two pawns in the middle game, but then stupidly got my knight trapped as we went into the endgame. I think this partly due to lack of experience in endgames, and the fact that I've never really studied the endgame. So hopefully I'll give myself time to work on it.

[Event "Derbyshire Individual 2007/08"]
[Date "2008.01.22"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Stan Kirby"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B01"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 c6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Bd3 Bg4 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 e6 9. O-O Bb4 10. Ne4 Nbd7 11. c3 Be7 12. Bd2 O-O-O 13. c4 Qb6 14. a4 Qxd4 15. Bc3 Ne5 16. Qxf6 Bxf6 17. Bxd4 Rxd4 18. Bc2 Nxc4 19. b3 Rxe4 20. Bxe4 Bxa1 21. Rxa1 Nd2 22. Bc2 g6 23. f3 f5 24. Kf2 Rd8 25. Rd1 Nxf3 26. Rxd8+ Kxd8 27. Kxf3 Ke7 28. Bd3 e5 29. Bc4 e4+ 30. Kf4 h6 31. b4 Kf6 32. g3 g5+ 33. Ke3 Ke5 34. b5 f4+ 35. gxf4+ gxf4+ 36. Kd2 Kd4 37. Bf1 e3+ 38. Ke2 Ke4 39. Bg2+ Ke5 40. bxc6 bxc6 41. Bxc6 Kf5 42. Kf3 Kg5 43. Bb5 Kf5 1/2-1/2

I was up a pawn on after 14 moves, when in the position below, Stan played a4, he said he completely overlooked me taking d4.

I spent a lot of time on move 15, and eventually found the correct Ne5 in the position below:

This is much better than retreating the Queen to b6 and maybe getting it trapped. Shortly after I was able to take his c-pawn.

We then traded down, and on the day I thought the position below was where I made my mistake:

I played Nd2, and then when he plays Bc2 there are no safe places for the knight to go. So I should have recognised that. But there is actually an escape route: push the c-pawn up to c5 then c4, he has to take it.

So anyway I lost the knight and it turned into an endgame of me with seven pawns against him with four pawns and a bishop. I tried my best to force the passed pawns forward, and advance my king towards his.


However at the position above, I totally overlooked that I could play c5, adding another pawn to the advance. This again cost me any winning chances. I would have spotted it if I'd spent more time I think.

We agreed a draw in the position below. However luckily for me, Fritz thinks white has winning chances.

He could have brought his bishop round and blocked off the king from defending the passed pawns as below:

He could then use his bishop to stop the king defending the other pawns. Interesting!