[Event "National K-12 Grade Championships 2022"] [Site "National Harbor, Maryland, Uni"] [Date "2022.12.09"] [Round "2.16"] [White "Jiang, Andrew"] [Black "Valliani, Zohran"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2191"] [BlackElo "1444"] [Annotator "Hartmann,John"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "B36"] [Opening "Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon, Maróczy Bind"] [Source "https://lichess.org/study/D59ifJA3/nAYbs7dg"] [Orientation "white"] { [%evp 0,101,20,18,41,40,45,1,25,24,64,39,32,22,23,23,23,14,6,11,-2,6,6,17,22,32,23,27,21,26,30,17,41,49,86,42,89,25,40,106,107,-29,-14,-39,-39,-30,-55,-121,-61,-55,-61,-72,-29,-29,-28,-19,-36,-35,-29,-30,-34,-66,-42,-38,-29,0,0,0,20,0,0,22,0,0,26,29,128,68,68,67,87,35,136,70,232,238,173,188,385,424,499,559,29989,29990,29991,29992,29993,29994,29995,29996,29997,29998,29999,-30000] } 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Be2 Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. O-O O-O 10. Qd3 Be6 11. Be3 Rc8 12. b3 Qa5 13. Bd4 Nd7 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. f4 Qc5+ 16. Kh1 f5 17. Bf3 a6 (17... Bxc4 18. bxc4 Qxc4 19. Qxc4 Rxc4 20. Nb1! (20. Nd5 fxe4 21. Bg4 Nc5) 20... fxe4 21. Nd2 Rc2 22. Nxe4 Rxf4 $14) 18. Rae1 b5 19. exf5 bxc4 20. Qe2 Bxf5 21. bxc4 e5 22. Bd5 Qd4 23. Qe3? { [#] } (23. Qf3 $13) 23... Qxe3 (23... Bd3! { [%csl Bc3,Bf1] }) 24. Rxe3 Rfe8 25. Rfe1 Kf8 26. fxe5 Rxe5 27. h3 Rce8 28. Rxe5 Rxe5 29. Rf1 Kg7 30. g4 Be6 31. Rb1 Bxd5+ 32. Nxd5 Nc5 33. Rb6 Re1+ 34. Kg2 Re2+ 35. Kf3 Rxa2 36. Rxd6 Ra3+ 37. Ne3 Rd3 38. Rxd3 Nxd3 { [#] White's better king position gives good chances to win, but the power of the outside passed pawn in knight endgames can't be overlooked! The engine calls this even, but it's not easy at all. } 39. Ke4 Nb4 (39... Nf2+ { plays to win the h3-pawn and use the a-pawn to drag the king to the other side of the board, i.e., } 40. Kd5 a5 41. Kc5 a4 42. Kb4 Nxh3 43. Kxa4 Kf6) 40. Ke5 Kf7 (40... a5 41. Kd4 a4 42. Kc3 Nc6 { looks relatively easy to hold? } { [%csl Bb3,Bb4,Bd4][%cal Bg7f6,Bf6e6] }) 41. Kd6 Ke8 (41... a5 42. Kc5 Nd3+ 43. Kb5 Kf6 44. Kxa5 Kg5) 42. c5 a5 43. c6 { Now White must find the only move to hold the game, but takes just one second to respond. } 43... Kd8? (43... Nxc6!! 44. Kxc6 a4 { Now the king can't catch the pawn, so the knight has to do the dirty work. Meanwhile the black king can slide back to the kingside first and trade all the pawns to draw the game. } 45. Nc4 (45. Kd5 Kf7 46. Ke5 a3 47. Nc2 a2 48. h4 Ke7 49. g5 Kf7) (45. Kd6 a3 46. Nc2 a2 47. Ke6 Kf8 48. g5 Kg7 49. Ke7 Kg8 50. Kf6 Kf8) 45... Ke7 46. Kd5 Kf6 47. h4 h5 { An excellent move, and hard to find from four moves away for players of any strength. } 48. gxh5 (48. g5+ Kf5) 48... g5!! (48... a3 49. Nxa3 g5) 49. h6 gxh4) 44. c7+ $18 Kc8 45. Nc4 a4 46. Nb6+ Kb7 47. c8=Q+ Kxb6 48. Qc5+ Kb7 49. Qxb4+ Kc8 50. Qb6 a3 51. Qc7# { 1-0 White wins. } 1-0