A Swashbuckling Milner-Barry

July 17th, 2013 · lefthandsketch No comments

One of my compatriots from the Marshall Chess Club sent me this game from the recent World Open, in which he pursues a fascinating sacrificial attack in the Milner-Barry gambit. His notes to the game are embedded in the below pgn. Enjoy!

[Event "World Open U2000"]  [Site "Arlington, VA"]  [Date "2013.07.03"]  [Round "1"]  [White "Patella, Gary"]  [Black "Dusza, Richard"]  [Result "1-0"]   1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Bd3 cxd4 7. cxd4 Bd7 8. Nc3   {Since I play the variation where I am willing to sack both the d and e pawns, this move order is preferable to 8. 0-0 as it eliminates black’s possibility of declining the gambit with 8...Nb4.}   8...Nxd4   {Gambit accepted!}   9. Nxd4 Qxd4 10. 0-0 a6   {This is the recommended move for black, since there are many attacking possibilities for white that feature the move Nb5. 10...Qxe5 is also acceptable, but many black players don’t want to defend the position after  11. Re1 Qb8 12. Nxd5}   11. Qe2 Ne7 12. Kh1 Nc6 13. Be3   {The "book" move here is 13. f4. However, I saw this neat attacking idea in the game Peart-Iverson, and since I’ve starting playing it, I’ve had much more success than I ever had with 13. f4}   13...Qxe5 14. f4   {The point: f4 comes in any case, but now it serves as an attack rather than a defence}   14...Qd6 15. f5 Be7 16. Rad1 Qb4   {The first deviation from any known theory. I spent approximately 20 minutes thinking of how to continue the attack. For the two pawn deficit, I have superior development and black’s king still in the center. However, if I allow black to simply castle, it seems like he might be consolidating his material advantage. I had to come up with a way to continue attacking without giving black a chance to consolidate.}   17. f6   {I decide to give up a third pawn. Bxf6 would be met by Nxd5, so gxf6 is pretty much forced, after which black’s king cannot seek refuge on the kingside.}   17...gxf6 18. a3   {Still not allowing time to get the king to safety.}   18...Qh4   {Now I need to come up with something. I felt like I still had a way to attack and keep the king in the center, but I couldn’t see how. I saw that g3 forces the queen to h3, but what is the follow up? I was considering playing 19. g3 followed by 20. Rf4, but I didn’t see how I would continue after 20...f5. The bishop on e7 would prevent Rh4, trapping the queen and there seemed to be no follow up to this variation. I spent over an hour contemplating this position (I had this time since the first 16 moves were pretty much automatic for me). Then I saw something that seemed to work, but was also VERY risky. I had no choice but to go for it.}   19. g3 Qh3 {forced, but now what?}   20. Bf5   {I would love to give myself a double exclamation mark here, but I haven’t analyzed this position with a computer yet.}   20...exf5 21. Rf4   {The point! Now Rf4 comes with the very real threat of Rh4 and f5 is no longer possible as a defensive resource.}   21...Qh6 22. Nxd5   {I sacrificed 3 pawns and a bishop. Now I get one of the pawns back, plus a very dangerous-looking attack.}   22...Ne5   {Black seems to think that the attack is dangerous as well. He allows a fork in order to block the e file.}   23. Nc7+ Kf8   {This is probably preferable to Kd8, where black would pin his light squared bishop to his king, and probably would not have any good response to Nxa8 followed by Nb6. I was extremely happy with my position, but I was also severely low on time. That was the cost of my "brilliant" sacrifices.}   24. Rh4?!   {This allows counterplay. I should’ve continued with my "In for a penny, in for a pound" mentality and sacked the exchange with Rxd7. However, I did have only a few minutes on my clock.}   24...Bc6+ 25. Kg1 Qg6 26. Bh6+ Kg8 27. Nxa8 Nf3+   {Although the tactics seem to work in white’s favor, I was really regretting not playing the more accurate Rxd7 on move 24. Although I think I still would’ve been OK against strongest play, I think the position would’ve been unclear to say the least, had black followed up with Nxh4.}   28. Kf2 Bc5+?   {This has to be wrong. Now white is just plain winning. Nxh4 is probably the critical move.}   29. Kf1 Nd4 30. Rdxd4 Bxd4 31. Qe7 Qxh6   {Desperation, but with me racing against the clock, the win was not as easy as it seems. I was in real danger of being flagged.}   32. Rxh6 Kg7 33. Rh4 Be5 34. Nc7??   {Clearly I should’ve gone to b6 and left myself with an escape square.}   34...Kg6!   {Correct. The immediate Rc8 allows my knight to escape with Ne6.}   35. Rc4   {Now on Rc8, I’ll be forced to sack the exchange on c6. Though, I’d still be technically winning.}   35...Bb5??   {My opponent had plenty of time on his clock, but decided to move quickly. He was probably hoping I’d fall on time.}   36. Nxb5   {Not so much as a second fell on my clock. I made this move before the 5 second delay ended.}   36...axb5 37. Rb4 Rc8 38. Rxb5 Rc1+ 39. Kg2 Rc2+ 40. Kh3   {Move 40! Now I’m out of time pressure as another hour is added to my clock. With no chance of being flagged, my opponent could’ve resigned now. But he decided to play until the end.}   40...f4 41. Rxb7 fxg3 42. hxg3 Rc1 43. Qxf7+ Kf5 44. Qxh7+ Ke6 45. Qd7#   1-0

A Swashbuckling Milner-Barry

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