[Event "1000GM Los Angeles GM Norm 2023"]
[Site "https://www.chess.com"]
[Date "2023.02.25"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Stearman, Josiah"]
[Black "Sandoval Mercado, Carlos"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2366"]
[BlackElo "2322"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[Annotator "jpste"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "B23"]
[Opening "Sicilian Defense: Closed"]
[Source "https://lichess.org/study/eorGtOti/TIi3Ge8y"]
[Orientation "white"]
{ Annotations by Josiah Stearman }
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 { For those who know me well, this is my bread and butter. Back
in 2018 I won a key game with the white pieces in a Closed Sicilian to clutch
my first IM norm. That game has also been covered in a Chess Life Online
article. } 2... d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7+ Qxd7 5. d4 cxd4 6. Qxd4 Nc6 7. Qd3 { Very
strange to allow Black to develop with tempi, and the position sees more or
less harmless for Black... } 7... g6 8. Nf3 Bg7 9. Bg5?! h6 (9... Nf6 10. Nd5 { This is the main point of 9. Bg5: to put pressure on the f6-knight and force
Black to make a decision. We will see later that when I played it, it was no
longer viable. }) 10. Bh4 Rc8 11. O-O Nf6 12. Nd5?! { Up to this moment I had
been blitzing out all my moves. From my memory, these were all general ideas
of this opening setup. I had unfortunately forgotten the exact move order. } 12... g5? { Missing a chance. } (12... Nxd5! 13. exd5 Nb4 14. Qb3 Na6! { A very
innocuous maneuver. It turns out Black is much much better. The misplaced
h4-bishop serves as a key player in that evaluation. }) 13. Bg3 Nh5?! { The
wrong direction. There is no incentive to trade the h5-knight for the
g3-bishop. } (13... Nxd5 14. exd5 Nb4 15. Qe4! Na6 16. Nd4! { Now that Black
has included ...g6-g5, this position is no longer as solid. }) 14. c3 O-O 15. Ne3 { [%cal Ge3f5] } 15... Nxg3 16. hxg3 e6? { While he was worried about Ne3-f5,
this has now created an extra weak pawn on d6. } 17. Rad1 Rfd8 18. Nd4! { My idea is simple, f2-f4 is coming! } 18... Nxd4 19. cxd4 Qa4!? 20. a3 { At this
point, I was pretty sure of victory. I had 85 minutes to his 40 or so, and the
ideas for Black are not clear at all. He chose to try activity, but it is just
too late. } 20... b5 21. f4 gxf4 22. gxf4 Kh8 23. f5! b4 24. f6 Bf8 { A very brutal
sight to see on the kingside. } 25. b3? { I got a bit too flashy here... } (25. Ng4!! { When your opponent's king is so exposed like this, oftentimes the kill
is ready. } 25... bxa3 26. Qh3 Kh7 27. bxa3 { with a devasting attack to come. }) 25... Qxa3 (25... Qa5! 26. axb4 Qg5! $18 { Black is still close to completely
lost, but at least has some fight left in him. }) 26. Nc4 Qa6 27. d5! { My point was now the f8-bishop is dead, and that was worth my a3-pawn. Not a
bad idea at all, but unnecessary. } 27... Qb5 28. g4 { I now was preparing a devasting
attack. } 28... exd5 29. exd5 Re8 30. Kg2 { [%cal Gf1h1,Gh1h6] } 30... a5 31. Rh1 Qd7 32. Rh4 { [%cal Gh4g4,Gd1h1,Gh1h6] } 32... Re5 { It is that desperate of a scenario for Black.
We still have to be careful though, as once the Knight on c4 departs the
c-file is for Black's taking. In times like these, Sam Shankland's "calculate
until mate" echoes through my head. } 33. Nxe5 dxe5 34. Qd2! { [%cal Gh4h6] } 34... Kg8 35. Rdh1! { To the naked eye it seems like a strange place to
resign, but I will leave it up to the reader to find the unstoppable threat... } 1-0