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By International Master Jimmy Liew
Alice
in Wonderland
In this game I have the Black pieces. White
offers a queen for two minor pieces in possibly a prepared opening. In
freestyle, the side with the better opening book is always at the
advantage. White played his first twelve moves instantaneously whereas
I had to look at many variations and make some tough decisions ,
thereby falling behind on the clock.
Nevertheless I solved most of the opening
problems but white always seemed to hold the balance, maybe proving
that the sacrifice was sound after all.
1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 g6 3.e4 dxe4 4.Ng5 Nf6 5.Bc4!?
There is a classic scene from the film, The
Matrix. Morpheus offers Neo a choice of red and blue pill. Take the
blue pill and “the story ends…”. Take the red pill and “you
stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes”, a
reference to Lewis Caroll’s children book , Alice in Wonderland
where our heroine falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy realm. If
you have not seen the movie, go right down to your neighbourhood video
store and fork out your $39.90 for a copy. Don’t have $39.90? Then
go down to Petaling Street where you can get (as
one of my U.S friends referred to it) the ” *wink* * wink*
“Malaysian version”.
5...Bg4
The red pill.
I can play the
safe 5…. e6 .but I wanted to see how deep the rabbit hole could go.
6.Bxf7+
Kd7 7.Qxg4+ Nxg4 8.Be6+ Kc6 9.Bxg4 Bg7 10.Nc3 Na6 11.Ncxe4 Nb4
My engine was trying to tell me I had a clear
plus at this point. I wasn’t convinced for a second.
12.Kd1 e5
The key to playing such positions is to open up
the game so that the queen can operate on as many files and diagonals
as possible and give back some material to reduce the number of pieces
white has at his disposal. 12 …Qg8 to avoid the fork on f7 is not
really the best.
13.Ne6 Qe7
My engine was urging me to play 13…Qg8 but
surely e7 is a better square?
14.fxe5 h5 15.Bh3
[15.Bf3 Kb6 16.N4c5 Na6 17.b4 Nxc5]
15...Bxe5 16.d4
Surprisingly the computer evaluation was now
equal for both sides. What the heck? I’m still a queen for two
pieces right?
16 ...... Rae8
Just to mix it up a little for my opponent.
[16...Bf6 17.Rf1 Rhf8 18.a3 Na6 19.c4 b6 20.Kc2
Kb7 21.g3]
17.c3 Nd3 18.dxe5 Qh4 19.Nd4+ Kb6 20.Nf6 Rd8
Have to be careful here. 20…Nf2+ ? 21. Kc2 Nxh1 22. Nd7 Ka6 23. Nc5 Kb6 24. Be3 and White has
full compensation for the queen.
21.Kc2
[21.Be3 Nxe5 22.Kc2 Nc4µ;
21.Bd2 Nxe5 22.Rf1 Rxd4 23.cxd4 Qxd4 24.Ke2 Qc4+
25.Kf2 Nd3+ 26.Kg1 Qd4+ 27.Kh1 Nf2+ 28.Rxf2 Qxf2 29.Ne4]
21...Nxe5 22.Rf1 Rhf8
[22...c5
23.Bf4 A) 23...cxd4 24.Bxe5 d3+ 25.Kb3 (25.Kd2 Qg5+ 26.Bf4 Qb5 27.b3
Ka6 28.Rae1) ; B) 23...Qxf6 24.Ne6 Rd6 25.Bg3 Qxe6 26.Bxe6 Rxe6
27.Rae1 Rhe8 28.Bxe5 Rxe5 29.Rf6+±]
23.Rf4 Qe1 24.a4 c5
Somewhere I missed my opportunity to consolidate
my position. 24…a6
with a safe haven on a7 for my king. But white has 25.g3
followed by Rf1 trapping my queen.
25.a5+ Ka6 26.Ne6
Already the engine considers this position equal.
26 .....
Kb5 27.g3 c4
The engine only considers Qe2+. I decided to slip
another of my own moves in to confuse the opponent’s engine as I
already seen the drawing resource for both sides.
28.Nc7+ Kc6 29.Ne6 Qd1+ 30.Kb1 Rd2
[30...Nd3 31.Rf1 Qe2 32.Nxf8 Rxf8 33.Ra4 Nxc1
34.Kxc1 Kb5 35.Ra3 Qe5 36.a6 b6 37.b4]
31.Nd4+
31.Nxf8?? Rxb2+ 32.Kxb2 Qb3#.
31...Rxd4
There is no point avoiding the draw as the knight
on d4 is just too strong and all of black’s mating attacks are not
working.
32.cxd4
Qd3+ 33.Ka2 Qb3+ 34.Kb1 Qd3+ 35.Ka2
˝-˝
QUICK GLANCE
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