Pursuits: Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.AFTER TWO rounds of the Hastings Premier, Russian Sergei Shipov was already the sole leader with 2/2 after beating me in the first round and an even harsher victory against Tony Miles in the second.
First my defeat - I can only hope that I generally play better in the New Year. Sergei Shipov (Black), Jon Speelman (White to play). Since Black has the positional threat of ...Nd6, I really had to play 21.b5.
If 26.Rxd5 Qxc1+ 27.Qf1 Qxf1+ 28.Kxf1 Nxg5 29.Rxg5 f5! traps the rook. After he refused a draw offer with 32....Kf8 I went wrong: 33.Ne1 Ke8 (if 33....e5? 34.Bd5!) 34.Nd3 or three moves later 35.Bc6! were still reasonable. Instead, I got horribly squeezed and at the end the Black pawn will run home.
In Tony's game, 7....b6 is rather unusual. If then 8....Nxe4 9.d5! is dangerous but 8....Bb7 was possible to provoke 9.e5 - 9.d5 is speculative here. Instead, Black allowed the White queen to f4 where it exerted considerable pressure. One way to oppose this is to bring the Black queen to the kingside. But during the post-mortem, Jim Plaskett found the extraordinary 12....Qd3 13.Rd1 Qg6 14.Nh4 Qh5 15.Rd8+!! Kxd8 16.Bd1 trapping her.
12....Nxb3 looks nice but the open a file and weakness on b6 are serious. If 14....0-0 15.Bh6! but the king is awful on f8. If 15....Qe8 16.Bg5 but 16.Ra4! was one attacker too many. Later if 21....Nxe5 22.Qe3 Qc6 23.f3 etc. At the end if 23....exf4 24.Qd6+! or 23....Qb8 24.Qc4!
Sergei Shipov v Tony Miles
Hastings 1998 (2nd round)
Queen's Gambit Accepted
21.b5 cxb5
22.Rxb5 Qe6
23.Bg2 Rec8
24.Ng5 Rxc1+
25.Bxc1 Qc6
26.Bxe4 Qxc1+
27.Kg2 Bc4
28.Rc5 Bxe2
29.Rxc1 Rb8
30.Rc2 Ba6
31.Rc7 Bf6
32.Nf3 Kf8
33.Rc5 b6
34.Rc7 Bb5
35.Ne1? e5
36.Nf3 exd4
37.Nxd4 Bxd4
38.exd4 Rd8
39.d5 Rd7
40.Rc8+ Ke7
41.Ra8 Kd6
42.Bc2 Bc4
43.Rxa4 b5
44.Ra3 Bxd5+
45.Kf1 Bc4+
46.Ke1 Kc5
47.g4 Kb4
48.Rh3 Bxa2
49.Rxh7 Rd4
50.Bd1 Be6
51.h4 Kc3
52.h5 gxh5
53.gxh5 Rh4
54.Bf3 b4 0-1
1 d4 d5
2 c4 dxc4
3 Nf3 Nf6
4 e3 e6
5 Bxc4 c5
6 0-0 a6
7 Bb3 b6!?
8 e4 cxd4
9 e5 Nfd7
10 Qxd4 Bb7
11 Qf4 Nc5
12 Nc3 Nxb3
13 axb3 Be7
14 Qg3 Kf8
15 Rd1 Nd7
16 Ra4! Qe8
17 Rg4 g6
18 Bh6+ Kg8
19 Ng5 Bf8
20 Bxf8 Kxf8
21 Rf4 f5
22 exf6 e5
23 Qd3 1-0
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