Thoughts from the Badgers Brook allegro match

Dave Hewitt writes:- Kenny McGeoch played an amazing move against me in the Bruce vs Badgers match. It was in the fourth and final round of the night, and I think the game (with Kenny having the white pieces) started as follows:

I'm not sure what Kenny played next - possibly Bf4, or moving the Rf1 - but whatever it was I played 10 ...Nd5 as planned, thinking I'd be able to give him doubled pawns on the c-file once the Q moved. Whereupon Kenny played 11 Qxg7+.

After 11 ...Kxg7 (which I spent about half a minute on even though it was the only move, as I was startled to say the least and needed a bit of time to get my bearings), 12 cxd5 leaves white effectively a piece down but with a lot of activity and initiative.

I can't recall the middle part of the game, but I didn't find a means of simplifying in any way that seemed helpful, and was under constant pressure with Kenny maintaining a bind based on my K being stuck in the corner, his pair of Bs pointing at it, his R on the seventh rank and my f6 pawn pinned against the Kh8. Something like 30 moves later we reached this position, or a close approximation (it's not quite right, as I don't think Kenny had scope for playing Bb4 to attack my Rf8, but it's not far off and anyway it's black to move):

I'd stabilised things a fair bit - freeing up my Q to head towards Kenny's K had felt like quite a triumph - and I knew what I probably should try to do in terms of playing for a win, namely find a way to sac the exchange, put my K on the safe-coloured squares of whichever white B had disappeared, then try and win with Q vs R+B. But I'd been on the defensive all game, the clock was ticking, John had already won his game, a glance along showed that Graham probably should win and Paul wasn't worse, so a draw here ought to help ensure that we didn't lose the match (we needed 2.5/4 in the last round for a draw) and might actually help to win it. So I started playing for a perpetual with Qf2+, and after a few more checks we agreed a draw. I reckoned that so long as I didn't let Kenny's K reach g6, with Kxh6 to follow, I should be OK - so the idea was that if he went Kf5 I needed to be able to play Qd3+.

So it was drawn, and after Graham won and Paul drew we managed to win the match. But it was an extraordinary eleventh move by Kenny - a real sense of adventure to it, a let's see where this takes us kind of move, possibly a bit end-of-season-ish as well (and certainly showing confidence that he reckoned he could outplay me from a piece down). A computer or a stronger player would most likely dismiss it as simply winning for black. But over-the-board, with Kenny being a lot stronger than me, it was hard to face. It also supported the theory - which Steve Smith has suggested, I think - that Kenny has become quite a bit stronger over the past year or so, and is now quite possibly somewhere close to the 2000 level. It's just a pity that he's a Badgers Brook player these days, rather than still with us...

Anyway, I'm glad he played Qxg7+ - it made for a very interesting game and I can't recall when I was last so wowed by a move, particularly one played so early in a game.