[Event "Spring Chess Classic Group A 2023"] [Site "St Louis"] [Date "2023.04.12"] [Round "8"] [White "Gledura, Benjamin"] [Black "Swiercz, Dariusz"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2636"] [BlackElo "2657"] [Annotator "Gledura,Benjamin"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "A20"] [Opening "English Opening: King's English Variation"] [Source "https://lichess.org/study/c11NJVjr/54RkE8JK"] [Orientation "white"] 1. c4 { A slight surprise for my opponent, as I don't have too many English games in the database. } 1... e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c6 { It is one of the most challenging lines against 1. c4. Dariusz has not played this move before, therefore by this point, both players were slightly surprised to see this on the board. } 4. Nf3 e4 5. Nd4 Qb6 (5... d5 { The other main continuation is also a forcing move. } 6. cxd5 Qxd5 { White has a couple of options here and all moves are sharp. } 7. e3 (7. Nc2) (7. Nb3)) 6. Nb3 a5 { The whole point of 5. ... Qb6 is to highlight the slightly misplaced white knight. } 7. d3 a4 8. N3d2 Bc5 { I was well aware of this move and how forcing it was. The next few moves are quite forced for both colors. } (8... d5 { This move has been employed by Fabiano Caruana multiple times. } 9. cxd5 exd3 10. O-O! { An important small detail. Black cannot take on e2 because of White's development advantage. } 10... cxd5 11. exd3 Nc6 12. Nc3 { Ding – Caruana, ProChess League, 2019. It feels that White has a more pleasant position and that Black needs to answer some questions regarding the d5-pawn. }) 9. O-O e3 10. fxe3 Bxe3+ 11. Kh1 Ng4! { Black has to try to make use of the weak f2-square, otherwise White's development advantage would be too much to handle. } 12. Nc3 { I knew that this move was the best according to engines, as I looked at this specific line before the tournament. It gives Black the opportunity to go for the Exchange, but it would give Black a difficult position to play. } (12. Ne4 O-O 13. Nbc3 { Transposition to the game. }) 12... O-O (12... Nf2+ 13. Rxf2 Bxf2 14. Nxa4 Qa7 15. Ne4! { White has the initiative here. } 15... Qxa4?! 16. Qxa4 Rxa4 17. Nxf2 $14 { Even though White is down material, the bishop pair and Black's badly placed pieces give White more than enough compensation. }) 13. Nde4 d5! { A very important move. If Black does not break out immediately then their pieces would be stuck on the back rank. } 14. cxd5 Bxc1 15. Qxc1 Ne3 16. Rf3 Nxd5 17. Qd2 { This was the position where my knowledge ended. When I looked at this position before the tournament, I thought that White has a comfortable position to play, even though the engine says 0.00. } 17... Qd8 { Dariusz blitzed out this move, which suggested to me that he was still in home preparation, and I was slightly concerned by that. } 18. Raf1 Nd7 19. Nxd5 cxd5 20. Nc3 { I spent about 20 minutes after the move 17. Qd2 to get to this position. My feeling was that the position should be around equal, however, I was not sure what the best move was for Black. } 20... d4 (20... Nf6 { I was expecting Black to defend the d5-pawn with a simple knight move. On the other hand, I knew that this was a hard decision for Black to make, as White has a very tempting option. } 21. Rxf6 gxf6 22. Nxd5 { I was considering going for the Exchange sacrifice which I thought was unpleasant for Black to face. However, the position is objectively around equal. } 22... Ra6! { White has many ways to play this, for example, e2-e4, Qd2-f4, or just the simple a2-a3 move to fix the a4-pawn on a white square. }) 21. Nd5 Ne5 22. Rf4 { When I was considering this position after 17. . .. Qd8, I thought that White had a clear advantage because it is hard to defend the d4-pawn and all my pieces are well-placed. If you are up for a challenge, then try to find the best continuation for Black here. } 22... Nc6? { [#] A very human move, but a big blunder. } (22... Be6! 23. Rxd4 Kh8! { This is a hard move to find. Black sacrifices a pawn and follows it up with a quiet king move. This is why it is not always good to listen to the engine, as moves like these are pretty hard to find. } 24. e4 b5! { Black boxes the d4-rook, and now White has to be careful to save the position. } 25. Rc1 Rc8 26. Rxc8 Qxc8 27. Rb4 Qd7 { Black has enough compensation to equalize because of the misplaced rook on b4. }) 23. Nf6+! { This move immediately came to me and I thought it was very dangerous for Black. I still spent about 15 minutes in order to fully understand whether it works out concretely or not. } 23... gxf6 24. Rh4 Re8 25. Qh6 f5! { The best defense. } 26. Be4! { Before I played the move 23. Nf6, I saw this very unusual but rather strong move. } 26... Rxe4! (26... Ra5? 27. Rg4+! { The point of 26. Be4. Now Black gets mated. } 27... fxg4 28. Qxh7+ Kf8 29. Qxf7#) 27. dxe4 Ra5 28. Rh5! f6 29. Qxh7+ Kf8 30. Rh6 { I knew that this position should be very good for White, but because of the complexity of the position, I was not sure if Black had a way to prolong the game or not. The threat is a very simple move: Rh6-g6. } 30... Re5 (30... Be6 31. Qh8+ Ke7 32. Qxf6+ $18) (30... Ke8 31. Qg7! Qe7 32. Qg6+ Qf7 33. Rh8+ Ke7 34. Rh7 $18) 31. Qg6! { There's no way to defend the weak king for Black. } 31... Ke7 32. Qxf6+ Kd7 33. Qd6+ Ke8 34. Rh8+ { I was very pleased with this game. It was a very interesting opening battle, followed by a sharp middlegame position. My Polish opponent struck back in the last round against a very talented upcoming junior, Daniel Dardha, which resulted in him joining the lead. } 1-0