St. Louis Summer Open, July 12, 2003

W: Al Howlett (1740)
B: Ron Luther (2211)

Annotations by Al Howlett

1. Nf3, d6 2. d4, g6 3. b3

Not book, but a transposition idea from the recent study of some games of Pavel Blatny. In retrospect, if I'd lost this game, the time set aside to annotate it would have probably been used for either yard work or barbequeing instead... go figure.

... Bg7 4. Bb2, Bg4 5. Nbd2, Nc6 6. h3, Bd7 7. e4, e5 8. de, de 9. Bd3, Qe7 10. Qe2, Nf6

Here I notice two things I considered significant. a) e5 as a potential target and b) f4 as a weakness. Piece access to this square was the initiative taking beginning of the end for me in a game against Deepyaman Datta this past spring, and maybe I gave that too much thought. If black had already castled, I'm sure I would have as well. I saw no good waiting moves to see where the black king would reside, however, I did manage to over-estimate Nh5 then Nf4. I sought to prevent this, though in retrospect I think Nh5 could have been adequately met by g3. I considered this a critical point in the game and I welcome input from others as to what would have been a more accurate plan.

11. g4, h5 12. g5, Nh7 13. h4, Nf8 14. 0-0-0

Now both f4 and g4 are penetrable which makes the decision of where to castle obvious. The knight can access f4 via e6, and the bishop has mouthwatering pin prospects from g4.

... Bg4 15. Bb5

After the game there was some analysis by Eckert and Luther as to whether 14... a6 prevents white's 15th move, and threatening Nd4, however, white may be fine after 15. Qe3. 15. Nc4 goes into further unsolved complications.

... Qc5 16. Nc4, Nd7

If I knew how to show a diagram as they do in Chess Life, I would put it here. This moves tells me that black wishes to castle queenside (otherwise why not Ne6), however this plan seems to be inaccurate, due to the following line, which I believe is forced to favor white: By the way, I think white is also better after 16... Qb5 17. Nd6+, cd 18. Qb5, Bf3 19. Qb7.

17. Ba3, Bf3 18. Qf3 Qb5 19. Rd7

Having made my bed, this is all that makes sense to me. I can't say that the only sensible move deserves an exclam though.

...Kd7 20. Qf7+, Kc8 21. Qg7, Rd8 22. Rd1, Rd1+

If 22...Nd4, my plan was 23. Kb1 followed by c3 which I believe would further black difficulties.

23. Kd1, Nd8 24. Kc1

I thought it best neither to take on e5, nor to allow Qd7+ giving black the option to trade queens. I reasoned that white had three working (or active) pieces to blacks one, and that the g and h pawns were the best targets after adequate preparation.

...a5 25. Qg6, a4 26. Qh5, ab 27. ab, Qd7

Now threatening b5

28. Bb2

Notice that 28. Ne5, Qd4 29. Bb2, Ra1+! 30. Ba1, Qa1+ 31. Kd2, Qe5 is much too much counterplay to allow black.

...Qh3 29. Ne3, Qh1+ 30. Kd2, Ra6

If 30...Qe4, Qg4+ looks decisive.

31. Qg4+, Kb8 32. Be5, Ne6 33. g6, Nc5 34. g7, Ne4+, 35. Ke2

Better than 35. Qe4, Qe4 36. g8Q, because in the line choosen, white will have two Queens, while blacks Queen remains relatively inactive. The conclusion becomes rather simple with a slight concern for time pressure.

...Rc6 36. g8Q+, Ka7 37. Bd4+, b6 38. Nc4, Nc5 39. Bc5, bc 40. Qf3, Qh4 41. Na5, Qe7+ 42 Kf1 Kb6 43. Qc6+, Ka5 44. Qga8+

After the game, Luther informed me that Qa4+ had mate to follow. Both time pressure and nervousness altered my play as we were both close to the final minute. He showed me other mates afterwards as well. The game concluded as follows:

...Kb4 45. Qaa4+, Kc3 46. Qf3+, Kb2 47. Qd1, Kc3 48. Qe1+, resigns.

I was recently asked to tutor a student who then asked my rating then changed his mind. I had another student discontinue working with me in order to work with a higher rated player. They both observed this game, and from there comments to me afterwards, I felt somewhat vindicated. In the words of Aretha Franklin, "All I ask is for a little respect..... just a little bit".