15-11-23 Grangemouth A v Stirling A

Grangemouth A		v		Stirling A
Alan Bell John McLay Graham Hamilton David Wallace Alan Petrie	1949 1948 1936 1776 1572	½ - ½ 1 - 0 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ 1 - 0	1755 1771 1703 1632 1520	William Spiers Jim Shemilt Graham Anderson Steve Smith Brad Duthie
		3½ - 1½

Below is my game from board 3, where I had Black against Graham H. It got very complicated in parts, and for the benefit of the juniors (who think this term is hilarious), it includes a majestic Bishop.

ChessBase

Hamilton, G–Anderson, G½–½Grangemouth A v Stirling AGrangemouth CC15.11.2023

1.d4 f6 2.g5 e6 3.e4 e7 4.e5 d5 5.d2 d6 6.c4 b6 7.g4 dxe5 8.dxe5 g6 Stockfish prefers g5. 9.f3 8d7 10.c3 c5 Heading for d3. 11.0-0-0 d3+ 12.xd3 xd3 Now that I'm here, I'm not so convinced it's good. The pawn on c4 is hanging - 13 b3 falls to 13 ... Ba3#. 13.b5 All of the black holes around f6/g7/h6 make this tricky for Black. The next move is an attempt to block White's black squared bishop from getting to them. h5 14.f4 d8 14 ... 0-0 falls to 15 Bb4 Qxc4+ 16 Qxc4 Nxc4 17 Bxe7 15.a5 Analysis after the game found 15 Bc3 - which prevents 15 ... Qxc4 being check. xc4+ 16.xc4 xc4 17.xc7 d7 18.d6+ xd6 19.xd6 e7 19 ... Bc6 looks good, but my first priority was to get rid of the strong-looking Bishop on d6. 20.b1 xd6 21.xd6 c6 22.hd1 d5 The rook on d6 is now trapped. 23.e1 e7 24.f3 This just seemed like a wasted move. My reply isn't much better... f6 25.f4 fxe5 26.fxe5 hf8 Stockfish recommends Rad8 instead, but I still think I can win this rook. 27.d3 f5 28.c5 xe5 28 ... b6 puts the Knight back in its box 29.d7+ f6 30.xb7 b8 31.d6 e2 32.b3 a5 33.f1+ g5 34.f7+ g4 35.a7 xg2 36.xa5 xh2 37.a4+ g3 Draw agreed, although Stockfish has Black as at least +2 here. ½–½

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