Central League Game

Here is a game from the recent Central League match between Stirling C and Badger's Brook B. My thanks to Stockfish 14 for its help with the annotations.

ChessBase

Scott, Douglas–McAlister, David0–1A05Central League Div 213.11.2023McAlister

1.f3 f6 2.g3 d6 3.g2 e5 4.0-0 g6 5.d3 g7 6.e4 0-0 7.c3 c6 8.d4 c7 9.d5 bd7 10.b4 cxd5 11.xd5 xd5 12.exd5 f5 I tried (and failed) to find a way to exploit the long diagonal after it was weakened by White's 10th move and here the best way to do that was 12...b6 threatening ... Bg4 followed by ... e4. Best now is probably 13.b1 Both 13.h3 e4 14.d4 xd5 and 13.h4 e4 14.b1 c4 15.e1 f5 seem to give Black a clear advantage. 13.b1 f6 14.g5 e4 15.f3 There now develops a battle to maintain a Black pawn on e4. White only seems to be prepared to capture on e4 if exchanges on that square lead him to going a pawn up. e8 16.e1 h6 17.h3 f7 18.c4 b6 19.b2 d7 20.xf6 xf6 21.e3? d4! 22.e2? White had to play 22.f2 but after exf3 23.xf3 xe3 24.xe3 xc4 (threatening Bd4) 25.d1 e8 26.d3 If 26.b3 then d4+ 27.xd4 xd4+ and it is mate in four) 26...xb4 Black is winning. 22...exf3 23.xf3 xe3+ I thought 23...xe3 was probably even better but erred on the side of caution by going a Rook up plus ensuring the Queens were off the board. 24.xe3 xe3 25.g2 ae8 26.f4 f7 27.f1 c3 28.b5 c2 29.a4 a2 30.b4 White's efforts to retain his Queenside pawns allow me to end the game quickly. d4+ 31.h1 e1 and it is at most mate in three. Black resigned. 0–1

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