1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 h6 So early to create a kingside weakness in the pawn structure. h6 now sticks out as a target for attack should black decide to castle kingside, but need to develop first
3. c4 Nf6 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Takes control of the centre and forces black to make a third knight move 3/5 moves by black so far will be by the knight
Nb6 6. Nc3 a6 Not as bad as h6, but loses time 7. Be3 White now has a three piece to one development lead
e6 Again this loses time and while it lets the king bishop out it locks in the queen bishop
8. Bd3 White has developed all minor pieces to the centre
Bb4 Here black pins the knight, but swapping the knight for the bishop would just strengthen the white centre and maintain whites development advantage
9. a3 Prompt the bishop to trade. The alternative is to lose time retreating to e7
Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 White now controls the centre and is ready to castle and find nice spots for the rooks and queen
O-O Black castles to the slightly weakened kingside
11. Qd2 Threatens to swap the white bishop for the two pawns protecting the king. White whites other pieces nearby to help with a strong attack
N8d7 Trying to get to the f6 defensive post? Actually this move had a hidden benefit that we shall see soon
12. O-O The attack could be launched straight away, but since there is no immediate mate combo on offer I was expecting to need the rooks, and didn't want to risk getting checked after using the e pawn in the attack
c6 Stops d5
13. Bxh6 The sacrifice. It threatens Bxg7 so the g pawn is lost whether the sac is accepted or not. The g7 pawn is also pinned to the rook so it can't move to g6
gxh6 14. Qxh6 My threat here was Ng5 with Qh7# to follow. At this stage I couldn't actually see how this could be stopped, but black found a way
Qf6 This move threw me. Blacks eleventh move protects the f6 square so that blacks queen can move here. This move immediately stops Ng5 because my queen is hanging.
15. Qh3 Being materially down trading queens would be a bad idea. I need to do everything possible to keep the queen on to pressure the black king. Qh5 planning Ng5,Qh7# would not work, as black can play Qg7 and threaten the queen trade again. Retreating along the dark square diagonal takes the queen out of the attack: even at e3 she is stuck beside the knight. So by my thinking Qh3 is basically a forced move.
e5 This move stops white from playing e5, which was the alternate way to support Qh7#. It also threatens a discovered attack on whites queen by the bishop e.g. Nc5 forks whites queen and bishop
16. dxe5 This move superficially threatens the queen so must be responded to. NxP is the most obvious response where I intended Qg3+ double attacking the singly defended knight, not seeing the Ng6 response. Therefore I was expecting Qg6 or Qg7
Nxe5 17. Qg3+ Ng6 Defends the check and the knight simultaneously
18. e5 The knight is pinned to the king so white would like to attack the knight. There are four immediate ways to do this. The way I didn't even see during the game was a4 threatening a5 so the king would then be forced to h7 or h8. Ne5 or Nh4 threaten the knight but the queen can just take it. The final way is to open up the bishop onto the knight. This also has an additional benefit of attacking the queen. The big problem here though is blacks Qf4 which forces a queen trade. White would be able to choose how to trade so could pick up a pawn by ..Qf4 Bxg6 Qxg3 Bxf7+ Rxf7 fxg3 giving material balance but white would have 4 passed pawns!
Qe6 This move achieves a number of things. Obviously it takes the queen to safety, but it also blocks whites pawn ( not important ) , continues to defend the knight, and more ominously threatens a more favourable queen trade by ..Qg4 where BxN no longer gains a pawn
19. Nd4 On the face of it this is a blunder, since Qxe5 wins a pawn, but Bxg6 Qxg3 Bxf7+ Rxf7 fxg3 wins it back, or the text response which is stronger
Qxe5 20. f4 Threatens the queen. She cannot move forward, moving here queenside would be suicide, and she can't immediately form a battery with the bishop now that the knight has robbed the light squares. f5 is also threatening the pinned knight
Qf6 21. f5 In theroy this wins the knight. The bishop can't take it because the pawn is protected three times and only attacked twice
Qh4 Threatens to trade queens which would release the pin on the knight
22. Rf3 Can't white just take the knight since the white queen is not hanging? fxg6 Qxg3 hxg3 fxg3 or fxg6 Qxg3 gxf7+ Rxf7 hxg3 and the pieces are even but white has 3 isolated pawns ( four actually but one lot is doubled ) , whereas blacks three pawns are connected and would probably be able to be pushed through if black keeps both rooks on the board.
