Bahamas National Championship 2016 - part 2

The second half of the 2016 Bahamas National Championship started well with a win as black against WCM Polina Karelina. I decided against showing the game because it was full of small mistakes without having good educational moments. So, after four of six rounds, I was in clear first place with 3.5 out of four. In fact, I could win the national title with a single draw out of the last two rounds!

That's a terribly stressful position to be in, even if it's a good one. I was happy and figured that I would win it. I started poorly, though, blundering badly against FM Cecil Moncur, another game so ugly as not to be worth examining. So that left the final round against Kendrick Knowles, a half point behind me in second place. I was white and a draw was all I needed.

CM Kendrick Knowles, photo by Andre White

Cross,Ted (2031) - Knowles,Kendrick (1846) [B01]
2016 Bahamas National Championship Nassau (6), 27.11.2016

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.Bb5+
In the Fall Classic I had lost with white against Kendrick, so I decided to prepare a sideline of the center counter to see if it could help me.
3... Bd7 4.Bc4 Bg4 5.f3 Bc8 6.Nc3 Nbd7 7.Ne4 Nb6 8.Nxf6+ exf6 9.Bb3 Nxd5 10.Ne2 Bb4 11.c3 Ba5 12.d4 0-0 13.0-0 Re8 14.Qd3 Ne7 15.Bf4
All of this was pretty normal and I could be happy with how it went. Nothing terribly wrong with my move, though the computer prefers [15.Ng3]
15...Ng6 16.Bg3 c5 17.Rfe1 Bb6 18.Rad1
Again not a mistake, but slightly better was [18.Kh1]
18...Ne5 19.Qd2 cxd4 20.Nxd4 Bf5 21.Kh1 Bg6 22.Bc2?!
Now this was an inaccuracy, turning the position from a slight edge for white to a minuscule edge to black. Better was [22.Nb5 Qxd2 23.Rxd2 Rad8 24.Nd6 Bc5 25.Red1 Bxd6 26.Rxd6 Rxd6 27.Rxd6 h5 28.Ba4 Re7 29.Bb5+/=]
22...Nc4 23.Rxe8+ Qxe8 24.Qc1 Bxd4?!
This gives the edge back to me. Black could have retained a slight edge with [24...Qe3 25.Qb1 Rd8 26.Re1=/+]
25.Rxd4 Qe2 26.Bxg6 hxg6
I thought the block of four pawns on black's kingside was interesting. And I couldn't imagine losing this, so I was feeling confident that I was going to win the national championship.

27.b3 Ne3 28.Rd2 Qb5?!
Black could have kept it to a slight white edge with [28...Qf1+ 29.Qxf1 Nxf1 30.Rd7 Nxg3+ 31.hxg3 b5 32.Rc7 f5 33.Kg1 a6 34.Kf2+/=]
29.c4 Qh5?
[29...Qa5 30.Bf2 Nf5 31.a4+/=]
30.Bf2?!
The computer's suggested improvement isn't an easy one to play over the board. [30.Bf4! Nf5 31.g4 Qh3 32.gxf5 Qxf3+ 33.Kg1 gxf5 34.Bg3 Qe3+ 35.Bf2 Qg5+ 36.Kh1 Re8 37.Qd1 f4 38.Rd7 Qg6 39.h3 b6 40.Kh2+-]
30...Nf5
The computer's suggestion is a strange one that I don't think many humans would play. [30...Qg5 31.g4 Qf4 32.Bxe3 Qxf3+ 33.Rg2 Re8 34.Bf2+/-]
31.g4
I knew full well that winning the piece here wasn't going to make the finish easy with that wall of pawns ready to roll down the board, but I figured I could manage it.
31... Qh3 32.gxf5 Qxf3+ 33.Kg1 Re8 34.Qd1
I did know that trading the pawn was probably more accurate, but I wanted to trade off the rooks badly. [34.fxg6 Qg4+ 35.Bg3+-]
34...Qxf5 35.Rd8
Same as before, there's a more accurate move but I wanted to trade the rooks. [35.Bxa7 Qg5+ 36.Kh1+-]
35...Rxd8 36.Qxd8+ Kh7 37.Qd2
My move isn't terrible, but Qd1 would have kept black's queen out of the first rank. [37.Qd1+-]
37...Qb1+ 38.Be1 g5 39.Kf1 Kg6 40.Kf2 f5 41.Qe2 f4 42.Kf3 Kf5 43.h3 b6 44.Kf2
Okay, so here I missed a clear way to force the win, but in my defense, I had a plan in mind here and was intent on carrying it out. [44.b4! a6 45.c5 bxc5 46.bxc5 Qb7+ 47.Kf2 Qc6 48.Bb4+-]
44...f6 45.Kf3 g6 46.Kf2

This is the same as before, where I could have played b4 for a clearly winning game. My last few moves look like I'm just wasting time, but actually I had noticed that I could get black into zugzwang, and that is why I was doing this. I thought that forcing his queen to have to come to e4 would make it easy for me. Notice now how his king and pawns can no longer move, so my plan worked. [46.b4!+- a6 47.c5 bxc5 48.bxc5 Qb7+ 49.Kf2 Qc6 50.Qg4+ Ke5 51.Bc3+ Kd5 52.Qg2+ Kxc5 53.Qxc6+ Kxc6 54.Bxf6+-]
46...Qe4 47.Qxe4+?
I call this a mistake because it made my work harder, though I'm still winning. I did look at the correct line with Qg4+, but I couldn't see deeply enough over the board. I saw up to 49. Qe3+ and was worried it gave black too much counterplay. [47.Qg4+ Ke5 48.Bc3+ Kd6 49.Bxf6 Qe3+ 50.Kg2 Qd2+ 51.Kg1 Qxa2 52.Qd1+ Ke6 53.Bxg5+-]
47...Kxe4 48.Bc3?
I kept making my life harder than it needed to be. Here is a good example of when one should take the time to just ask, 'Where is the best spot on the board to place my piece?' The clear answer to that is the bishop should go to b8 to threaten the pawns and at the same time help hold off the kingside steamrollers. The easy answer then was [48.Bb4! f5 49.Bd6 g4 50.hxg4 fxg4 51.Bb8 g3+ 52.Kg2 a6 53.Bc7 b5 54.c5+-]
48...f5 49.b4?
This bad move makes the win much harder to see. [49.Bb4 g4 50.hxg4 fxg4 51.Bd6+-]
49...g4 50.hxg4??
And I failed to see it. The only way to still win was [50.h4! f3 51.Kf1 f4 52.Bb2 g3 53.c5 bxc5 54.bxc5 Kd5 55.Bc1+-]
50...fxg4 51.a4 g3+ 52.Kg2 Ke3 53.Bd2+??
Remember, I would have won the Bahamas national championship even with a draw and I had that until this hallucination. I thought I was blockading his pawns and would win with my passed pawn. I completely missed the simple idea of him playing g2 followed by Ke2. [53.Kf1 f3 54.Be1 Kd4 55.Bxg3 Kxc4 56.Be1 g5 57.a5 g4 58.Kf2 bxa5 59.bxa5 a6 60.Kg3 Kd3 61.Bf2 Ke2 62.Bb6 Ke1=]
53...Kxd2 54.Kf3 g2 55.Kxg2 Ke2 56.c5 f3+ 57.Kg3 f2 58.c6 f1Q 59.b5 g5 60.Kg4 Qf4+ 61.Kh5 Kf3 0-1


Now that was a depressing way to finish a national championship tournament! I clearly led the event to the point where I needed but one draw in the final two rounds, then proceeded to lose both games and end up in second place.