Away at Worksop, and a chance to maybe pick up some points in our push to stave off relegation. Shame, then, that Phil was unavailable (given his 79% score for the season to date). Still, I was on board 6 for the first time this season, so the team was the strongest it has been all season.
1.d4
c6
I spoke to Stuart about 5 minutes before the start of the match, and he said that when he played John before, John declined his Budapest. That was enough for me to dispense with my usual response to 1. d4 (despite Stuart'ssubsequent admission that he couldn't really remember all that much about playing John before...)
2.e4
d5
3.Nc3
dxe4
4.Nxe4
Bf5
5.Ng3
Bg6
6.N1e2
I've not seen this before, but the intent is clear. Nf4, followed by exchanging off my white-squared bishop.
6...h6
7.Nf4
Bh7
8.Bc4
Nf6
9.0-0
Nbd7
10.Re1
Nb6
11.Bb3
Qd7
12.a4
Nbd5
13.c3
0-0-0
14.Nd3
I didn't mind this. John was eyeing c5 for his knight, but my white-squared bishop has not got much left to live for in this position so I was happy to exchange it off and give myself time to play e6.
14...Bxd3
15.Qxd3
e6
16.c4
This seems to be too soon - giving me the chance to pick up a cheap pawn.
16...Nb4
17.Qf3
Qxd4
18.Be3
I spent most of my time at this point - unsure as to whether the capture on b2 was sound or whether I was opening up the b-file and also letting my queen in for a bit of a kickaround. So I played safe.
18...Qg4
19.Qxg4
Nxg4
20.Bxa7
c5
At this point, Fritz scores the position pretty much equal.
21.Rad1
Be7
22.Bb6
Rd3
23.Rxd3
Nxd3
My knights seem to have a lot of energy in this position, whilst John's bishops are fairly static and blocked in somewhat. He spent a lot of time thinking here, running his clock down to around the 10 minute mark.
24.Rf1
Bd8
25.a5
I thought this was a mistake at the time - it allows me to double the pawns and the pawn on b6 becomes very weak and virtually indefensible.
25...Bxb6
26.axb6
Rd8
Just to stave off any Ra1, a8+ threats, and also to support my knight on d3. John used half of his remaining time on the next move - again, my position has that bit more energy and space.
27.h3
Nf6
A positive retreat - taking more squares away from John's knight.
28.Ba4
Nxb2
29.Bb5
Rd1
This seemed like the best option - remove the rooks, then get my knights into position to clean up on the queenside. Plus, there's a nice little trap in here too...
30.f3
[30.Rxd1
Nxd1
And now there's no way to prevent me exchanging off a knight for the bishop on c5.]
30...Rxf1+
31.Kxf1
Nd1
Bizarre though it looks, I can still play this with some degree of threat.
32.Ne4
[32.Ba4
Ne3+
33.Ke2
Nxc4
]
32...Nxe4
33.fxe4
Nc3
Picking up another pawn - and whilst John can protect the one on e4, he can only do so at the expense of those on c4 and b6.
34.Be8
f6
35.Bf7
Kd7
And John resigned. This small king move is the killer - cutting off access to d5 for the white-squared bishop and guaranteeing me plenty of time to hop my knight around to a4, b6 and c4, after which my connected passed pawns would run through. Unusual for a knight to outclass a bishop on a relatively open board, but here John's pawns are just too scattered and with mine fixed on black squares, his bishop was virtually redundant. 0-1