So white covers his queen with his rook so that in a queen trade the pin is maintained and the knight is still under threat by the pawn
Qxg3 23. Rxg3 Nd5 Black is going to lose a knight and pawn for a knight so threatens Nxc3 which gives black a passed pawn which could be made into a protected passed pawn. White would only be 1 pawn up
24. fxg6 expecting fxg6 Rxg6+ where white has time to protect the c pawn, but obviously black is not forced to take the pawn as the text shows
Be6 Tries to develop the bishop and get blacks last rook into play
25. gxf7+ Double check so Kxf7 is forced. Other options considered included NxB PxB but then blacks knight is loose. The text provides a forced sequence that trades off the minor pieces and taks blacks king away from the kingside making an h4 pawn push a threat ( whites rook to h3 backing it up is strong )
Kxf7 forced or the bishop is lost
26. Rf1+ Forces the king away from the passed pawns, forces the king to make another move, allows the tradeoff of the rooks
Ke7 forced or the bishop is lost
27. Nxe6 Kxe6 could play RxR+ but black doesn't want to trade
28. Bc4 guarantees that the knight will be traded off so protects the c pawn also
Rxf1+ Not much option but to trade The rook can't move forward beside the king because the king wants to protect the knight capture so that his pawns don't get broken up ( creating a passed pawn is blacks last hope ) . If the rook can't move forward then it leaves both rooks on the back rank. Blacks king is also open to harrassment by whites active rooks so trading one off probably helps black since he will also gain a tempo by getting the queens rook to f8 with check
29. Kxf1 Rf8+
30. Ke2 The check is of no concern since white wants an active king. blacks knight is pinned and will soon be gone and whites king on e2 stops blacks rook from penetrating to attack whites pawns. Also since the kings are aligned blacks rook cannot move to e8 to give a further check.
Kd6 Expected b5 since the knight will be swapped and the king will have to take the bishop. Kd6 lost a tempo that could have been used to try to get passed pawns
31. Bxd5 Kxd5 32. h4 expecting something like ..Kc4 h5 Kb3 h6 Kxa3 h7 Rh8 Rh3 Kb2 g4 a5 g5 a4 g6 a3 g7 a2 gxh8=Q a1=Q c4+ Ka2 QxQ KxQ where whites other passed pawn can queen to be QRP up. 30..a5 might have helped in the race, but white should still win
Rh8 Attacks pawn
33. Rh3 Protects pawn
Rg8 attacks the backwards pawn
34. g3 whites rook now protects both pawns
Ke5 tries to bring the king over to get rid of whites passed pawns
35. Ke3 Gets the opposition. Now if black moves to the kingside white king can either help defend or can head to attack the black queenside pawns while black spends time on the kingside
Kf5 36. Kf3 Possibly better was pushing the h pawn resulting in black trading off rook and pawn for rook and leaving blacks king far away from both the g pawn and blacks own pawns
Rg4 37. h5 Rg7 38. Rh4 Kg5 oops
39. Rg4+ Forces the rook trade 39... Kh6 40. Rxg7 Kxg7
41. Kf4 A king can never stop connected passed pawns alone, so white can head up the board with the pawns or head over to take out blacks pawns, but the game is won either way.
b5 42. Ke5 For blacks pawns to break through he first needs them on a5 b5 and c5. This move means that they wont get the chance to line up because whites king will be eating them first
Kh6 threatens the head pawn
43. g4 protects th ehead pawn
Kg5 guards the head pawn and 'threatens' the base pawn. The threat to the base pawn is not real. If the king takes the base pawn the head pawn will outrun him to queen
44. Kd6 The passed pawns are safe, attack blacks queenside pawns which would give passed pawns on both sides of the board. Too much for blacks king to defend
Kxg4 45. h6 A queen will be born
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